Day 3 - South East Iceland

It was a dark and stormy day before, but the boys awoke to a brilliant sunny morning. After the traditional search for the breakfast room, we were off in search of Systrafoss, one more waterfall for the trip collection. Soon, however, we stopped looking at waterfalls and just counted them. When Blair counted 16 on one bend in the road, we ended the counting as well. We crossed the Wasteland, which is the result of volcanoes partially melting the glaciers that covered them (you have to see this country to believe that this is possible). Many photo stops, including remnants of a bridge destroyed by one of the massive floods enabled us to get a sense of the number of glaciers in the south east part of Iceland.

An afternoon highlight was a cruise on the glacial lagoon at Jokulsarlon. Imagine a bay filled with icebergs of all shapes and sizes. It is hard to picture that, but luckily we captured probably hundreds of images (all of you are therefore forewarned). We retreated to the Hotel Skaftafell in the national park of the same name for a short trek to the glacier located just east of the hotel itself. Another fine dinner (we avoided the $35 chicken breast item), some fine local beer, and we banished ourselves to the hotel lobby to write this blog, check the sky situation (bleak due to fog), and to marvel at wi-fi and cell phone connectivity. After a very nice min-chalet in Kloster we are somewhat shoehorned into a typical European sized room, hence we socialize in the public areas.

Day 2 South Iceland

Ode to Ford - NOT!

Day started with very nice breakfast, weather was gray &rainy but your intrepid explorers headed off into the remote high country ready for a full day’s adventure, including fording a couple of rivers later in the day...until 15 minutes into the trip when the “Check Engine” light on our Fix Or Repair Daily Explorer came on. Discussion with the car rental outfit in Reykjavik saw us backtracking an hour to Selfoss to get it checked. The diagnosis was a sensor problem, so we were good to go before noon.
Turns out this was a good thing...remember those remote high country roads? Found out before leaving Selfoss that they were closed due to severe flooding and fording (no pun intended) those rivers would have resulted in something really, really bad. Fortunately Addy the Nordic Tour Organizer Goddess had a Plan B for us and we had great visits to two spectacular waterfalls (the ONLY good thing about 10 days of rain), an amazing black lava sand beach with huge waves at the southernmost tip of the island, some of the most bizarre landscape ever, and culminating with a couple of hours hiking along Fjadrargljufur gorge, a breathtaking geological oddity featuring bizarre rock outcrops, and even sheep (which are everywhere) who do great imitations of mountain goats climbing seemingly vertical canyon walls to get to the best grass. All of the above done in driving rain and howling wind and remarkably good spirits.
We decided that the Norse gods have sent us god omens though...on the way back to the car at Fjadrargljufur, the wind dropped, patches of sun appeared nearly blinding your vitamin D – deprived explorers, and we had a rainbow a few minutes later. Energized by some late evening beer and pizza, we look forward to a good night’s rest in a very quaint and well-equipped 3-bedroom cabin at Horgsland just outside Kirkjubaejarklaustur (Klaustur for short...you think I’m making up these names, don’t you?) and heading off to the Skaftafell National Park in the morning.
On speaking Icelandic...
At the risk of sounding like stereotypical tourists (which lord knows we aren’t), and despite valiant efforts, we have all but abandoned attempts at learning some basic phrases in Icelandic. Very nice people, spectacular scenery, mind-numbing language; one that is actually so little changed from what the Vikings spoke that many Icelanders are able to read the ancient Viking texts without translation. Mercifully, most Icelanders speak English and do so gladly, no doubt to avoid the excruciating pain of hearing us mangle their native tongue. Many road signs (not to mention almost all advertisements) are bilingual and there are even a few words that you can figure out; most importantly, coffee = kaffe.

Day 1

Superb send-off with dinner at Pearson with Larry and Robin. Question - why would you have to go through security on arrival at destination - full on, disposal of liquids, laotop and shoe inspections etc. all just to get out of arrivals and into the terminal - odd?

On the ground, we loaded up our black Ford Explorer and proceeded to go in circles - just to orient ourselves of course. Across some moonscapes and on into the Blue Lagoon for a few hours of post-flight soaking - ahhhhhh!

Dirt is black, everywhere, roads and not far beneath whatever vegetation has taken hold, the volcanic nature of Iceland reveals itself. But seismic activity doesn't explain a whole new definition of washboardy roads - thank god it´s a rental. Lots of impressive surf alongside the route too. Geothermal is very real here, we visited an electricity plant set in the midst of a landscape literally boiling and steaming.

As we have been awake for most of the last 39 hours, we were thrilled to roll into our hotel, sip a beer and enjoy an excellent meal (seafood and lamb of course) at the Leirubakki hotel in the foothills of the mountains. Further off the beaten path tomorrow as we head 'behind the mountains´.