9th March

-7 to -15 degrees

Groan...we so didn't want to get up this morning!

The tour driver arrived in a 4WD just after 8am. His name is Clint and we are the only two on the tour. We're doing the Golden Circle + South Shore tour.

From Reykjavik we drove through the south shore and stopped at the waterfall Seljalandsfoss where normally you can walk behind the fall but because of the recent snow it was too slippery so we just looked and took photos. On the way to our next destination we passed a house that was made out rock and turf as they didn't have any other building materials, later they extended and built into the rock with other materials. We passed the volcano Eyjafallajokull where we saw the ash effect after the eruption last year. Have got some ash and lava which l hope customs doesn't take off me. We then went onto the blue coloured glacier in Solheimajokull. Here we went under part of the glacier and the roof of it was absolutly amazing. The photos don't do it justice but it looked like bubblewrap and was so smooth to touch and not that cold. There was so many wonderous sights here.....take a look at the photos. Onto the waterfall Skogarfoss which is 62 metres high. Really lovely especially with the rainbow going through it. It's sooooo cold though and we hurridley hop back into the car. On the way to our next destination we stopped at the beach. It has black sand and no seashells, just a few small rocks here and there. Mum ventured too far near the water and a wave rushed at her and covered her midcalf. Lucky she had on her waterproof boots and waterproof pants or she would have had an uncomfortable trip for the rest of the day. We visited a beautiful church at Skalholt, the political centre of Iceland from the 11th century until the end of the 18th century. The church has stained glass windows and the original bible of Bishop Guobrandur, published in 1584. It also has an unique 12th century coffin, burial stones and a stone underground passage which linked to the school. After that it's another waterfall, Faxatunga. Then Gullfoss waterfall which tumbles down a deep canyon, as deep as 70 meters and is about 2.5K in length. It sits on the river Hita. There are also walls of rock pillars leading up to the fall which are used as markers for the viewing area and car park. I was in a hurry to take the photos as my hand was freezing off!!! Twenty seconds out of the glove was all it took. Near the fall is Geyser which is a high temperature geothermal area with a base temperature of about 250C. The geyser goes off about every 4 or 5 minutes. While we were there a double one went off. Very exciting. Went into the gift shop and bought postcatds ect. Our last stop was at Pingvellir, the site of the worlds first parliment and to which Iceland still follows to this day. It was founded around 930AD. Pingvellir lies on the junction of the tectonic plates on the Mid Atlantic ridge. On the east side is the Euro-Asian plate and on the west side is the North American plate. They drift apart at 2.5cm a year. Iceland is literally ripping apart! We came upon a German woman who had set up a camera in readiness for catching a glimpse of the Northern Lights. This was about 6pm so she's in for a long extremely cold wait. On the way back to the hotel l took some shots of the sun set.....it was so beautiful up there in amongst the volcanoes. We got back to the hotel at around 8pm, so, so tired. Dinner was a cup of soup and a bit of toast 'cause we're too tired to go out.