Included in our package was a guided tour called "Essential Iceland". We had originally booked only the four of us (Jim, me Boris and Liz) and when we added Jeffrey the special wasn't on any more. I decided that I would let Jeff go in my place and have a day to myself.
Here are the intrepid four in front of their jeep.
And what a jeep! That black thing coming out of the side is a snorkel, so that the jeep can just drive straight through rivers and the engine won't stall. To be honest I had never heard of any such thing, but of course Jeff knew exactly what it was!
(Blog about their adventures to follow)
Right across from our hotel is the Perlan, a community centre surrounded by hot water tanks for the city.
It is at the top of a hill but the path systems here are excellent and I had a really nice walk up to the top. I had a mission - I had 3 travel bugs (geocaching) to drop off. I found the cache, but the log book was full. I decided to look for the comment Elaine wrote when she was here in Sept. 2010. I found it and wrote my comment underneath!
How cool to think that a year and a half ago she was halfway across the world, standing in the exact same spot I was standing!
After lunch I took the car and headed south of Reykjavik, to see some thermal pools called Seltun. They are right in the middle of the volcanic zone that runs the length of the Reykjarnes peninsula.
The roads in Iceland are pretty good, even the unpaved roads. It occurred to me that maybe it wasn't such a good idea for a single person to head out into the middle of nowhere like this. I hadn't seen another car in about 10 minutes but then a big ol' tour bus came around the corner and I knew I was fine!
You don't need to speak Icelandic to know what this sign meant!
I was just driving along, admiring the scenery, when I noticed a cloud of steam that looked like it was coming out of the mountain. I took this picture, then drove up for a closer look.
The attractions in Iceland are clearly marked, but you seem to just happen upon them anyway. Turn the corner and there it is! This was the first sign I saw. Didn't deter me one bit.
The water (mud) in the pools was actually boiling. I took a video because you can really hear the sound of the bubbles gurgling, but I keep getting error messages when trying to post it. Just go get about 10 to 12 large pots of water and get them all boiling at the same time and you will get the idea.
There was a sulphuric smell but also a few other chemicals, making it smell a lot like a chemistry lab.
On the way back I passed by this lake. Look at the beautiful blue!
Then I noticed a couple of people down on the beach. One of them had a silver/gold sheet in front of him, plastered to his body by the wind, and the other was photographing the effect.
See, no matter where you go in Iceland, even in the middle of nowhere, you see art!
Off the the right of the road there were some structures that looked like the fish drying flakes we had seen in Newfoundland. I couldn´t see what was hanging on them from the road, so I decided to drive in. The gate was open and I figured if I ran into someone who told me I wasn´t supposed to be there at least I could ask what it was all about.
There was no one there. No security, nothing. I doubted people would want to steal this stuff but I thought they would protect against vandalism. Maybe it´s not an issue here.
It turned out that it was just rows and rows of dried fish skeletons. Now I really wished someone was there so I could ask WHY?
I took the first picture through the windshield but opened the driver´s window to take this one. Big mistake. If I thought the hot pools smelled bad, this was 10 times worse! Phew! Well, they were fish heads.
I will have to do some research on this. Maybe it´s for fertilizer? Or maybe for some exotic Icelandic dish (that I will skip after experiencing that smell!)
I got back to the hotel at the exact same time as the other 4, and quickly headed out to "The Avengers"
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