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Published: April 7th 2013
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We rose and after a quick breaky, we wandered into town to do our staple souvenir shopping for (1) an Iceland shotglass and (2) a postcode that jumps out at Rach. We were a little early for the shops to be open so we got a drink from “Te & Kaffi”, I used my extensive Finnish language skills to determine that this was where Icelanders bought their teas and coffees from…they made a pretty good skinny latte too. After sipping on our coffees and finding the ‘right’ postcard, we realised we were running slightly late for our hotel pick for our geysers & waterfall tour! So we scampered back quick smart and just made the bus in time.
We commenced our tour out of Reykjavic and within a couple of minutes the snow started. The landscape quickly turned to a baron volcanic wasteland of snow and rocks. Unfortunately the day was pretty gloomy and visibility wasn’t that good. Our guide pointed into the distance (which was just white) and told us that on a clear day you can see the Icelandic Volcano that caused the European air travel disruptions a couple of years ago.
We arrived at our first stop. The Gullfoss Waterfall. We hopped off the bus and were blasted by an Artic windchill factor of minus 100. God it was cold. We quickly stopped by the gift/coffee shop there so Rach could ‘prepare’ herself for the short walk down to the waterfall. She got her courage up and we took off for the 100m walk to the waterfall. Rach found an ingenious way of keeping out of the wind, walking backwards…This seemed to work momentarily before either the wind or her lack of direction skills kept blowing her off the track. Highly amusing for the neutral observer. We got down to the waterfall lookout and yes, the waterfall was amazing. In places the water had simply frozen solid as it had been going over the edge. If we hadn’t had moved on after 15mins of happy snaps, I think we would’ve frozen too. God it was cold and the wind was simply biting. We tried to warm up with a few stupid photos and some awesome jump shots, but in the end we scampered back to the bus for some warmth!
Back on the road we crossed
over a site where the North American continental plate meets the Eurasian plate. Its called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and really, it just felt like we were driving through a mountain range but anyway, the next 15 mins proceeded with me trying to describe to Rach what Tectonic Plates were!
We arrived at our next stop, the Strokkur Geysers. What looked to be just smoking puddles in the ground turned out to be amazing blow holes that would shoot water literally 50m into the air. The fun part was trying to time the camera right to get the money shot…just as the water was erupting into the air. Luckily they blow every 4-5mins so wasn’t too much standing around. Just enough time to do some jump shots infront of the smoking puddles…On the walk back, I got told off for ignoring a sign that said “keep out”, I was just intrigued to know whether the water was boiling hot…turns out it is, the steam probably would’ve given that away.
Back to the bus, not before a few more quick photos of strange statues that appeared infront of the car park and perusing the giftshop that had
the undisputed world’s largest puffin (plush toy). So after a few crazy photos in vikings hats and amongst the puffin teddy’s, it was time for the road (plus Rach was satisfied as we picked up some Icelandic choc-coated sultanas!). We stopped off at our last stop on the way back, which was a close-up of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge however by this stage it was too bloody dark to see anything.
Back in Reykjavik, we treated ourselves to a lovely dinner that would see us eat our way through the entire Icelandic native fauna! Goose, Puffin(!) and Duck for Entrée, followed by Rudolph the Reindeer and his Venison friend for main course. It was such nice game meat that filled us up and in the end, despite not seeing the Northern Lights the previous 2 nights, we were satisfied with our little adventurous trip to Iceland!!
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