We got back on the bus and headed on around the Golden Circle to the Golden Falls. We didn't see much gold. Erla told us that the reason they called it 'golden' was because it was the good road built for a visit from the Danish king to impress him. And as you can see the falls are more kind of silvery. Anyway, it's all good marketing.
You'll also notice that it was impossible to hold the camera steady enough to keep the horizon straight. I took a few shots and all of them came out wonky like this. It may look peaceful enough far up above the falls, but the icy wind was battering us. Not for the first time, we thought Iceland might be a bit easier to visit in the summer.
From here we turned back and went to see the geyser Strokkur - Strokkur means 'churn' (like butter) and it shoots very hot water about 15m in the air every 5 minutes or so. What was remarkable to us was that there are no security guards or fences to stop people doing stupid things. This is the Icelandic way - there's a sign that says the water is very hot and not to touch, but even so we saw people getting very close and reaching out towards the hottest springs before jumping back in surprise when scalding water headed their way. In Britain, they would complain and the National Trust or whatever would have to apologise for not looking after them. Here, the Icelanders say "we put up a sign and a rope, but also you can see it's steaming hot, like a kettle. If you walk into it and get burned it's your own stupidity but we're not going to spoil the view for everyone else by putting up big fences."
On the way from Strokkur back to Reykjavik there was a chance to see and feed some Icelandic horses. I'm not a great one for that sort of thing so I got out of the bus to take a photo, but I held back from stroking their noses and giving them candy.
Yes, everyone we spoke to about the horses emphasised that they were horses not ponies. I always thought the only difference between the two was size, but it seems there are other factors that I couldn't understand but which were very important to them (and the horses), so... yeah.
The rest of the tour was the drive back to Reykjavik. We went up into the mountains a little and there was some snow. But by now most people on the bus had fallen asleep after such a busy day of rocks, steam and equines, so only the most alert got the full view. After a day on a bus driving around this countryside you start to feel like you're in an advert for a shiny 4x4 anyway it's just rocky, snow-capped vista after rocky snow-capped vista.
We arrived at the bus station a bit early. Our next excursion at 7pm, was down to swim in the Blue Lagoon spa, but now it was just before 6, so we were dropped at the gas station instead where we had a choice of horrible fast food, all of which I declined and so after a day of majestic natural scenery, I sat at a formica-covered table sipping bad coffee from a paper cup.
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