June 26 – Akureyri, Iceland

Weather

bubbling, gurgling mud

– 13º, so they say…I was HOT at a
few points. I definitely didn’t need to wear my cold-weather socks…they came off early in the day. There were many points throughout the day when all I needed on top was a long-sleeved t-shirt.

Steps – 12,665

Northness - 66º (Calgary - 51º)

Sunrise – 1:41, sunset 12:49, hours of daylight – 23hrs 8 min

Today’s visit to Iceland takes our country count to 82! Akureyri, where we are today is the first of 3 Iceland cities we will visit this trip.

 

Akureyri, Iceland's fifth biggest city - pop just under 20,000 is a town in northern Iceland.

 

Godafoss 

tasty!

So far, so good in the weather department. As we set off this morning it was 8º, with 13º
as the high…some clouds, but mostly sun.

 

Once again, as the theme of this cruise has been since
the beginning …NATURE. I wouldn’t call northern Iceland beautiful…Faroe was much more beautiful, but it was something to see.

 

The land everywhere shows evidence of former volcanic activity, former might not actually be accurate – we saw bubbling mud at one point today.

 

stream and bubbling mud

Stop #1 – BUGS, BUGS, BUGS…I had read about

tiny flowers poking out of the lava fields

the abundance of bugs in Iceland, and here they were. Although the guide called them mosquitoes the phone research, I quickly did on the bus said there were no mosquitoes on Iceland and the bugs were Midges. We did a bit of a nature walk/hike here, but mostly it was about the bugs!

more gurgling and spluttering

 

Stop #2 – Dimmuborgir where we saw volcanic structures and had lunch. A pathway

skál!

system has been carved out of the wilderness here. We walked a bit with our guide, took some pictures, had an $11 beer and then a delicious lunch of local river trout, carrot soup, potatoes, salad and local rye bread baked from the geothermal heat.

 

Stop #3 – Namaskard, this place was a barren field of geothermal pits…gurgling sulfur cauldrons and boiling mud pits. This place was wild. It stunk of sulfur, there was steam everywhere and you could hear the bubbling.

 

yule lads' hovel

Stop #4 was Godafoss or “Waterfall of the

lava formations

Gods”. This was a huge roaring waterfall.

 

No where was beautiful, but everywhere was something to never be forgotten. It was a full 8-hour day.

 

Lakes

The interwebs are not cooperating with my blogging endeavors!

I am being taken care of!