Saturday, August 8 information

Up early and off we went.  A lot of driving to be done today and there were a lot of earthcaches we wanted to visit along the way.

Soon after we started, the Nuvi wanted us to head off the Ring Road and take the scenic coastal route.  As that would have added hours to our trip, we decided to stick with 1 and the signs posted for the next town we knew we would go through.

And then we got into thick fog.  You could see the edge of the road and that was about all.  That slowed us down, but it also made me thankful we didn't take the long way as it would have all been fogged in as well.  We could only hope that it would clear when we got farther south.

Then we came to a place where we had to make a decision.  Roads going two ways at a "Y" or heading back to the coastal route.  Going back to the coastal route didn't make sense as we had no idea what those roads and conditions were like.  So which of the other roads?  The one to the left took us up a hill away from where we wanted to go and was paved.  The one to the right is the one with the sign to the town we wanted to go to, but looked like a dirt road.

We started up the paved road and soon decided that wouldn't be the way to go as it headed north and east and we wanted to go south and west.  Turn around time and down to the dirt road which had the sign to our next town.  Liz was driving and I know it was tough for her.  I thought about offering to take over, and realized that she was just as capable of driving as I was, or maybe more so.  Had she asked, I would have driven.  Because she didn't, I became the encourager.

It was about 20 km on this dirt road in the fog, and when a few vehicles passed us going lots faster, Liz said she felt better because she figured if others were on the road as well, it must be okay.

Sheep on the road 

...and off they go.

We both sighed with relief when we were back on paved road and about the same time, the fog started lifting.  This experience wasn't on our bucket lists!

We soon stopped at a roadside sign about zeolites for an earthcache.  You aren't allowed to hunt for them, so we could only see them in photos.  Back on the road, we had a relatively long drive to the next earthcache.  We had filled the gas tank in Egilsstaðir the night before, knowing that it might be quite a while before we could get gas again.

Scenery along the way

The next earthcache at Jökulsárlón was a delightful surprise.  I knew what to expect, but reality is so much better.  You drive along, and all of a sudden you see water and the water is full of icebergs.  We knew we would be here again with the geo-tour, but you can't just drive by.  The plus was that they had facilities which aren't very easy to find in Iceland.  After using them, we headed down to get a closer look.  There was a harbor seal poking its nose up every so often as well.

Glaciers in the lagoon

 

The lagoon is only about 80 years old and was formed by meltwater from the retreating  Breiðamerkurjökull  glacier.  The outlet from the lagoon to the sea is less than a mile long (I'd say only about 1/2 mile at most) and is the shortest river in Iceland.  We crossed the bridge and had an entirely different view of the icebergs which are constantly calving from the glacier.  This location was used for the filming of the James Bond movie "Die Another Day" and when we found the geocache there it brought a smile to our faces to see that it was hidden in a small green car.

Thinking we would be doing it on the geo-tour, we didn't go all the way to the base of Svartifoss.  I had wanted to walk in the water while wearing my water shoes and figured that could wait.  It's a beautiful waterfall that has the bottoms of basalt columns hanging overhead.

Svartifoss from a distance

 

Not my photo - just wanted you to see the hanging basalt columns

There were incredible and beautiful things to see constantly.  Something new and different around every corner.

Hildir's Grave Mound

The next stop, in a downpour, was Kirkjugólf.  Here you can walk on top of basalt columns that are so evenly worn that those who discovered the spot first thought it had been the floor of a church.  As I hadn't gotten to the Giants' Causeway in Ireland, this was very satisfying for me to see and to walk on.  I felt that I should start playing some type of hopscotch or other childhood game.

Approach - you can see why they thought it was a church floor

7 sides - the one with the most sides we found - there is supposed to be one with 10 sides

 

Time to visit some more waterfalls.  As we drove both on the north coast and now on the south coast, there was a continual series of small waterfalls in each little mountain crevice.  The ones we stopped to visit were the larger ones with something special to draw you to them.

 

Skógafoss - 377 steps to the top.  We stayed at the bottom and enjoyed the spray.

Joy at Skógafoss

 

Seljalandsfoss - the walk-behind-it waterfall.  Of course we did!  I even tried a few selfies.

The Seljalandsfoss pathway

 

Behind Seljalandsfoss

In front of Seljalandsfoss

 

Gljúfurárfoss - the one with the overhanging rock in a crevice in front of the falls.

Gljúfurárfoss behind crevice with rock on top

 

We thought this would be our last earthcache before heading back to Reykjavik.  Then as we were driving through a little town, we noticed one on the Nuvi.  I added it to the itinerary on the Nuvi, pulled out my GPS, and off we went on a little 5 kilometer side trip.  This one was about a palagonite table mountain.  It was one I never thought we would do, so had done no studying in advance.  We probably left more confused than when we arrived.  However, during the geo-tour we saw many more table mountains and had their formation explained to us.  This was a good start for that learning.

 

One very interesting thing about this spot is that the lowest part has normal polarity, then there is some rock with reverse polarity, and then higher up it goes back to normal polarity.  Yes, this happens all over the world, but to actually be looking at a mountain where it occurs was fascinating.

Palagonite table mountain containing a layer of reverse polarity

 

And then just one more earthcache.  We wanted to see Kerið crater because it is a caldera similar to Crater Lake in Oregon.  There was a small fee, and it was worth it.

Kerið crater

Scoria underfoot

 

Now we were serious about getting back to town.  The first day we had attempted to find the final cache container for the earthcache challenge we hoped to complete.  Our first attempt ended at a blocked road with big iron posts so that you couldn't even try to drive past the big block in the road.  We then tried all sorts of other ways to approach it and after almost an hour, we gave up and went on our way to other things on our day's list of possibilities.

 

Meanwhile, I had been writing to the owner of the challenge, and he suggested a few places to try to get in.  Once near town, we tried the first suggestion, and it was the road with the block.  We tried the second suggestion and had success!  Now we were cheering as for some reason we had our hearts set on completing a challenge in Iceland.  It took some time on meandering dirt roads, and finally we were there, found the container, and signed our names.  There was also a puzzle I had solved just a few hundred meters from there, so we found that one as well.

 

On the way out, we saw a spot where Liz thought she would like to place an earthcache, so we pulled off while she got coordinates and photos.  Once that gets published, I'll be able to log a find on one more earthcache in Iceland.  It's a beautiful spot where the lava crust has broken away in some spots to reveal brilliant red under the large crust bubbles.

 

Random thought - a frequent sign seen along the way - one lane bridges - we never did figure out the protocol - just took our chances.  Didn't have to back up once, though.

 

Off to our guesthouse for the night.  This was the same one we stayed at the first night, and since there was a gay pride festival going on downtown, we were glad to be a bit out of town for the night.  However, we noticed it wasn't the cleanest place we could have selected.  The garbage hadn't been picked up since our stay 3 days ago.  We had taken a chance and left containers of Skyr in the refrigerator - large ones that were only half eaten.  They were still there, so that was good.  Mine turned into a bedtime snack later that evening.

 

We headed out for dinner - not, not a Subway, but the KFC where we got those dreadful icy desserts a few days ago.  Nothing else was open, not even the grocery stores.  I was very ready for some typical Icelandic foods at this point, but have to admit that my hot chicken salad with lots of cheese and veggies was good and filling.

 

Back to the guesthouse for showers (dirty bathroom - I gave them a lousy review on-line) and sorting out our packing to be ready to join the geo-tour.  I was content to know that starting tomorrow morning, I would just be along for the ride - no planning or responsibility.

 

We've been here 4 days and crammed a few weeks worth of activity in so far.  I'm surprised I could relax enough to sleep that night.  We'd been seeing and counting sheep all day long each day, so that wouldn't have put me to sleep at this point.