Saturday, June 25, 2016

Around Iceland in 14 days (article 4 of 10)

Day 6
27 Aug 2015
Gullfoss, Gluggafoss, Icelandic Horse, Eyjafjallajokull 


First stop
Top up 44L of Diesel. Cost: EUR1.36 per litre (vs Netherlands EUR1.15 ~ 18% higher) totalling EUR59. Then did groceries. 




Figure: Stopped by an interesting craft shop selling local products at the back of the supermarket. Sold the Icelandic sweaters called 'Lopapeysa' which are hand-knitted woolen sweaters, local farm products and local savouries.



Figure: There are a lot of abandoned barns that I saw along the way which make a beautiful photo against a stunning backdrop.


Gullfoss
Drove 6km.

As soon as you park your vehicle, you can hear the powerful Gullfoss, a waterfall loacted in a canyon. The flow is so powerful that the whole area is misty from water droplets making to photograph it a bit more challenging as the lens gets misty fairly quickly. Due to the powerful nature of the flow, there were plans (later abandoned) to tap it for hydroelectricity by a private company. This is now protected. This is one of Iceland's popular tourist spot.


Figure: A family walking towards the waterfall. You can here the thunderous roar of the Gullfoss from a distance. It is such an experience.


Figure: Gullfoss in her full glory.







Figure: Iceland's landcape changes as you travel around the island and you are always tempted to stop to take photos. You need to do this safely, i.e park your car at a designated parking or at the entrance of a farm road. It may mean that you have to walk a bit. If it is not practical to do so, don't worry, there are many other spots. I see too many tourists who stop their car along the side road or the shoulder of the highway which is not only illegal, but dangerous for other road users.






Figure: We saw this beautiful house against a snow capped mountain range, stopped safely at the entrance road. Found this location in an Icelandic tour brochure later!













Figure: You can't leave Iceland without seeing the Icelandic horses in close distance, they are small almost pony like. Iceland zealously guard the purity of their horses by not allowing cross breeding and also zero importation of horses from overseas. Where their horses compete in foreign competition, they are left behind and not brought back home. (Left photo by Mye)



















Figure: These are hays bundled into a plastic roll to make the hay last as long as 3 years to feed the hay eaters of Iceland. We saw how these were automatically made, hay is cut into a harvester like machine and voila within seconds, the bundle is spat out at the back of the harvester. See how the Icelandic bale hay wrapper works. (Photo by Mye)




Glugafoss (Waterfall)
Drove 113km.




Figure: Gluggafoss falls down a cliff. There is a short path from the car park to the base of the waterfall. This waterfall used to flow down directly into Iceland coastline during the Ice Age.


Eyjafjallajokull Museum (but closed)
Drove 30km

We were looking forward to visit this small museum that is owned and operated by a local farmer, but was unfortunately closed when we got there. There were a few other visitors that came by and left, too. However there is an info board that was helpful.

When it erupted in 2010 causing massive disruption in Europe; many airports were closed for 6 days due to safety concerns that the ash cloud may damage aeroplane's turbine blades in air. It was the largest airspace shutdown since WW2 costing airlines a whopping US$1.7b impacting 10 million passengers all over the world. The Icelandic airlines were still operating with some modification to their trips operating out of Akureyri airport and making Glasgow airport as the transit point to other destinations thus minimised cancellation of trips. 






Figure: Eyjafjallajokull - some tourist T-shirts challenge you to pronounce it!






Figure: Drove so far 422km.



Drove 50 km total travel 472km. Overnight at Vik-I-Myrdal Campsite which accepts the Camping Card and paid EUR5 I guess for Municipal Tax. What a relief to find that they have a washing machine and drier which we paid EUR11 for.

This is the most southern village in Iceland. Population 300.




Figure: At every campsite big or small there will be a long water hose for you to topup the freshwater and in our case the 40L jerry can.











Figure: A DAF camper truck with German plates which I think is super cool.




End of Article 4.          Next Click Here



Links to:
Article 1 - Reykjavik
Article 2- Bridge Between 2 continents, Seltun Geothermal steam, Blue Lagoon, first overnight stay in Campervan, Aurora
Article 3 - Pingvellir Parliament, Geyser Southwest
Article 4 - (this article) - South Gulfoss, Gluggafoss, Eyjafjallajokull volcano
Article 5 - Black Sand Beach, View of the Glacier
Article 6 - Glacier Walk, Zodiac Boat Ride in the Lake, Ice Beach
Article 7 - Hofn and Fjardabyggd
Article 8 - Hverir, Myvatn Nature Bath and Lake Myvatn
Article 9 - Whale watching, Exploration Museum, Godafoss Waterfall, Akureyri Sundlaug 

Article 10 - Akureyri Christmas Shop, 14th Century Port, Old Church, Dalvik, Beautiful valley Oxnadalur, Overnight Varmahlid, Glaumbaer turf house, Hill with crater, Reykjavik city, Last Sundlaug




No comments:

Post a Comment