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Well, what a trip! We got so busy seeing and doing such awesome things, that time eluded me to keep doing the blog.
Here are some photos that I have been working on since coming home...

Today's theme -Mountains



South East Iceland

Myvatn region - Iceland

Near Dettifoss - North East Iceland

 

Kirkjufell - Snaefellsness Peninsula, Iceland

Some photos

A quiet drive yesterday to the Foss Hotel, West Fjords.
The day started windy and we had booked in for a trail ride. Dave, Mitch and I went on the trail ride, whilst Lawrie opted to stay in his room, having a sleep-in.

They were lovely horses, with a steady gait, so that when they broke into a trot, you were not bobbing up and down and having to work hard to keep from jiggling.

Once we hit the West Fjords, the wind subsided somewhat.

Past photos from the land of Fire and Ice

Nearly 'round

As we have made our way around this amazing island, we cannot complain about the wonderful weather mother nature has dished out for us.

Our first Northern Lights experience
The red glow is from the fissure eruption 100 km away

We have had snow fall and needed to plough our way slowly through a winter wonderland.


The road was cleared later in the morning, after we had drive to the place that Dave and Mitch were going caving.
Lawrie and I had booked in to do a whale watching tour, but the snail pace drive made it impossible to get to our destination. As it happens, the seas were going to be a bit rough and not much chance of seeing whales anyway! Instead, we had morning tea at the 'Cow Shed Café' and went on a nature walk. So glad we did, as the sound of silence along the way was incredible and the colours exquisite.

After lunch, we went on a scenic drive (!), which took us past Dettifoss and the most Northern point of our travels thus far.

Yesterday we left our wifi less abode after the car was packed and then unpacked and packed again. This process allowed the second flat tyre of out trip to be changed.
Shopping in Akureyri, picnic lunch at Siglufjordhur and numerous photographic stops were activities participated in before arriving at our current accommodation, a horse themed accommodation and working horse farm.
We are supposed to go on a horse ride this morning, but not sure if it will go ahead, as there is a storm brewing, which is predicted to have winds up to 20 m/s. That will make today's drive to the West Fjords interesting.......

Conectivitiy - nil

The past two days have been nothing short of amazing.

After such an awesome day, which I called 'speechless', we drove north and arrived at our accommodation on the edge of a fjord.
The show that Mother Nature put on for us after a day of driving up the coast in drizzle, was second to none. I don't think we will see any display of the Northern Light any better than what we witnessed from the hot tub that night.

To be brief, we are having lunch at a restaurant in . We have our heads buried in computers and phones, as our accommodation does not have wi-fi. It is, however in a beautiful place, which you pas through a forest of silver birch to get to. Every day is magnificent. We will return, sometime, methinks!

Sorry, but have to keep you in suspense some more - computer running very slowly.
Dad - I am surprised it made it all the way through your European trip!

Speechless

I think I used some pretty strong words in previous posts, because I cannot put into words what we saw yesterday. Photos to follow, once I have sorted them out.
Also, I though that nothing could top yesterday, but, tonight, we saw the most magnificent display in the the sky........... photos to follow.....

We have had an awesome day!

Most days, I have written the blog posts at breakfast time, but it has been such an exciting day, that I feel compelled to write about it before going to bed!

We started with another nice breakfast at our abode and after a tardy pack-up, we left our fine hosts and headed down the track for the last time.

 

The light was fabulous and we stopped down the road to take some reflection shots.

 

It is very easy to understand the most Icelandic folk believe in Elves and trolls. Everywhere you look, there are faces or figures. Look at the one I captured ‘on film’ today!

 

 

The road twisted and turned and the landscape on the right went from being rocky and unar like to moss-covered lava fields within a blink of an eye! The cliff tops on the left changed form from time to time, but a magnificent sight was had at one point.

The glacier fields began to appear, and it was magical to see three of the magnificent beasts in one sweep of the eye. A couple of days ago, we were getting a bit tired of seeing waterfalls, but we soon lost count of how many glacier tongues were licking their way down the slopes.

 

If the sight of the glaciers weren’t enough, we finally came across the glacier lagoon. That was the most magnificent sights I have ever seen. Gobsmacking – even better than the mirror finish on the river Seine, which was literally jaw dropping in itself.

 

We did not have time to stop for long, but did return later. We were on a timeline to meet a group to go on a ski-doo ride on the glacier top. Now, that was an interesting journey, following our guide to save about $200. We had still not had the opportunity to get a spare tyre, so driving for 30 minutes up the mountain was a bit of a gamble, but we did have support from our guide if we needed it.

It was a fantastic activity to do. Riding trail ride style on snow mobiles, playing in the pristine snow at the top of the glacier. Fantastic! It was interesting to see the deep crevasses and we had fun taking it in turns driving the mobile. Mitch and Lawrie, ad Dave and me.

Getting up the mountain was one thing, as the guide was expecting up to be behind him, but getting down was another. Dave did a superlative job of getting us down the mountain in low visibility, as the clouds had begun to roll in. The other thing was the guide did not stop to help us down the mountain. Thankfully we did not pop a tyre… That is a job for tomorrow morning.

 

We then made our way back to the glacier pool and stayed there for a little while - not long enough for me, but Lawrie and I can spend some more time there tomorrow whilst Dave and Mitch do something else.

 

We arrived at Hufn (pronounced Hupb), wishing that we had booked somewhere closer to tomorrow’s activities. On arrival, we found out that we probably could have, as our apartment that we booked had burst a pipe. The owner was very helpful and found somewhere else for us to stay. She was very apologetic, but the place we are in, she said is much nicer (it is beautiful), and more expensive, but she paid the difference in price and gave us a reduced fee. Great service. We do still have to go way back down the road tomorrow, but the weather report is looking great!

 

 

 

Our cheapest day yet and 'We got away with it'

A good breakfast gave us the energy for the ‘big’ day ahead.

The weather was overcast and drizzly at times. Not too promising for taking photos.

We went into the town of K to suss out the shops for supplies, but they are not open on Sundays. The tourist information was not open until 1pm, so we went for a drive to a canyon which Dave had read about. The walk up the canyon, was said to have been a couple of kilometres long and we set off up the hill.

The sights were pretty unbelievable, with sheer drops off the sides. The boys reckoned that they would not die if they were to fall off, and had great pleasure in teasing their mother!

The walk up the canyon finished at a view of the convergence of two ‘streams’ and their waterfalls. The colours were awesome.

 

The walk back down was pleasant and the soft, mossy ground was perfect for some gymnastic opportunities.

 

 

We took a risk and drove up an F grade road. The risk was that we have not yet had the tyre replaced, as the garage was not open on a Sunday. There was no phone reception on the road either. We decided to turn back when we came across a ford. The insurance does not cover any problems encountered when crossing waster.... There was a photo opportunity of some sheep, however! They are good at seeking shelter.
Yes, we got away with it!

 

 

We went back to the tourist information centre and watched an interesting movie on an eruption which happened in 1783.Very interesting, but the final words were ‘Scientists predict this sort of event would happen every 500 years, but then again, it could happen tomorrow’. Very heartening words, given the current fissure eruption. That’s how the other one started……

Good to think of ponies and other sweet things...

We visited another waterfall in the town and made our way up the track to see the waterfall at the top. There was another way down, which Dave suggested would be easier than going down the multitude of steps. About 3 kilometres later and some lovely scenery, mixed in with gusts of winds on the peak of each undulation, we made it to the other side of town from where we started.

Lawrie and I stopped at a café for hot chocolate whilst Dave and Mitch went to get the car. We had ordered a serve of fries which arrived just as the car pulled in to the car park.

After sussing out a few eateries, we decided to go back to the Foss Hotel for dinner. The food was fab and not as expensive as what we first thought.

No light show tonight.