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