A trip to Iceland (not the supermarket)

Day 1
Our Scandinavian journey began at the ungodly hour of 5.30am and some 12 hours later after leaving Bournemouth we had arrived in Reykjavik, the first destination of our three week trip in Scandinavia.

Reykjavik is the capital of Iceland and the northern most capital in Europe. Our guesthouse was located on the fringe of the main town centre, only a short 10-15 minute walk away. Our accommodation was basic but clean and the Chinese owner was friendly. It was, however, freakishly quiet on our first night. Peak season doesn't start here until June.

Our Iceland Air flight from Heathrow in London took us to Keflavik Airport which is a 45 minute journey by bus into Reykjavik itself. Our first evening was spent walking around, getting our bearings, and finding a place to eat. We settled for a cheap burger & fries meal in a small student looking diner/bar. Iceland is extremely pricey - more so than these budget backpackers have faced in the time over here - so this was to be our only meal out in the capital! I was tempted to have a beer but at £6 a pint (NZ$15) it can wait!

Day 2
We knew Iceland was going to be the most expensive place to visit on this trip but you just can't come here and not enjoy everything this fascinating and beautiful country has to offer. It is an extremely volcanic island and the results of it's explosive (literally!) past have resulted in a country of many landscapes you´re unlikely to see elsewhere in the world.

Our second day started with a whale watching trip. You don´t have to venture too far from the harbour in Reykjavik to see a variety of whales and the likely rate of seeing them is something like 95%. Sure enough before we had really got going a minke whale was spotted 80m or so away from where we were. And so screamed the tour host (with what sounded much like a German accent) "Minkee whale! Very close now! 80 metres...11 o clock!" Minke whales can, at times, be as curious of the tourists as they are of them. But, on this occasion, the big fella continued to head away from us. Amazingly the Icelandic still hunt whale so I'm not surprised they keep their distance!

We later spotted porpoises and a number of puffins but we weren´t fortunate enough to see a whale come right up to the boat.

In the evening we enjoyed a bottle of wine back at the guesthouse with a couple from Washington DC, exchanging stories and all that stuff. It was great that, even in this early part of their summer, we had day light up until 10.30pm but even going past midnight it never really got that dark outside.

Day 3

Our third day was by far one of the best days we´ve had on our travels so far. There are a number of tour operators that charge, in some cases, excessive amounts for various trips but we thought it would be a hell of a lot more fun to do the trip ourselves. We hired a little Hyundai Getz and hit the road bright and early to make the most of the day! It was a bit freaky at first seeing as I hadn´t driven in close to two years, not to mention my first time behind the wheel in a left hand drive on the other side of the road!

Lucky for me Reykjavik is only a small city so once I negotiated the inner city traffic and got on the motorway it was a breeze. So away we went admiring the views and heading off up into the mountains. Great! Except 30 minutes into the journey we realised we were heading the wrong way - oops!

We´d set our sights on a rather ambitious journey to the south-east coast of Iceland to a place called Jökulsárlón. It was to be a whopping 800km round trip that ended close to 11pm but well worth the time and money!

Along the way we made stop offs at the waterfall at Seljalandfoss before a failed attempt to negotiate the gravel (and eventually rocky) roads heading into the Porsmork National Park. Them there roads are designed for super-jeeps and the like not my little four door hatch-back - it´s underneath felt the brunt of some of those particularly big stones! We backtracked to the main highway and continued on our journey.

We later came across an even bigger waterfall at Skógarfoss and parked up by the beach at stopped for lunch amid stormy weather in the small town of Vik. We munched our salami & cheese sarnies from the safety of the car but at times you thought the wind that was whipping down off the mountains might just Getz us on it's way to the sea! (poor, I know)

The journey took us past snow capped mountains, deserts of black volcanic sand, rocks covered in green moss and numerous pictureqsue small farming communities. The best was yet to come though when we reached Jökulsárlón.

Jökulsárlón is the lake at the foot of Europe´s largest glacier and it is changing every year as pieces break off and drift out to sea. When we got there the one small tourist hut was closed but there were a couple of other cars parked up. The icebergs there were just unreal. You could actually see and hear the ice cracking and breaking off into smaller segments.

On our way back to the car I got a bit of a shock when I saw something pop it´s head out of the water. It disappeared but when I looked further out I could see several heads of curious little seals! We figured that at this late time in the day they were probably out catching dinner with the tide bringing fish up the river. Seals aren´t known for venturing out of the water but as we purched up on the rocks in awe they were definately interested in who we were - at times staring at us before diving under!

The drive home was long and we were both shattered by the time we got home from an excellent day out.

Day 4

It had been a busy first few days in Iceland...but there was still more to check off the 'must do' list! We had missed out on the Friday night runter (a sort of weekly open pub crawl in Reykjavik) but the drinks prices put us off and there was too much to see and do without a hangover to deal with the next day. Boozing could come later in the trip!

It was Saturday morning and we were one of the first to arrive at the world famous Blue Lagoon pools for a hot dip in the geothermally heated pools. A brief dip in the 48 degree milky blue-green water was a great way to start the day. Everybody looked quite funny with that grey mud stuff plastered all over their faces (Sheryl included) but apparently it´s good for you. I'll go without, thanks.

Hiring a car and driving the previous day had saved us a hell of a lot of money had we joined a couch tour, but for a trip to the Gullfoss waterfalls and the Geysirs it worked out better to jump on a bus with the tourists.

The tour began at the breaktaking Pingvellir National Park, a World Heritage Site, where we were able to walk in cracks of the tectonic plates that have been caused by continental drift. From there we went to the impressive Gullfoss waterfall (the second biggest in Iceland) and eventually to the Geysirs...where some of the tourists seemed more than happy to stand right next to bubbling hot springs likely to spray scolding hot water into their faces!

The annoying older American couple behind us on the bus would have been more than welcome to step a bit closer!

We'd managed to cram a hell of a lot in during our four nights in Iceland. It really is quite an amazing country, if it weren´t so damn expensive. Next up - Copenhagen in Denmark!