Saturday, November 14, 2015

Iceland - Day 6

Today we came to the realization that there are more waterfalls in Iceland than people.  Every turn in the road seemed to bring an endless array of waterfalls, so many that I totally lost count of just how many we'd seen in the last two days.  I realized there was going to be no way to ever stop and take photos of every waterfalls you see while you're here.  in fact, you quickly become a waterfalls snob, almost ignoring some because they just aren't quite spectacular enough, most of which would put any waterfall to shame in the Pacific Northwest.  It's almost unreal.

Today was also the first day I got to experience the huge wind gusts I'd heard about as being a big part of the weather here.  They weren't really "gusts" as much as they were gail force winds that threatened to rip the car door off its hings if you made the mistake of trying to open the door and not hold on with all your might.  I can't tell you the number of times I had to fight just to open the door and get back into the car before I turned into a Popsicle.  lol

So needless to say, today was an adventure in trying to stay on your feet and take photos where your camera wasn't rocking so bad the photos were all blurry.  It was also a day of learning about the exciting world of driving in Iceland... where you can drive 16 miles down a really rough road, only to get to the place you to turn and find the road has been closed because it's "impassible".  ugh.... really?  You couldn't have put up a sign 30 miles back warning of road closures ahead?  It was actually still fun thought because I saw some sights that most probably don't see.  It was certainly roads rarely traveled.

Another fun lesson today was that not all Icelandic Horses enjoy dried apples.  We stopped to pet 4 horses that were standing near the road, and as much as they seemed to enjoy the attention, they also seemed to be sniffing our pockets and my camera trying to figure out if there was some kind of food hidden away on my body.  Rene had some dried apples with her so we thought we'd feed  a few to the horses and it was kind of comical  to watch their reactions.  The horse that seemed the most forward of the 4 quickly took one of the apple slices, but after he chewed on it for a second, decided he wasn't interested at all, neither were two of the others, but one horse did step forward and decided he wanted to give it a try, and he loved them.  He kept pushing forward for more.  At one point though, I think one got stuck to the roof of his mouth as he was licking at it pretty funny for a minute.  We decided we should get going again and had to say goodbye.  I think only one of them was truly sad to see us go.  lol

With the huge winds and super cold temps, today was mostly spent inside the car enjoying some amazing scenery as we worked our way east, along the south coast.  There is a huge glacier here that we started to drive past on our way to the next hotel, and about an hour after we first got up next to it, I realized we were still driving along side of it, and we were no where near the middle of the Glacier.  It looks big on a map, but seeing it up close like this and realizing just how big it really is, was just amazing.

I actually did get out of the car a lot today and took photos, but will have to wait to look through them and post any that might be good it's getting really late..... and  I'm planning on getting up early tomorrow and going to the glacier lagoon and capturing some photos at sunrise so this is going to be short and sweet.  Hard to believe the adventure is half over now.

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