just like in some of the previous posts, i am posting this after having had the post in draft state for a long time.
after returning from a not so awesome sighting of the northern lights the second time around. i waited in the lounge for Saravanan, who joined me in Iceland. the next day we had not pre-booked any tours and did not have any plans, so we decided to take the blue lagoon trip. so after a late morning we caught the last bus heading to the lagoon. this was the first time i was heading out of the city during the day time, and i was seeing a different and contrasting world around me- something i have come to see about Iceland in most travel videos/documentaries.
rugged/jagged rocks with moss all over them with a touch of snow that stretches for a few hundred meters, then a huge mountain that had jumped out of the ground. after a 45 minute journey, we walked down a path (with rock formations raising some 5 meters on both sides) towards the lagoon, like a resemblance to the sequence in ‘the ten commandments’ where the red sea parts to give way to Moses and his followers :-). passing the dark black and sludge green rocks, small ponds filled with steaming turquoise blue water. after exchanging the tickets for some bands, we went through the high tech systems, i changed into my swimming gear (i had specifically brought it for this trip). after close to an hour of wallowing around in the water and becoming light headed, i dried up and got inline to board the bus back to the hostel.
at the hostel, we enrolled ourselves to the Christmas eve dinner party. a chocolate cake, strawberries and chocolate balls made up our preparations for the dinner. on white snowy night, along with all the hostel residents we celebrated the Christmas spirit.
after all the celebrations, that morning we were on a tourist tour to Kerio, Gulfoss, Geysir and Thingvellir national park (Iceland’s famed golden circle tour) . this guided tourist tour was one of the most interesting, because of the guide. he was incessantly talking about something or the other, but since it was always centered on the Iceland i was glued to what he had to say.
after driving through a snow storm, we reached the Kerio volcano crater. thanks to the snow, the approach was covered in snow and the water at the bottom of the crater was frozen. the size of the volcano was evident once i stood on outer border of the volcano, it was huge. more like standing on top of a beast and looking down on earth :). we got back in, after having spent close to 15 minutes at the edges of the volcano. we passed Geysir (we would see Geysir on the way back) , and were heading to Gulfoss.
from the time we started from Reykjavik we were listening to the guide talking. and for the 20 minutes towards Gulfoss he was talking about the fishing licenses, the farms of Iceland, horses, the tree planting schemes of th govt., the summer cottages in the country side, the billionaire’s who had brought new homes there, the Estonian contractors working there and so on. we got down at Gulfoss, after having passed through landscapes full of canyons and gorges. the Gulfoss waterfalls was a good kilometer’s walk from where we had got down, and that distance never gave a glimpse of the waterfalls. as we were going down the stair towards the roaring waterfalls, after having passed through knee high snow, i saw Gulfoss. it seemed just like any other waterfall one would have come across, large in size, huge amount of water and mist spewing out and so on. but unlike most of the other waterfalls, it had a presence around you. i guess it was the area around it or may be the snow and ice, what ever it was it did not disappoint my expectations. sliding and skating i reached close to the mouth of the waterfall, got some shots and came back. back in the bus, after having a snicker for breakfast, we were on the way back to Geysir.
a clean white land, with spots of greenery surrounding the vents on the ground spewing steam and hot water(at least 100 degree Celsius), it felt more like a mix of heaven and hell - the rotten egg smelling steam, sounds of boiling water in a white land. since the Geysir was the unpredictable beast, we moved on to Strokkur. Strokkur is some 50 meters from geysir, but more predictable, with eruptions every 7 minutes at the most. I watched 3 eruptions, before heading to the multimedia center and the cafeteria. once you are inside the cafeteria, you forget that the during the 1 1/2 hour drive from Reykjavik through some remote, desolate areas you had seen only a handful of buildings let alone the number of houses.
again after an hour’s drive crossing over from the eurasian tectonic plate to the american tectonic plate, we were at the Thingvellir national park. the place where the worlds first parliment was present, the place where there is a visible 3 meter gap between the two tectonic plates which one can walk through, the place where in between the lake there are 2-3 volcanoes. Thingvellir is one of the places very close to the capital, yet for beginners a place where you get the sense of the huge expanses one can find in Iceland. So its on the beaten track, and forms the so called golden circle tour - Kerio, Geysir, Gulfoss and Thingvellir national park. when i stayed away from the crowd and had some time for myself, i did find that even though these places were big tourist attractions, i could sense the wildness and freshness as if there were only a few others who had set foot in these places. I guess some part of the feeling could be attributed to the wide expanses, remoteness and untamed nature of the locations.
there will be one more post on the few more days that i stayed in Iceland encompassing the wild north-west and the calm and dangerous south shores. hopefully the coming posts will not take as long as this did.
