Travel Website Logo
Travel Journal
 
Dan Walker’s Travel Website
Travel Photos

Travel Journal

Live the adventures of Dan Walker's travels through reading his travel journal. The travel journals are listed below in descending order of date. To search the travel journals, use the keyword search at the bottom of the page.

Journal Entry:

Saturday, August 16, 2014 00:11:05

ICELAND, GREENLAND & ARCTIC 2014: 1 Victoria, Canada to Vik, Iceland

Once Marilynn got over her Chinese parasite we spent time visiting friends, family and clients on Vancouver Island and in Vancouver. While still in Costa Rica we had planned two fabulous get aways — one cruising through the islands across from Campbell River with Marilynn's brother and his wife on their beautiful 2 bedroom 2 bathroom boat (the ocean water was surprisingly warm for swimming), and the other with friends who have a marvellous holiday home on the west coast of Vancouver Island near Ucluelet. A boat trip down a spectacular inlet was featured in the latter as well. Naturally, both required quite a bit of beer, wine and song!

Tuesday, August 12 and Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Son Scott took us to the airport for an early afternoon flight to Seattle, where we connected with Iceland Air for Keflavik. We lucked out at the boarding gate, as we were assigned exit row seats next to the main doors to accommodate my legs. A girl had the third seat (we were flying economy and the plane was full) but she moved to a crew seat giving Marilynn and I loads of leg room and an empty seat between us. We arrived in Keflavik, Iceland at 6:30 AM after a 7 hour time change. Neither of us slept - it was just bed time in Victoria when we arrived.

We picked up a rental car at Hertz, a fairly spunky Skoda Octavia diesel 5 speed, and were on our way. Breakfast was at the Northern Lights Inn adjacent to the Blue Lagoon hot springs, as the hot spring doesn't open until 9 AM. We spent 45 minutes in the wonderfully hot salt water. It is certainly the biggest hot tub I've ever experienced! Due to its size there is a variety of water temperatures in different areas.

Once showered we drove to the south-west coast before heading east, stopping for Iceland pony photos and to explore villages along the way. When we reached the nice Ork Hotel in Hverageroi our room was ready, in spite of early hour. The staff were very friendly and the hotel has a huge warm water swimming pool — which we didn't use, having just come from the Blue Lagoon..

Marilynn was done in, but I was determined not to sleep until night so took off to explore some coastal villages — the hotel is inland a bit. One village, Eyarbakki, had been the major South Coast port from 1100 until the 1980s and has existing houses going back to the 1700s.

We had a fabulous, well served, gourmet dinner in the hotel restaurant before trying to sleep, something that didn't work too well due to jet lag.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

We were first in the dining room for a 7 AM breakfast before heading for the Golden Ring Route. This is the area where the first Iceland parliament was convened around 1,000 AD, and the first court system was established with 12 jurors. The route includes the spectacular Gullfoss waterfall, where we both bought gloves, and the town of Geyser, where there are a number of pools with water up to 250 degrees C. The original geyser, named after the town and giving us the word we use today, used to shoot up to 80 meters in the air, but now merely boils. However a few steps away is another that explodes water about 35 meters in the air every 5 minutes or so. This is beautiful, green farm country set against shear mountain cliffs, and with the first trees we have seen in Iceland.

The morning temperature was 8 degrees C, (46F) with some fog, but once the sun burned through it increased to a balmy 15 C (59F) . Surprisingly, it didn't feel that cold, but did required warm cloths. Our next stop was at the Saga Centre in Hvolsvollur where a kind lady phoned Iceland Travel for us, as I'd lost the paper with our hotel names on it. Marget Jonsdottir (*bookings@icelandtravel.is *), who put the trip together for us, quickly gave us the name of tonight's hotel and arranged to send the list to them. We then toured the centre, which is in the middle of the area described in one of the most famous and longest sagas dating from around 1100. There are artifacts, weapons, costumes and paintings of the era along with a translation of the fascinating saga, told in about 26 wall panels, It seems most men were killed violently, few lived to an old age. It also documents the attempted settlement in what is now Nova Scotia or New Brunswick which was called Vinland. One of the people mentioned in the sagas was born there in about 1050, long before Columbus happened upon the New World.

The next stop was the Seljailandfoss waterfall and then the Skogafoss waterfall, all located along the coast road. We also spent time walking around the bottom of a high escarpment with about a dozen waterfalls cascading down, but eventually spectacular waterfalls become the norm as we travelled the road between very high cliffs on the right and the ocean on the left. There seems to be no shortage of excellent water, and water here is safe to drink from the tap.

We next took a gravel side road to reach a trail to a tongue of ice from the XXXXX glacier. It wasn't as spectacular as many we've seen, as the ice was melting back, giving it a dirty appearance from all the gravel and sand it was leaving behind.

We drove out to a place called Dyrholeaey where there is an adjacent point of land with a high cliff that is undermined by the sea, leaving caves that penetrate from one side of the point to the other. They say it is possible to go through the largest arch in a sailboat. A cold wind did not detract from the beauty of the place.

Once at our destination of Vik (which means bay) we checking into the hotel before setting off to explore, stopping at a large store specializing in cold weather clothing to pick up some items for use now and for the coming cruise. We discovered a pub restaurant near Vik's black sand beach, where we had snacks with beer for me and wine for Marilynn. Dinner was at the hotel. The food was pretty good, but the service was hopeless, as they were only interested in the large bus tours. We should have eaten where we had the drinks! It was a rough night, as in spite of assurances that there were no feathers in the bedding I was sneezing and blowing my nose all night! Marilynn finally came up with the idea of using the cover from the duvet with towels and a short blanket we found for bedding. That helped me get some sleep.