Well, another long day as we were out from 10am to 11pm and drove well over 200 miles, but what a perfect day. Probably the best ever day on a holiday I would say.
We'd left our trip to the 'Golden Circle' to today in the hope that the forecasters were correct and that the weather would be better than the wash-out of Monday; and they were correct. It was cloudy as we left the apartment, but as we made our way out into the country we could see chinks of blue appearing above us. As we drove the 35 miles to Thingvellir we made two or three stops to take photos, and to be honest we could have made many more as the views were so impressive with the autumn colours painting the countryside and the snow capped mountains in the distance; but we didn't really have the time as we had so much to do.
Arrival at Thingvellir was around 11:15am, and it is a truly astounding place. To walk where the American and European tectonic plates meet for me is mind-blowing, to visit the small building which was the site of the world's first parliament, the park just has so much and the beauty is breathtaking. You could spend days just looking around the park and taking the hiking trails, but unfortunately after an hour or so we had to leave to our next stop.
The route took us around the far side of the lake and then further out into the country until we arrived at our next stop; Geysir. It was quite busy here, I can only imagine how busy it would be in the high season, but it didn't really affect our visit as it covered a fair size area and there were so many areas spouting steam, and bubbling away with hot water; plus of course the geysir itself which burst into life about every 5 minutes; an awesome sight. As you would expect the air was filled with the smell of sulphur which added to the whole experience. Before setting off on the next leg of our journey we stopped off in the cafe for a hot drink and a look around the clothing outlet.
Not too far until our next stop, and the thrills just kept coming, the famous Gullfoss waterfall. You just can't believe how big this waterfall is, it's only when you look back at your photos where you can see people in the shot to get an idea of the scale. We spent an hour or so here taking in it's splendour, from close by to feel it's raw power and from up above where you could take in the scale. It's hard to find words to explain just how impressive the waterfall is. We also noticed as we sat in the car ready to leave that we could make out another glacier in the distance, WOW.
As it was now later afternoon it was time to set off on our return journey and we decided to head back a different way, down towards Selfoss so that we could pass by Kerio; the crater remains of a long extinct collapsed volcano. Our route to Selfoss was broken by another stop-off at Geysir which was so funny as Donna got soaked when the geyser blasted into the air. It was well worth the stop off just for that...lol
The only problem at Kerio was that it was starting to get dark, so although we spent 30 minutes or so here and walked around the crater, what you could see was limited. You didn't get a good idea of how blue the water was in the base of the crater, or how red the rock and vegetation is around the bowl. However, another great place to take in on our trip.
As the skies were now fairly clear our plan was to stay out and see it we would again be lucky enough to catch the Northern Lights. So we headed into Selfoss and picked up a couple of pizza's and bottles of Coke, and then started looking for a spot in the darkness to sit and wait.
We found a track out of the back of a small village and sat there eating our pizza and waiting. And about 30 minutes later were were rewarded again, and tonight was even better than two nights ago. The lights streamed across the sky for about an hour, and just for a small period of time we saw a tiny amount of pink and white in the green ribbon of light; truly phenomenal and something that will stay for us forever.
By 10pm the lights had started to abate, and we still had a 35 mile drive back in the dark to Reykjavik so we headed back. A fitting end to the perfect day.
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