Blogs from North, Iceland, Europe - page 10

Friday Today we woke to the typical weather we have experienced. Gray muck. All the locals keep saying it is usually warmer and more sunny. Oh well. Today we had our first bus trip and it was wonderful. We started off at the hot springs/ mud flats. This reminded us so much of what we saw in Chile. On the way there we crossed from the European plate back onto the North American plate and saw one of the places where the 2 plate separate. From there we drove to the castle lava fields. These were created when one of the volcanic faults erupted and the lava pooled into a large lake. It started cooling and then the dam holding the lava back broke and it drained. We climbed thru these lava towers and holes that ... read more

I wake to a new day in Iceland and find that the promised sunshine prompting my booking of an Icelandic horse trek was nowhere to be seen. Instead there are soft, fat, fluffy snow flakes dusting the pavements and decorating the pine trees outside my hostel. I have a lovely lazy morning catching up on blogging, reading, snoozing and after a quick trip to the Bonus supermarket - yes, finally a shop is open! - some treats to trough on. My lift to the stables arrives and I find it is the owner, a lovely lady in the coolest jumper/cardigan/coat I've ever seen. It is twisted over making a kind of snood, cowl cloak effect - brilliant design effort and something she just chucks on to get from house to car (I asked her!). When we ... read more

Having picked up the rest of our little group from the airport we finally set off on our tour of the Myvatn area. As we drive off over the fjord and along the shore, the same way I went on my bus trip to Husavik, we find out from our guide Oskar a few interesting snippets of information about Iceland and the area we are driving through: ~ Myvatn is pronounced nothing like I'd thought and goes something like MEE-VA-TNNN with the NNN being a blow out through the nostrils with your mouth shut. Don't try this with a cold! ~ The fjord is called Eyjafjörður which means 'fjord of the islands'. It's 60km long and the width averages 6-10km along a lot of its length widening to 25km at the end that meets the sea. ... read more

I arrive at Reykjavik's domestic airport after a bit of a detour via a hotel restaurant - map reading blooper but I realise I'm actually really early and can afford to have some grub before I find the actual terminal building - only to find the flight is delayed by half an hour. I settle down to read my book and add a bit to my blog before finally my flight is ready to depart. We're in a fairly small aircraft, just two seats each side of the aisle and you have to walk up the steps into the plane from the tarmac. We are quickly airborne and as I'm in a window seat I can see all that's outside - which is mostly the tops of fluffy clouds! So much for seeing a bit of ... read more

Day 6 It was showering with rain when we woke but it cleared before we drove to see the Goðafoss waterfall. It was certainly coat and gloves weather but it was good hiking weather. We then drove another 40-odd km to lake Mývatn which is one of the biggest lakes in Iceland. Next was Skútustaðir, a little further down the road where there are pseudo-craters. These were formed when the geo-thermal pressures underneath the soil came up at various points and raised some hillocks. Fascinating! A little further along the shores of the Lake was Dimmuborgir which is where a beautiful lava labyrinth with very strange lava formations can be observed, which provide shelter for the abundant vegetation. We walked about 4 kms around to see all the different forms of the lava. Another 15 minutes ... read more