Again up & out by 8:30am. My turn to drive again which was interesting as it was still very windy so I took it steady. We first visited Fjarđrárgljúfur canyon which was cool, but as with other sites the light was a bit too dim for good photos. Although that didn’t stop a couple of professional(?) photographers who had camped out in the best position waiting for the sun to make an appearance! We think some of Game of Thrones was filmed here too. We continued heading west along the 1 to Vík where we stopped for a toilet break and then realised we’d accidentally parked by the track to the beach we had planned to visit! We braved the wind & rain to get to the black sand beach at Reynisdrangar to see the basalt ... read more

We were up, breakfasted & out into a dull misty day by 8:30am. Skipping Grjótagjá (where Jon Snow was deflowered by Ygritte!) we went first to Hverir – a “magical, ochre-toned landscape of mud cauldrons, steaming vents & piping fumaroles”. We pottered around taking care not to leave the designated paths - for reasons of nature conservation & because we like the soles of feet unboiled! After this we headed up to Krafla, driving past a steaming stream and under the pipes of the geothermal power station to get up to Leirhnjúkur, described in the guide book as the “potentially most dangerous attraction”. We were uninspired by the car park & rough track disappearing into the mist but persevered & the bubbling pool, solfataras & encrusted lava field were impressive, but less so than the fiery ... read more

Having had the day off driving yesterday I took the first shift of the long drive today. We left the house before it got light but after a bowl of porridge and stopped off at Kirkjufellfoss which was pretty but it was still too dark for photos. We then stopped briefly in Grundarfjörđur to get petrol before heading along the gravel route 54 through the impressive Bersekjahraun larva field. This got poor Sigi (hire car) rather dirty! As the driving got more boring I handed over to Chavaunne who drove us to Kolugirljufur falls. We had lunch in the car before braving the wind to admire the falls. We deviated on route 1 to take the 744 around Tindastoll (where we failed to see any trolls, giants or monsters as promised by the book!) then the ... read more

Vicky stopped over at ours on Friday night so we could get up at 3:30am for Mark to drive us to Luton airport to check in at 5am. I got rather excited at seeing our Totternhoe Nature Reserve from the plane during take-off! A good tail wind meant we arrived at Keflavik International Airportjust after 8:30am. We met up with Chavaunne whose flight from America got in even earlier (she even saw the northern lights from her plane!). We picked up the hire car (Dacia Duster 4WD) & I got voted as first driver due to (a) having driven on the right before & (b) not being jetlagged! This meant I had to get us out of the airport then into the centre of Reykjavik & park in the car park by Hallgrímskirkja (the tallest church ... read more

Our plan for Saturday was to get the 10am hydrofoil to spend the day in Esztergom, a small town on the Danube Bend on the boarder with Slovakia. The Danube Bend is meant to be possibly the most beautiful bit of the whole Danube & Esztergom a lovely town to visit there. We were also planning to stroll accross the bridge in to Štúrovoin Slovakia & up our country count for the holiday. Because of the swimming championships in town I double checked the website on friday night & found no reference to any disruption, however on turning up at the ticket office at 9:30am we were told "no boat", looking around there was an A4 sign up next to the counters (inside the building which was shut when i last walked past or I'd have ... read more