Day Six
Firstly I think we have to address the fact that the title of our blog entry is Iceland Day Sex. A few things to note: this is still a travel blog, there will be no mention of sex, and probably most importantly the Icelandic word for six is sex – awkward. Ok glad we cleared that up, parents you can now read on freely.
We woke up on day six wondering if the previous night was a dream. Did we really see the Northern Lights? Was that magical light show for real? Did the camera really smash into the ground? Luckily the pure joy at witnessing one of the best natural wonders in the world was enough to trump the sadness over the camera. After all it would have been a way, way worse situation if the camera had broken and we hadn’t have seen the Northern Lights. As day six was our last day in Iceland we allowed ourselves a lazy start with a bit of a sleep in, a longer breakfast and a morning walk around the beautiful fields surrounding our log cabin.
Our last accommodation spot was not too far away from our log cabin which meant a day of little driving. This short drive was very much welcomed by us both but more so Drew as all those kilometres had started to take a toll. We also had ticked off most of the sites we had listed down as must sees in Iceland and only had two stops to make that morning before we headed to the town of Hveragerði.
Our first stop was the last waterfall we would see in Iceland the gigantic Skógafoss that has a width of 25 metres and drop of 60. We think during our time in Iceland we nearly managed to visit a waterfall a day, not a bad strike rate. As our accommodation was only about 10 minutes down the road from this famous site we were able to get there early enough to beat all the tourist buses and thus had the opportunity to take beautiful shots of the waterfall completely free of people. We were also lucky enough to witness the major photographic draw card of the waterfall- the rainbow that appears on the cliffs beside Skógafoss when there is enough water flowing and the sun is shining. Despite the brutal winds and freezing temperatures we had been very lucky with certain elements of the weather during our time in Iceland with more sun than rain on most of our days. After taking many photos at the foot of the waterfall we headed up the steep path beside Skógafoss which gave us the opportunity to view the falls from the top down and also walk through the valley it originates from.
Our next major stop was the Reynishverfi black volcanic ash beach and its famous basalt creations. At one end of the beach you have an extraordinary cliff made up of basalt columns of all shapes and sizes and then out to sea you have the basalt sea stacks (Reynisdranger), which, according to Icelandic legend, are the remains of two trolls and a ship that were heading to shore but became frozen when sunlight broke. We loved the Reynishverfi beach and spent about an hour here taking photos with our constant Iceland travel companion the gale force wind. Another memorable moment of our beach trip was watching a lady kill herself with laughter as she stood taking a photo of her male companion on the basalt column cliff who unbeknown to him was about to become absolutely soaked by a huge wave – good relationship there.
Before starting our journey towards Hveragerði we stopped at a few places just outside Vík to take photos of some amazing houses that had been built into the Icelandic mountains and also some cheeky horses in Barns – we love the Icelandic horses.
Our final stop in Iceland: Hveragerði is a major geothermal area famous for the huge number of naturally occurring hot springs that can seen steaming from just about any vantage point in town. It was due to the above description that we decided to splurge slightly for our last night’s accommodation in Hveragerði and stay in a hotel that had hot spring “hot pots” dotted along the riverbank. Upon arriving at our hotel we decided that before we jumped into the hot pots we better go for a walk along one of the many hiking trails and so we choose a shortish path that led us over the Varmá river and up into the mountains past the major geothermal areas and hot springs. We only lasted about 30 minutes before we quickly bolted back to our hotel to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the hot spring tubs – the perfect end to our crazy Iceland adventure.
Day Six Night Seven
Since it was our last night we treated ourselves to a dinner at the on site restaurant that had, amongst its numerous culinary delights, mouth-watering delicious bread that had been cooked in an ancient hot spring beside the hotel – mmm. Despite our amazing night of viewing the Northern Lights the night before we decided that if the night was clear we would head out into the mountains to see if we would be lucky enough to view them again- how greedy of us. It turned out that it was extremely lucky that we had seen them the night before as night seven was the worst night of weather we had had in Iceland to date – cloudy and pelting rain which equalled no chance of seeing the Northern Lights. With that taken care of we spent the night packing and watching another form of light show (lightning) lighting up the Hveragerði valleys and mountains.
Thank you Iceland for giving us the best, never to be beaten, experience of a lifetime. This is a week we will never forget… ever.
Top 5 Observations of Iceland
1. In one word WINDY!!!!!!! And an extension of that were the extreme variants of weather we experienced every day
2. The most incredible varying landscapes that made us feel as though we were on another planet
3. Massive waterfalls…everywhere!
4. The local inhabitants were all so lovely from the people to those gorgeous Icelandic horses
5. The best place to experience the Northern Lights!! If you are lucky enough of course…
Backpack Complaints
Poor old Albert didn’t even make the cut for Iceland with his mate Ronald taking over mule duties and carrying all luggage for the trip – well done Ronald and bad luck Albert.
Em:
0 (best trip of my life without Albert, no complaints here)
Drew: 0
Espresso Count
We couldn’t afford coffee in Iceland!
Em: 0
Drew: 0
Photo Count
Em: 888
Drew: 1418
This featured blog entry was written by andrewemma from the blog Let's Go Get Lost.
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Did you know that half of the world's puffin population breeds in Iceland? Sofie Couwenbergh has written a great blog post on the best places to see puffins in Iceland full of great photos and tips on catching a glimpse of these fascinating birds
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