Day 2 - 16 March 2016

A truly wonderful, wonderful day

Arose at 7am after a good night's sleep. Had a hearty breakfast and went to get some cash from the ATM and a notebook and pen (so you can have an at length blog each day!). Passed a sign in the street outside a cafe that read 'Go on, breastfeed. We like babies and boobs'. Set off but one of our guides had left her phone at the hotel, so had to go back. Eventually set off at 10.15am. We passed Selfoss. (Little snippets of information will be slotted in from time to time) The majority of the housing has tin a tin roof and often corrugated iron walls,

10.35am on the A1 (only main road in Iceland) - grey with low cloud at 4 degrees C (signs on the road tell you temperatures and wind speed).

10.45am thick fog

Population of Iceland 350,000 with 200,000 living in Reykjavik.

10.52am driving through volcanic area - strong smell of sulphur.

11.00am driving past hot houses growing cucumbers and tomatoes - geothermal powered.

11.05am driving passed the Icelandic horse park.

Tracking progress of our travels on my iPhone via Google maps ( internet connection through the Landcruiser we are travelling in).

11.08am fog lifted completely.

11.37am Hooper swans flying at the side of our vehicle. 80 miles to Vik.

HEP and Geo-Thermal power used in Iceland.

11.45am the sun poked through.

11.53am chinks of blue sky and the sun out.

11.55am arrived at Hella for a tea stop and cake.

12.52pm grey skies and scores of horses everywhere

1.00pm Approaching Seljalands waterfalls

1.06pm several waterfalls tumbling down cliff face

1.15pm Dramatic landscape - high cliffs to the left and grey water and skies to the right

1.30pm called at Drangshlidl - buidings built into the rocks.

1.48pm at Skogafoss - 40 minutes for pictures and a video. Spectacular!

2.50pm Heading for Dyrholaey. Ate filled roll, crisps and banana for lunch.

3.02pm arrived at Dyrholaey for nearly 2 hours of photographs. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!

5.18pm arrived at Reynisfjara (black beach) - basalt stacks, black beach and much, much more!

Headed for our wonderful hotel accommodation near Vik and arrived at 7.10pm

8.00pm Superb meal of smoked trout starter and succulent lamb for mains.

What a truly amazing first day! Up at 5.30am tomorrow (departing at 6.00am) to capture sunrise over Dyrholaey.