Iceland part III - the ring road
Unfortunately I can't tell you where this was taken because there were no sign posts but wherever we were, there were Icelandic sheep, so I was happy.
Our first stop was Höfn, with it's pretty harbour.
Then we headed down the Laekjavik Coast.
We found lots of bird life and some craggy rock formations en route.
Black beaches and threatening skies, a familiar Icelandic combination. I try if I can to avoid people in my shots unless I want to give you some idea of scale. Tiny people = very large rock formations.
We continued along the coast until we reached Djupivogur where we stopped for lunch.
Djupivogur is home to these unique egg sculptures, known as Eggin I Gleovik.
Another view of the eggs.
Being Iceland there had to be a waterfall close by, this one is Djupivogur Foss.
We picked up some supplies for dinner because we had access to a kitchen at our accommodation, the Modrudalur Farm. It was a nice change to sit down to a steaming bowl of pasta eaten at the table, family style, in our little cottage.
The first thing we saw when we arrived was this pretty little church. I however was on the hunt for Icelandic horses so I dumped my pack and went outside with my camera.
This is what I captured on about my 10th shot. Those horses wriggle a great deal.
I found these sheep grazing in an adjoining field. I couldn't help myself and took yet another Icelandic sheep photo but more was in store.
One of the boys came in excitedly because he'd spotted 2 Arctic Foxes outside. Again we rushed outside with our cameras and found these 2 having the best time chasing one another across the fields. I waited as patiently as I could to take a decent shot and these were the best 2 images I managed to capture. The 2 cubs were so cute and again this was another highlight of the journey to Iceland.
The view from our cottage window. We stayed at a different place each night so the next day we packed up and drove on because we had more waterfalls to visit.
The first waterfall we visited was Dettifoss.
The second waterfall we visited was Sellfoss. This waterfall was one we had to walk into, through spooky lava fields.
Next stop was the Asbyrgi Canyon, another very busy site.
Jens our tour guide wasn't promising anything but he said we might see puffins before arriving at our lunch stop, Husavik. We stopped and we saw puffins. They were lovely but without a telephoto lens my images of them are just little black, white and orange dots.
Here's a photo of one of my trip mates Marco, getting serious. You can see the result here on his instagram feed.
Our lunch stop Husavik, was a busy town filled with whale watchers. I looked on with some envy because we weren't going out on one of the boats. Instead we climbed back on the bus because we were going to the Mývatn district to view lava fields and mud pools.
This is Leirhnjukur and this is the Víti Crater, a lava lake.
We walked past the lake to these smoking lava fields, unique because they weren't created by a volcanic eruption.
Some bubbling pools of mud at Namaskard.
We'd been promised a dip in a thermal pool so we stopped at the Myvatn nature baths. I'm not a huge fan of the smell of sulphur so I stayed upstairs in the cafe area writing a blog post while the others frolicked in the water.
We had one or two more stops before arriving at our accommodation for the night. The first Dimmuborgir, with it's troll like rock formations. Then Skútustaðir with it's psuedocraters and pretty fields of hay. Local farmers have been encouraged to use pink covers to promote breast cancer awareness.
I'll leave you with one of my favourite photos from Skútustaðir.
See you all again next week,
Bye for now,
Jillian
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