I slept like a log last night. No wonder as we just didn’t stop yesterday and we’ve had way more of the same today.
It’s 8.30 and we are still not home yet so I will make this quick. We have had another amazing day and have been on the go since 7.30am!! We left the house at 8.30 and headed to Weymss Bay for the 10.05 ferry. A little bit of parking panic but otherwise all good!
We decided to walk all the way to Mount Stuart on Bute. It’s a stunning gothic style design inside. I’ll talk way more about it tomorrow.
It is a very, very, very long walk!! Not to be recommended, it took us about an hour and half… I’ve done 24,394 steps so far!!
And finally the sun came out. Woo hoo!
We had a wander around Rothesay after a bus trip back. yes bus trip woo hoo!
I bought a replacement Highland Cow for Helens grandson!!
Back in Weymss Bay station. It’s still so Victorian.
Then we headed down through Largs for a chippy tea.
And finally to my special place in Portencross where we are sitting now.
There are loads more photos to follow on another day!
I should just end by saying that I’ve had the best few days with Helen. She’s been sent to me to remind me to giggle and laugh way more (yes Craig I know, as you always say to me!!) She’s shown me that it’s easy to spend that much time with someone else. We’ve just settled into a giggly, comfortable life these last few days. It’s been a really, really special time. 💜
Everyone should spend time with a Helen! will miss her though will be found sitting in silence for a while… 😂😘
Could not wake up this morning at all. My plan was to go a dog jog but honestly, bed wouldn’t let me go!! Work was busy. Sat outside with Ellison at lunch and was home for just after 4.30…. Blog in one para again!!
So last Thursday we decided to book a 14 hour bus trip with Bus Iceland 🇮🇸. We had a hire car, with Craig as the only driver, but just felt that kind of drive was far too much in one day. Despite the extra cost, it felt right to let the driver take the strain and for us to sit back and enjoy the trip.
Now this trip was not for the faint hearted. At 14.5 hours, it was a very long day. It also converted into a whopping £386 for us both to go….. but it was honestly worth every single penny and we would highly recommend it.
We did have a fair palaver booking it through Get Your Guide. They had been recommended to us as the booking platform but what works perfectly for someone, I guess doesn’t work for all. We couldn’t get the Get Your Guide app to allow collection from our hotel. Calling them took over an hour to get finally booked. My recommendation would be to book directly through Bus Iceland but that’s with hindsight.
We were collected just after 7am from our hotel. I think everyone in Reykjavik is told 7am so you just have to wait your turn. From that point on, everything was just perfect.
Here’s the overview of the trip.
Probably the equivalent of us having a day out in Yorkshire… which you just wouldn’t do in a day!!
We left a dry Reykjavik and headed straight into a super misty Reykjanesfólkvangur volcanic range.
Remember the majority of these photos are taking from a moving bus!
There are several stops along the way. We are all reminded to “use the bathroom” at every stop. They are usually about 1 hour 15 to 2 hours apart at most. Each rest stop is like a very well stocked service station with everything you could wish to buy. It has freshly cooked food, coffee, cakes, you name it. Not like ours with fast food joints.
Our lovely guide, Mia, is French but can pronounce the Icelandic names like a local. Without her commentary we would never learned half of what we did…. Well any of it really.
We drive though Selfoss which is one of the only land locked cities on Iceland. This bridge over the river was only built about 1891 I think. Before then you took your ice in your hands crossing in such a fat flow… not the best pic!
We pass right under Eyjafjallajökull which is the volcano that brought world flights to a standstill during its eruption in 2010.
She tells us about farmers who move back home, with trepidation, a year after the eruption, to find their crops had doubled in size due to the ash.
We drove on to Vik which is at the foot of the Katla Volcanic range. No one wants a permanent house here as Katla has 10 active craters and when Katla blows, Vik will be right in the firing line. I do wonder how house insurance works there!
The big issue is that the volcanic eruption will melt the huge glacier cap and Vik will be right in the flood plain. It was a sobering thought.
Icewear is a huge Icelandic brand with all things very expensive and outdoorsy. This massive store is based in Vik.
All of a sudden the mist clears and the sun comes out.
There are lots of glacial rivers. Many are heavily silted and some are quite crystal clear.
Then we near closer to the glaciers and you can see them in the distance from the bus. We must pass about 10 along the way until we get to the Glacier Lagoon.
We are headed to Vatnajökul National Park.
Its breathtaking. I’ve only ever been close to a glacier once before in New Zealand in 2005.
We head to Diamond Beach first. It’s a purely blank Sandy beach, from all the volcanic activity but the Glacier breaks off into a lagoon which was only formed in 1930 and has continued to grow with the amount of melting ice. These icebergs break off and flow down into the sea.
The strong artic tides push the ice back up onto the beach and the small pieces look like diamonds.
Here we are looking back up into Jökulsárlón.
I cannot put into words how awesome this place is. That’s a hugely underrated word. It literally is out of this world.
An amphibious boat tour was included in the trip. There are speedboats following each boat trip. Constantly on the lookout for falling ice and making sure no one falls overboard. It’s really quite dramatic.
We were here for a total of 1.5 hours before making the return trip back to Reykjavik, with different stops.
So I think this is maybe more photos than WordPress can cope with so I’m going to stop this one here and continue another day.
The Rambling Sloth 🦥 