An 8 day guided tour on the Ring Road around Iceland. The seven Aussie horse riders were joined in Reykjavik by three husbands/partners, one of whom is my brother who flew from Australia with one of my sons.
Day 1
To the north of Reykjavik, our first stop was Thingvellir, a rift valley, interesting for two things. One - it is the location of the original parliament where Icelanders met from 930AD, to make laws and pass judgement and sort out disagreements rather than resorting to the old Viking method of killing each other. Very civilised and clever. Two - this rift valley lies on the fault line between the American continental plate and the Eurasian continental plate that runs right through the middle of Iceland. They are moving apart, enlarging the country by a few centimetres each year.
Then we visited a thermal area and watched a geyser erupt every six to eight minutes, throwing a fountain of boiling water up to thirty metres into the air.
There are over 10,000 waterfalls in Iceland which is about one and a half times the size of Tasmania.
We walked down to the bit of rock that juts out into the water on the left. Very impressive amount of water.
The Trolls enjoying a pre-dinner drink in my room shared with Joel. Our tour company is called Troll Expeditions. There are seven other people from various countries also on the small bus.
Day 2
There are 269 glaciers in Iceland. We went for a hike on one, looking very rugged with crampons, crevice rescue harness, helmet and ice pick.
We walked over volcanic ash to the face of the Glacier and up a path cut into ice.
The family photo - Joel, me, Loretta and Pete.
Back on the bus to see a couple of waterfalls. We walked behind Seljalandsfoss. Lucky I was still wearing wet weather pants and jacket from being on the glacier. Hordes of tourists.
Skogafoss. More tourists. 2.4 million people visit Iceland each year. Only 350,000 people live here.
500 steps to the top of Skogafoss.
Close enough to get wet and have no people in my photo.
Black crust Pizza for dinner. YUM. Yes, the crust is black, but not burnt. They add carbon to the flour to mimic the black volcanic ash.
These beasts took us to another glacier to explore an ice cave. After dinner. It is light until nearly midnight and even then it is not fully dark.
Other-worldy landscape.
This glacier also comes from the same area and the same volcano as the one we walked on, about an hour's drive away. The ice covers the volcano of Katla which is 60 times larger than the one that disrupted all the air traffic in 2011 and it is 50 years overdue for an eruption.
Crampons on our feet again to walk over the ice to the cave which is smaller than it used to be due to rain melting the ice.
But still impressive and wondrous.
The black stuff is ash from previous eruptions, the last one just over 100 years ago. That is Pete in the photo.
Day 3
We woke with a view of Eyjafjallajokull, the volcano that caused havoc around the world on 2011. We drove back past the waterfalls of yesterday to see the black sand beach. Hordes of tourists. I tried to not get too many in my photos.
We drove over a huge lava field formed in 1784. Grey and green moss, 40 to 60 cms deep covering sharp, jagged lava rocks for miles and miles.
Another gorge. I would have liked to ride a horse along this one and taken a picnic. It was so peaceful.
Then we drove for miles beside the many outlet glaciers of the huge glacier of Vatnajokull National Park that covers the tallest volcano, 2110 metres tall. This twisted metal is from a bridge destroyed by a flood from a glacier following an eruption in the 1970s. We were standing almost at sea level and I could see three glaciers. Mind blowing
Next stop - Diamond Beach. Ice bergs of all sizes float down a river from a lagoon at the base of a glacier and wash up on the beach.
A boat ride on the glacier lagoon which is nine kms long and 300m deep. Surreal. Sublime.
And then we stayed in a hotel by a sea lagoon beneath a mountain with a view of a glacier! We are very happy little Trolls.
To be continued....
No comments:
Post a Comment