Well after a bit of messing about in gImp and Picasa I have finaly managed to create the spectacular "Sharon at the Volcano" Picture.

Safely Home

Landed at Heathrow about 10 minutes ahead of schedule and then waited 20 minutes for our baggage to appear.  Didn't notice when we picked it up but my suitcase had been slashed, either by accident or.......
Nothing missing luckily

Lauren and Ian were waiting for us in arrivals, very good to see them.  It was only 10 days, but we packed so much in it seems longer.  We were home by 10:00 and got a chinese take away for 4 for less than an Icelandic main course for 1!

Have spent most of today emptying bags, catching up on post and sorting out digital pictures.  next job will be the video editing and then deciding what prints to get from the pictures.

Sharon is back to work tomorrow and I suppose I ought to make the effort and do some work this week.  back to reality.

Day 11

Up at 6:30ish showered, packed and breakfasted by 8:00 and on the road soon after. It was a grey rainy day all the way down the west coast from Snaefellnaes to Reykjavik. Parked in Reykjavik and had a walk round town. Passed the Salvation Army hostel and several other interesting buildings.

It's a small island, we saw several people in Reykjavik that we had seen in other places on our travels and realised that you can drive from the north to south in about 3 and a half ours. We stopped in a massive N1 service area on the way, it was too close to the urban centre of Reykjavik to have anything interesting in the shop, but it had a huge selection of food, cakes and drinks. I will miss the N1 service stations.

Missed the fuel stop on the way to the airport and had to have a run round Keflavik to find a petrol station so we could return the hire car full. As is always the case, the GPS bateries ran out just when we needed it most. We had plenty of time though and am now sat waiting at the airport wishing the wifi was free. Instead I will type this now and post it when we get home.

The staff at Keflavik international have scooters for getting up and down the corridors. Now I don't mean small motorbikes, I mean scooters that you stand on and scoot. I have even seen a couple with luggage racks at the front. I suppose it's green and keeps the staff fit.

Trolls, Lava, Big Stones and Beaches.

We have driven all but 10km of the road in the Snaefellsjokull National Park and we have only done 120 kms.   We headed out from the hotel over the mountains to the south coast of the peninsula as directed by the tourist information guide yesterday.  She promised that by doing it this way we would have the sun with us all day.  I am sure the sun was with us all day, it's just that the clouds hadn't been instructed by the tourist guide to let it through.

Anyway, first stop was a huge crack in the rocks caused by one of the local eruptions at some point and now hiding a stream and many birds nests.  we explored right inside the crack and I would have gone further had I been younger, fitter and wearing a wet suit.

Then it was onto the Singing cave.  According to the sagas Bourdan lived here for a while after he returned from Vinland and you can hear the elves and dwarves singing.  Wasn't as spectacular as expected, just a dingy little cave and some rocks.

Next stop Arnastapi.  I didn't like it here.  It was very busy, the only loos were for use by restaurant  customers only and the whole place was a bit of a let down really.  Nice little harbour though.

So we moved straight onto Hellnar.  interesting heritage centre with all sorts of interesting information, including some Ork eggs that are conical in shape so they don't roll off the cliffs and some sheepskin fisherman's shoes for you to try.  Didn't have a go because I don't know what the level of verukas is out here.  Had a coffee in the cafe overlooking the harbour and a spectacular lava tunnel in the cliffs full of screaming gulls and terns.

Stopped briefly to inspect some volcanic lava plugs, very spectacular and again covered in nesting birds.  Then onto the beach at Djupalonssandur.  Here on the edge of the beach are four stones.  To qualify as crew on the local fishing boats you had to be able to lift the first two stones and place them on a pedestal, then toshow off you could have a go at the other two.  The first was 24kg and the second was 54kg, the third 100kg and the fourth just bloody impossible at 154Kg.  

You will be pleased to know that even at my age I can still qualify to crew the fishing boat and managed to get the third stone off of the floor but just couldn't stop it rolling out of my arms.  You use so much strength holding the stone straight that you don't have any left to lift it.  Even the Viking in the silly hat who was lifting with me only got it to his lap.

We then climbed up to the volcanic crater at Saxholler, it's a very old crater and was smaller and older than others we have seen.  Moved a bit further up the coast to a lighthouse, some archaeological remains and a great beach with huge slabs of lava running out into the sea.

Wecalled into Rif and Olafsvik to see about possibilities for eating.  Rif has an N1 service station, but it was a very small one offering just pasties in a microwave.  We found a possible grill and take away in Olafsvik and then went on a quest for Ice.

After much messing about I finally got the Vitara electronic transfer box to select low range and we set off up to the Snaefellsjokull glacier.  Obviously this wasn't going to be a superjeep ice crawling expedition, but one of the mountain roads went quite close so it had tobe done.  We saw some mini glaciers and got a pretty good view of the main glacier.  Would have liked to have got closer to it but the lady in tourist information had told us yesterday evening that there were no expeditions onto the glacier as it is too wet and too dangerous.  It looked good though.

Then it was back down to the grill and take away in Olafsvik, where for the price of one main course in the hotel we had hotdog chips and pizza with coca cola.  excellent value and how can anyone not eat at a take away called The HobbittInn with a picture of a hobbit painted on the window?

Back to the hotel, bags packed, beer drunk and bill paid ready for an early start, drive down to Reykjavik, onto Keflavik and then fly home.

Haven't noticed any significant health and safety issues today, but I still love this place.   Oh hang on, there is a lad on a small motorbike with no helmet or lights riding round the old fish sheds opposite the hotel.  I am sure there isn't a policeman within 20 kms of us so I think he'll get away with it.

This is the modern world............

Well we had a fantastic meal in the hotel restaurant.  Lobster soup, baked cod, honey and ginger chicken.  Then we took an evening stroll along the fjord in the cool night air as the sun dropped behind the mountains.

Then the mobile went ping.  Text message from Lauren "Where are the bin bags?"
We replied, "On top of the bread bin in the pantry"
"Found them" came the reply

Now what would have happened 10 years ago?  Would we have returned to a house with bins overflowing?  Would she have written us a letter asking where they were and waited for a reply?  How did we ever manage?

Varmahlid to Grundarfjordur

Another long days driving, with spectacular views and fantastic weather.  I have run out of adjectives to describe the scenery.  just when you think it can't make you gasp anymore it comes up with something new.  we are now in the Western Fjords on the Snaefellsnes peninsula.  The scenery is much older volcanic and has quite a lot of glacial and water erosion too.  So here the lava fields are moss and lichen covered and the valleys have rivers meandering in the bases.

Grundarfjordur from the top of the pass.

We started the day with a trip to a museum of traditional turf houses.  They need no heating as they are very warm and snug and the Icelanders all wore thick wooly jumpers.  An excellent example of communual living with everyone living and working together for their own warmth and survival.  Fantastic construction using just turf and wood with the walls made from turfs laid in layers and the rooves made of turf.  A wooden end is then put upto give a door.  Sharon thinks the entire new Bicester Eco Town should be built this way.

We stopped at a place that will always be known as Stikkiwotsit.  It has a much longer Icelandic name, but it is on a tear in Sharon's map so we never new what the end bit was.   There was a local festival going on here which again highlighted Icelandic attitudes to health and safety.  There was an arial runway with a bit of rope between a hill and a truck which kids were hanging from a fishing net boy and sliding down.  There was a 'Slippy Football' tournament going on.  This is five aside played on a large plastic sheet covered in cold soapy water, you imagine what happens, it was hilarious.  The highlight though had to be the crate tower building, pictured below.   Here a small child was hung from a HIAB on the back of a lorry in a safety harness whilst they built themselves up, higher and higher, on a tower of old beer crates until it all fell over.

I love this place.  More after dinner, but off for a beer and some food now.

Day 8

Awoke to a grey damp day in the fjord.  But up and at breakfast with a smile.  Lot of traveling to do today.

We started with a trip down to the N1 service station at Godfoss to pick up some odds and ends.  The N1 service stations are amazing institutions.  We have visited 3 today, none of them for fuel.  the first at Godfoss has the most amazing view from the toilet windows, see above.  It also has a 66North clothing shop, basic provisions and a local crafts section.

The second one at Hofsos seems to be the local community centre, supermarket and hardware shop.  They had paint brushes, screwdrivers, pasta and chocolate among several other things.  There was also a group of locals passing the time of day at a table in the entrance.

The third here at Varmahlid is a fast food cafe, supermarket and rest area.  they all have petrol pumps outside, but you pay with a credit card at the pump so it is almost as if the pumps have nothing to do with the shop.

Anyway I digress.  After the service station we went to Ystafell Transport Museum Look here!

This place was amazing, the curator was fantastic and spotted me as a fellow enthusiast.  It is the most eclectic and facinating collection of cars I have seen anywhere.  The only thing they all have in common is they have been used in Iceland.  There were 3 rear engined Skodas, a fantsatic series I Land Rover, 4 Austin Gypsies, a mark 1 Escort and about 100 others.  Out the back was a field full of 'future exhibits' and 'spare parts'.  Ok it was a field full of scrap, but the museum see the potential.

I must just quote this from their brochure.

"Ingolfur Kristianson was often heard to say 'Never throw anything away, you'll need it the next day' The result is that many things that can not be found anywhere else in Iceland exist at Ystafell"

The many things included a serious collection of hubcaps, some fantastic biscuit tins and a plethora of other 'junk'.  Also two halls full of fantastic cars.

After the museum we started on the long drive to Varmahlid.  Stopped off in Akureyri to have a wander round, it probably deserves more time but with a 250 km drive in front of us we pressed on.  Took the coastal route, which included a fantastic single track tunnel with passing places.  the problem of course being, you can't see where the next passing place is, even though they put a white light at the passing place and yellow lights everywhere else.  It was fun and we made it to a parking place everytime we needed to, one was a bit close though.  Hate to think what happens when the superjeep with a camper trailer meets the man with the caravan though.

Into Varmahlid about 5:00 pm.  Checked in, went for a wander, not much to se, this place is just a road junction.  Ate in the hotel restaraunt, I had excellent Tandoori Arctic Char, Sharon had Lasagne.  Couple of beers, blog and bed.  Early night tonight as we are both tired and have another 250k to do tomorrow. 

Superjeep by iSak

Outside and Inside the Land Rover Superjeep 

Some pictures from yesterday

We have just arrived in Varmahlid where the hotel has unlimited free wifi!  So first the pictures that should have been on yesterdays post and then some video and then todays post.

Where the lave meets the grass

Volcanic mega hot tub

Icelandic sparky.

Day 7

A long and tiring day today, but worth every minute. We made a reasonably early start for Lake Myvatn and the surrounding volcanoes. The lake is in the bottom of a valley and shaped by the many lava flows and eruptions that have taken place around it. The whole area is like a geology textbook, with psuedo craters, real craters, lava fields, lava flows, lava pillars, lava pits, boiling mud pools, thermal baths and a geothermal power plant. Unfortunately no boiling magna, but the closest you can get to a live volcano without risking your life.

We wandered round pseudo craters, lava formations and boiling mud pools and then scaled Leivhrijukur, next to Krafla. Both these volcanoes are still active and the area around them is hot with boiling mud and steaming lava. Leivhrijukur is 547 metres high, but a reasonably easy climb from the car park. The lava field streches for miles and on the way down from the crater we walked alongthe edge of the lava flows. It's amazing how green lush grass grows right next to barren black ash.

After the long walk we retired to the steam room and hot baths of the Natural Baths. An interesting experience. None of the pools are deep enough to swim in really, so you just float about in the not water soaking up the salts and chemicals. They say it does you good, however I suspect that the cleansing powers are the fact that you are floating about in dilute sulphuric acid and reminds me of a poem my chemistry teacher, David Llewelyn Jones taught me at school.

Weep for little Johnny

For Johnny is no more.

What he thought was H20

was H2SO4.

After soaking in the acid for an hour we had some food and headed onto Europes most powerful waterfall, Dettifoss. On the way we picked up a french hitch hicker who had been in Iceland for three weeks and had trecked in the southern highlands and across the Eastern Desert. He had a walk round Dettifoss with us and we dropped him off at the main road, route 1, where he was heading for a campsite.

We then turned west and went round the coast back to Husavik and then on to the hotel. A long drive with stunning coastal views and some fantastic scenery. Filled up with fuel in Husavik and got home to hotel about 10:30 pm.

Another word on health and safety. Watched a guy in a service area this morning wiring switches into the street lamps, presumably so they can be turned off individually. He joined all the cables, went to the bin and got a plastic bottle, cut the bottle in half, stuffed the wire join in and gaffer taped it up. Then he switched the light on at his new switch, demonstrating that the whole thing had been live while he did it. He was sat on the floor with no safety boards or hoardings up, German tourists were passing within a few feet of him and he was wearing sandals. This wasn't some oik from the service station either, it was the man from the local power company. I love this place.

Day 6

Up at a reasonable time for a sulphur flavoured shower. Geo-thermal energy is very green and heatingthe hot water by squirting it over volcanic rock is nice and cheap, but it makes the bathroom stink of sulphur.

Had a walk round the Whale Museum, very interesting, barbaric in places but generally a good balanced view of whales and whaling. Why do the Japanese still eat eat? It doesn't even taste good, apparently.

Then it was all aboard for whale watching. Sharon protected herself against the cold with one of the supplied overalls. I am sure that if she fell in she would have sunk straight to the bottom with the weight of it. Saw about half a dozen Minke whales and a pod of dolphins, possibly 4 or 5. Very spectacular.

After that we had a walk round the Husavik Cultural Museum, Maritime Museum and Art Gallery. All in the same building as the public library. We can't work out how theyfund all this. Husavik has a population of about 3000. it has a swimming pool, a running track, several footbal pitches, a huge library and museum and a very modern looking pair of schools. Even if you take in the local area as catchment the population can't be 10,000. So where does the money come from?

The hotel is a fantastic farm hotel, with log cabins (Sheds) and rooms. We are in a block with a view out across the fjord. At the moment I am sat in the conservatory with a beer enjoying the hot sun (it is 9:00 pm and the sun is still above the mountains!)

Tomorrow, Lake Myvatn and volcanoes.

Whales

just walked round the Whale museum in Husavik and taken our seasickness pills in anticipation of our whale watching excursion at 12:00 today.

Day 5

Well the Foss Hotel in Husavik has a wired network to every room and a wireless network.  Neither of them work though.  So I am typing this on the public computer in reception with a 10 minute use time limit.

Up early this morning to return the Land Rover, I am very sad, I want one.  Got to Reykjavic domestic airport for 9:50, gave the Land Rover to a man from ISAK and went tinto the 'terminal'.  Well actually it is a large shed with one baggage conveyor, 5 doors, they call gates and an International Departures area, for flights to Greenland.  About 25 people on the flight in a Fokker F50, high wing turno prop.  The gps worked most of the way so I can tell you we were at 7000ft and traveling at 280 miles per hour.   All on time and all uneventful.

Arrived Akureyri and picked up the hire car, a Suzuki Vitara.  Sharon is worried that she won't be able to find it in car parks as it is so small.  If she was at home she would think it was huge, but she has spent 3 days in a Land Rover Superjeep and needed a step ladder to get in and out.

Stopped off at Godfoss on the way up to Husavik, a really nice waterfall.

A word on Icelandic Health and Safety,  I have noticed that they aren't taking this Health and Safety thing very seriously.  At Godfoss there was a piece of rope seperating the public from a 70 foot drop into a white water.  At the airport one of the ground crew was wearing rubber clogs, the other Nike trainers.  At Geysir members of the public were seperated from torrents of super heated water by a small rope.  Many of the roads have hairpin bends with masive drops and no armco.   Surprisingly I have only seen one injured person here, a young lad in the pool at the hotel last night who cut his knee in England before he came away on holiday and had 4 stitches in it.  I like it here it's dangerous and you have to respect it.  I suppose if you spend your life living on a volcano wearing safety boots is a bit pointless.

Husavik is beautiful.  It is a fishing port on a fjord.  From our hotel room we can see the harbour, across the fjord to the mountains, with snow, the otherside.  there is a wood and corrugated iron church and several similarly constructed buildings.   We ate outside, overlooking the harbour in what we thought was a cheap burger cafe.  Then we noticed they charged us 100 IKr for Tomato Ketchup, not so cheap.  Sharon didn't even eat all her ketchup.  75p for ketchup, I've been robbed.

Whale watching tomorrow.  sailing at 12:00 so sea sickness pills for breakfast.

More Pictures

Sharon in a Timotei advert

My tyres are bigger than your tyres

More pictures

Church at the start of the South Fjallaback Route

The Plasticine Mountain

I dont know whats happening, but thats not new

I will get some pictures here somehow

Landmannalauger

In the canyon we found

Day 4

An early start from the Hotel Puffin. We were at the petrol station before 9:00 am. Unfortunately they don't open until 9:00 though. Fortunately they have credit card pump. The foreign gentleman in front of us had no credit card though, so he gave me Ikr5000 and I filled his tank on my card, then filled the Land Rover. Fuel is cheap here and the Land Rover very economical for such a big beast.

Quick look round the Vik Wool shop and then off to the mountains. It was very wet, very grey and very quiet. Today we planned to travel along the South Fjallaback Road and along the side of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano. It started very foggy and the road was very steep and wet. Yesterday we had seen vehicles in both directions regularly, but we drove for over an hour before we met our first vehicle.

Fortunately it arrived as I was surveying the first ford of the day and trying to decide if the fast moving grey water was deeper than a Land Rover. The Toyota Land Cruiser, complete with trailer dropped straight into the river and the water only came up to his sills. So I leapt into the Land Rover and followed him. Good job he was there as the 'road' was now just a series of yellow posts across several miles of glacial mud, sand and water. We followed the Land Cruiser for a while until they turned off, and we were on our own again.

Found a fantastic gorge with a cable transporter, and fortunately a very sturdy bridge over the deep fast moving water. Stopped to take pictures and had a walk down the side of the gorge to a waterfall then back into the Land Rover.

We came over a blind summit to be confronted by what appeared to be a piece of plasticine about 1000 ft high that had been moulded by a giant. Closer inspection showed it to be a huge piece of rock eroded by glaciers and wind. The road wound around the foot hills to the glacial moraine that had recently been washed by the volcanic eruptions. Here there were several routes across black sand and rocks with regular water crossings. After about 4 and a half hours of mountain tracks, climbs, descents and fords we returned to civilised gravel roads and found a spectacular waterfall, right next to route 1 and heaving with tourists.

I am sad the Land Rover has to go back tomorrow, I could have happily driven it across to Akureyi tomorrow, but instead it is onto the plane and into an ordinary 4x4. I will miss the beast, I have got quite attached to it. It is amazingly capable, fairly frugal, reasonably comfortable and looks the dogs. I think it would look excellent parked on my drive, might have to widen the drive and we would never be able to get the bins past it.

We got to the hotel about 5:00 pm. Bit posh this one, got its own geo thermal swimming pool, hot tubs and sauna. So we tried all those out and then took one look at the restaurant menu and decided to go and eat out. Found an excellent pizza place and we won't have to steal food at breakfast time as we have left over cold pizza for lunch tomorrow.

The wifi is rubbish here, so I will try and post this, but no hope of any pictures.

Day 3

No pics in this post yet as the hotel wireless is very slow and I need to go and test the geo-thermal spa, so posting this and will try pictures and todays post later.

Great start to the day. We hadn't been able to pay the dinner bill the night before as the phone lines were down in the hotel and they couldn't take credit cards. This meant we had to speak to the owner this morning to sort out paying. He joined us for coffee at the breakfast table and went through the map with Sharon to show her the way to what he considers to be Iceland's most beautiful lake. It was a diversion of about 2 hours up a dead end to the lake, but well worth it, more later.

From Hotel Highland we had to go back down to the guest house and petrol station, to pay our bill for last nights dinner and fill up with diesel. We then set off for the Northern Fjallback route. This was much smoother than yesterdays rocky road, so speeds were higher and there was more traffic. The traffic included a Honda Accord, a Subaru Forester and several buses. Now these aren't ordinary buses, these are Icelandic buses. Like English buses on steroids and some with 4 wheel drive. It is rather scary to be travelling along a loose lava surfaced road at 80 kph and go round a corner to be confronted by a bus though. It also gets very high and at one point we were at 2295 feet and so were the buses.

Mounted the bullet cam on the Land Rover door mirror to get some video of us crossing fords, left it on all day in the end and used it not only for fords but also for the roads around Langisjor. Got some interesting video, if I get a good enough wireless service I will post some in the blog.

We stopped to admire a couple of views, including a volcanic crater full of water, and were into Landmannalauger for lunch. There is a shop there in an old school bus, it is in the middle of the mountains and everything has to come in the way we had, through fords and up slopes. The coffee and tea were only Ikr250 each though, which was cheaper than Geysir yesterday, next to the main road. We had a bit of a walk, watched the bathers in the thermal springs and ate some lunch.

After a short drive we turned off to go to see “the most beautiful lake in Iceland”, Langisjor. It really is fantastic, and the drive there and roads around it were even better. Much of it was across a lava desert with just a pair of tyre tracks running across a huge expanse of black sand , rock and ash. Unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side and at one point the road just disappeared into the mist. We tried to follow a road at the bottom of the lake, the owner at Hotel Highland had said “it goes up the mountain, unless they have closed it”. Well the mountain had fallen onto it! We got as far as some big boulders and I would have gone further had we had another vehicle with us, but on our own it seemed best to turn round. We were after all an hours drive from the nearest 'main' road and that was a loose surfaced mountain track. So we headed back to the 'main' road.

As we headed down out of the mountains the scenery became greener and the road took on a whole new character, sweeping round lumps and weaving between the tributaries of the glacial delta. Eventually it rejoined the macadamised surfaces and then route 1, the circular road around Iceland. A 30 minute run down route 1 bought us to the town of Vik and our hotel for tonight. We had a wander up to the filling station to buy a phone top up, looked in the grill bar there and decided to eat at the hotel. A wise decision, delivering and excellent steak and an excellent chicken with Viking beer and ice cream for afters. Unfortunately no wireless, so this is being written in OOWriter and will be posted when we next have wireless.

Well here is the beast, and a beast it is.  Got the keys at 10:00 am, drove round the bus garage car park behind the hotel to work out where the gears all were and then set off on 170 something Kms trip.

First stop was Pingvellir, site of the worlds oldest democracy nd also the place where the Atlantic tectonic late meets the European plate.  The two pieces of the earth's crust push against each other forming a rift valley and  some very impressive fizures.  The Icelandic 'parliament' chose the place to meet as itis at a point where many routes crossed and accessible to all the islanders.

From there it was on to Geysir, home of the original geysir.  Unfortunately Geysir doesn't squirt anymore, but it's smaller neighbour, Strokkur, does.  We saw it go several times, nearly got soaked and chuckled at all the people who did get soaked.

Then we went on to Gulfoss, a spectacular waterfall at the point where a major glcial river drops off of a plateau and into a gorge.  Very impressive.

Then we  hit the gravel roads!  Three and a half hours, at least 6 fords, I lost count, some of them wheel deep.  Steep climbs, long descents, fantastic scenery, I love this place.  Must shut the window tomorrow as everything, including us, was covered in a fine layer of volcanic dust by the time we got back to tarmac.  More to come tomorrow.

Got to the hotel about 7:45, it is just beyond the middle of nowhere, but it's got a hot tub.  So quick change into swimming gear and into the tub to get rid of the dust.  Just had dinner and two beers, we only had main courses and the bill is £70.  Obviously getting stuff to the middle of nowhere is expensive.

Off to bed in a bit, here is a live pic from 10:30pm.

The land of the midnight sun.

Just googled the restraunt

and it says this

Welcome to the home of the hip hop party scene in Reykjavik. Located on a corner in the heart of downtown Reykjavik, this small inviting place might not strike you as being a party place but it truly is.

Decorated like an old diner this small restaurant, bar and cafe has a real genuine feel to it. During the day there is a small menu available and it´s not uncommon to see people with their laptops using the free wifi while enjoying a cup of Joe or a light meal.

As night falls there is more of a bar feeling to this small diner. On weekends there are local hip hop DJ´s that take the stage and the first floor turns into one big dance floor. If the energy is high, there is a good chance that lights that hang over the bar will start to swing as that is sort of a tradition for regular guests.