Catching up

Another busy day! Today was even better than yesterday. For the first time we got to Iceland, we had some sun. It still rained but almost always when we were in the car. Justin is working on uploading today's pictures, so I thought I'd update on yesterday's post.

Yesterday was all about the waterfalls. We realized today that we have seen so many waterfalls that some really spectacular ones get a 'oh, how cute' when they really deserve more. But this country is just crazy with beautiful waterfalls to see!

The first picture is Gljúfrabúi, my favourite waterfall so far. It was hidden behind a rock, so you have to wade up a shallow river to get inside (yay for Goretex hiking boots!). You then stand in a small cave and look upwards. Just like so many places in Iceland, the walls are coated with moss and growing plants. We only took the Adixxion (similar to a GoPro) since I was worried about getting the DSLR wet. It seemed like a special secret - mostly because it is a 5 minute walk from one of the biggest tourist draws in the region (Seljalandsfoss - a huge waterfall that you can walk 360* around) and so few people made the trek over to its smaller, hidden cousin.
This blogger shares most of my thoughts, here:
http://stuckiniceland.com/south/the-hidden-beauty-of-gljufrabui/

Our second picture is a panorama showing how close Gljúfrabúi (on the left) is to
Seljalandsfoss (the spray to the right). It also showed the 20 minutes of sun we got yesterday.
Land of Fire and Ice... more like Land of Rain, Clouds and Wind if you ask me!

Third picture is a building built into a huge hunk of rock on this farm's property - falling into ruin. Apparently it was in a movie set in Iceland. We stopped by to try and find a geocache - but when we realized it was in the cave above and to the right of the building, on the wet grass, we decided not to risk death and destruction and just got some nice pictures instead.

Fourth picture is Skogofoss, a 60m tall monster waterfall. It was raining hard at this stop, but we still soldiered through the 350 or so steps up above, to be rewarded with the view of a second smaller waterfall just upriver. We had a lunch at the cafe on site - I had the local arctic char on garlic potato puree and it was really good! Most of our meals have been food brought from home or on the road (we had our first gas station hot dog today - wrapped in bacon with fried onion bits) because the food here is crazy expensive. So is everything, for that matter. We haven't had a night's accomodation for less than $95, and that included hostels and AirBNB's. Many places will even charge you $10 each for sheets on top of the fee! But I digress...

Fifth picture shows the high winds ripping away at some small waterfalls near Seljalandsfoss. It is seriously windy here. Lean-into-it and force your way forward windy.

Sixth picture is Seljalandsfoss and clearly shows how you can walk behind it. It's very beautiful. The rock cavern behind is all sorts of colours - grey and brown rock with tons of different lichens and mosses. Again, we only took the Adixxion action camera behind so the pictures there don't do it justice.

Seventh picture is an isolated rock in a riverbed on the way to a glacier, caught in a sunbeam. We ended up turning around - after speaking to people going the other way, who had given up fording a river in their VW van after seeing a Land Rover pushed sideways by the water. Our trusty steed the Suzuki Subaru has been great, but it wasn't up to that! We're learning to keep checking weather and road reports multiple times throughout the day.

Eight - more waterfalls being snatched by wind

Ninth and Tenth pictures - one of my favourite stops of the trip so far! After driving about 10 minutes along a black rock/sand beach to what looks like nowhere, you come up to this wreck of a DC-3 which crashed years ago after icing up (luckily, it sounds like everyone survived). I'm still learning the ropes on my DSLR that I got last winter, and it's been fun to practice with technique and settings, especially when the subject is as interesting (and patient) as this one!
This blog has a stunning picture of the plane set against the northern lights, and directions that show how out-of-the-way this plane is:
http://expertvagabond.com/airplane-crash-wreckage-iceland/

Eleven and Twelve (what is this, Doctor Who?) are sea pictures from Dyrhólaey Beach which show how rough the ocean was yesterday. Suprisingly enough we didn't hear of the ferry cancelling trips again yesterday - so how bad was the sea on the night we got momentarily stranded?

The last picture is a blurry and far-away picture of a puffin, but it's the best one we have so far. We've enjoyed watching their fighter-pilot antics, but hope to get more closeups before we leave!

We checked in at our hostel, had a shower, and went to bed early as we got up at 5:45 am to try and catch the sunrise at Dyrhólaey - ha! Fat chance. But we still had a great time - and Justin will pick it up from here. It's now 12:20 am for us and I'm off to bed - these are long days! Tonight we realized that in the last 14 days we've slept in 10 different beds. Although we're having a great time travelling, it's certainly not as relaxing as staying at home! I think I'll enjoy the stability of living in England then taking little weekend trips, rather than carting around everything we need for the year.

More updates from me tomorrow!

Lastly, if you haven't followed Lenny and Heather's excellent blog about Digby's year in London Ontario but are interested, please check out the link here: http://guizzetti.ca/blogs/digby/

Anyone who knows Dig will realize how well they capture his thought process (what little there is, anyways) and the pictures are adorable. We're so indebted to them for giving him such a great home and setting our minds at ease with multiple daily updates!