Woke up 7am so we had time to get showered and dressed then have breakfast. Layla puts away so much food yet doesn't seem to put weight on yet Inonly have to look at a choc chip muffin and I can feel my jeans tighten lol.
The greyline Minibus picked us up at 8:30am and then we were transferred to their bus terminal to get into a large coach. There seems to be mainly two excursion operators here in Iceland. Reykjavik Excursions and Greyline and they are really organised. With the first company, you are given a coloured dropoff/pick-up voucher and then the buses display an A4 laminated sheet in their window for the relevant colour: makes it all Quite straightforward whatever language you speak.
Our Tour guide was called Karen and even joked about not being a 'typical Icelandic Karen' lol. We set off to the first waterfall but she did pre-warn us that she would have to get an update during our first stop to see if we would be okay to continue on or not. The wind had really picked up and there was only one road to our destination and the roads were currently closed. The views on the drive were just breathtaking and no amount of photos could do them justice (though I will try lol).
You were given plenty of time to see everything and take some good pictures. The waterfall we had some steps up to the top of the waterfall that you could go up if you wanted. She did say it might take the whole time we had at this stop but we thought we would give it a go. I got part way up and thought there is no way I would make it up to the top without an oxygen tank and a defibrillator and was going to turn back. But seeing Layla marching on ahead and determined to get the most out of every opportunity made me change my mind and carry on. She is just so full of zest for life and just jumps into any situation with both feet and not giving two hoots what anyone thinks.
I only managed to take photos from the top and on the way down, as I was too focused on not dying on the way up lol. I was so glad that I didn't give up and carried on as it felt like an achievement and I would have been gutted had I come all this way and not done it. Layla kept shouting PT encouragement from in front, "over halfway done now come on" :-)
Back on the coach and a quick status update and we were okay to proceed to the next point on our trip. The next waterfall you could actually go behind which was so cool. you could feel the spray off the water as it hit the ice below. I could just take pics of nature and views all day but I know they aren't probably that interesting to other people so I tried to get myself in a few just to mix it up a bit :-/
We had a lunch break at a services and then went to the black sand beach but were warned not to go too near the sea as there were things called Creeper waves. so one small wave comes first and you think you can get closer and then another bigger wave comes over the top and can just drag you into the sea. The only way to be rescued is by air helicopter which takes 40 minutes, by which time you would have died.
On the way back we stopped off at another small waterfall that we skipped on the way amnd then it was time to head home. Karen very kindly sorted out to drop me at the BSI bus terminal so I could collect my bag.
Layla had been ill a few times on the coach and she thinks it was something she ate at breakfast as she had to spit something out that tasted funny in the tuna mix. So Layla got off the stop before our hotel and walked round. I got off at the bus terminal and collected my bag. The girl behind the counter was lovely. I asked her if there was a bus going to the Reykjavik Lights Hotel. She gave me a purple drop-off voucher and said I didn't need to pay, bless her. So I gave her one of my little notebooks and random act of kindness cards that I had brought with me.
Short trip back to the hotel and then it was time to pack and catch up on photos etc from the day, to delete all the naff ones as I am running out of storage on my iphone.
Early night as up for breakfast at 7.
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