We started the day with a coffee at a place close to our miniscule hotel room. When we arrived back we met our tour group, who were hurriedly claiming seats on the mini van. The group consisted of 8 Chinese, 2 Japanese, 2 English, and 2 Indian tourists. Mick and I lost out as we were the last to arrive, and had to sit right at the back of the bus. No one in the group seemed to have introduced themselves, and everyone was sticking to their groups. We met our tour 'guide' Mímir, a tall grisled blonde Icelander, who didn't seem to care if we were the right people who were supposed to be on the tour or not, as long as he had the total number we could have been Martians, by all accounts. While he didn't care if we got on the wrong tour, we did, so Mick insisted that he check for our names. One of the reasons for joining a tour was so that we could make some new temporary friends, otherwise we'd go on a 5 week holiday and only speak to each other.
Everyone left their luggage at the hotel (to pick up later) and we were off to explore the Reykjanes Peninsula, a geothermally active region west of Reykjavik. Much to Mick's disgust our first stop was a grisly, and extremely malodorous fish head drying facility. Apparently Mímir thought that the best first impression for a visitor to this region was row upon row of wooden racks where thousands of fish heads were drying in the sun - to later be exported to Africa as the main ingredient of stock. The smell was truly ungodly, even as we approached in the closed bus. Once the door was open the full force of the offensive smell truly assaulted the nostrils. There was no escaping it, the best we could do was breathe through our noses (which had already been covered up by scarves), as the alternative was far worse. I took a few photos, and while Mick jumped back on the bus for some relief, I moved upwind and found a little field of lupins (the beautiful national weed introduced from Alaska), which was a much more pleasant vista. Soon we were back on the bus, blessedly driving away, hoping that the miasma had not permeated our clothing.
We continued to drive through the peninsula stopping off at various volcanic hot springs that smelt only marginally better than the fish heads. These geothermal outlets spew stinking steam from deep within the earth's crust, sometimes it comes out as vast steam pillars, sometimes it bubbles up through water or mud, but it always colours the surrounding land a sulphurous hue, forming yellow pits in the grey or green landscape.
After we had seen a few springs we drove to a fairly plain little village where we stopped for lunch. The venue for lunch was a 'brygghus' which we determined must translate to 'place of bitter disappointment' as the only thing on the menu for lunch other than cake was soup - either a foul smelling lobster concoction, or a watery vegetable number of indistinguishable ingredients. We opted for a lunch of dry chocolate cake.
Following our nutritious lunch, we drove past a beautiful waterfall, and had a few other 'photo stops' on our way to a 'must see' attraction in Reykjavik - the Blue Lagoon. It's a geothermal lagoon, a by-product of a nearby electrical plant that uses superheated water for energy production. The mineral rich water is then pumped into a lagoon, where tourists wade around in the milky water. The Blue Lagoon is an interesting inclusion for the first day of a tour as it involves having a communal naked shower prior to entry with your new temporary friends, only hours after meeting - interesting way to bond! However, as our blog unfolds you will see that there would be no new temporary friendships, bonding, or any sort of interaction at all.
There was a bit of a mix up with our Blue Lagoon booking, which saw us delayed. Mímir said this was not a big deal, and that it didn't matter what time we arrived at our cabins in Hella - however I had a very different point of view, as we were already starving, having had next to no lunch. We also had to buy lunch for the next days hike, which Mímir had previously noted. I made my feelings known that the lack of information and disorganisation was not well received. It was also the first time that Mick's aversion to seafood was noted. Mímir was less than apologetic, and the whole encounter was awkward. In the first 6 hrs it was clear that this was not going to be the kind of structured and organised tour we were used to.
In any case, after our very public shower we headed off to soak in the Blue Lagoon. The weather was cold and drizzly but it didn't matter as the water was warm and the steam meant that you couldn't see much more than 15 metres ahead. We waded around and found the bar, where we got a drink before heading over to the mud mask kiosk, where you can slather your face in silica rich white mud. Further wandering found a waterfall where we washed off the mud mask. The waterfall was quite forceful and provided a kind of massage as the water pelted down. We also visited the steam 'cave' which was way too hot for me, but Mick seemed to enjoy having the soles of his feet scalded by steam. We visited a normal sauna, and then a conventional steam room where we found our 'guide' Mímir, possibly trying to relax after our earlier altercation. Needless to say we didn't stay too long before heading out to the lagoon again for another drink, and some 'pure Icelandic' water from a little fountain found under one of the many wooden bridges that criss-cross overhead.
When our allotted time was up we left to shower again and hope back on the bus to go back to Reykjavik to get a new bus (there we a mix up with the buses). We were on a smaller bus now, meaning there were no spare seats and we were crammed into the back seat again, with the two biggest of the Chinese travellers (we called these two "the Gaysians" as we still didn't know anybody's name). This made for a very squishy ride onward to Hella, where we were to stay the next 3 nights in cabins while we explored the surrounding region. Knowing that Mímir was not the most organised and planned guide, Mick went and informed him that people should rotate the bus seats, as there was no way we are going to be the cool kids at the back of the bus ever again. Like a good little guide, Mímir did announce that people should rotate seats.
After we had dropped our bags we went to buy lunch for the following day only to find that the supermarket had closed 15 minutes earlier than our arrival - another consequence of our 'inconsequential' delayed schedule. We settled for some prepared sandwiches from the service station, before heading to the local restaurant for a fancy lamb dinner that was not too bad at all (although we were so hungry that we could have eaten a horse, we decided not to have the house speciality of horse steaks). We turned in getting some rest from our busy day, ready to it all again at 8am the next day.
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