Iceland the end

Tim: After Wednesday night in Vik we headed back to Reyjavik on Thursday, via the Blue Lagoon. It’s a natural sulphur spring but it is worryingly close to some sort of factory, which does make your wonder whether the health benefits are compromised and it ruins the aesthetic a little! It’s set-up as a luxury spa with a price tag to match – but it is  Worth a visit, and allow a couple of hours to wallow, give yourself a natural massage under a waterfall and apply a silicon mask.

Iceland finished with a good meal out at a ‘traditional’ restaurant – we ate smoked puffin, reindeer, horse and guillemot. 

We did find that this food was all very sweet. Even the meat sauces have a sweetness to them – using lots of berries etc. It doesn’t really appeal to our palates – but regardless, we could recognise the quality of the meal and enjoyed it – especially the horse..

Nicey beach

Tim: When we went to Jokulsarlon, we saw a glacier, seals, a lot of snow, icebergs, and this rather icy beach with black sand.

Sun, Seals, Sand and Whirly Whirlys

Caro: We hit the road early which meant we had the pleasure of being the second car to arrive at Jokulsarlon. Yesterday we were the first people at Gulfoss – it’s definitely worth being the first tourist on the scene when it comes to seeing places unspoiled by other bods.

Jokulsarlon is where the glacier meets the sea. Big chunks of ice break into iceburgs. In summer they float in an enormous lagoon. In winter the sea freezes around them. But regardless, you get to see some big blue (from the sulphur) burgs making their way out to sea. Plus, there’s a couple of gangs of seals hanging out here, providing entertainment and making horrible noises. Some of the iceburgs wash up back onto the beach so there’s some stunning scenes of shiny ice on black volcanic rock and sand (yes, the sand here is black – striking!).

Onto Strokkur where we ate a picnic lunch whilst looking onto the edge of the enormous blue Vatnajokull glacier (8,100 km² and covering 8% of Iceland!) and listening to ice melting (surprisingly loud as it cracks) and mini avalanches.

The drive today was pretty intense. Yesterdays ice and snow covered road had been blown away by the wind. But this brought a new set of challenges – snow was whipped up around us, so sometimes we couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of us and the car was being buffeted. Tim had to hold the car on a permanent 30 degree lock to keep it moving straight. At times we would emerge into a calm and sunny patch like an oasis in the desert – but it would soon be replaced by the mad winds.

Anyway, we made it to Vik where we’re staying in a bustling hostel. The place is full so we’re in a dorm tonight. But everyone’s lovely and we just got back from a walk up the hill with a couple to see the Northern Lights. Success! We saw them. Though not a great example compared to the night I saw them in Finland a few years ago. Hopefully we’ll see better next week…

There’s no Hoff in Hofn

Tim: Bumped into some Belgian chaps at breakfast, whom we discovered were embarking on an 6 day trek to the North of Iceland.  They were starting from Gulfoss on the Wednesday, but wanted to visit it today – we were going there already, so by 9:30 the four of us were on the road. Gulfoss was and I think always will be very impressive.  After an hour or so there, we dropped the Belgians at Geysir, and we headed down to Selfoss.  Got down by 12pm and had lunch at a very nice cafe/restaurant – great value too! We called ahead to the hostel in Hofn to ensure we could get a room, then we  were on our way.  This was on a 400km drive, which took about 5hrs.  Battling the ice, wind and snow storms, we made it safe and sound.

After a stroll around the marina we ate salt cod and Icelandic lamb (both traditional meals) at a diner – showing UK football, as many of the places we’ve eaten seem to be.

The reason for going to Hofn is that there are some spectacular icebergs and glaciers.  I’ve learnt that they are best seen at Jokulsarlon and Skaftafell respectively, about 100km and 150km back the way we came. So Wednesday will be clarifying this, and finding them – fingers crossed the weather will be good to us.  Cunningly, this drive was part of the plan, as we are due to be in Vik on Wednesday night.

Snow driving the Anglo Aussie way

Tim: Woke up to find that we weren’t snowed in….hurrah!

Thought about driving round the end of the peninsula, but given the condition of the roads, decided against it. Instead we headed off for the ‘Golden Circle’ – we forewent brekkie, and had a snack at a supermarket / servo in Borgarmes. Drove through the very long, very impressive tunnel under Hvalfijordur (Sydney Harbour tunnel eat your heart out) and headed up to the Pingvellir National Park.  This was absolutely stunning – the weather had changed dramatically from cloudy and overcast to glorious sunshine.  At this point we were on snow covered roads – not fresh, but not icey, so pretty easy driving conditions.  We were hoping to take the ’365′ over to Geysir through Laugervatn, but the road was classed as ‘Impassable’ which we elected to heed, especially given we’re in a “small” car and most people around here are in 4WD with extra large wheels. So we embarked on the slightly longer round trip to Geysir on the ’36′ and ’35′.

Geysir is a  pretty impressive line-up of geysers – with the namesake tending to go off only after earthquakes and the like – so today it was lying dormant, just smouldering a little.  But one of it’s inferiors was going off every 8 mins – so got some good footage of that.  Had an iffy late lunch at the canteen and decided to hunt down some accommodation for the night (it was about 4pm by this point).  Tried the youth hostel in Arnes to no avail, and a hotel in Fluoir wanted K10,500 (about 70 quid).  We plumped for the hostel in Laugvartn (K5,900), and decided to head straight there (30 min drive) to ensure we could buy some food for the evening meal.  Once there we got settled and head down to the local outdoor pool.

Now the hot tubs in Reykjavik were outside and it was a little chilly, but here in the mountains it was about -2C air temp – so once showered then stepping outside towards the pool (which was pretty warm) was a bit of a strain.  Caro headed off doing laps – and I followed (a very shabbby swimmer).  After 30 mins of that we jumped in the hot tub for 5 mins, which was very relaxing. Headed back to the hostel, and cooked up the meal, founded some wireless going on, so caught up on emails.