23 August 2021 Rain, wind and fog: an Icelandic farewell. The last three days of our trip have been such a contrast for weather with our journey around the island. We had in mind a hike up to Glymur, the second highest waterfall in the country, but a three hour walk with gale winds blowing » » »

22 August 2021 There’s a particular kind of American tourist that stays at hotels like the Konsultat. They wear the best quality adventure gear, and discuss with noisy confidence today’s guided adventure, or talk about their family relationships so we can all hear. Anyway, the breakfast buffet at the Konsultat is great. It’s the first » » »

21 August 2021 Today was a washout. We left early, so we could get to Landmannalaguar ahead of the day-trip crowds from Reykjavik. In the event when we arrived there were already a half-dozen tour buses, fifty cars and vans, and forty tents. There was also a strong cold mountain wind driving the rain at » » »

20 August 2021 We left Akyureri this morning feeling a bit guilty; we had spent two nights in Iceland’s “second city” and hadn’t seen any more of it than our apartment and two restaurants. But it really didn’t look very interesting, like a small nondescript modern town anywhere in Europe. And a long day’s drive » » »

19 August 2021 Oops. Today I drove too fast down a dirt road that was being re-graded, and kicked up a hidden rock which dented the inside wheel rim and so deflated one of our tyres. On the plus side: I heroically changed to the spare wheel once we had limped two kilometers on to » » »

18 August 2021 We wasted three hours driving out to Borgarfjörður Eystri and back. The “cute” fishing village is just a bunch of scattered tin houses. The main reason to come is a puffin colony within a couple of yards of a viewing platform… but alas, most of the colony had left, and the ones » » »

17 August 2021 In complete contrast to yesterday, Tuesday dawned cloudy and became foggy and then rainy. We drove eastwards in the hope that the weather might lift as we reached the scenic beauty of the fjords, but no such luck. With nothing to see above maybe fifty metres over sea level, we took a » » »

16 August 2021 Just to defy our expectations, today dawned a faultless blue and stayed warm and sunny through the entire day. We hiked in T-shirts up to Svartifoss waterfall and then up to the glacier viewpoint at Sjónarnípa, which was magnificent. We even got hot enough to want a cooling paddle in a stream » » »

15 August 2021 We got to enjoy the “four seasons in one day” of Iceland, as it rained on us leaving Reykjavik, then dried up to be merely moody and cloudy at Þingvellir and Kerid, then abruptly switched to wall-to-wall sun as we reached Skogarfoss and set off on a hike up the Waterfall Way. » » »

14 August 2021 Driving from Keflavik airport, at first it feels like you’re just heading out across the same sad, flat, vaguely industry-battered scrubland that seems to surround a lot of the world’s airports. But it only takes a kilometer or two before you realise that the lumps of rock aren’t abandoned quarrying or unfinished » » »