Iceland Day 8

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Today was our last full day in the highlands. Tomorrow we move on again and it will be our longest journey as we move round to the east coast. We also spotted the tide line on the car from yesterday’s fording of rivers, and I am more impressed by the door seals and the engine especially as it does not have a snorkel fitted (one of those high level air intakes). All week we have been coming across cyclists touring the island carrying all of their kit; I must say I did not expect to see any today as it has only been about 8 degrees and with the wind it has felt a lot colder than that. But there they were slogging away against the terrain and weather. We assume that they must be doing some sort of coast to coast ride as the road we have been on is one of the few that goes north to south almost directly down the middle.

Following some internet research, we planned to visit the breeding grounds of the pink footed goose. Before heading off to explore we made a quick stop at the local information point to check on the roads that we wanted to use. Then we set off on a journey of about 100km starting on tarmac but soon back on the gravel. We made a slight detour to use the toilet at one of the tourist cabins (an interesting one this time, as illustrated!) and then we decided that we would risk the road that we had been told was quite bad and, although I think further on it would have proved to have had some risky fords – a sign warned of ‘deep canals with strong current’ – the part we travelled on was actually better than many of the so-called ‘good’ roads. Although we did see some geese flying, they may have been the last to leave as two hours searching did not turn up any more, and the rest of the birdlife was very uncooperative when it came to trying to get pictures. The water in the lakes is glacial runoff and has a milky white colour that seems to filter itself out as in makes it way down into the other lakes and rivers.

Following the lady in the information point’s recommendation we then travelled to an area of lakes, so more gravel roads and river crossings but this time we waited until another car had gone through and showed us the route after yesterday’s adventure. The area was stunning and we did manage to get some pictures of some of the local swans.

Back in the hotel now, had dinner and now a bit of time to relax before tomorrow’s long journey.

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