October 2015

....For everyone but me it turns out. Dressed like the Michelin man, on a boat in the rough seas, frozen, I tried hard not to feed the fishes (for the record I didn't either) while whale watching. But it was all made worth it we saw not one whale but two, a humpback & a minke. Photos aren't the best but it is hard to capture photos while gripping the rail.

While on the subject of photos we got to see the northern lights last night, I had studied up how to photograph them....waste of time my photos are all black but Birte managed to catch this one

Because we haven't quite had enough of waterfalls we took a detour to see Godafoss

We decided to stop in Akureyri for a burger and this is what a $30 dollar burger looks like, it tasted great

Sharing the love through there traffic lights

We cruised through the icing sugar dusted mountains to our hotel for the night

Yes I've been waiting for days to use that title, today it seems appropriate. There was ice on the car this morning & on the road, since it was my turn to drive I braved the conditions & we set off....slowly. Th weather was beautiful, the sun was out and the first shower we had we were already tucked into our hotel for the night. The landscape changes every few miles I'm sure, there was snow capped mountains, desert, lava fields, waterfalls, canyons and of course I got to drive up, over, round & through these all on the wrong side of the car & road.

A short hike across the moon like landscape took us to the waterfalls Dettifoss (1st one) and selfoss (2nd pic)


Walking on the moon

We took in the view at Krafla power plant

The dreamed of warm baths at the mud baths

We stopped for an expensive but good cake & chocolate at the Vogafjoss Cow Shed Cafe were during milking you can sip your coffee in the cafe overlooking the milking or just enjoy the view of the lake.

I climbed a volcano!!! Oh it was hard going at such a steep angle with loose rocks but I climbed a volcano!!!
At the top of Hverfjall

Our final excursion in the bitter cold was to Dimmuborgir, a lava field.

Today we drove through the tranquil east fjords (as our itinerary claims) it was a bit of a boring day in Iceland terms. There was windy rugged coast lines, rough seas, black beaches, extinct volcanoes, towering mountains with bare rock faces, fjords, tunnels, you know just every day Icelandic stuff.
I'll let you see how (yawn) boring it is with my pictures.....





On a good note we didn't get wet!!!

Keep to the right keep to the right was my mantra today as we drove across lava plains, round a glacier, through rain, around round abouts, we passed cars and over single lane bridges.

Driving across the lava field it felt like we had driven into a Dr Seuss book the moss had grown over the lava (we also think a little further east was the Icelandic home of the Teletubbies)

I braved the puddles & streams to see the Kirkjugolfio (church floor)

We were amazed (& frozen) by the giant glacier Vatnajokull

We got caught in a hail storm hiking to see the Lambhagi waterfall

Our final stop before the hotel was to Jokulsarlon (glacial lagoon) AMAZING!!! There were a few seals swimming round the lagoon and the icebergs were sun baking on the beach.

Just getting some ice for my drink




Sorry iceberg overload

Are you ready for this ........

Urrioafoss

Seljalandsfoss

Skogafoss

Solheimajokull

Dyrholaey Nature Reserve

Black beach

My sandcastle

And these are our wheels

Now that your all jealous & hate me I'll tell you there was a safety issue with the car we originally had so had to be transferred to another place, delaying our start. It's rained on & off all day, meaning not only did we get wet from waterfall spray but also soaked walked up to the glacier. The wind is cold when your clothes are wet. But hey that is life & we are rolling with the punches & enjoying ourselves