Day 12 - Southwest Iceland (Gullfoss, Geysir, Þingvellir National Park) and back to Reykjavik

Today we left Laugaras and took the route 35 first to Gullfoss where there lies a magnificent waterfall. We arrived and there was literally not a soul in sight. However a few minutes later, the Japanese tourists (same ones from yesterday!!) arrived, so we took our photos then walked to the nearby cafeteria which is famous for its lamb soup, so guess what we had for our snack? By this point the tourists were pouring in, there were about a dozen or so tour buses, vans and other vehicles in the small parking lot.

Gullfoss in its mighty glory. The wind is not captured in the photo but I can assure you it was very cold with very strong winds.  Gullfoss flows along a ravine.

Shiver me timbers...

Back in the cafeteria I bought some souvenirs after we had our soup and then we took the route 35 to Geysir.

Some photos here. We sat and waited for the geyser called Strokkur to burst, which took a few minutes but it's quite impressive when it happens. The other geyser, called Geysir has stopped errupting.

Geysir, now defunct.

Strokkur, erupting.

Strokkur, erupting the sequel.

We also went to the exhibition centre. Many scientific facts, history, and a strange head of a woman projected onto a rock surface. She was speaking icelandic so I had no idea what she was talking about.

Woman head projected on to a rock.

Energy in Iceland, 99% of it is clean renewable energy, how cool is that??

After that we had a look at the store and I bought a few things here, wind proof gloves, a thin wind proof jacket and a wind proof beanie. It's going to be colder in Norway so I figured this would be a good time to load up.

After that we took the route 37 to Laugarvatn hoping to get the route 365 to Þingvellir but it was closed so we had to take a long detour back to the 35 then on to the 36. Basically it took us at least 2.5 times longer than what it would have.

We arrived and Þingvellir, where the first parliament was found, and took a walk to the great rift called Almannagjá. This is where the tectonic plates meet i.e North America and Europe. The rift expands by 2mm each year. So this spot is extremely well known.

Some scenery while walking to Almannagjá.

Do not donate coins to the water!

The actual plate.  Awesome!

At the top, the scenery is stunning.

Inscription for the National Park, click on the image to read it.

Me in my new clothes.  This is taken along the walkway to Almannagjá.

We also took a walk to a few other spots around the area, the "law rock", and walked back to the jeep after that as it was close to sunset.  We continued on the 36 but unfortunately just when we were 34 kms away from Reykjavik, the road had too much snow and we got stuck in it.. again (digging in snow with wind blowing in all directions is not fun). Fortunately some Icelandic people with land rovers drove past and helped us out. They said the road wasn't suitable for 4WD vehicles so we had to go back all the way along the 36 then caught route 1 to Reykjavik. Something that would've taken has half an hour took us at least 2 hours longer than expected. Well we're still alive, and that's all that matters!

We had dinner at the nearby Mexican place, we're staying in the same hotel we were originally when we got here. There was an Australian sitting next to us and he wouldn't stop talking. He actually came here alone and he was going to other places in Europe and Asia as well. I suppose since he's travelling alone he doesn't get to talk much so... anyway, tomorrow is our last day in Reykjavik before we catch the plane to London and then to...

NORWAY!