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Soongies' Great Adventure
We started our adventures in Iceland with the popular Golden Circle route. This is the main route that most people take when coming to Iceland so we thought it would be a good place to start and a taster of things to come. Driving from Reykavik, we saw heaps of modified Nissan Patrols with monster truck tyres - made our little Kia Picanto feel a little bit inadequate.
Leaving our guesthouse, we travelled east and it wasn't long before we stopped on the side of the road to walk on a frozen lake! It was the first time we had walked on a natural frozen lake so it was a pretty exciting start!
A short drive later, we got to Thingvellir National Park. This area is known for the rift valley caused by the drifting of the Eurasian and North American continental plates and is also the site of the first Icelandic Parliament. We also bumped into Brittany, one of Calvin's primary school friends!
We walked to the viewing platform and walked down in the valley between the two rock walls. It was a pretty spectacular day for it as it was clear and sunny! It was very windy though which made us feel the cold. We drove around to a different car park to walk to Öxarárfoss Waterfall which was a small but pretty one.
We then headed along the route to Geysir, a very geothermal active area where there was an actual geyser. After a lunch of bread and boiled eggs in the car (too cold to eat outside!), we headed over to the geyser. It goes off every 8-9 minutes and throws up a lots of steam and water - and smelly sulphur. We watched it a few times and then tried to get an ice-cream from the cafe - the ice-cream wasn't successful as we weren't prepared to pay $7.50 each for a stick ice-cream from the freezer!
Next stop was Flúðir for the Secret Lagoon - a hot spring public pool. We had a look but didn't take the plunge for $33 each. We decided to head on to the next stop - Seljallandfoss.
This waterfall was a real gem! It's tall and powerful with a bonus path behind it so you can walk to back of the waterfall and see the world through the curtain. The spray coming from the base of the waterfall would drift over to the grass on the hillside and the steps on the path freezing onto every surface so that there was a thick layer of ice on everything! It gave the grass a really cool appearance as each blade was encased in a shiny clear icicle. It also made the walk on the path white hazardous!
About 500 m from Seljallandfoss is another waterfall - Gljúfrabúi. This one is found at the end of a canyon however the mouth of the canyon was full of water and we didn't have good waterproof boots to get there so we had to make do with a photo from the outside.
The next stop was our accommodation at Hrutafell Guesthouse. The recently renovated house is on a farming property with lots of dogs, cows, sheep and really really cute Icelandic horses. Calvin headed across the road to make friends with the horses while Kate started getting pasta ready for dinner.
It was a pretty good night for the aurora tonight so after a short nap, we woke up around 11:45 pm and saw the northern lights for the first time! It was a special moment and surreal to experience it. It wasn't even that cold outside which meant Calvin got a few good photos.
The lights were meant to be a bit stronger later in the night so Kate set the alarm for 3 to wake up and see if we could see them again. Unfortunately, we woke up to daylight! The alarm had been set for 3 pm instead of 3 am!
Leaving our guesthouse, we travelled east and it wasn't long before we stopped on the side of the road to walk on a frozen lake! It was the first time we had walked on a natural frozen lake so it was a pretty exciting start!
A short drive later, we got to Thingvellir National Park. This area is known for the rift valley caused by the drifting of the Eurasian and North American continental plates and is also the site of the first Icelandic Parliament. We also bumped into Brittany, one of Calvin's primary school friends!
We walked to the viewing platform and walked down in the valley between the two rock walls. It was a pretty spectacular day for it as it was clear and sunny! It was very windy though which made us feel the cold. We drove around to a different car park to walk to Öxarárfoss Waterfall which was a small but pretty one.
We then headed along the route to Geysir, a very geothermal active area where there was an actual geyser. After a lunch of bread and boiled eggs in the car (too cold to eat outside!), we headed over to the geyser. It goes off every 8-9 minutes and throws up a lots of steam and water - and smelly sulphur. We watched it a few times and then tried to get an ice-cream from the cafe - the ice-cream wasn't successful as we weren't prepared to pay $7.50 each for a stick ice-cream from the freezer!
Next stop was Flúðir for the Secret Lagoon - a hot spring public pool. We had a look but didn't take the plunge for $33 each. We decided to head on to the next stop - Seljallandfoss.
This waterfall was a real gem! It's tall and powerful with a bonus path behind it so you can walk to back of the waterfall and see the world through the curtain. The spray coming from the base of the waterfall would drift over to the grass on the hillside and the steps on the path freezing onto every surface so that there was a thick layer of ice on everything! It gave the grass a really cool appearance as each blade was encased in a shiny clear icicle. It also made the walk on the path white hazardous!
About 500 m from Seljallandfoss is another waterfall - Gljúfrabúi. This one is found at the end of a canyon however the mouth of the canyon was full of water and we didn't have good waterproof boots to get there so we had to make do with a photo from the outside.
The next stop was our accommodation at Hrutafell Guesthouse. The recently renovated house is on a farming property with lots of dogs, cows, sheep and really really cute Icelandic horses. Calvin headed across the road to make friends with the horses while Kate started getting pasta ready for dinner.
It was a pretty good night for the aurora tonight so after a short nap, we woke up around 11:45 pm and saw the northern lights for the first time! It was a special moment and surreal to experience it. It wasn't even that cold outside which meant Calvin got a few good photos.
The lights were meant to be a bit stronger later in the night so Kate set the alarm for 3 to wake up and see if we could see them again. Unfortunately, we woke up to daylight! The alarm had been set for 3 pm instead of 3 am!
- comments
Amanda Looks very cold