tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34963180433078452742024-03-08T18:54:14.589+00:00Ginny and Colin in IcelandWe went to Iceland for seven days at the end of November to the beginning of December 2014. We stopped at the Golden Circle Apartments and visited places in the area and a little further afield. The weather was pretty grey most days but we saw a bit of sunshine occasionally. I took a few photographs and I will work on them and post a few every now and then.ColinWhiteleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17121556504248850177noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496318043307845274.post-13708412024921886832014-12-16T11:29:00.000+00:002014-12-16T11:29:40.555+00:00Appendix 4 - GulfossI took a lot of photographs at Gulfoss so it's taken a while to reduce the number for the post down to six examples. I've tried to use different ones to the original post but I have reprocessed all the pictures so even where I have duplicated the choice they should look a bit different. This first photo was taken from high above and is of the top falls then looking up river across the countryside.<br />
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Again from high up here are both parts of the falls and into the distance.<br />
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Taken from a little further right and using a wider angle you may be able to make out the path down to the falls on the left side and also a couple of people at the top viewing area also on the left.<br />
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The path had been closed for safety reasons but everyone was ignoring that and going down the path anyway. It was a bit slippy but easily navigable. This shot was taken from the path and looking down into the canyon below the lower falls.<br />
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This next shot is a close up from the top falls where there is a small pool below a minor part of the falls.<br />
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Below the pool from the previous picture there is this area of rapids before the water makes the first big drop of the falls.<br />
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There is a viewing platform above the path down to the falls where I took the wide shot of the top falls and most of the bottom falls. Looking down at the people below gives a better idea about the size of the falls. It's very impressive and very loud. <br />
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<br />ColinWhiteleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17121556504248850177noreply@blogger.com0Gullfoss, Iceland64.326111 -20.12111099999992844.763212499999995 -61.429704999999927 83.8890095 21.187483000000071tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496318043307845274.post-13238938978392601612014-12-07T22:24:00.000+00:002014-12-10T22:51:29.045+00:00Appendix 3 - GeysirWhen you enter the Geysir area there is the small signs warning of the danger of hot water in the pools which are up to 100 degrees centigrade. Then there is the big sign which was in the original post for <a href="http://ginnyandcolininiceland.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/day-2-geysir-and-gulfoss.html" target="_blank">day 2</a> with Ginny looking very worried about the message.<br />
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In the first picture you can see in the distance what looks like a small hut with steam shooting out of the top and front so here's a closer picture of it. I assume this is where the locals are collecting some of the heat to keep their building warm. It was something that we noticed very quickly that all of the buildings in Iceland seem to be very warm inside.<br />
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Here's a little pool or water which is bubbling away merrily.<br />
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This is the pool which is next to the blue pool from the original post. It's quite shallow at the edges but appears to have a large hole going down in the centre. There have been lots of coins thrown into this pool even though the signs around here request that people don't throw coins into them.<br />
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We climbed up to a viewpoint above the site where we could look down onto the site and the landscape beyond. It doesn't look it in the photograph but it was quite a steep climb up to here.<br />
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At the viewpoint was this post which was covered in fresh snow when we first arrived. Ginny and I cleared off the snow to reveal lines pointing to the individual geysers and other landmarks and towns on the island including Gulfoss which is nearby.<br />
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On the way back down the hill I took this photo with the two people half way down and looking toward the geyser which had just erupted.<br />
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The geyser which is currently erupting is actually called Strokkur and the original geyser is no longer erupting. Here is a photo of the original which is now just a pool of hot water but which had been much bigger than the current one.<br />
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In the next post I'll include some more photos from Gulfoss.<br />
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<br />ColinWhiteleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17121556504248850177noreply@blogger.com0Geysir, Iceland64.3143248 -20.30110360000003344.751405799999993 -61.609697600000032 83.8772438 21.007490399999966tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496318043307845274.post-72740273120815483552014-12-05T21:29:00.001+00:002014-12-06T21:12:01.980+00:00Appendix 2 - Yet more from ReykjavikAs I was looking through the Reykjavik pictures I found a few that I had overlooked because in their raw form they looked very dark and lacking interest. However when I processed them I discovered that they weren't that bad after all. The first five were ones taken out of the windows in the tower of the Hallgrimskirkja Church. This first one is looking inland a bit with the mountains in distance.<br />
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The second photo is towards the harbour.<br />
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This shot is straight across bay. If you look closely the Sun Voyager statue is below the crane in the centre of the photo.<br />
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In this next shot the sun was lighting up the mountain below the clouds and creating golden reflections across the water in the bay.<br />
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Looking across to the South we can see the Pearl in the centre of the photo.<br />
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This final shot was taken from down near the waterfront and shows the amazing low clouds bubbling over the mountains across the bay.<br />
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More soon, probably starting with Geysir.</div>
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ColinWhiteleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17121556504248850177noreply@blogger.com0Reykjavik, Iceland64.133333 -21.93333299999994864.022489 -22.256056499999946 64.244177 -21.610609499999949tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496318043307845274.post-31583131167464211142014-12-04T22:38:00.000+00:002014-12-04T22:38:34.308+00:00Appendix 1 - More of ReykjavikBack from Iceland and I'm going through the thousand plus photos and spending a bit more time on processing them now I have more time available. In the appendices part of blog I am just going to include ones not appearing previously although I will probably reprocess most of the photos from the original blog too and put the best ones on my website. There may be more appendices than original posts depending on how it goes but in this first one I am using photos from the first day in Reykjavik.<br />
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I'll start with a photo of Hallgrimskirkja Church because it is such an iconic piece of architecture. For this photo I chose an angle looking across the front face of the building which I haven't seen much on thee internet before but I think it works quite well. To be honest it's hard to find and uninteresting angle to look at this building, I love the simplicity and the sweeping blockiness of the design.<br />
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I also made this photograph because the rear of the church doesn't appear much on the internet. That is a shame because I think the the curves of the almost mosque-like rear makes a strange contrast to the angularity of the rest of the church.<br />
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The inside of the church is just as stark and grey as the outside. There are very few statues or paintings around the walls and aisles within the church. The one striking item in the church is the array of organ pipes above the entrance to the church. While we were there there was a young lady playing the organ and filling the church with beautiful music.<br />
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We took the lift up the tower of the church which let us out in the area behind the clocks. Each one had a different set of pictures around but all of them was damaged or had words scraped into it. This one was the least damaged. It was quite interesting to see the electric clockwork in the centre. All very different to the clocks in the big churches and cathedrals in England.<br />
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From the clock hall was a few flights of stairs up to the level where there were windows on all sides of the tower. Out of the windows were some great views over the city and across the bay to the mountains. Here's a photo across the bay with the mountains lit up by the early evening (1:30 pm) sun and the low clouds obscuring the peaks.<br />
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After leaving the church we made our way back down to the harbour where we had parked the car. I was interested in seeing the Imagine Peace Tower which is on an island in the bay but during the day there's not much to see from the city because it isn't lit up. We had planned to return to Reykjavik in the evening one day to see it. What we did find next to the harbour was the Sun Voyager statue which is very photogenic, so I took loads of photos from lots of different angles.<br />
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After taking a portrait photograph I just have to make a landscape one from a slightly different angle.<br />
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One more after undergoing a black and white processing.<br />
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In the original blog entry I included a photo including this statue but from a distance so I felt it was OK to use this one in the appendices.<br />
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I'll continue to work through processing more of my photos and make another post in a few days.</div>
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ColinWhiteleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17121556504248850177noreply@blogger.com0Reykjavik, Iceland64.133333 -21.93333299999994864.022489 -22.256056499999946 64.244177 -21.610609499999949tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496318043307845274.post-925745822841075472014-12-02T11:05:00.000+00:002014-12-04T15:43:04.346+00:00Day 7 - A last look aroundOur last full day in Iceland and following the wet and windy evening it had snowed overnight. Here's a shot from the rear door of our apartment towards the other two apartment blocks.<br />
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We decided to revisit Thingvellir to see how it looked with a covering of snow and also stop a few places on the way there and back to have a look around. Just outside Laugarvatn there is a picnic area which we have driven past a few times so we decided to stop here first. In one direction is a view over the lake at Laugarvatn and the other way is this view towards the national park.<br />
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A little further there is a turn off onto the original road from Thingvellir to Laugarvatn which is much more windy and heads more into the mountains to the North. The road was full of potholes and had quite a rough surface but it did mean there was plenty of grip for Vinnys' stud covered tyres. Here's a view along the towards the mountains with Vinnys' tracks through the ice filled puddle.<br />
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Here's another shot showing the cloud covering the higher parts of the mountain.<br />
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Further along we had a good view of the mountains in the national park with the yellow sun lighting up the clouds above the mountains.<br />
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Near the end of the old road it turned into a very rough track which was full of deep holes and a thick layer of snow. Poor Vinny bumped his underside on the ground a couple of times but easily managed to get us back onto the new road where we continued towards Thingvellir. When we reached the edge of the national park there was a parking place at the edge of the road where I took this photo across Thingvellir lake to the mountains in the distance.<br />
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From the same place this is the main road towards Reykjavik which is quite narrow and winding and was covered in snow and ice.<br />
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When we reached the car park we walked up the path towards to upper waterfall and passed this little patch of conifers which looked lovely with the sprinkling of snow on them.<br />
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Soon after we reached the waterfall the sun broke through the clouds to light up the waterfall and the rock face around it. Some of the water had a layer of ice on it an the rope fence next to the waterfall had a line of little icicles shining in the sun.<br />
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Here's a shot looking down the canyon with the water rushing passed the snow covered rocks.<br />
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Here's a fisheye view of the waterfall from the edge of the decking. I love the reflection of the snow and rocks in the water between us and the waterfall. The sky looked really nice and blue in this direction but there was still quite a lot of thick black cloud behind us which kept giving us snow showers as we walked about. This patch of sun went after a few minutes so I took as many shots as I could in the time it was here.<br />
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Here's a shot of the wooden decking with a fresh layer of snow on it. It looks so different to when we were here the other day.<br />
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We were going to head back towards the church to get some new shots of it with snow on and around it. On the way I stopped to take this shot across to the mountains where you can see low cloud drifting around and obscuring some of the lower hills.<br />
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As we headed towards the church some big black clouds came over and from a distance I just managed to get this shot with the orange sky behind the church before it went almost completely dark and started to snow hard.<br />
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We decided against walking all the way to the church because it looked like it was going to snow for a while so we headed back to the car park instead. We set off to go back to the apartment an we took the lakeside road which joins up with the main road towards Laugarvatn. On the way we stopped near the lake and I took a few shots including this one.<br />
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When we got back to the apartment we popped down to the Fontana Spa for a late lunch and a dip in the hot pools and steam rooms. Around the pools there was snow on the ground and the rocks so it did feel strange sitting in the hot water and it was very cold when moving from place to place. At one point it started to snow quite hard and we both had a layer of very white snow on our hair.<br />
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It snowed quite a bit all through the night and we had to set off to the airport about 8am the next day to go to the airport. It was a long dark drive in the snow and ice but we made it home safely. Over the next few days I will be processing more of my photos and will probably post some more different ones.ColinWhiteleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17121556504248850177noreply@blogger.com0Thingvellir, Iceland64.257271 -21.14429100000006744.6943545 -62.452885000000066 83.8201875 20.164302999999933tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496318043307845274.post-58173171246566699892014-12-01T11:02:00.000+00:002014-12-04T15:31:59.694+00:00Day 6 - Looking for Hekla<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The weather has been none to great today, very windy and quite wet. We decided to have a drive around and see if we could see the Hekla volcano from route 26. I plotted a round trip where we went down to route 32 (Þjórsárdalsvegur) going up the valley and then up to meet the 26 (Landvegur) to go back down the valley to route 1 and pass Hekla about 10 km to the South. On the way we were going to look out for places to stop which might be interesting and worth taking a few pictures. </div>
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Our first stop was this ancient sheep pen which was a large oval shape in the centre and separate pens all the way around. The separators had paths on then so you could walk around the top of the pens, presumably to keep control of the sheep.</div>
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Here's Ginny in a pathway between the pens as I was walking around the top.<br />
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Next to the sheep pen was a pile of rocks with a plate on it which we couldn't understand, but it made a nice foreground subject to the odd shaped hill behind.<br />
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A little further along the road was a sign which took us up a road to a car park but no explanation for why except there was a vantage point to see the water in the valley below.<br />
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A few miles further down we found one of the sites we were looking for at Þjóðveldisbærinn. Unfortunately we had missed the waterfall at Hjálparfoss, but we have seen quite a lot of waterfalls already this holiday. Þjóðveldisbærinn is a recreation of an old village using some of the traditional building methods. Unfortunately it was closed but we had a wander about it anyway. This first shot is of the small building with the little waterfall in the background.<br />
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The second shot from here was around the back of the large building showing the two little extensions.<br />
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The last photo is of the whole site with the little waterfall between the two buildings. We has a short sharp shower of rain/hailstone while we were here and unfortunately on most of the other photos I took I had water droplets on the lens which I hadn't noticed at the time. I may be able to fix them later.<br />
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A little further along again was this patch of rocks where there were lots of them piled up. The main reason for the shot was to show the windmills but they have disappeared into the background a bit.<br />
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The next shot was from the same area but this time looking back to where we had driven from.<br />
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Not long after this we went past a small building on a stream which looked to contain electric water turbines which were being fed from the Sultartangalón reservoir higher up the valley. We were in a very large lava field, presumably from Hekla and every so ofter there were small pillars of lava sticking up. I took this photo with one of the pillars in the foreground and a small mountain in the background.<br />
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Soon after we met route 26 and turned to head back down the valley. The road was quite normal for the first few hundred yards but then turned into a very rough, ash covered track. The weather had become even windier and we were getting frequent bouts of heavy rain during the journey. Ginny told me that there was a route that was marked for 4x4 vehicles only a little way ahead and when we reached it there was a parking area which had boards showing the ordinary cars were not allowed to take this route. It was quite difficult to make out as a road but I'm sure it must have been there. While we were there I took this last photo of another pile of rocks with the little mountain behind.<br />
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Eventually the route 26 track turned back into a proper road as we approached civilisation and then we made our way back to the apartment. In the evening we went to the Linden Restaurant across the road from the apartment. We had a wonderful wild game meal which the chef brought to the table to tell us that he had prepared Rudolf, making everything from scratch. After the meal he came back out to talk to us and asked us if we'd ever had shark meat. We'd read about Hákarl so we were prepared to be given a sample of rotten shark and it was pretty awful. He did include a shot of some white spirit which made it slightly more palatable and because Ginny does drink alcohol I had a second shot. When we left the restaurant the weather had become even worse so the waitress let us out of the back door which was even closer to the apartment so we ran as fast as we could in the circumstances.<br />
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Last full day tomorrow, not sure what we're going to do, it depends on the weather and how we feel I guess.ColinWhiteleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17121556504248850177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496318043307845274.post-11922244243163808142014-11-29T22:11:00.001+00:002014-12-04T15:34:56.422+00:00Day 5 - Kerið and HveragerðiOur first stop today was the small and inactive volcano Kerið which now has water in the bottom. We were the first people in the car park but soon after we arrived a few more cars and a couple of buses turned up to join us. We started walking anti-clockwise around the rim of the volcano and most people took the same direction for some reason.<br />
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When we got further around the crater you can see some people on the rim on the other side if you look closely.<br />
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At this side there was a path down inside the crater where you can get up to the waters edge.<br />
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Here's a photo that Ginny took on here phone of me setting up my camera for a shot across the water in the volcano.<br />
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Here we are stood very close to the water before climbing back up the slope and moving on to the next destination.<br />
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At Hveragerði there is another extinct volcano which is very big and there is a lot of geothermal activity and earthquakes in the area. We first went to the information centre where there was a small exhibition which was mainly about the last earthquake in 2008. They were showing some security camera footage from inside the supermarket where an assistant had been stocking up the shelves of wine when the earthquake hit and emptied all of the stock onto the floor as he ran out of the door to safety. There was also a jagged line of glass flooring under which was crack in the earth which had opened during the earthquake.<br />
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We found instructions to drive through the town and up a track past the sports centre to the car park at the Hot River Cafe where we could start our walk up the volcano to the main area of geothermal activity. In this photo we had just started our journey following the black ash path up the mountain. Here and there were the clouds of steam rising from the hot springs which were feeding the small warm stream at the side of the track.<br />
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A little further up was a small pool of barely warm water which was very clear.<br />
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The path went up and up quite steeply in places and the information we had was that it was about 3km to our destination so we were getting quite high up. In the distance we could see the god rays lighting up the river which was flowing down from Selfoss and the sea beyond.<br />
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Even higher up and the god rays were still there in the distance. To the right of the picture is route 1 (or just 1) which is the road which circumnavigates the island.<br />
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We went over a ridge where we could look down into the next valley and another small stream running down. The fisheye lens is flattening out this scene a lot because the slopes down to this stream were very, very steep including the edge we were walking along, a bit scary.<br />
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Around another ridge and we came upon this amazing waterfall down another different valley.<br />
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This is a wide angle shot of the same waterfall where you might get a better idea of how steep the slopes were down from where we were walking. In the background were some more clouds of steam which were from hot springs feeding the into the river going down the falls.<br />
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We went over another ridge and down into a shallow valley where we crossed a small stream and along a path towards some much bigger clouds of steam rising up from the landscape. The sign is making sure that we know that there are lots of hot areas here.<br />
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This is one of the cooler hot pools, although I didn't attempt to determine the temperature because it may have been hotter than it looked.<br />
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This pool was very hot with plenty of steam and the water bubbling away quite merrily.<br />
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I had to take lots of photos of this pool to try to get one where it was possible to see the bubbling water below the steam.<br />
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Some of the pools were bubbling steam so much that it wasn't possible to see the water although you could hear it bubbling away very vigourously. In this shot we are looking back down the steam covered valley. It did smell very strongly of sulphur, not too pleasant really but some bits of Iceland do smell quite a lot as we drive around. The path did continue up the hill behind us but we decided that we'd come far enough as it must have taken about two hours to get up here and we hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast.<br />
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On the way back down I took a photo of the stream that we had crossed earlier and in the distance you can see the steam fields we had just visited. It took us almost an hour to get back down as we didn't stop to take any more photos and then we drove to Selfoss to find some food. I think Ginny must have been feeling home sick as we went to Subway. <br />
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It was starting to get dark after we had eaten and we were both a bit weary after the walk (or climb) so we headed back to the apartment for a rest. The aurora forecast is predicted as Active in the early morning and the weather forecast is for partial cloud so we are aiming to get up and out by 5am to see if we can find anything.ColinWhiteleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17121556504248850177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496318043307845274.post-19147318267034089622014-11-29T07:59:00.000+00:002014-11-29T22:16:18.520+00:00Day 4 - Thingvellir and Reykjavik at NightWe had a later start this morning because we weren't going too far so here's a photo from the balcony of the apartment looking over the lake.<br />
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Thingvellir is where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are drifting apart creating a rift valley in lava rocks. Several small canyons have formed and this is the view down one which has a crazy paving path.<br />
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At the end of the canyon we climbed unto the top of the rocks where there is this pile of rocks and a grand view to the mountains in the distance.<br />
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From the top of the canyon we could look back towards the Oxarfoss waterfall and the black ash path that we had walked on earlier.<br />
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Here's the Oxarfoss waterfall from a bit closer. The rocks were very black and the water had a tinge of green but looked very clear.<br />
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Here the water from the falls is flowing away to the second set of falls further down the valley.<br />
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Next to the falls was a large expanse of decking which included this small rock poking up through the carefully cut hole in the boards. Quite a lot of the paths and viewing platforms around the site were timbered in a similar way with cutouts for the rocks at the edges.<br />
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Quite disappointingly the second big falls on the site had a big ugly concrete bridge over the top of it which didn't make it a decent photo opportunity. However looking back up the river was a pretty set of small falls with the mountains in the background.<br />
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Nearby was this strange looking rock formation.<br />
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In the valley bottom is the famous church and houses so I took this long shot showing the mountains in the distance.<br />
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We walked down to the church and here is Ginny looking towards the mountains, just taking in the view.<br />
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Here's a closer view of the church, it's very pretty and had probably being photographed millions of times.<br />
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After looking at the church we headed across the bridges back towards the canyons area. Just one last shot of the church with a nice patch of water in the foreground.<br />
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We made our way back to Reykjavik where we looked around the Art Gallery and then walked through some of the shopping streets with all their Christmas decorations. Then back to the church which was nicely lit up in the dusky evening.<br />
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We decided to go to the Pearl for a meal but it was fully booked for a function, so after having a coffee in the viewing area in the dome we got a taxi back to the car and headed back to the apartment for a meal there.<br />
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<br />ColinWhiteleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17121556504248850177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496318043307845274.post-91380047306379134382014-11-28T07:44:00.000+00:002014-12-07T22:36:43.627+00:00Day 3 - Vik and More Waterfalls<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We set off quite early hoping to get to Vik for around dawn and then visit the waterfalls on the way back. Some of the roads were quite slippy after the overnight freeze but Vinny (the car) was happier about it than we were. Our first stop was Dyrhólaey which is just before Vik and we saw the waterfalls on the way because they were just off the main road.</div>
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The first car park at Dyrhólaey was at a small headland above the beach. This first shot is West, towards the larger headland where the second car park is situated.</div>
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It was very windy and quick difficult to keep upright and although Vinny told us it was 5 degrees the wind chill factor made it feel about minus 10.<br />
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To the East was a long black sand beach with a big rock sticking up out of it. In the distance is the headland with the three trolls of reynisdrangar, the beach of Vik.<br />
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The track to the second car park was very rough, very narrow and very steep in places. It was even windier up here but looking inland we saw the
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At the end of the headland is a cute little lighthouse and this view of the sea arch. Unfortunately the tide was in so we couldn't get down to the beach and get some closer shots of the arch. There is a path where you can walk across the top of the arch but because it was so windy we didn't think it would be safe to go that way.<br />
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We then went to Vik and down to the beach where there was a German Memorial which is to remember 1,000 German fishermen who lost their lives in Icelandic waters between 1898 and 1952.<br />
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We walked along the black sand beach towards the jetty. It looked really weird with the black sand and the very white surf from the incoming waves. From here I took this long shot of the famous Vik church on the hill above the town with the mountains behind.<br />
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At the jetty I took this shot of the three trolls with the jetty wall and black sand in the foreground.<br />
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Then we went to the restaurant at the edge of town where we had a Magistrates Burgers (just because Ginny is a barrister) which contained, a burger, bacon and cheese with a fried egg on top served with chips and some Mediterranean vegetable stuff. We were pretty stuffed after that but we needed the energy for later. On the way back to the car we passed this sculpture on top of a big column which had been erected by Hull Council where there is a second sculpture which faces this one. Fancy coming all the way to Iceland to find something from Yorkshire.<br />
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We left Vik and went to see the water fall at Skogarfoss which looks very impressive even from the road on the way passed earlier. We decided to climb the 400 ish steps to the top of the waterfall where we had this view.<br />
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Back at the bottom of the fall Ginny wanted to make sure I got a picture of the little seagull towards the bottom right of the frame. The falls are about 60m high and 25m across, so very big.<br />
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Here at the bottom of the waterfall we, and the camera, were getting very wet from the spray but Ginny insisted on getting an action shot.<br />
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We left Skogarfoss for our last stop at Seljalandsfoss and went for another action shot. Unfortunately the battery on my radio remote was flat, so after several attempts using the timer we ended up asking a passing photographer to take the shot for us.<br />
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We climbed the stairs at the side of the waterfall and soon started to get wet again.<br />
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The path goes around the back of the waterfall and here we are looking out through the waterfall (still getting quite wet).<br />
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Out the other side of the waterfall we can see into where we had been.<br />
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There was a signpost on a path to Gljúfrabúi which said 600m so we headed off to find it and as you approach it you can see the top of the waterfall but is disappears into the rock. When you reach the noticeboard there is a stream coming out of a little cave where you have to go inside to get to the bottom of the waterfall. Inside it was very dark, wet and very very loud. For this picture we had to stand very still for almost 30 seconds getting completely soaked all the time.<br />
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Back down to the main waterfall and one last shot from the bridge over the stream. It was starting to get a little dark by now so we headed off back to the apartment for a light tea and a rest.<br />
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The driving in the dark was very tiring with the road conditions very variable on both long journeys. We have decided not to travel to the Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon from the apartment because it twice as far as the journey to Vik. Had we considered this earlier we should have done the waterfalls on the way to Vik then carried on to near Jokulsarlon for an overnight stop, got up early to look around the lagoons and then headed back the following day. Next time maybe.<br />
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In the evening we went on an aurora hunt but it was too cloudy. We thought we saw some greenish patches in the sky but nothing spectacular. Tomorrow we're going to Thingvellir National park where there is the rift valley then on to Reykjavik. We might stop on the way back to look for the aurora again but the weather forecast is too good for tonight so maybe not.ColinWhiteleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17121556504248850177noreply@blogger.com0Vik, Iceland63.419444 -19.00972200000001163.405234 -19.05006250000001 63.433654 -18.969381500000011tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496318043307845274.post-62568373423068225622014-11-26T23:14:00.000+00:002014-12-07T22:30:40.131+00:00Day 2 - Geysir and Gulfoss<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
It had snowed overnight so in the morning Vinny (the car) was covered with frozen snow. After clearing the windows we set off to our first destination of Geysir. The roads were covered with a layer of snow and ice so we took it slow and steady until we get more used to the driving conditions here.</div>
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There weren't many cars about when we arrived at Geysir so we parked up, crossed the road and headed through the gate into the site. The first noticeboard was very scary. Especially the bit about the nearest hospital being 62 km away.<br />
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There were lots of small bubbling holes in the ground and a strange hutlike thing which was blowing steam out of the top and one end. But then we reached the main attraction, the Strokkur Geysir. Behind us was a snow covered hill and we thought it would make a better backdrop to the erupting geysir than the grey sky in this shot and decided to go around to the other side later.<br />
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Up the hill a little was this very blue pool next to another one which looked to go down a deep fissure in the rocks. It seems that people insisted on throwing coins into the pool even though there were signs asking visitors not to do that. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a decent shot of the second pool but maybe we will go back later in the week for another try.<br />
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We walked further up the hill to a viewpoint over the site and I took this shot of lots of people watching an eruption. Where had they all come from, we were practically on our own a few minutes ago?<br />
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This is the view up the hill that I took as we were heading back down to the main geysir site. We went to have a look at the original geysir which is no longer erupting an is not just a large hot pool of water, so I haven't posted a picture.<br />
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As we were walking around we noticed that on the horizon there was a very vivid band of blue below the clouds. It wasn't the blue of the sky but much more of a green blue, very strange.<br />
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I wanted to take some pictures of the geysir erupting using my fisheye lens so that I could get the whole scene in from close up. We first tried from around the other side but couldn't get close enough so went back around to where I took the first set of shots. I managed to get a series of 29 shots so I converted them to a gif to show the geysir in action.</div>
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In this next shot from Geysir there was our first glimpse of the sun peeking through the clouds and it was reflecting onto the hot water running away from the geysir.<br />
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Back near the car park was the Hotel Geysir all decked out for Christmas, very cute.<br />
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While we were at Geysir several coach tours had come and gone and the car park was much busier. We had a quick coffee at the cafe and looked around the gift shop before moving on to Gulfoss. The road to Geysir had started to clear of snow a bit but the road onto Gulfoss was still pretty slippery, but Vinny was in his element.<br />
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When we arrived at the Gulfoss car park we weren't completely sure where we were because all the signposts had been coated white by the overnight snow. We had just parked up where there were a few cars and a couple of coaches to have a look at why they had stopped here and then realised we had arrived. We walked around the gift shop and headed down the steps to another car park which is the one which can be seen on the webcam at the <a href="http://www.livefromiceland.is/webcams/gullfoss/" target="_blank">Live from Iceland</a> website (unfortunately the site doesn't appear to be functioning properly at the time of writing). This first shot is from a viewing point at the edge of the car park showing the view up the river with the two part of the falls in the foreground.<br />
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The path down from the car park to the place where the people are standing on the left of the first picture had a chain across it because of the bad weather in the winter. But like most other people we climbed over it and headed down the very slippery snow covered path. This photo is from the top of the second fall and down the canyon below.<br />
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Here's a little snowman that someone had made near the upper falls, cute.<br />
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Here's Ginny looking at the upper falls.<br />
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We made our way back up to the second car park and asked a young man if he would take a shot for us and then we took a shot of him and his partner.<br />
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Then we made our way to the viewing platform high above the falls and looked down at the view and the people below. From here, back to the cafe at the visitors centre for a bowl of soup and bread.<br />
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We drove up the road past Gulfoss to look for some lakes but the road conditions were getting worse so we decided to turn back and return to the apartment. Then we spent an hour or so in the spa pools at the bottom of the road and it was so relaxing at the end of the day.</div>
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Tomorrow we're planning to go to Vik, stopping off at Seljalandsfoss, Skógafoss and Dyrhólaey weather permitting (it's fine at the moment).</div>
ColinWhiteleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17121556504248850177noreply@blogger.com0Geysir, Iceland64.3143248 -20.30110360000003344.751405799999993 -61.609697600000032 83.8772438 21.007490399999966tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496318043307845274.post-21634000277784864522014-11-25T21:07:00.000+00:002014-12-07T22:28:59.047+00:00Day 1 - Manchester to Reykjavik<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Sunrise North of Manchester this morning. Flying at a height of 11 kilometers on the way to Iceland and the best view was as the sun broke through the clouds shortly after levelling out. Take off, flight and landing were all pretty smooth and we landed 15 minutes earlier then scheduled. Our car was upgraded from a Suzuki Jimny to a Grand Vitara with studded tyres. Cool.</div>
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We drove to Reykjavik and saw some great views on the journey. At Reykjavik we parked near the bay North of the city and walked up into the centre. We went to a healthy restaurant for a light bite before heading up the hill to the church. Our first view of Hallgrimskirkja Church with the sun behind and Leif Erikson to the front. Quite an impressive piece of architecture and the inside was very minimalistic with a very shiny pipe organ.<br />
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Here's a closer view of Leif Erikson in the sunlight.<br />
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After we looked around inside the church we bought tickets for the lift up the church tower to see the view over the city. As the lift doors opened we bumped into a young couple who appeared to have just got engaged at top of the tower (awwwww). We got to look out of the windows which are just above the clock faces and this is one of the views over the city and across the bay to the mountains.<br />
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Here's a shot looking down from the tower at Leif Erikson.<br />
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This is a closer look at the view across the bay from the church tower. It's amazing.<br />
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We walked back down from the church to have a closer look across the bay and we spotted this sculpture by the water. Here's Ginny...<br />
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... and Colin. <br />
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The sky was changing continually and as we walked along the path the view and the reflections were amazing.<br />
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Further along was another sculpture with an incredible backdrop of the water mountains, cloud and sky.<br />
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After Rejkyavik we went to the supermarket for supplies and then headed for the apartment at Laugarvatn. There was some parts of the journey where we had snow and ice on the road so it was a bit scary. The apartment is great and Ginny made a lovely salmon and pasta meal for our supper. Tomorrow we aren't going to go far, probably just to Geysir, Gulfoss and here abouts. We've bought tickets for the local spa baths so we'll probably spend sometime there too.</div>
<br />ColinWhiteleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17121556504248850177noreply@blogger.com0Reykjavik, Iceland64.133333 -21.93333299999994864.022489 -22.256056499999946 64.244177 -21.610609499999949