Iceland Day 2

Friday, 2 August 2024

Day 2 of Iceland was great although the weather certainly started where it left off the day before:

While the rain was good for the volume of waterfalls, it wasn't good for the water quality - the waterfall below is supposed to have clear blue water..it was still interesting that the water didn't come from the top of the lava cliffs, but it wasn't quite the same as the photos we've seen where it's beautiful and blue!

Due to the prices (and our general preference not to spend more than necessary on food), we don't get to stop at the places that say 'all day lunch buffet' - we get to stop during a break in the rain at a soggy picnic table by the side of the road for cheese sandwiches.  After lunch the weather improved a lot and we started to see some great views around us.

We drove over the mountains to the famous Thingvellir National Park which is where two tectonic plates join and also the site of the birth of Iceland as an independent country in 1944.

After strolling around for an hour or so we continued on to our accommodation, which I'd had to book hastily the night before when Zali realised we had a gap in our bookings. It's turned out to be our favourite place we've stayed in so far - so all's well that ends well! It's a beautiful hand crafted cabin that smells of some sort of pine and even has it's own stream out the back.

We even had time for a short run near the local lake (with geothermal pools) before dinner. 

Then we had hot chocolates and admired our icelandic socks we bought at a tourist shop hours earlier.. 

I haven't got a good photo of them yet, but there are icelandic horses everywhere. We seem to frequently drive past paddocks full of 30 or more of them. While we drove through the mountains we got a good view of a group of them being run along beside the creek - it looked incredible - there were 8 with riders and 30 running along in between. I'm not sure why anyone needs as many horses as they seem to keep around but they do look very striking.  I'll get a better photo somewhere before we go.