I have just arrived at the airport having spent a couple of extremely relaxing hours at the Blue Lagoon, a thermal baths near Keflavik airport which is built around the waste water from the thermal energy plant nearby. Sounds nice doesnt it...like sitting in a pond full of your washing machine grey water.
Well actually, it is VERY nice - the water is full of silica and other stuff that is reputedly good for the skin - and they sell little bottles of the stuff for ridiculous prices - so it must be good for you.
Yesterday I took a trip to Jokulsarlon A.K.A the Iceberg Lake, where small chunks of glacier fall off the end and float out to sea. I got to ride on a duck out into the lake to get in amongst them. (The duck is an amphibious boat/truck hybrid so stop laughing) There were also seals there. The glacier that the chunks fall from is big. Really really big. In fact I believe it might be the largest glacier in Europe. Our guide was telling lots of really lame jokes so I stopped listening to what he was saying. There was something else about a pig and a snowstorm.
Another trip I took was to the Snæfellnes peninsula (don´t be lazy - google it) which had some pretty specatacular secenery and to get there we had to travel in a road tunnel that ran underground for such a long distance and at such a great depth it makes the Sydney Harbour Tunnel look like.... ummm well..something not so long and deep. (YOU think of a good analogy for that) The glacier at the end of the Snæfellnes peninsula is where Jules Verne set the entrance to the earth´s core in Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
The highlight of this particular journey was the pod of Orcas I was able to observe at close range for a considerable amount of time. There was around 9 of them swimming around, some synchronised like those awful Olympic swimmers, some rising high out of the water so their unmistakeable features were quite clear. I learned a lot about birds as well - apart from thousands of Arctic Terns, Guillamots, puffins,and kittiwakes, I saw several Fulmars which have an interesting habit of squirting concentrated fish oil at you out of their nostrils if they feel threatened. Apparently the stuff is so rank and hard to remove from clothing you basically have to burn anything it gets on. I was told the nose squirting is how they feed their young - so to the girls at North Sydney, next time you complain to your parents about the dinner they´ve laid on the table just be thankful you aren´t a Fulmar.
I´m boarding a plane to Bergen in Norway for about 5 days so I should be able to post photos from there. Theres lots of close ups of lava so hold onto your seats.
Ciao 4 now.
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