Iceland smells

Started off with a trip back to Geysir to get petrol. The automatic machine was not working the night before. Most petrol places work on the basis that you insert your credit card, authorise payment, and that enables the bowser. Works fine as long as the system is up. We have had two situations where it wasn´t. Today we had a back up option as I did not want to take the trip into the highlands without a full tank. I thought Marjan may still be asleep so I sneaked another look at Gollfoss as well before breakfast.

We were taking F35 (yes and F road; the Kjolur road) up into the Iclandic heart, the highlands. We wound our way onto the high rocky plains between the two mid-sized glaciers this part of the world: Langjoull and Hofsjokull. The road was not too bad  , dusty and bumpy and narrow in places, but no vertiginous drops, and the views were forever.

Between Marjan's risk free approach to driving and my need to photograph every second rock we were travelling quite slowly. We had decided we wanted to do a short hike in Kerlingarfjoll, so we detoured down that way and had a bit of a look. It smelled, it smelled really bad. We got a bit of a taste in Geysir, but it the smell is all around. The island has had too much egg sandwich. The area was beautiful, but as there were geothermal springs everywhere, the smoke was sulphurous and stinky. Dangerous too, apparently people have been known to step off the path and sink into a muddy mess at 150 degrees Celsius. So much for Australian snakes and spiders. The worst part of the glorious walk though was the descent and climb into the hills with a blowing gale. Staying on the path along the ridge lines was an effort of concentration, with wind gusts that could push even a big bloke like me around.

Lunched by the river back at the camping ground/lodge. There were a bunch of campers waiting for the 4WD bus to drive them out.

The road continued through these expansive vistas. Our next stop.....well apart from the obligatory "interesting rock" photos.......was at another geothermal area Hveravellir. I started with a hot bath. Marjan decided it was too cold, windy and embarrassing to change out in the open and bathe in the cold wind. Her mistake say I. I loved it. The walk around was also interesting......more bad smells though.

We took a wrong turn out of the place and the local farmer/hot spring maintenance man.....there are sheep up here.......looked at us suspiciously as we wandered up his driveway. Very much like an outback Australian driveway, but about 40 degrees colder. Anyway, soon corrected and the countryside changed a little the land got flatter and wider and developed a tinge of green. We saw a few more sheep and soon were headed through a country of lakes, each of which was a different colour, from a milky jade to an almost navy blue.


Further down we hit a lovely green valley as we dropped altitude and then back into Fjords with another "Oh Wow" moment as we rounded one bend and saw the mountains on the other side of Skagafjodur. We had a quick look.....quick because we are back on the main tourist route now and competing with busloads of Spaniards........at turf churches and farms before heading down to Saudarkrokur for a rest. This is wonderful looking farming county, but fish and chips called.