Today, we had a visit to the south coast of Iceland. It was essentially the same tour that I did two years ago. The scenery was just as grand, although the weather was less sunny, but still quite nice.
I am having trouble uploading my photos, so the best way of illustrating the scenery s to take you back to my previous post and my original tour. ( See here)
Mr Thomasson who owns the museum is still going strong at 90 years of age and it was a delight to see him again. He showed us how he could play an ancient Icelandic musical instrument which was a little like a sitar. He then took us for a look around his outdoor museum and played a number hymns on the organ in the little church. He was quite surprised that people from as far away in Australia knew the tunes.
We stopped at the gates of the same farm, as on my first trip, where we could see some of the ice cap that covers the volcano ( with the unpronounceable name) that erupted last year and caused so much disruption to the worlds airlines. The farm is right under the volcano and it is easy to see the black volcanic ash that still covers the hills and the glacier. When the Icelanders say the name of this volcano ( and glacier) it sounds very lyrical and the syllables flow together musically. To us, it is a real tongue twister – Eyjafjallajokull. Not to miss an opportunity, all the tourist shops are selling T Shirts with the name broken down into individual syllables, but it is still almost impossible to say. The volcano that erupted last week is located near to the town of Vik – the furthest point on our day tour. It only erupted for a few days, but near it is the massive volcano named Hetta which is overdue for an eruption.
It is breeding time for the sea birds and at a stop at a beach, we looked carefully to see if we could find any puffins, but none were to be seen. The tour guide thinks that warmer sea waters are producing less krill and the puffins are finding it harder to compete with the mackerel which live off the same food. Some restaurants in Reykjavik were advertising puffin on the menu so perhaps these birds are competing with the tourists as well!
We were back in Reykjavik at about 7.00 pm for dinner and to pack up before moving on to Helsinki for our final stop.
