Keeping You Up With The Joneses: June 2008

Iceland May Longweekend - Day 4

After another very long day, our fourth and last day was far more relaxing with a stop at the Blue Lagoon, which is not the same one as the movie! Here's some facts and photos...

"The Blue Lagoon geothermal seawater is a part of an ecocycle where nature and science work in harmony. The seawater originates 2000 meter/6562 ft beneath the ground where it is heated by earth’s natural forces. At this depth the temperature is 240°C/464°F and the pressure is 36 times the pressure on the earth’s surface. The geothermal seawater comes into contact with cooling magmatic intrusions and captures the earth’s minerals, resulting in this unique natural source known for its healing power and actives.The composition of minerals in the water is very distinctive and has a high level of silica. Its environment is characterized by high temperature and salinity level of 2.5% which is 1/3 of the ocean’s salinity level."

We've got a silica face mask on which they've got in big tubs around the lagoon!

Iceland May Longweekend - Day 3

Day three was another early start with our second tour starting at 8am. Today we were off to the South Coast and the Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon. It was a very long trip there, about 7 hours with two very short stops on the way and the same back. On the way out we stopped at Skogarfoss waterfall which is apparently guarded by a troll (see if you can see him in the rocks!) as there is a treasure behind it. Our second stop was for lunch which for necessity was very short! On the way to the lagoon we had some stunning scenery of the Oraefajokull glacier where it comes down through the mountains. This was where it was unfortunate that we were on a bus tour and couldn't just stop to take photos. Luckily on the way back Ben managed to get some out of the window, as well as there being a conveniently located toilet stop!!

The first sight of the lagoon drew gasps from the whole bus. All of a sudden, from within a landscape of black rock we could get glimpses of brilliant blue water with thousands of icebergs floating in the water. The lagoon gets bigger every year with 100m of the glacier breaking off more icebergs and the icebergs melting relatively quickly as the lagoon is a 50/50 mix of fresh and salt water. We took a boat out onto the lagoon to get a closer look and also got to taste some ice. The ice is crystal clear and very compact and is apparently 1000 to 1500 years old. It was very refreshing to taste and of course very cold!! It was quite amazing to be so close to these things and to remember that the small amount sticking above the water was only 10% of the total size! After the boat trip we were able to walk closer to the sea to watch the seals lazing in the water. They were quite shy seals and very hard to get a good photo of as most of the time they only just had their heads above the water. Luckily Ben had his zoom lens with the little extra bit to give him even more zoom (there's got to be a technical and shorter word for that!) so he was able to get some shots.

On our trip back to Reykjavik we stopped at a little town called Vik for dinner. Vik is apparently in a precarious location as if there's a sub-glacial volcanic eruption it would cause part of the glacier to melt and that would then flood Vik! At least the glacier would have already cooled the lava flow I guess!! We also stopped at another waterfall called Seljalandsfoss which just ended the day perfectly. Despite it being 8 at night the sun was still fairly high and setting perfectly infront of the falls basking it in glowing evening light. This made for a perfect setting and from some angles you could even see a rainbow. Ben just thought this stop made our whole trip as for once on one of his latest holidays he had the perfect light for taking photos!!

Iceland May Longweekend - Day 2

Day two was a quiet day for us. We wandered into the city centre and managed to bump into a girl I went to school with for 13 years, Mel Shaw!! She lives in London, but it was still funny to see someone from Adelaide in Iceland! We decided to do a whale watching and puffin tour to fill in our afternoon, it was supposed to last 3 hours but we ended up being out the for 5 as they were determined to see a whale. Unfortunately there were no whales, which was very disappointing as they did say we had a 98% chance of seeing one, but we did see some dolphins and we certainly saw a lot of puffins! I was very relieved to be back on shore though as I had gotten quite sea sick and it was so very cold. After a reviving meal it was time to watch the Eurovision song contest and get an early night as we were being picked up at 7.30 the following morning for another all day tour.