Beautiful Day
Today I got out of bed around 10:45am. It was sunny and clear. I was like, "I've got to go do something today!" so I walked around and knocked on people's doors, hoping to find someone. Alas, no-one was answering, or they just weren't around. So I decided to rent a car. After renting a brand new Toyota Corolla, I found my friend Josh, and we left to go explore and take some pictures.
First stop: Not finding the main gate. Problem quickly solved, moving on.
I decide that since I've already been to Reykjavik, I should go somewhere else. So we head off past the blue lagoon, and into the mountains. Paved roads stop, and gravel/lava rock roads begin. Good times! This is the main highway around the island, and it's a dirt freakin road! Driving through some gorgeous areas of mountains, and having the ocean still next to us, was really awesome.
We come to a cross-roads, sort of.. where there's a road the branches off of the main. I give it some thought, and check my little map, and decide to go down this road. After about 100 feet of this, I decide that since I don't have a large 4WD, I should not attempt this, and go back. Onward!
As we drive, we notice steam rising from the sides of some dis-colored mountains. Hot springs!!! We drive up and park, and walk out to where there are these freakin awesome natural hot springs. Boiling water, warm water, steam rising in the 35 degree temperature, it was awesome! Smelled HORRIBLE though, really strong sulfer smell. So we hiked around there for a little bit, tried to climb the side of this mountain, but decided it was too cold, too hard, and not enough daylight left to complete this feat. Maybe another day.
Leaving there, we drive next to this fairly large lake, with it's own geo-thermal release's on the end of it next to a house. Black, lava rock for a beach.. which just looked weird. Cool, nonetheless.
Finally we arrived back on paved roads, and made our way back towards Reykjavik. From where we were at, we could see one of the glaciers to the north, where the people in Jules Vernes "Journey to the Center of the Earth" started their trip. There's a volcano there, obviously, and a fairly large glacier. Pretty sweet!
Tonight I am going to plan a route for tomorrow, probably pointing us towards the north, but there is a lot of snow up there on the mountains. Hopefully tomorrow will be as nice as today was, but there was a serious wall of clouds to the southwest as the sun was starting to set, so we'll see.
First stop: Not finding the main gate. Problem quickly solved, moving on.
I decide that since I've already been to Reykjavik, I should go somewhere else. So we head off past the blue lagoon, and into the mountains. Paved roads stop, and gravel/lava rock roads begin. Good times! This is the main highway around the island, and it's a dirt freakin road! Driving through some gorgeous areas of mountains, and having the ocean still next to us, was really awesome.
We come to a cross-roads, sort of.. where there's a road the branches off of the main. I give it some thought, and check my little map, and decide to go down this road. After about 100 feet of this, I decide that since I don't have a large 4WD, I should not attempt this, and go back. Onward!
As we drive, we notice steam rising from the sides of some dis-colored mountains. Hot springs!!! We drive up and park, and walk out to where there are these freakin awesome natural hot springs. Boiling water, warm water, steam rising in the 35 degree temperature, it was awesome! Smelled HORRIBLE though, really strong sulfer smell. So we hiked around there for a little bit, tried to climb the side of this mountain, but decided it was too cold, too hard, and not enough daylight left to complete this feat. Maybe another day.
Leaving there, we drive next to this fairly large lake, with it's own geo-thermal release's on the end of it next to a house. Black, lava rock for a beach.. which just looked weird. Cool, nonetheless.
Finally we arrived back on paved roads, and made our way back towards Reykjavik. From where we were at, we could see one of the glaciers to the north, where the people in Jules Vernes "Journey to the Center of the Earth" started their trip. There's a volcano there, obviously, and a fairly large glacier. Pretty sweet!
Tonight I am going to plan a route for tomorrow, probably pointing us towards the north, but there is a lot of snow up there on the mountains. Hopefully tomorrow will be as nice as today was, but there was a serious wall of clouds to the southwest as the sun was starting to set, so we'll see.