“If you don’t like the weather in Iceland, just wait five minutes”. Sunday 9^th January 2017
What a great saying! Given to us by an Icelander! And how true! We have certainly learnt that in these few days! For example, the Guide book says “Seljalandsfoss is one of the best-known waterfalls in Iceland. It is 65 metres high and possible to walk behind the waterfall so bring a raincoat as you will get wet from the drizzle..”. Drizzle??? Drizzle?? How about Wet!

Stepping out of the car on a rainy morning, just as the sun was rising (now remember the sun does not rise til 10am this day) …to a wet mess. Raincoats parkers and fully enclosed bodies with hopefully, waterproof clothing. Off we went to view this waterfall. Yes, I must agree with the guidebook, it was striking!

Standing in front of this remarkable huge water fountain in the pouring rain, we espy other travellers walking behind the waterfall. So of course, off we went! Up the steps, rain dripping off each leg as I climbed the wooden staircase at the side of the waterfall…. through the spray (more like a blast) of water from this natural cascade. Reaching the top of the stairs, I took one look at the wet dirt muddy slippery ‘track’ we were to walk on behind the waterfall and reversed myself without any hesitation at all, back down the stairs. No forward motion for me! Not for this little black duck!

Of course, Marc went behind the waterfall.
I stood below on a bridge, watching the water fall in front of me from a safe distance while the deluge of the skies flooded me with its water.
I am really not sure who was the sillier.

Two wet sodden bodies headed back to the car.
Wet. Dripping. Frozen.
 “so bring a raincoat as you will get wet from the drizzle”.
Really? DRIZZLE??

But venturing on in our hire car with time to warm up, we made our way to Skogafoss. The guidebook said “Skógafoss is one of the biggest waterfalls in Iceland, with a drop of 60 metres and a width of 25 metres, and you can walk right up to, but be prepared to be drenched.”Ha ha ha – didn’t happen! The rain had stopped and I kept my distance this time!

We stood in front of this grand waterfall looking up! It was so high. Interestingly the birds were all flitting and flying into it and around it, so many of them. Breathtaking beauty. Again, hard to place into words. Now of course there is always an ‘up’ part in a waterfall…particularly when you are looking up at it…you know that somewhere in this natural environment there will be steps to get you to ‘look down’ at it…
Guess what- we found the steps!

Sure enough, there are steps leading up to an observation platform above Skógafoss, and there are 527 steps all in all- the same distance to the top of St Pauls Cathedral in London! (we did that too!)
Marc took off with a run…but slow and steady here made her way slowly up this imposing structure, no winding my way, but basically going straight up with a few small turns as you neared the top! I commenced the climb all rugged up, face covered (as the wind was quite bitter) but by the time I reached the 1^st quarter, I had unbuttoned my coat, hat off, gloves off to continue to climb.

Yes I was breathing heavy.
Yes I had to go down again!
Yes it was worth it.
What was funny was watching the faces of the people coming up as they were breathing heavy with their faced framing a colour of red from the exertion-
“been there, done that! “But yes, it was inspiring and beautiful and certainly worth the stop, the climb and the experience.

Onto Dyrhólaey which is a small peninsula but a former island. The weather had changed to wind only and so we made our stop here. The place got its name from the massive arch that the sea has eroded from the headland. (The name literally means “door-hole”) Its 120 m high and you are able to walk the arch or the bridge if you are not afraid of heights. No I did not do it. Far too windy for me to even attempt it.  Apparently, when the sea is calm, big boats can sail through it. We viewed the endless black coastline and a huge black arch of lava reaching out into the sea. I am not sure we saw the correct one, but we observed another arch blow hole effect, took the obligatory photographs and headed back to the car.

The next part of our trip became a little boring as it was simply black basalt plains with no beginning and no end to them, stretched beside glorious mountains. Covered in green moss and black basalt, they continued alongside you in an infinity fashion. I know that sounds exciting, but once you saw it and it continued for long distances it became much of the same. Then suddenly as the humdrum of the journey starts to sets in, awakening your senses again are the glaciers! Not just one or two like New Zealand but many!

The brilliant colour blue of these glaciers and the size of them I just cannot explain. I was quite excited by these natural features and with the sun tinging its small amount of light on them, they shone a green-blue. They looked absolutely astounding! Glaciers apparently cover 11.1% of the land area of this country and I felt we were in at least 5%! Probably no, but they went on for kms!

And, at the end of this view was Jokulsarlon.

Jökulsárlón is one of Iceland’s natural crown jewels. The lagoon is formed naturally, from melted glacial water coming from the glacier and is getting bigger each year, as big blocks of ice crumble from the ever-decreasing glacier into the lagoon. And it is simply breathtaking!

Huge blocks of ice… chunks of ice, slabs of ice leisurely, unhurried, meandering gently floating in all their shapes and sizes on this glacial lagoon. Intermittent cracks of ice being heard as chunks break away from their parent to make their own way into this icy paradise.
I could not stop looking.

The small amount of sunlight created reflections on these ice creatures’ glistens in the limited sun, much like diamonds as we made our way along the water’s edge. Watching them slowly drift and collide gently, was breathtaking! Simply indescribable.

Intense
Dramatic
Powerful
Glorious
Peaceful