Greetings from top of a crater!

Hello! Well, a bit has happened in the last couple of days since I have posted. This will be the first entry for day one proper of our tour around the bottom half of Iceland, while day two (i.e. today our time) will be a separate one.

When you left me and my sharky breath, we were settled into different digs in Reykjavik, ready to start our week long tour around mostly the bottom half of Iceland. And up we got on Monday morning, ready to greet our tour group and head into the wilds (complete with Icelandic chocolate bars to keep us company).

Mmmm… Icelandic chocolate

As it turned out, our tour group consists of just 6 of us in total, including the driver guide David. So a very small group, and an odd one at that really. One older gent, another older gent with his 18 year old son, myself and Kate, and David, the ex-pat British driver guide. A motley crew if ever there was one… and not really looking like one that would provide me with an eating accomplice. Oh well.

From Reykjavik, we headed north, with our target being the Snaefellsness peninsula, with some choice stops along the way. First one was in the small town of Borgarnes, where it was a visit to a local museum telling the tale of the settlement of Iceland. Whilst quite small it was a nice way to kick off proceedings and to try and start wrapping our tongues around some of the unique Icelandic pronunciations we were going to have to get used to.

Eldborg crater from afar

Our first main stop though was the Eldborg crater, which then became the locale for a couple of hours of amazing hiking.

Hi ho, hi ho. It’s off to the crater we go!

Starting out about 3-4 kilometers from the crater, off we set, saying goodbye to some Icelandic horse friends we met…

The other horses would kill for this hair

As we hiked toward, the crater turned from distant hill, to a substantial crater about 50 metres deep. And up we went.

Getting closer…

The Eldborg crater was formed by some volcanic activity about 5000 years ago, where it erupted straight up, forming a crater much more circular than many others. It made for an awesome hike and sight.

Been to the top of a crater recently? I have!

Reaching the top we could only soak up both the distant views as well as inside the amazing crater that we were at the top of.

Self-portraits from the top of the world

Oh, and how could you not scream to the world?

“I’m king of the world! Well, queen actually…”

With our screaming out of the way, back we went to keep on our way. Not far from the crater was the basalt cliffs of Gerduberg.

Another place I had trouble pronouncing

Looking interesting as we approached, it wasn’t until you went bounding up to their base that the scale of them really hit you. They look like they just emerge out of the ground out of nowhere.

Kate wouldn’t do her “tell me how big they are” routine again

Our final resting point for the day was an old farmhouse in the costal locale of Langaholt. A quaint guesthouse awaited, as did some fantastic food. I can’t recall having eaten Catfish, so I can check that one off the list. Mmmmm… tasty.

Mmmm… catfish

One last thing was left to do in the evening before crashing asleep. Our costal locale was located only a couple of hundred metres from the North Atlantic ocean. And you know what… I have never swum there! So what did I do. Well, these pictures can tell the story…

So far, so good

Where’d he go?!?!

Um, time to get out

So was it cold? Um, yeah. But not debilitatingly so. It was actually the very rough conditions that made me come to my senses and seek warmth. You can tell that one of us was smart enough to keep warm.

The smarter one of the two of us

With that, it was the end of the day. Still very light outside at 10pm (our guide David keeps remarking that it doesn’t get dark until August… which is completely the truth), we were both crashing bad though. So off we flaked it after out first day of travel, with a bigger day to come.