Adventure Day – July 18th 2017
The Golden Circle is the route. They said it would be about 3 hours to drive it. Add time for each stop. In the end our day was 7.5 hours. And you know what? We loved it!!
First stop was Thingvellir National Park. A very cool area where the two continental plates (Europe and America) have separated. We walked between them and hiked up to the top to see the awesome views. We searched around for a bridge that I swear I saw in some pictures. This bridge, that we never found in the end, was to cross right over the plates.
We did find the first of many waterfalls on our Iceland trip. The Oxararfoss Waterfall was gorgeous. Not super huge but a cool thing to see.
Continuing our drive along the circle we ended up at the Geysir. Hot steam escaped from little vents in the ground all around us. We stood at the roped area and waited patiently for the Geysir to erupt. I believe it spouted up every 5-8 mins or so. Some small and a few large. The crowds OOOH’D and AHHH’D. I tried to grab a photo of it but gosh, my arms grew tired holding the camera and just waiting. Haha. We enjoyed our time there, personally for me it was because it was warm in the steam. The wind and the rain had picked up throughout the day and we were a little wet.
A little gift shop exploring never hurt anyone and so we warmed up some more before heading to our 3rd stop: Gullfoss Waterfall.
Man O’ Man was it massive. The wind was really howling and harsh. The spray from the falls was intense. We got DRENCHED but it was so worth it. Lucas was a little apprehensive about walking all the way to the edge, but we got him there for a minute or two before we turned back. We attempted a family photo near the parking lot, a bit more away from the falls. The camera was not a happy camper and didn’t like the massive amount of spray from the falls or the sideways rain. Lucas and I ran back to the car to dry off while Mark and the girls went to explore the scary ledge by the waterfall.
Off to our 4th and final stop on the Golden Circle. Kerid crater. This crater was an amazing sight and had steps down to the little lake that had formed at the bottom. Now there was a bit of a snag on this stop. The wind had picked up to hurricane force (I’m not really serious, but it was soooo strong). Lucas was over it. We insisted on trying to get a family photo again. We asked a lovely french tourist to snap a photo and my camera acted up again. No photo then. To top that off, my hat went flying into a bush. The lovely french tourists husband went into said bush to retrieve it for me. Yay for friendly tourists!!!
After a quick iPhone photo with Mark’s phone (from another friendly tourist that passed by), Lucas was REALLY done and the boys headed back to the car. Us girls were feeling a bit more adventurous and walked down to the lake at the bottom of the crater. Glad we did it. The steps were leg-burning and the wind and sideways rain was nuts. But we managed, took a horrible selfie and back to the car.
We were home about 40 mins later. Tired, happy and hungry. Kids were troopers. Adventure Day: SUCCESS
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