Saturday 5th August
We flew into Iceland and yay, our car was still there with all out luggage in tack! We hit the duty free shop as alcohol is super expensive. Then headed off. A few hours drive before our first stop. The drive up to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. Amazing Wonderful. Different.
Huge rocky outcrops jutting up all over the place. A bit like fences only giants. Maybe dragons were sleeping under the surface with their spines poking up.
And the mountains – volcanic – so huge, steep and symmetrical.
And everything was so green! Bright green – unless that is if it was black, volcanic black/grey.
Many of the old lave fields were covered in a thick green lichen. Soft and spongy – trying to trick you to walk on it. Then the razor sharp rocks underneath could get you.
We wondered if we would see Icelandic Ponies. Well we certainly did. They are more common then sheep. Thousands of ponies! Everywhere. So sweet. They are about 12-14hh and built like big shetlands. The huge manes and forelocks on display. All the traditional colours and many broken colours as well. Gorgeous.
Sunday 6th August
Today was exploring the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. An extremely volcanic, stunning area. A huge volcano sits it the middle with its snow cap. The coastline all around is super rugged and pretty. Huge cliffs and many bird rockeries. Black beaches, pebble beaches, glacier. Snæfellsnes Peninsula has it all. Pretty much Iceland in a nutshell.
We spent the previous night in the town of Grundarfjordur, under the shadow of Mt Kirkjufell, a huge and wonderful old volcano. The accommodation was an Air bnb. Clean and lovely – but I guess she was a modern day slumlord. The house – with one bathroom and an extra toilet had 9 paying guests that night. a family of 5 (adults) in one room. So always queuing for the toilet, let alone the bathroom. Shall not go there again! Hahahaha.
The drive around the peninsular included – Volcanoes, Waterfalls, Puffins, Sheep, Ponies. And so much more.
Driving is SO HARD. You want to stop every 67 seconds to look at another amazing thing. But cannot as the roads are narrow with no shoulders. So you just drive past!
We went on a Puffin trip – out to an island that was “covered in Puffins”. The photos showed close ups of many many Puffins – feeding chicks, walking around, huge flocks of them. Of course in reality …. we saw about 20 at a distance in the water. And I was the only person to se one on land. The big old open boat was slow and had no cover! In Iceland – where it rains every day – numerous times. So all the tourists had to just stand in the rain and suck it up – literally. But it was above 10 degrees so could have been worse. Not the best tour but still fun.
But here are the best photos of the day.
Before I left home, Sarah had said she wanted me to bring home a photo of Icelandic pony stallions fighting like in the book she had as a kid!. Well they might not be stallions! And they might not have frost in their forelocks, they might not be in the snow – but I got close. LOL
The sheep are amazing. Like cartoon sheep. HUGE, round fat blobs of fur with tiny stick legs. 
Monday 7th August
Today 
We headed up the coast to one of the very northern parts of Iceland. This is where the Vikings first arrived and settled.
Beautiful country – no wonder they took it. The soil is so rich and you cannot believe the amount of hay they make. This was a second (at least cut) and the number of bales per acres was astonishing. Lucky as we are still seeing thousands of ponies.
we did see four – yes four beef cattle today. We have seen many many dairies – big herds. They have giant winter sheds and thousands of bales of hay sanding ready. And heaps of sheep. Heaps. The colours of the sheep are also amazing. The white is bright white! And the blacks are true black. SO dark. Nothing like our ‘black sheep’ who are brown, ginger and all other colours…but these guys are pitch black. There are also browns, broken colours and all. 
The ponies are so sweet. Today we saw heaps of herds with young foals. Check out the size of the tails on them.
Next mission was to find the grass topped houses. Sod Houses – an ancient traditional method. I thought they just had grass tops. Wrong. They are built of sod. A timber frame and walls then they are clad in lumps of sod about 400 x 300 x 200. Lumps of soil stuff cut into blocks. They are laid in a herringbone style and look amazing. They build walls, fences etc out of it. The roof has a layer of the top sod that then grows. Looks fantastic. This was a village re-enactment of how the houses were built. It was amazing.
Then across one of the big mountain ranges. More stunning things to look at. The roads are narrow – two lane – but absolutely no shoulders. The whit line then a drop off – for drainage in the winter and spring. we have spent much time on Highway 1 – and it is sealed…in almost all places!
The sheep range free in all of these areas. Once a year there is a country wide sheep round up. All the sheep are then drafted according to ear tags. Un tagged sheep are then divided up equitably among the owner of the tagged sheep. How cool.
Very old laws apply to the sheep. They have right of way on the road. If you hit and kill one you need to find the owner and pay the cost. Wonder if Travel insurance covers that?
Then Godafoss Falls. Icelanding for”waterfall of the gods”. A 30 metre wide falls with a drop of 12 metres. Spectacular. The rock formations are amazing.
In the year 990 Christianity was made the official religion. The myth is that the Lawspeaker Þorgeir, a holy man, threw his statues of the Norse god into the falls, making them the symbolic site of Iceland’s conversion.
Then of course many stops at pretty places along the way.
And then we reacher Lake Myvatn – our goal for the day. And WOW again. Very thermal, very volcanic and very beautiful.
The power plant was the first stop. Most of Iceland is run on Geo-thermal power. There are no hot water systems. The hot water comes out of the tap for free at 90 degrees Celsius. There are no heating bills as all homes have radiators – piped with 90 degree water. And as the boiling water shoots up through vents it spins turbines and makes the rest of the power. Brilliant. Imagine a country being smart enough to use the natural resources to make power – rather then using coal. Australia take note – we could power the world with our sun shine!
And a power plant that was great to look at. Wonderful. Funny that your were not allowed to go into the water as it shot out of the pipes. It was boiling! The water was an amazing aqua colour.
Then – Námafjall Mountain, is Hverir, a hot-springs area with boiling mud pots and fumaroles.
Unbelievable. I’ll let the photos tell the story here.
A visit to another dairy. It’s a cafe where you watch the milking the eat the products. Of course we went in and visited the cows. Again extremely friendly. While one was trying to eat my scarf another got my shirt and started eating it. I had to extract it – a long way…about 400 mm. Yes it was wet and soggy Then no 1 decided my hair was lovely and took a huge mouthful. I did get most of it back. We were laughing too hard to do a good job of fending off the cows.
The Pseudo craters were next. When a volcano erupts and lava flows into a wetland or a lake the lava covers the water. The water results in an explosion of steam causing the lava to rise. The exploding gases break through the lava similar to a normal eruption and debris creates a cone. o heaps of small cones in a small area.
Back along the lake past amazing stuff.
So much amazing stuff.
Having so much fun.
Tuesday 8th August
Another amazing day. Huge but amazing. Will write more after some sleep.
We started the day with a walk on a lava field. Parked the car and walked – then went a bit further and a bit further etc. It was amazing. So amazing. The landscapes were amazing. We eventually walked for 2 hours. Not easy walking. Saw many steam vents, boiling mud, boiling water and amazing colours from the the sulphur. At some points you could feel the heat through your shoes.
Then we headed off to Dettifoss. Another giant waterfall. And another 3 k walk. This one about 90 minutes. Much easier – apart from the stairs and rocks to walk up. But again so amazing.
We then headed off on our huge drive to the other side of the country. We always knew that this was going to be the ‘boring’ part of the trip. How wrong you can be. The land scape was amazing.
Iceland is flat…..unless it is not!!!!!
So now we are at Honf, near the huge glacier.
Wednesday 9th August.
No internet at the accommodation tonight so full details later.
Another huge day – so much fun – so much to see. Better report coming later.
The area around Hofn has many glaciers. Amazing.
After many glaciers we called into Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon. This area was covered in ice until the 30’s, and is now a lagoon. Full of lovely bergs. It I hadn’t been to Greenland recently I would have been amazed.
Skogafoss – a massive waterfall. A drop of 60 meters and 25 meters wide. Straight down. Amazing.
We went looking for the famous grass houses. Another dead end but we did find the most amazing weekender snuggled up against a huge waterfall.
THE VOLCANO – Eyjafjallajokull.
We found some amazing grass houses. These were original ones that are being saved.
Seljalandsfoss – yet another amazing falls. Another 60 metre fall. This waterfall is so famous as you can walk behind it. I didn’t.
Gljufrabui – another Foss – waterfall was just up the road. This falls was into a canyon with a narrow slot at the front. Super.
And some more grass houses.
Then off to the black stone beach to see among other things the basalt stone formations similar to the Giant Causeway in Ireland.
Another fantastic day!!!!
Thursday 10th August
Yet another fantastic day! I really have run out of superlatives. I have used them all – but I need more. We drive along and turn a corner and both start squealing with excitement as we see something new. And there is literally something exciting around every corner. Well – we don’t just squeal – there are quite a few expletive deleted’s being yelled as well. It is amazing.
We stayed in a pigeon coop last night. Well that is what it felt like. We pulled up to he two story guesthouse and went “Damn – upstairs”. Little did we know we were going to be up in the converted attic space. Could have been charming if it didn’t have a staircase that resembled a ladder, with the bathroom and toilet down below! We survived. We didn’t die on the staircase! But we shall not return.
After managing to get our luggage and our bodies safely down the stairs we headed off on the famous “Golden Circle”. The most visited part of Iceland. The plan for the day was to visit a number of spots and to twist and turn at anything that looked interesting.
Stop 1 – Keird Crater – a large volcanic crater. Very pretty. Cannot imaging the power involved to blow the top off a mountain. Keird was a cone volcano that emptied all the magma reserves when it erupted. The weight of the cone then collapsed into the empty chamber. It is now filled with water and looks very cool. So blue when the sun is on it.
It’s 270m across. We went for a walk around the rim. Very cool.
I also discovered why Viking did all the wonderful braids in their hair. The wind was amazing.
The massive greenhouses. Like most of Iceland, the greenhouses run on geo-thermal heating. perfect. They even had a banana industry for a while – but it was crushed by cheap imports.
Faxi Waterfall was a very wide single drop fall. Amazing. It’s not one of the big famous stops so not many people stop there. Silly them it was so nice. Really peaceful. 80 metres wide and seven high. There is also a large salmon ladder there – but apparently the salmon prefer the falls.
Then off to Geysir field. The geothermal field is about 3 square kilometres with most of the springs running along a 100m wide strip. makes for easy viewing. Most are pools of boiling water. Some were deeper holes that bubbled 500ms high. One day they may grown up to be like Strokker.
The colours were pretty amazing due to the sulphur and other chemicals.
The most famous geysir is Strokkur which spouts water 30 metres up. very impressive every about 10 minutes. We watched from many angles.
Strokkur was fantastic to watch. It would sit their bubbling away. A large pool with a deep hole about ??5 metres across. All of a sudden a giant bubble would rise up then explode upwards. A boom then the spout of water shot up to the cheering of the crowd. For a short period there would be a huge hole, then water would rush back in. Everything would be covered in a big cloud of steam. Some eruptions caused rain.
Interesting fact. The name Geysir comes from the Icelandic verb ‘geysa’ – to gush, and old Norse word.
We saw many cars that would make a Texan weep with shame.
Gullfoss – is the iconic Icelandic waterfall. The one you always see on adds, often in winter covered in snow. And there is a reason why this is the one. It was hard to comprehend. t’s fed by the second largest glacier. The Hvítá river is so wide and the canyon is so deep. It’s a two stage waterfall and sweeps around a bend. First drop is 11 metres. the second is 21. It’s so big you need a helicopter to see it all at once.
We then went to another —- you guessed it — another dairy. Not sure how we got this fascination with dairies on this trip – but this one was to eat the ice cream. And we were not disappointed. It was glorious.
Then a visit to Þingvellir National Park (Thingvellir), home of the Althing, the national parliament of Iceland, which was established at the site in 930 AD. Sessions were held at the location until 1798.
The park is in a rift valley and is the crest of the mid-Atlantic ridge, the boundary between the North Atlantic and the European tectonic plates. They are moving apart at a rate of 2 cm a year and this can be seen in the huge cracks and escarpments.
Amazing.
And another lovely waterfall.
And today we saw trees! Real trees – not scrub…but trees. I miss trees. Iceland has very few.
Great day.
Friday 11th August
Our last day in Iceland.
We started the day with a luggage sort. We have been living out of small bags to take inside each night at the different accommodations, so today had to pull everything out and repack for the early trip tomorrow to Svalbard.
Then a dash into an electronics store to purchase a new external drive – because mine has decided to start to die on the eve of massive remoteness. As always seems to happen to me.
Then off for a ride on Icelandic Horses. They are a small hardy breed and developed in the 9th and 10th century from horses brought over by the Norse people.
There are no other horses in Iceland. Nothing of any breed can be imported – and if a horse was to leave Iceland, it could never come back. No diseases here – but also no resistance to anything.
Although around 13-14hh they are referred to as horses – “Ielandic Horses”. They are a really steady breed – probably as they have had no predators.
They are a five gaited horse. Walk, trot, canter and have two additional.
Tölt is a four beat pace so a walk but super energetic and forward. The race along with super high knee action. But suer smooth. No rising to this. You couldn’t – it’s too fast.
The Pace is – – like the tölt but pacing, and is insanely fast. Again a seated gate.
Our ride was lovely but sadly – – we all walked along, one behind the other! Like any riding place anywhere in the world. Sad. but lovely. Lucky we chose this ride as the other one was the “slow sedate walking one!”
Reykjanesbear Peninsular was next.
The main split between the two continents. It looks like a giant just cut it in half. There is a bridge spanning the two continents which is pretty cool.
Super power stations and massive natural steam vents. We do believe we visited the cloud factory. This hole int he ground spewed out massive clouds at ground level. Up they went and away to be free. Walking under the cloud, we were rained on! Salty, stinky, warm rain.
The colours, caused by the said salty, stinky, warm rain were glorious.
A visit to the Viking Museum. Best part was the recreated Long Boat. Bags not sailing across the northers seas in that!
More grass houses.
And a look around Keflavik.
Great street lights.
Tonight the “Blue Lagoon”, the super fancy thermal pool. $120 AU for a swim. hahahahha.
Our booked time was for 10 pm – so no stunning photos of the aqua water with the blindingly bright white walls.
A geothermal spa, the most visited attraction in Iceland.
The warm (37-40) water is rich in silica and sulfur. It’s a man-made lagoon fed by water used at the power station. The super heated, by lava flow, goes through turbines, loses heat then comes into the lagoon. It is always refilling so all water is replaced within 40 hrs.
It is a bit factory like when you arrive. Line up, get your disc that does everything – locker, drinks, turnstyles…, go and have a shower, lather your hair in conditioner then walk into the pool.
The silica gives the water the milky look. It also sets onto the rocks – at the tide mark, caused by swimmers and coats everything in marble like, bright white coating.
You blob around then go and get silica to do a face mask. We did two rounds of silica.
The an algae mask. Also good for you.
You waddle (the water is about a meter deep) to the swim up bar and get your free drink. Bubbles of course.
Then the waterfall – which falls from about three meters and was as good as any Thai massage on the neck and shoulders.
We were idiots and looked lovely.
Then it was back into the shower, and smother the hair with conditioner so you don’t wake up with scare crow hair.
The Blue Lagoon was glorious.
Saturday 12th August
Some days are Diamonds. Some days are coal. And some days are just dinosaur poo waiting to turn to coal.
The 4.45am start was easier then expected..as it was full daylight.
We even managed to return the car (after stressing as we couldn’t contact them to confirm our 5.30 am drop off) and were at the airport just after 5.30am. Our crappy little car did 2,300 ks in our 8 days in Iceland.
When we arrived at the airport there were hundreds of people in the check in line. Hundreds. Thank goodness for on line checking and electronic boarding passes. We were able to by pass a few hundred people and get into the serious queue as we had boarding passes. Much to the disgust of some people.
The check in lady was pedantic to the 100th gram mark, so we stood, pulling things out of bags. Weird. It was ok for me to pull my 1 kg boots out and carry them over my shoulder. The weight was still on the plane but guess the important part was it was not in the bag. Funny. Only took 90 minutes to get through the queue, then straight to security – where my boots failed. What could be wrong with them? Opps. The small bottle of the delightful lemon Wodka we had been lugging around since bloody Poland. We were saving it for the ice and ship. Nooooooo.
Then rush to the plane. Seriously, through immigration and power walk to the boarding gate. Of course it was the second to last one in the airport.
But it was a lovely flight.
On arrival we had to collect our bags – that were through checked! Because…why? We had to!
So off we went to re-check our cases. And guess what. We stuffed all the extracted gear back in. Boots and all with no worries.
But…..and here is the dinosaur poo part.
Out through immigration, customs and back in through security. And talk about serious security. Not only lap tops had to be out, but cameras. All of them.
And then the very thorough full body pat down. More like a physical. And I mean full body check. “Lift up your shirt so I can put my hands in your waste band”.
But – the good. When we booked there was only a small difference in economy plus luggage etc and the next class up! So we had Lounge access. Yay.
As we went in we asked the staff how long it would take is to get to the gate, which way etc.
We spent a few hours there then headed off to the gate – with plenty of time.
Oslo airport has lots of bar code controlled turnstyle gates. At the gates the area C the turnstyle wouldn’t let us through.
We asked the info people.
They said that as we had come from Iceland we needed to go out through there and down then out the doors blah blah blah. We asked them to call the gate and tell them we were coming.
So off we went.
Straight out through the point of no return door. Back to duty free arrivals and on the wrong side of customs and security.
We saw a security guard three steps from the point of no return….. but bad luck. It was as if we were just arriving at the airport.
We asked him to call the gate and tell them we were coming.
Customs was quick but security…… Helen breezed through. But today I was a problem. And big problem. Best not to tell the offias security guy that you were running late.
What I have to say it “Random selection – Pig’s ass!” There was nothing random in my selection.
I had my wheeling bag with electronics etc. all the electrical cords, power board, plugs, chargers, card readers, external drives and more.
And gee! Each one of them had to be swabbed. That is after all the connections were ripped out. So good luck to me pairing everything up.
And don’t forget the spare clothes – undies and all. All. Pulled out and put in trays to swab and scan.
Half way through this I sent Helen to the gate to keep begging. Lucky, as I was there for at least 17 hours. Well maybe minutes but it felt like hours.
After throwing everything back in off I set. And guess what. It was the last gate down the far branch of the airport.
Helen did well with the begging and they waited.
So on we get, “those people”. The ones with too much hand luggage and no locker space free. My wheelie bag went up with the crew gear. We did apologise to every one as we did the walk of shame up the plane.
But we did make it and here we are. In Longyearbyan (town), Svalbard (country) in the archipelago of Spitsenberg.
Very different again. Huge bare hills running down to the water. Similar to Barrow Alaska, but an expensive resort town.
So over the last few weeks we have stayed a quiet a few hotels/inns/BnBs and rat holes. Unless you are in the very expensive hotels there are very few ensuite rooms. Shared bathrooms are so much fun. NOT. Each place had some good but one or two huge things wrong. Sharing with 10 there people, teeny tiny rooms, horrible stairs and on.
Helen was doing the happy dance when we waked into out room at Longyearbyen. Spacious, clean, ensuite, even a lift. YAY.
So, huge sleep tonight then some exploring tomorrow.
Next tab time –