Close to the Edge - "Close to the edge down by the river"I'd arranged an early morning call for 8am so that would give us 1/2 an hour to get ready prior to being picked up for the Golden Circle tour. The hotel reception duly called me at 8 & again at 1 minute past saying our coach driver was here & that he was going to leave without us if we didn't get up now! I rang TK to give him the good news, both of us got ready in 1 minute & managed to get on the coach in time, just. The driver took us into the town & dropped us off at the bus station so we could get a bigger coach! Why didn't the tour company just send the bigger coach in the first place. Due to our power-drinking session yesterday we were incredibly hungover & thirsty, particularly TK who looked like an extra from Dawn of the Dead. I hot-footed it to a shop & bought smoothies & fizzy pop to ease our collective hangovers before getting back on the coach.
We left Rejkyavik & made our way out into the countryside, TK was shattered & spent the journey napping whilst i had enjoyed the snow-capped scenery. As we travelled further from Rejkyavik the number of houses lessened but there were still the odd isolated property in the middle of a large field somewhere. I could handle that sort of life, nice & quiet, no litter & little traffic passing my house. After about 40 minutes we reached our first destination, Thingvellir.
Thingvellir is the site where the Icelandic parliament was started in 930AD, making it the oldest parliament in the world. We got off the coach & it was like we were on top of the world, I could see for miles & all of it covered in snow, rivers, lakes, mountains, trees, you name it was here. All in all a fantastic view. Our guide Sylka pointed out a route we had to take to meet the coach which had left & would be waiting us about a mile away. We began our walk & had to be careful as the floor was covered in ice & we were going downhill. After about 10 minutes of shuffling along using baby steps we made it to the bottom, we had a couple of small bridges to cross & as we did noticed the water under these bridges was clear blue, there were lots of coins in the bottom so presumably this was a massive wishing well. As we made our way onto the coach we saw a couple of 4X4 vehicles that another tour group were using, the tyres on these things were about twice as big as a regular 4X4 & the wing mirrors were the size of portable tv screens, clearly these vehicles would be used to negotiate some rough terrain. The coach left & we began the hour long drive to our next destination, the Golden Waterfall at Gulfoss.
We arrived at Gulfoss & upon leaving the coach could see the magnificent site of the Golden Waterfall. The waterfall is actually 2 falls in one that flow at almost a right angle to each other. The higher fall is about 15 metres high & the lower one much bigger, i believe it falls for nearly 70 metres but due to the way the land lies it's not possible to see exactly how far down it goes. This was the perfect photo opportunity so i took loads, as in Thingvellir this area was covered in snow & the waterfall & surrounding landscape was beautiful. We climbed up some steps to a gift shop & cafeteria where we had some sandwiches & soup made from lamb & vegetables which was very nice indeed. After this rest we went back to the waterfall but this time walked above it & thes view was even better, we were much closer to the cascading spray & ice covered rocks, another perfect photo opportunity. There was a large cliff that edged out above the waterfall & we were able to get to the edge & have a look over it was an excellent experience. Gulfoss is one of the best places i have ever been to and the waterfalls are beautiful, i hope to go back there one day.
Our next stop was the town of Geysir where we saw you've guessed it Geysirs, i can't explain the science behind his but basically the main active Geysir called "Strokkur" spits hot water out of the ground to a height of about 40 feet every 7 or 8 minutes. How can hot water be spewed out of the ground in a such a cold place, it's impossible.
After this we made our way to a church at Skalholt, this was a very quiet place next to a priests school. The church was serene & there was a cracking mosaic of Jesus on the back wall. I am told by Vlad the Impaler there is a sight of interest to archaeologists nearby but then again this probably a load of horseshit.
On our way to the final stop of the day Sylka told us of some bizarre local ways, for example many Icelanders believe in elves or "hidden people" as they are known. It is thought these people live inside rocks & mountains, as we drove along i noticed that there were wooden painted doors that had been attached to large rocks, clearly added by the locals to help aid the hidden people get in & out of their homes. Sylka mentioned that there was a plan to build a new road in the area & that a large rock blocked the proposed route. It was planned to move the rock but locals objected saying that this shouldn't be allowed to happen as the hidden people would have nowhere to live. As a result the road was built around the rock which stayed where it was, apparently he noise of the traffic was so loud the hidden people moved out!
Our last stop of the day was at a hydro-electric power station, a bizarre way to end the tour but if you are interested in that sort of thing it would probably fascinate you. Anyway we arrived back at the Cabin later in the early evening suitably amazed by the fantastic sights & natural beauty we had seen that day.
Later that night we went out into town to Bjarni Fel for, burger & chips & more drinks. Tim & Sean joined us later & told us about their visit to the Blue Lagoon where they had bumped into American crackpot/actress Lindsay Lohan. So after many beers & shots later we said our goodbyes & made our way back to the cabin tired & drunk after a very long day. Northern lights tomorrow!
Things i learned today:
1 - If you kill an arctic fox you can hand it to the government/council & receive a reward of around 7,000 Icelandic Kroner
2 - There are no McDonalds "restaurants" in Iceland, apparently the cost of getting the food/materials to Iceland is too great.
