Monday – After picking up the car we set off from Reykjavic east to the Pingvellir National Park. Already we are in some volcanic landscape. After walking up through a valley overlooking the park we had lunch and then set off to our first waterfall – the Oxavarfoss (foss means waterfall we’ve discovered). This was worth the walk – very pretty. It was sunny and when we got back to the car we wondered why we were carrying all those layers of warm clothes. Soon found the aircon and drove along in comfort. Our next stop was at Geysir – the first geysir was discovered here and the reason all geysirs are so named. The original one doesn’t erupt very often however one nearby ‘Strokkur’ is very active and goes off every 6 to 10 minutes so we spent a while here watching it. Probably not as spectacular as ‘Old Faithful’ in Yellowstone NP, US but certainly more prolific. Close by we walked down to the waterfalls of all waterfalls. The Golden Falls at Gullfoss – these were just fantastic. Absolutely huge and the power of the water coming over is just amazing. We climbed down the steps to the bottom and then back up again and walked around the rim – every angle was different but each beautiful. We drove on from here stopping at other places of interest. The sun disappeared behind cloud and we soon turned off the a/c. Our first night was at Leirubukki. A small community south east. We had dinner in the restaurant and were surprised to see so many women in the restaurant. We found out they were from the local area and met there once a month – one group were a bit like a View club the other group were made up of more professional women who have a lot of input into the local area. Sounded good to me.
Tuesday – After breakfast and hearing about the local Icelanic horses – these are in mobs in paddocks like we see cattle – we quickly moved into the real volcanic area and seemed to spend the day walking through fine black volcanic dust. It was a very overcast day and couldn’t see the top of any of the high mountains but could certainly see the devastation of the recent eruption of Eyjafjaklajoksell – Joksell means volcano, I think – it was really dark and cold around this area. Interesting though. More waterfalls – Seljalandsfoss – there were three in this same area and then Skogafoss – this one fell from a great height and Ian climbed up the steps to the top whilst I happily stayed down the bottom taking photos. We finally found the last sandwich at Skogar about three oclock. Any sort of shops are very infrequent and really no villages at all just farm communities. It is extremely isolated. Why would you want to live around volcanoes that could go off anytime anyway. This was really only a short driving day but we managed to take about 8 hours to travel 200 ks. There was just so much to stop and look at and once we got out of the real volcanic area we came into some very pretty mountainous country and onto the east coast.
Wednesday – Well if yesterday was volcanic today has been Glacier day. We only drove about an hour when we came upon the beautiful glacial part of Iceland. The ice is also dusted with black volcanic dust but they stand out so white and are just huge. We seemed to be driving towards them for miles and stopped to have morning tea outside Skaftafells National Park and from here we had a great overall view of the Skaftafellsjokull, Vatnajokull, and Svinafallsjokull glaciers. Once in the park we walked to the ‘snout’ or face of the Skaftafellsjokull across the various levels of vegetation that have grown as the glacier has retreated. The final kilometer is across the dry river bed which was very rocky and then the water where the glacial run off flows. After lunch back at the National Park Headquarters we decided to drive into the other Svinafallsjokull glacier which the Fromers book tells us the road ends just 500 metres from the face of the glacier which it did and it was fantastic to be able to walk up and look down onto the face. Unfortunately the road was very stoney (probably an old river bed) and we hit a rock which damaged the rim on a back wheel which meant a flat tyre. After repairing this and driving on with the spare which is only a temporary tyre we drove on a lot more cautiously sticking to the main roads. We stopped at Jokulsarlon where there is a glacial tidal lake with small icebergs float. This is just beautiful – it was like a fairy land with beautiful blue tinted blocks of ice in a variety of shapes floading along with the tide. Today has been a big driving day 460 ks. The rest of the drive to Eglisstadir has been around fjords – up one side and around the other with mountains on the other side. A fantastic road and just so pretty. (You guessed it jokull means glacier). 
THURSDAY - The program gave us today as a free day which was great as it enabled us to have the rim and tyre repaired which didn't take long at all this morning. We then went for a short drive up to the top of the mountain and back down the other side to a small village, Seydisfjorour, which was settled in the 1800s by Norwegians. It is now a place that a lot of artists and writers come to now and you can understand why, it is very pretty and a lot of little timber cottages sit around an small inner lake. We had lunch at the local pub and a wander around before driving back to Eglisstadir where we are staying again tonight.
FRIDAY - We have now reached the far north eastern part of Iceland and are staying tonight at Raufarhofn another fishing village. We are staying at the only pub in town which is run by a bit of a character who has spent the last 12 years planning an Artic Henge which is under very slow construction many due to lack of funds. This is a sun dial similar to what Stonehenge once probably was. The trip here was interesting. Not a lot to stop and look at but the road took us on top of a very flat mountain and we were able to see 360 degrees for quite a while which is not something we have been able to do very often since leaving Reyjkavic. There is still snow and ice all around on the highest parts of the mountains which in the main are black so you get this very black and white landscape. We had lunch at a pub at Porshofn. The Fromers recommended the clam chowder in this pub and we weren't disappointed beside the fact that it was freezing cold and some hot soup really helped warm us up. Somewhere a long the way I needed to find a loo and we stopped at a village and I asked a young fellow where they were. His comment was 'I'm not a native of here, just here for the summer but I think you will find some toilets at the camping area'. I had trouble not laughing when he said he was here for the summer because it was 4 degrees according to the thermometer in the car. 
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