Reykjavik, Iceland

For the second Bank Holiday in August we decided to visit Iceland. It's somewhere that we wouldn't normally visit from Australia but as we are so close in the UK it seemed like a good place to go. Iceland has a population of around 330,000 people, and even though 80% live in Reykjavik, it's very uncrowded and also feels really clean and safe.

I was really keen to see the Puffin birds that nest on an island off the coast of Reykjavik but quickly found out that they leave on or around the 20th of August - about 2 days earlier - and, being the prompt birds that they apparently are, were gone when we were there. We did, however, go on a whale watching tour where we saw quite a few minke whales despite the lack of photographic evidence.

Yes, this is Iceland at the end of summer:


On Sunday, we did a fantastic day tour outside of Reykjavik which includes the popular trip around the 'golden circle' and a visit to a glacier for a spot of snow mobiling. We had an early pick up from our hotel in a massive 4WD and taken straight to a national park. What I didn't realise was that the Iceland is one of two places (the other, I think, is Kenya but don't quote me on that) where tectonic plates are visible from land. You can stand right next to the North American plate which rises jaggedly from the earth.

The monster truck:


North American tectonic plate:


Standing on the flat bit (that's the technical term) between the North American plate and the Eurasian tectonic plate, which is also where the first ever democratic parliament in the world (yes, take note America) met:


Eurasian plate - the black line in the side of the hill:


Next stop, a waterfall that is apparently 3m higher than the Niagra falls. Not having been to Niagra, I don't know how they compare, but these falls were spectacular, noisy and you can get very close to them.



One of the highlights was the trip to the glacier. This is where the monster truck comes into it's own as it basically makes its way over rocks which don't even vaguely resemble a road and onto the glacier itself. Then we all jumped onto snow mobiles and after being lectured over the dangers of not following the guide in front or you could slip into a crevass and never be seen again, we ventured several kilometers onto the ice. I imagine in winter it would be even more spectacular and probably a bit less bumpy but it was great fun.

Nick in the CHiPs-on-ice production:


This picture is of me on the skidoo at the halfway point and I'm in front of a wierd black cone which is actually a massive cone of ice. It formed after one of the volcanic erruptions years ago - a layer of volcanic ash covers it prevents the sun from melting the ice. It's rock hard and there are lots of them dotted all over the glacier, although this one is the biggest we saw.


The final stopping place was to see the geysers (and no, not the English sort) - the one in the photo below errupts every 15 minutes. It's around 100 degrees celsius and reaches about 30m high. It was quite mesmerising.


We finished off the day with Nick's favourite meal at Iceland Fish & Chips - an organic fish and chip restaurant. According to the expert, this rates as one of the best he's had!


On Monday, we stopped at the Blue Lagoon for a couple of hours on our way back to the airport. It's a geothermal lagoon, between the tectonic plates and surrounded by lava from 1226. The temperature of the water gets up to 40 degrees celsius and some parts of the water are exceptionally hot. After applying the silca face mask in the Lagoon and about half an hour mooching around I felt really relaxed.