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