Back to the geysers and Gulfoss

This really was our last full day in Iceland and, at the end of our journey we would arrive at the geysers.

There being no breakfast where we stayed, we soon found ourselves ready to leave the harbour area and drive the 30km to the service station where there would be the usual array of wraps, sandwiches, cakes and chocolate with coffee and other drinks on hand, too. Service stations are much smaller than our motorway stops in the UK: they also seem much cleaner and much less hassle.

We were definitely on our way home. But that didn’t prevent us from stopping whenever a phot app seemed available – and I confess to sometimes even taking shots through the windscreen! After all, I wasn’t driving!

Although the total whiteness of the snowy days had left us and we were now enjoying the sunshine, there were still times when it was the snow that caught they eye and really ‘made’ the image as in this roadside view of the pylons disappearing into the clouds.

Turning around, it was the spot of rock and the flowing water of a really small (by Icelandic standards) waterfall that caught my eye – starkly different from the white land around it.

And then, just occasionally, there were the reflections. We’d seen very few of those because of the weather, but the blue sky on this journey had us appreciating them again.

And then there were the oddities.

I loved this view across the lava field to the mountains but who’d have guessed what the road we were on was leading to:

I’m not sure I’d fancy playing golf here!! And neither does anyone else: the actual course is a drive away still. But the sign added some humour to our long journey.

Although we had stopped briefly at a Thingvellir viewpoint on our first day out of Reykjavik, we did so again in today’s different weather.

Thingvellir National Park is home to the oldest still operating Parliament in the world and was founded in the year 930 A.D.. It is also world-famous for its geology because here you can see the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates grinding against each other as they slowly move apart.

The plates are in constant motion and drift apart about 2 cm per year. 

Our destination for the day was Geysir. This was one of the most luxurious hotels we stayed in as well as being really photogenic and challenging photographically. My ambition was to capture the ‘bubble’ which forms before the eruption.

This was one of the smaller eruptions: quite often you can see onlookers run as they fear being showered with hot water but it illustrates the sequence of events.

It’s easy to spend time looking out for reactions from onlookers, too. I stood by one couple who were really taken aback when there was a sudden eruption: not at all what they’d expected!

For us, it was a sociable evening in the hotel with a lovely relaxed meal and some sharing of images before packing and getting organised for one of our few early starts. We were to visit Gulfoss waterfall before breakfast.

I had hoped for sunshine – or at least a good morning sky – but we woke to drizzle.

This was still a huge improvement on my last visit!

Maybe a bit TOO close to the edge when there are notices warning of crumbling cliffs!

And so it was that my second visit to Iceland in less than a year moved into its final few hours: a thoroughly good breakfast and a drive to Keflavik to board the flight home.

Will I be back? Maybe…