Goda Ferd and Takk Fyrir

My Iceland adventure is concluding and I have squeezed as much as I could into this trip considering the unfortunate closure of the Southeastern section of the ring road.  I love Iceland and it needs to be further explored.  The scenery is incredible, the people are intelligent and friendly (but not overly so) and there is so much to see and do here.  The center of the country needs 4wd vehicles, but has some outstanding scenery; there are hotpots, pools and hot springs everywhere that could take up weeks of exploration and, with the exception of the South, there are few people on the roads (especially the gravel ones!). A week is not enough but it is the time I allotted.  I’ve met some really interesting people and have seen some amazing sights, although no aurora was in my forecast for this trip.  Maybe next time . . .

There are a lot of photos for such a short trip, but I really had to pick and choose.  I have hundreds that I haven’t shared that are of incredible scenes.  Iceland is really a beautiful place and you could literally spend months exploring this place if the weather and your finances allowed.

For those who asked – here is what I have lived in for the past week.  It served me well, but the Wifi sucked!!!  Iceland is big on roundabouts to get around towns (always interesting) and one lane bridges (probably a necessity).  It’s been a driving challenge sometimes in a manual transmission van with six speeds.  Why?  It reminded me of Spinal Tap with the amp that goes to 11 and made me smile along the way.

I spent the last night in Dingvellir Park at the end of the Golden Circle.  It was super cold and I woke to a dusting of snow on the hills around me.  Time to head home!

By the way, the title means good luck and thank you.
See y'all soon.

Ta da!  Here it is! 

For inside pics, Happy Campers, Iceland

Love the moss in Iceland.  It covers everything!

This area is full of cairns and it's considered good luck to add a rock
(which of course I did).  The road department actually leaves a pile
of spare rocks for people so they can!

The beach in the town of Vik.

More beautiful scenes along the road.

Geysir (where the Icelanders say we got the word geyser).
I could have watched it go off all day.  Fascinating!

The real Gulfoss Falls (the falls in the first blog needs to be corrected, but I don't know what it's called!
This one is huge and noisy and wet!

The rift between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. 
Also the most important site to Icelanders as important meetings were
Held here by their Viking ancestors since somewhere between 800 and 900.
You can actually snorkel in lake and see the rift.  I met a nice couple from
the Toronto area that were going to do it the next day.  Cool!

An Incomplete Circle!

The ring road is broken!!!!  I found out this morning in Myvatin (about ¾ of the way around the ring road from Keflavik) that one section would not be repaired until at least Friday due to a flood that washed away the bridge!  Okay.  So I began my journey after spending a night in Myvatin and going to their version of the blue lagoon (blue, hot, not nearly as crowded, not as expensive and smells like the devil himself belched sulfur).  I can still smell it!  The campground was really nice and had a cappuccino machine for cheap, so I was okay with it.  Left there at 8:30 and here I am in Selfoss in the South of Iceland.  I had to stop myself from stopping at every beautiful landscape so that I would get here before dark.  I did, however, make one stop to walk up approximately 700 stairs to see a caldera (actually two calderas).   Turns out the island is not that big and I made it in plenty of time to walk into town, meet some people and take some photos.  I saw some socks in a window of a shop and went in to inquire as to their cost.  Turns out they do not sell them.  They will sell you a pattern on how to make them and sell you yarn.  The only things they had for sale were from India and Nepal!! Hmmm.  Since I bought a bottle of wine (the liquor store was hidden behind an apothecary (drug store) and had I not met some people from Pittsburgh, I might never have found it.  Anyway, since I bought a bottle of wine and didn’t have a corkscrew, I was in a dilemma.  While walking, I found a second hand store and inquired if they had a corkscrew.  They didn’t know what the thing I bought (for less than a dollar) was.  I, being a wine connoisseur, figured it out right away and showed them.  They, not being winos, smiled and still sold it to me for 50 kr.  Hope I can get it on the plane!  Here's some photos. 

Gravel Road Sheep Face-Off

Village on a Fjord

More Icelandic Horses

Game of Thrones???

Fog Moving In - I Later Drove Through This Fog!!!

Godafoss Waterfall

Smelly Hot Springs

Lake Myvatin at Sunset

Caldera 1

Caldera 2

The Amazing Corkscrew
Wine Glass

The Land of Fire and Ice

 

Here it is day 4 in Iceland.  I woke at sunrise this morning to notice that the sun is not visible.  Cloudy with a chance of rain.  It seems the norm for this time of year (possibly any time of year) so yesterday, a warm and sunny day may have been an exception.  Despite this, it is an enchanted land full of happy and very clean people (they love to bath and swim in the many hot springs and pools throughout Iceland). 

Day one involved a late arrival at Keflavik, a meeting from my Happy Camper representative and a trip to their headquarters with other happy campers.  After being checked out in my cute (the only word that truly describes it) camper, I headed out to find the grocery store, the liquor store (only 2% beer is available in grocery stores) and then headed off to the Blue Lagoon.  No photos are attached of it because it was sunset (pretty) and then dark and I left my camera and phone safely locked away from water damage.  You can look it up and see lots (although not crowded when I was there) of people in very pretty blue water with white masks on their faces lounging about.  That was me!  Lovely!

Then it was a trip in the dark to a campsite not far from the lagoon where I got a crash course in how to assemble, heat water, heat me, and make a bed in the camper.  Success!

I awoke on day two at TEN o’clock to pounding rain on the roof!  It rained on and off for the beginning of the day but tapered off toward afternoon.  After going round Reykjavik I went through the longest tunnel ever – about 7 km!  And came out to the scene of sheep and cows.  Just like that, the city was behind me!  The day and night was spent on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula which is the westernmost outcropping of the country and very beautiful.  Day three continued onSnaefellsnes and after a visit to a fishing village called Stykkisholmun (Stikkish for short) and a long 20+km on a gravel road (considered major thoroughfare), I spent the night at the beginning of the Westfjords.  I love the fjords.

I am driving in a clockwise direction on the ring road at the suggestion of the Andrew from Happy Campers who said the road is washed out in the South “but should be repaired by Sunday”.  Here’s hoping. 

Anyway, enough words.  The photos will show and I will say just that this island is outstandingly beautiful and one week is NOT enough!

 

This and the One Below are in Borgarnes

Cows and Sheep at the End of the Tunnel

A Famous Mountain Called Kirkjufell

Stikkish

Icelandic Horses

Buoardalur

Other photos are along the way and mostly on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula.

A Couple Stories and a Grand Finale

This last installment for this trip is being written from home because my travel computer broke on the last day I was in Thailand.  Happy it waited! Transportation in Thailand is, for the most part, incredibly well done.  They transport thousands of people each day from place to place.  An example of this is returning from the island of Koh Tao to the mainland of Chumphon and on to Hua Hin or Bangkok.  You buy your ticket in Koh Tao to Hua Hin (in my case). You show up at the pier and check in and they give you a color coded sticker for you and one for your luggage with the name of the destination (in my case purple/Hua Hin). You take the ferry and check in at the ferry terminal in Chumphon.  They give you a color coded triangle and one for your luggage (mine was orange).  I am now wearing on my shirt a purple circle and an orange triangle.  Others have red or blue or green triangles and circles.  A caravan of buses show up, each with a different colored triangle in their front window and you simply get on the bus with the triangle matching the one on your shirt! That is the good part of travel in Thailand.  The bad part is when the train you have taken from Hua Hin to Bangkok stops just short of your destination and they say it will be one hour to fix it.  When, 20 minutes later, they still said "about one hour", everyone got off the train and, this being Thailand and near Bangkok, we discovered a Metro station close by, and a bunch of tourists were on their way to their respective hotels in Bangkok.  Don't know if the train ever made it!

The Girl on the Cliff

• It was almost 3 and the snorkel boats were arriving, so I decided it was time to leave the beach.  I had been there since 10 anyway.  Three pretty young Italian girls in thongs arrived just as a guy was jumping off the large rock in the water, so one of them got the idea to do it also.  Five minutes later she arrived after swimming and then climbing the rope to the top.  There she stood.  She couldn't jump.  I was, as I said, leaving but now I could not.  I had to see the conclusion.  So I watched and her friend on the beach held her phone at the ready to record the jump when/IF it happened.  I'm guessing it looks a lot further from the top as she would walk to the edge, look down, walk back from the edge and sit for awhile.  This went on for quite awhile and then people on the snorkel boat close by began shouting words of encouragement to her.  Time passed.  Soon, there were 6 to 8 people in the water at the base of the rock shouting, "Jump" and "You can do it".  At this point, the whole beach was involved and first one, and then two people went up the rock to talk to her and show her how they did it.  Truthfully, even if I could have climbed up the rope (doubtful), I'm not sure I could have jumped.  Anyway, FINALLY she did it!  She jumped - and everyone cheered and applauded her triumph!  And I left the beach.                                                                                                                           

The Road Situation

• There has been a LOT of rain in Southern Thailand - even more than Northern California.  Roads have been washed away and two national parks that I tried to visit were completely or partially closed.  This day, I was a passenger on a double decker bus returning from Koh Tao on my way to Hua Hin when traffic came to a stop.  I looked out the window and saw that the bridge footings as well as an actual section of bridge had been washed away during the previous storms.  Construction teams were there (in their requisite footwear of flip-flops) but this being a major route, it couldn't wait for repair. SO, a metal ramp was laid across the missing section and traffic proceeded: double decker buses, tractor trailers loaded with cars, delivery trucks, tuk-tuks, cars, etc.  I'm here, so I guess it worked!    

• 

  This and the two below are Mu Khao Sam Roi Yot NP

  
  

  
  

   
  
  
  
   I spent one night in Hua Hin, a city where the recently deceased king had a residence.  There is a park nearby (Mu Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park) that I was interested in seeing for two reasons: A walkway over some wetlands which ends up at a beautiful overview of the park (closed) and Phraya Nakhon Cave which contains a pavilion built for King Rama V for when he visited the area (not sure how he got there as it was no easy task).  It involved a small boat ride around a large rock outcropping to get to another beach where you walked up many, many steps through the forest and then descended into a cave for awhile before coming to the pavilion.  The grand finale is pictured below and, while difficult to reach, if you hit this at the right time when the sun is in the right position, it is breathtaking!

Along the Way

More Stairs

The Cave

Called 'Death Bridge'

And Finally!

And that, friends, is all for now.