| 10:30am |
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| Five trolls. |
High end real estate for gulls. |
Surprising, we woke up to the sun, whose warmth we have sorely missed.
We set out to Reynisdrangar (Troll Rocks),
where three trolls had, according to legends, been turned into rock pillars
by our friend the sun.
It was somewhat ridiculous that the signs to Reynisdrangar led us to the only place
along the coast where one could not get a good look of the rock pillars, but we did
see a lot of gulls nesting on the cliffs.
Several miles West, Dyrhólaey
was the southernmost point of mainland Iceland.
Besides the gorgeous views of rocky cliffs and the endless sea, we also saw a lot of
gulls nesting their chicks, and puffins flying around the cliffs.
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| Puffins at the Dyrhólaey Cliffs. See the puffin trying to land in the
second picture? Sometimes they missed the landing completely and had to fly around
and land again. |
Baby gull hiding behind Mama. Don't get too close or Mama will attack.
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| A sea stack towering over black lava sands. |
A long sandy beach was the hunting and nesting grounds for the birds. |
A headland behind Esther and Thomas was the southernmost point of Iceland. |
The same headline. The island behind looked like a baby elephant. |
Emily and CK approaching the southernmost point. |
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| From left to right: Huge sea cave, sea stack, sandy beach, Troll Rocks, the horizon,
little islands, southernmost headland with sea cave. Click in for details. |
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| 2:00pm |
This was Skógafoss,
a very powerful waterfall (62m tall).
It splashed so many water droplets in the air
that we saw two bright rainbows around us when we approached the falls.
(Why two rainbows? You see, you can see a rainbow only when your line of sight makes
a particular angle with the source of the light.
Both Thomas and CK were physics majors and let us explain.
First you have to understand optical dispersion and total internal reflection ...
Hey, are you still awake?)
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| The roaring Skógafoss. |
We went wild over the rainbows.
You should be able to see double rainbows in all three pictures here.
They were immensely bright, stretching across your whole field of vision. |
We had some snacks at the next stop, the tall (65m) and slender
Seljalandsfoss,
a very pretty waterfall with a walking path behind.
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| Nice doggies at a roadside gas station.
They were constantly cutting each other off for more attention. |
Seljalandsfoss |
Esther making sure Thomas was well fed. |
Behind the veils of Seljalandsfoss. |
The sun reappeared just in time for a nice shot. |
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| The green pool of the Kerið crater was used as a fish farm. |
We stopped at Selfoss, a big town only 30 km
east of Reykjavík (by this time we had almost made a whole circuit), for some KFC,
Esther's comfort food.
(There were also KFC in Geneva, but it was horrible. The Iceland KFC tasted just
like what I had in the States. By the way, I did not recall seeing MacDonalds nor
Burger King in Iceland, but at least three KFCs. And business were good.
I guess it is because it was hard to get fresh vegetable in Iceland -- too cold
to grow any, all imports. Burgers need tomatoes and onions. KFC, on the other
hand, is 100% non-vegatarian. I apologize for the digression.)
Then we headed north for the Kerið crater,
not a volcanic crater but the result of a natural underground gas explosion.
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| 6:00pm |
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| Nice doggie enjoying Thomas and Emily's attention. |
Welcoming us at Efsti Dalur Farmhouse near
Laugarvatn
was this poor little doggie, who lost an eye in a traffic accident.
Despite his loss, however, he was very affectionate, and we all enjoy playing with him.
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| Esther showing Emily her culinary skills. |
We made the hallway our dining rooms. |
We had a nice soak in the hot tub in the rain -- quite interesting, unfortunately
the rain made the tub only lukewarm.
There was no restaurant near Efsti Dalur, so Esther practised her magic again,
and we filled ourselves up with soup and pasta before going to bed.
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