The Circumnavigation of Iceland... Sort of. (Day 1)

Iceland - there are not enough words or letters in the English language to describe this country. No, seriously, have you ever seen the Icelandic language? Remember Eyjafjallajokull, the volcanic eruption that spewed ash in the air? 

All jokes aside, two friends and I decided last August to try to drive around Iceland. There's a ring road that goes around the entire country/island of Iceland. 

Iceland is a remarkable country. It isa first world country in all ways -- Even the road side bathrooms were clean! The scenery was gorgeous and picture-postcard perfect. 

Day 1

After meeting my pals at the airport at 8 am, we hopped on to a car and drove. Our first stop was the famous Blue Lagoon, less than 13 km away from the airport. It's actually a man-made lagoon that was formed by the discharge of hot water from the nearby geothermal power plant. The water is clean, and it contains silica deposits which turn the water a milky blue. We didn't get to go in for a swim because the lagoon wasn't open that early in the morning.

We then moved on towards Krysuvik, an area known for its geothermal features (one of many many in Iceland)

The scenery was just... grand. (that's me in the middle) -
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

Krysuvik-Seltun Steam Vents and Mud Pots

You usually smell the geothermal activity of a region before you get there. The sulphur emitted in the gases give off an egg-y smell. Like a really overcooked hard-boiled egg. By the end of this trip, we were all a little afraid of eating hard boiled eggs. 

Birdcliffs are a big attraction in Iceland, and we were in search of one called the Krisuvikurbjarg (you see what I mean about the Icelandic language?). We somehow failed in our search, but ended up wandering through even more spectacular scenery. 

That was NOT the bird cliff
Photo Credit: Chour Thong Goh

 The greenery was also beautiful. and I couldn't resist a few macro shots.

Next stope was Lake Kleifarvatn, where there is supposedly a legendary monster residing in the waters. We took photos, disturbed no monsters, and drove off. 

Lake Kleifarvatn
Photo Credit: Chour Thong Goh

Our next stop was Þingvellir (pronounced Thing-vellier), the site of Iceland's first parliament, assembled in the year 930 and which lasted until the 17th century. 

This is the actual site of the assembly

This is also where the North American and European tectonic plates are pulling apart from each other at a rate of 2.5 cm per year.  So literally, the earth was moving under my feet... 

The first of many waterfalls we were to see during the trip

Our next stops were major tourist attractions in Iceland - Geyser (for which all other geysers are named), and then to Gulfoss, one of Iceland's best known waterfalls.

This is the original Geysir, which hasn't really erupted with great regularity in recent times. Now it just bubbles a little.

On the other hand, Strokkur reliably erupts every 10 mins or so. It was fun watching the heaving of the water as the geyser gathered its geothermal energy before erupting. Every eruption brought along many "oohs" and "aahs" from spectators.

Gullfoss "Golden Falls", a 32 m drop into a 2.5 km ravine. Look at the people on the left to get a sense of the size of this thing!



View from the other side of the falls. The force of the water was astounding. 

Rainbows in the mist of Gullfoss. Just spectacular.
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

The above are the major tourist sites most visitors to Iceland/Reykjavik see in their entire vacation, and we checked them off our list on the first day!  We even pushed forward into the off-road interior of Landmannalaugar. It was fun going off-road, and even trying to cross some rivers! (Caution: don't do this unless your rental company says you can do it in the vehicle you rented)

The desolate and quiet interior

As the sun dropped below the horizon, the rainbows came out to play

Check out the river we had to cross!!! There were many of these, and they were stressful. Involved us checking out the depth of the river to and the shallowest way for the car to cross. It sounds a lot more fun than it is.

The fog also started rolling in...

And finally the sun set behind a soft pastel curtain of clouds.

We finally ended our first day in the town of Vik, late at night!  In one day, we had gone through 16 hours of driving, photography, standing speechless in awe and being completely blown away by Iceland. Just the first day, and we already thought we had had our money's worth. We couldn't wait to see what Day 2 would bring....