The rain comes

The weather bureau in Iceland is pretty good, and by that I mean they get things down to the hour. They predicted wild winds last night and wild winds came in when they said; they predicted increasing rain this morning and that is just what we got.

The wind overnight was impressive, I thought the roof would lift off. We are staying in what appears to be reconditioned workers accommodation. We are in the middle of the Icelandic Snowy Mountain Scheme. Lots of hydro power stations and diverted water. They are basically tapping into the power of the glacial waters flowing along Iceland's longest river. Between hydro and geo-thermal Iceland produces and uses about 15 times the average power of European countries. Helps keep three aluminium smelters going....they get much of the alumina from Australia. The accommodation is now used by people like us who don't want to camp in the mountains, nor drive another couple of hours back to civilization.....or by rich yanks with their private fishing guide.


Anyway got up early and climbed the ridge to get a broader look out.

We headed out along the Þjórsár valley with the stratovolcano Hekla a constant presence.

A mandatory visit to a waterfall to get the morning off on the right foot....followed by a climb up a hill...

More waterfalls, more volcanoes....you know how it goes.

the Þjórsár valley is quite large, and probably the most familiar landscape we have seen. It had trees for starters..... and could have been almost anywhere. Eventually we got back onto Route 1 and the tourist numbers skyrocketed. After a stop at a bakari for a coffee and bun, the rain, as predicted began......lightly. We got to our next waterfall as lightly morphed into heavens pouring down.....we got soaked.....the rain was coming down almost as much as the waterfall. We sat in the car for 10 minutes to dry off a bit before heading off.

Visibility was down and we stopped in sight of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano. That is the one that caused the recent  (last couple of years) issues with European flights. This is an official viewing area, really!

The rain did not appear to be abating. We had a decision: plow on ahead to more....waterfalls, volcanoes, glaciers, black sand beaches, birds, basalt and hobbit holes or.....sit in a nicely heated room with a good book. Guess which way we went? It is three hours later and whilst we are back to light rain, visibility is only marginally better. We are so glad we got our mountain road done yesterday.