Left the campground after a very rainy night and headed west for more adventures. The waterfalls were running well after a night of rain.
There was a folk museum that we wanted to visit in Skogar but it was closed for the season. The tourist season around here in June-Aug and many of the hotels, campgrounds and sites are closed either Aug 31 or Sept. 15th. Tourism is just beginning to take hold in Iceland and they are being deluged by tourists before they are really prepared for them so they are building and planning like crazy. They are making good strides but have work to do. One of the most frustrating things is the language...All of the brochures, books and maps have places in English but few reference the icelandic name. Meanwhile, most of the signs only have the Icelandic name and the signs are the size of street signs in the states so it's easy to fly by and miss what you are looking for. They are working on it and hopefully that is one of the top priorities! As navigator for this trip, there's many a day I have torn my hair out and said a few unpleasant words regarding this. However, we have found some interesting things wandering down an unknown road.
Back to the wide open road- better known as the "Ring Road" around here. There are hundreds of miles of lava related scenery. Much of it is barren from more recent eruptions but the most pleasant to go through is the moss covered fields. It's fascinating to see the cracks and crevices, mounds and stacks as you drive through this type of landscape. Iceland is a very young country even though they have written records back to the very beginning of human living here.
We have crossed over into the Reykjanes Peninsula from the South. Still lots of lava. These are some of the high cliffs along the shoreline here. We drove to Grindavic and then headed north to the infamous Blue Lagoon. This is a huge geothermal pool in an intriging black lava field. According to Lonely Planet "The water is fed from the Svartsengi geothermal plant down the hill. The superheated water (70% seawater, 30% fresh at 38 degrees C. - perfect) is rich in blue-green algae, mineral salts and fine silica mud. Folks who arrived without prebought tickets could opt for the 9:30 pm time slot. We were not interested in the pool...John just wanted to see if he could get some pictures of the area. You walk through a black lava canyon to get to the changing rooms (700 lockers so you can imagine the size of this operation!) Every town in Iceland has a pool with two or three hot pots to go along with it...it's the national pastime. However, the water was quite stunning. On down the road we go...
Free portion of the Blue Lagoon.
And we ended the day at the campground we started this adventure at - the Garoskagi....see our little red camper van near the top. This was taken from the top of the lighthouse after we had a snack of a smoked lamb sandwich. Maybe northern lights tonight.
PS. You will note a difference in the date of the Post and the date following the title. In order for me to keep these ahead of the photoless posts I made at the beginning, I am having to back date them. At some point before 2017 I hope to have this corrected and everything will be in it's proper place :-)!!
