Per our tour guide, Kristin, we had a strict schedule to stick to today so that we
could make it to our snorkeling excursion time at 5:00. Kristin, Brandon, and I
headed out at 8:00 to go to the black sand beach. Kristin and Brandon wanted to
gather some sand and I just wanted to see the beach. Unfortunately it was raining so
after picking up the sand and snapping a couple of pictures we headed back into town
to get gas and find something for breakfast. At the gas station we got some freshly
cooked personal pizzas that we took back to the AirBnB. They were still hot after
the couple of minutes drive back. We were actually getting sucked into an episode of
Dr. Phil, but needed to be out the door by 9:00.
Our first stop was at the Skogafoss waterfall. We could already tell that we were entering the more touristy area of Iceland with the amount of tourist buses in the parking lot. We barely saw tourists buses the rest of the trip. Tom and I made the climb up several steps to get a view from the top of the waterfall and for me to grab a geocache. Unfortunately the cache container was gone, but I saw it’s hiding spot.
The second stop was at Seljalandsfoss waterfall. Here I was able to grab a quick geocache (not very far out of the way) and Kristin, Brandon, and I ventured to do the walk behind the waterfall, while Tom used his tripod and tried to get his perfect waterfall picture. We got a tad bit wet from the walk behind the waterfall, but it was worth it. After a few more pictures, it was back in the car to the next stop.
The third stop was at Gulfoss waterfall and here we officially entered the “Golden Circle” of Iceland. This is an unofficial declaration where tourists from Reykjavik can take an easy day tour to catch some of Iceland’s highlights. Boy could we tell the difference when we pulled up to Gulfoss. There was a big souvenir shop and cafeteria, and the toilets at the entry cost $2 to use! They also had a nice boardwalk path down to the waterfall and many, many tourist buses. We are so glad that it was not like this our entire trip. After seeing so many waterfalls, the impressiveness starts to wear off a little bit and being packed with tourists is distracting. We did decide to eat lunch there though, as it really was quite convenient.
Kristin helped us stick to our schedule for the day and after a quick second browse in the gift shop, we headed to Geysir. It felt weird that this was here, as it seemed it should have been in the Myvtan region with all of the other geo-thermal activity. But alas, the smaller geysir blew, Tom got his pictures and we were on our way. After seeing Old Faithful at Yellowstone, this wasn’t quite as exciting.
Still on schedule, we had time to go to our AirBnB for the night to drop off our things. Up to this point, we have had no problems locating our lodgings for each evening. This night was just a tad different. The directions indicated that we needed to pass through a gate and that we either had to call or set a meeting time for the owners to lift it for us. We hadn’t set a pre-arranged time and we could have called (and been charged $10 on my cell phone), but we happened to arrive at the gate as someone else was coming out, so they were nice enough to use their opener (like a garage door opener) for us. First mini-crisis adverted. Next was to find our house. The directions were a bit sketchy and after making several wrong turns, we somehow stumbled upon the house. It is the most spacious accommodations we have been in on this entire trip. I think the house may be bigger than our house and has a hot tub! It’s a great way to end the trip.
With just having a few minutes to drop our stuff and to visit the bathroom, we were back in the car to Pingvellir National Park for our snorkeling excursion in the Silfra Fissure. The fissure is a crack in the area where the North American and Eurasian contients meet. The water is extremely cold and super clear as it is glacial water that is filtered through porous underground lava for 30-100 years. We were suited up in dry suits (they were a little different then the dry suites we had for white water rafting) and made the short walk over to the entry point. We had been warned the water would be cold on our face and hands, and that was no lie. It didn’t bother my face as much as my hands. We had gloves on, but water still gets in them. It was super easy to float and not much kicking was needed. The water was unbelievably clear. There is no marine life, but it was completely worth doing. They say we snorkel for 30-40 minutes, but it felt like 15. I honestly don’t know how long it was, but I do know I was ready to get out since I could no longer feel my fingers. It was a great experience to do once, but wouldn’t necessarily have to do it again.
We were hoping to find a grocery store to pick up some frozen pizzas to cook at the AirBnB, but we didn’t pass any on the way to snorkeling. We did stop at the visitor’s center for the park and saw they had pizzas for sale. The normally cook them for people to eat there, but we asked if they came frozen and if we could take them to cook ourselves. We were surprised to find we could! We just wanted to get back to the house to relax and use the hot tub.
It has been an exhausting trip but so wonderful and amazing. Still can’t believe it’s coming to an end.
