Day 77 to 80 Luxury in a Lodge - Hot pot, geysirs and the bestest waterfall ever - Gullfoss

Day 77 Laundry, Big shop and arrival at our Lodge

Van parked up for 3 days :-)

The weather was still a bit grim when we awoke. Today we are off to a wood built lodge for 4 nights and for my birthday. It's in Geysir which is not blessed with shops nor a washing machine so we did a couple of loads on the campsite machine, stocked up on 4 days food in the large supermarket, filled our boots at the local KFC fine dining emporium and drove the 60 Km up the road to our home for the next 4 days.

The hot tub is called a hot pot though not sure why...it has no pump or system to blow bubbles so is just a really big bath I would guess.......it was empty when we arrived but 2 hours later was full and good to go. It is filled directly from the geothermal springs, much as the 'once through' radiators are served in the house, and not a hint of sulphur smell too... hot water, on tap, as much as you want, just flowing in one end of the house and out to drain..

Day 78 Hot tub

A lazy day with Jack taking the record in the hot pot after a 4.5 hour continuous spell. Much reading and DVD watching done between drinks in the tub

Day 79 Gullfoss and Geysir

Iceland's interior - loose gravel roads so a step too far....

30 years ago it was pictures of Gullfoss and a spouting geysir that made me hell bent on wanting to get to Iceland. And it is probably why we rented the house right by Geysir ( a small place named after its geyser !) and only 10 Km from Gullfoss.

Gullfoss  - spray rainbows - fantastic

They are both on Iceland's 'golden circle' - the most popular day tour route in Iceland as it heads out from the capital, Reykjavik, whisking you around both Gullfoss and Geysir and also a couple of other spots. It does mean that for much of the day it can get a bit crowded but by 6 pm the buses have gone and the people disappear and so we decided to head out in the early evening to take a look.

Gullfoss has a 10m then a 20m drop, so not as high as some, but the volume of water flow is tremendous

 I took the pac-a-macs and the dodgy ponchos but there was little wind and we didn't get a soaking.

Jack and the Geysir

Strokkur

Geysir didn't disappoint - the original 70m high geysir it was famed for stopped spouting years ago - occasional minor earthquake activity revives it for a couple of years and on special occasions they dump 40 Kg of soap powder into the boiling cauldron which acts as a catalyst to getting the geysir to spout. 30 yards away is Strokkur which spouts every 5-10 minutes to an impressive height of 30m  - the ropes around it are surprisingly close and if you are stood in the wrong place you get a steam bath and a good soaking in water.

Gulfoss and Geysir - forget the last crammed week  - they are worth a trip to Iceland alone



Day 80 My 48th Birthday

Birthday boy with cake

Our wooden lodge in the valley below

The first hour of my birthday was spent in the hot tub followed by an early morning viewing of Clint Eastwood's 'Gran Torino' until 3 a.m with Jack........It left us with a late start to the day

The sun was up so we were back in the tub straight after breakfast only stepping out for a couple of hours to climb the hill behind the house and look down on the crowds around the geysers.

Tomorrow we return to the van and to the south coast............can't wait


Day 77 Selfoss (I) to Geysir (I)      69 Km     Total 11314 Km

Day 78 Geysir ( I)                            5 Km       Total 11319 Km

Day 79 Geysir (I)   - Gulfoss         64 Km      Total 11385 Km

Day 80 Geysir (I)                             5 Km      Total  11390 Km                

Day 75 & 76 Kayaking at midnight to see the seals

Day 75 Glerhallavik beach and seal watching

Seals following us down through the sea channels

We were back in the hot pool early morning before packing. Jack and I took a boulder hop along the coast line to a tiny beach of Glerhallavik only accessible at low tide. The beach is famed for its translucent and green flecked stones that are forbidden to be removed.....you have to look but when you start to see them you see nothing else, beautifully polished by the waves.....a scramble but well worth it.

We drove further west calling in at the remote church of Pingeyrar with a very different blue ceiling of a 1000 gold stars. We had decided on making our way out to the west coast, another 140 Km,  to try and camp by an area that had seals and as we were talking about it we passed a sign to Hvammstangi with a sign to a seal museum. We took the detour and spent a good hour there. We asked if there was a place nearby to go and camp near the seals and he pointed us to the gravel road out of town. 20 Km up the road and we arrived at a perfect camping spot with an honesty box right by the sea

Sunset from our kayak

The sun was out and in the shelter of the van it was properly warm.

The seals were camped out on the rocks just off shore and they had put up a small hide with some binoculars in that we wandered down to, again dodging the acrtic terns as they dive bombed us.

At 11 pm Kate, Jack and I took the kayak out to watch the sun go down and get really close to the seals.

Charlie chilling out with I-pad in his den at the back of the van

It was cold but very special. As we approached the seals slid into the sea only to pop up a few seconds later to watch what we were doing. They would loiter for a few seconds then simultaneously dive to resurface again.

We stayed outside until 1 am in the twilight waiting for the sun to come up but the cloud started to form on the horizon so we bailed and retired to bed

seals going down under

Day 76   More seals and Reykjavik does not help us with our quest for camping gas

Before everyone was up, Susan and I took the Kayak out again in the morning on a very still and clear morning.

We continued our journey south westwards to Reykjavik and as we did we lost the sun and the wind picked up.

A garage directed us to the national gas distributors but it soon became clear that there was no way in which we were going to be able to fill or exchange our bottle.

We looked at the crowded campsite in the city and all wanted to move on back into the country however for once somewhere to camp proved not so easy....we tried a couple of wild places to camp, a campsite where the owner wasn't back for an hour and a campsite infested with flies before we found a good one in Selfoss.

Kate and Jack cooked and we played cards in the van until late...tomorrow we go to a wooden lodge with a hot tub for 4 nights and after a packed week we are all looking forward to some space, some beds and time to chill out.

Day 75 Reykjadiskur (I)  to Hvammstangi ( I)          145 Km       Total    10894 Km

Day 76 Hvammstangi (I) to Selfoss ( I)                     351 Km      Total       11245 Km

Day 74 Herring fishing and a late night in a geothermal pool

Siglufjordur - in the herring boom times

Siglufjordur was one of the places I read about before we came to Iceland and was always going to get a visit - as is the lagoon full of icebergs from the Bond film ( one for next week :-) )

It is a really fascinating place - no road at all until 1940 and then the mountain road was only accessible during the summer. In 1967 they built a tunnel through the coast cliff side to gain all year road access but until then everyone came and went by sea even though the town was the Herring capital of Iceland.

Captain Katie

Herring boat in the museum

The herring disappeared in the late 60's after many 'goldrush' years where tens of thousands came to find work. Up to then the town had 20+ salting factories, Norwegian boats filling the fjord and pier after pier where they either gutted and packed the herring in barrels or processed the fish into fishmeal.

There was no active objection to a visit but no real enthusiasm for a trip to the Herring Era museum but when we got there how that changed ! After the herring left, the town depopulated and went through depression; in the late 80's a group of locals got together to preserve a few key buildings and put the museum together.

Jack bunked up

Jack - the Herring girl 

They let you crawl all over a herring boat - down into the engine room, sleeping area, kitchen etc  -  its exactly as they left it with the cupboards still with 1960 food packets in; the ladders aren't attached and it is a health and safety death trap but the kids couldn't get enough of it...nor me.

The Salting factories all had rooms for the 'Herring Girls' on the top floors of the buildings, 8 to a room, and again they were exactly as left, even with graffitti by their bunks

So we emerged some 2 hours later, posed as 'Herring Girls' in action and went for our first meal out in Iceland....an interesting buffet, a 16" pizza and burger.

In 2010 they opened a 6km plus another 4km tunnel to connect the town of Siglufjordur to the east fjord. Herrings may have gone but the town is booming again.

The deal was that I planned the morning and Katie planned the afternoon. We left and headed further west on another stunning drive.

Katie had looked at the map and the 2004 Rough Guide and had found a hot geothermal pool located at the end of a 19 km gravel road - the book said the road had been nearly washed away but checking in the local town then confirmed that the creaking van should get down it OK.

There was a lovely small campsite there when we got down the road with just a couple of tents on it.

Just by the site was 2 natural hot pools - one was a 'one minuter' as the temperature was absurdly hot, the larger one was perfect for lolling about and having a beer. The route to it was hazardous, arctic turns dive bombing us as we twirled our towels above our heads.

We even took a quick dip in the sea before jumping back in the hot pool again.......

Drangey

3 miles offshore is the island of Drangey - through binoculars the cliffs are white with guano and it is home to lots and lots of birds......if we had longer we would have taken a trip out there, save it for next time.

Backdrop to the campsite with Jack and Charlie on the trampoline

We were down at the hot pool again at 11 pm when we had the pools to ourselves. A Top day all round



Day 74 Siglufjordur (I) to Reykjadiskur (I)           125 Km       Total    10749 Km

Day 72 & 73 Boiling hot pools, lava fields, sulphur smells and volcanoes

Day 72 & 73 Boiling hot pools, lava, sulphur and volcanoes...... 2 wheel drive good, 4 wheel drive better

Day 72

 

Early morning, Kate and I walked along the beach beside a flat calm sea before everyone woke up and then we were packed and headed off to Myvatn lake and Krafla volcano which last erupted in the 1970’s.

More gravel roads for the van – the noise from the creaking front suspension is now intrusive at any speed less then 30 mph so it just feels better to keep the speed up and pretend everything is OK.

Boiling sulphur pools - my they smell

1970's lava flow

It was properly cold when we set off for a walk around the lava fields which are huge and mightily impressive. Sulphur and steam clouds all around then off through the twisted black lava fields – the rain started on the way back and with a headwind it was a route march back to the van. 

Viti Crater and the power plant behind

The collective appetite for another walk up to the Viti Crater (full of aquarmarine water)starting with wet clothes was low so I ran around before driving back down past the geothermal power station ( 60MW).

underground hot pool 

Poncho twins

Before we get to the village we make a short detour to a natural hot spring pool found right on a fault line – at 46 deg C it is now forbidden to use it as it is too warm but the reality is that it could be used but the tourist numbers are rising so rapidly they are having to put some controls in just to keep tourists safe.  On earlier walks there were multiple warnings not to stray from the paths after adventurous tourists have done so in the past and have found themselves up to their knees in boiling mud at 200 deg C – an unpleasant end indeed.

A wild camp is always followed by a campsite to as 2 nights away from hot water and showers is too much;  so after our night alone by the beach  we camp at a campsite right in the middle of a lava field above the lake. A good spot for people watching with all sorts of unique 4 by 4’s to ogle at, the usual smattering of BMW GS 120’s ( The Ewan McGregor/Charlie Boardman one form ‘long way down/round), a rogue Frenchman in a rally Citroen 2CV (with roll-cage) and lots and lots of backpackers from all over Europe.

Myvatn Lake - stupendous

The area is one you could spend a whole week in. There is so much to see and it is clear that Iceland is really getting its tourism act together. We are using a 2004 ‘Iceland Rough Guide’ and even on day 3 of Iceland I am finding that each place we go to has changed in some way.....more paths, a new cafe, a new restaurant, a tourist info centre, a campsite, a new tunnel for a new road. Iceland is still expensive but not as it was 10 years ago when it was just ridiculous. Surprisingly petrol costs the same as it does in the UK but a load of bread is £3 and a pack of cheese needs a new mortgage. Most other foods are perhaps 30% to 50% more than they cost in the UK with Alcohol even more ( our multiple duty free wine and beer purchases have come in handy !) but all in all it is not the prohibitive place it was once made out to be. Tourism is clearly taking off and they have so much to show off  - it is akin to a massive Scotland but on a grander scale, with glaciers, waterfalls, volcanoes, hot springs, fjords, etc, etc....

I knew I would love it here and I do more than I could have imagined. If you have driven the 70 miles up the A82 from the top of Loch Lomond to Ballachulish ( just before Fort William) over Rannoch Moor and down through Glencoe then you will know that it is a route that you cannot drive without a smile on your face – a fast long open road with supreme views and stunning scenery. Iceland has that road, but there is less traffic on it and as it is such a big island there are probably 100’s of them or more, all magnificent, all supreme and all different in their own way.

Day 73

Hverfjall Crater

Next morning we all have hot sulphurous showers ( communal......nice) before packing up and driving just a few Km before taking a 2 hour walk up and around the full top of an almost perfect shaped 1 Km diameter circular volcano caldera.

Selfie time

normal

not so normal

We do our final stop off at some ‘pseudo craters’ which are just like mini versions of what we had just walked around; only 50m across they are formed from a steam explosion when the area was volcanically active.

We head off further westwards and call in at Akuyeri which is the 2^nd largest town in Iceland on a quest to get some camping gas. There is no real way of knowing how much gas we have left and as we have not filled up since Albania, back in early June, then I know we must be close to running out. We have not seen any LPG for sale in Iceland to date and after asking at a garage as to where we can get a cylinder exchange or fill up the options looks unlikely. Our cyclinder is, and I quote, ‘a weird size’ and therefore an exchange is not going to happen, in addition all filling of gas bottles and selling of LPG to cars was stopped a few years ago after an accident. I try 3 different garages and they all advise that I can only get it filled in the one place in Reykjavik.......we will be passing through in days so hopefully it will last out until then.

the river was noisier than expected

We start to look for a wild camping area and find one late on up a track a couple of Km outside of Siglufjordjur, a mecca to Herring fishing back in its heyday. I almost get the van stuck down a too steep hill which requires Katie, Jack and Susan to help push the van out with wheels spinning and clutch burning...we were really lucky we didn't get it stuck.

C preparing salmon for the BBQ

Add caption

We BBQ again and later although it's chilly we wrap up warm and play cards outside until midnight....

Tomorrow we are off to the 'Herring Museum' in the small town.....K, S and J's excitement is barely contained !

Day 72 Husavik (I) to Lake Myvatn ( I)          98 Km      Total  10434 Km

Day 73 Lake Myvatn( I) to Siglufjordur (I)   190 Km     Total  10624 Km