Drive along the south coast to Landeyjarhofn harbour and take a ferry from Bakkafjara to Heimaey Island, the largest of the Westman Islands. Visit the puffins in Storhofdi, climb the crater of a recently active volcano and admire the flora growing in a new lava field.
The Westman Island of Heimaey suffered a catastrophe in 1973 when a volcanic fissure erupted, creating a new volcano (which we drove up inside! – it ‘s not currently active of course), and covering a third of the existing town with lava. Unfortunately my best photos are stuck on my ipod, but we got a few from the ferry, and of ‘Home Rock’, in the town’s harbour. It’s a very photogenic place but there’s little to do other than admire it, and eat lunch, in the town itself. The Westman Is,ands includes the new volcanic island of Surtsey, which was born in 1963 in a new eruption.
Day eight was the last day of the trip:
Visit the famous Geysir hot springs and marvel at Strokkur, a fountain geyser that erupts every few minutes. Continue to Gullfoss, one of Europe’s most impressive waterfalls, and stop off at the beautiful Thingvellir National Park before returning to Reykjavik.
The wind at Gullfoss was unbelievably strong and icy – it was easily down to zero with the wind chill factor. Although i was feeling much better, after that experience, i decided to sit out the Geysir visit, since the geothermal area we’d visited earlier had made me feel ill.
However, doug took photos, and then Thingvellir made up for it all. Such a gorgeous place. Justifiably popular and famous. We managed to miss most of the rain which hit with a vengeance just as we were leaving.
Our guide Ingi wanted to give people an authentic Icelandic horse experience and let them feed the horses bread. The first lot ran away in terror, and the second lot were sniffy until he went up wind and they smelled the bread 🙂
