Another early morning, another early breakfast, another early start. I was picked up by a huge coach and delivered to the BSI terminal under a spectacular pink and orange sky, only to discover the ground was very icy when I tried to get away from the buses enough to get a photo of it. Today we were off on a South Shore Adventure. First stop was Hvolsvöllur, which is a very small town about an hour and a half from Reykjavík. There is a petrol station with sho...

Despite the late night, I didn't sleep as well as I'd have liked and I was awake by about 6.30am, ready to get up and pack for the day and then have breakfast (warm bread and butter, apple juice). I got a wifi password from the man on reception and then took to the internet for half an hour before it was time to go and wait for my bus. We did a quick trip around town, picking people up, getting diverted on Laugavegur because of roadworks and then down the othe...

Leaving work at 3.30pm and getting a late flight seemed, at the time (about a week and a half ago) like an inspired idea. It would effectively give me a whole extra day. Once I'd survived check-in (and the less said about that the better), I thought the best way to pass the time at Heathrow would be to have something to eat and I even managed to find a café that was perfectly happy to do a plain cheese toastie. Except that it took twenty minutes to arrive and...

Being picked up at 9.30 meant I actually had a good long slow lazy morning. I finished my packing, read for a while and dragged my suitcase outside and up the steps to find my minibus was already there. I was delivered to the ticket office with my ticket already in my hand - I'd successfully kept it safe for ten days! - and waited for the airport bus. There was a big cruise ship in the harbour opposite. It had been there for at least a day and looked far too b...

January 23rd 1973 was a stormy day in the Westman Islands. Heimaey's fishing fleet hadn't been able to go out and all the men were home for once. The children were too excited about all their brothers being home to study for their exam at school the next day. In the middle of the night, there was a big earthquake through the island as a fissure a mile long tore open. Fire and lava spurted up through the gap from hundreds of craters. Some of these craters only ...