Voyage of the Vikings, Report #6b, Day 2, Reykjavik, Iceland Today Kerrell is apprehensive. We booked with Bustravel Iceland an 8-hour Golden Circle Grand Tour from Reykjavik. It departs 8:30. The company cannot guarantee we’ll be back before the ship departs. We must be

aboard by 16:30! However, our guide, the same as yesterday, seems fairly confident. We trust him so we get on the bus. After a brief stop at Hverageroi, we head inland from the coast passing through picturesque Icelandic farms amid

luxurious pastures of forage growing exuberantly on nutrient-rich basaltic soils. Well-fed sheep, cattle and horses seem comfortable in the absence of stress from any predators larger than an Arctic fox! There are a few feral cats, rats, mice, rabbits and caribou in Iceland, but no indigenous mammals other than the fox. At a group of bright red (rather than black) volcanic hills called Tjarnarholar, created as the land moved over a localized hotspot, we find Lake

Kerið nestled 55 meters deep inside a collapsed crater. In

1917 an Icelandic poet bestowed the name Faxi Falls on our next stop (above). The falls reminded him of the mane of his horse, Fax. Beautiful, but they pale in comparison to Gullfoss (Golden waterfall), where the glacial River

Hvítá plummets 32 meters into a deep crevasse. Throwing mist high into the air, this magnificent waterfall reminds us of Niagara! Like Niagara we are in awe of the enormous power and beauty of the river as it falls. In 1907,

threatening to throw herself over the falls to her death, Sigfidur, the daughter of a famer with rights of ownership, saved these falls from destruction to create a hydroelectric dam. In 1979 it became a Nature Reserve. Sigfidur is now known as Iceland’s first ‘naturalist’. In the spectacular Geysir geothermal area we find spouting hot springs.

The most active, Strokkur, spouts steaming water 30 meters into the air every few minutes. It has an expectant ring of watchers.

New arrival’s unfortunate choice of being downwind, are soaked in a deluge of hot spray carried by the wind. The Great Geysir was the first geyser described in a printed document and is the first known to Europeans. The English word geyser (a periodically spouting hot spring) derives from geysir. The name Geysir itself is derived from the Icelandic verb geysa, "to gush", from the Old Norse language. Within Thingvellir (Þingvellir) National Park (In

English -Thing Fields) is the site of the Rock of Law – the first Viking parliament – founded in 930 AD (bottom, right). It is the oldest persisting parliament in the world. The park is a rift valley that marks the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Geologically the North America and Eurasia tectonic plates are pulling apart here at a rate of a few centimeters per

year. Our guide is trying to ensure we return to our ship prior to departure. At each stop he reiterates the need to promptly return to the bus at the prescribed time. Second-to-last stop one family does not return for 20 minutes as we all anxiously wait. Thus, at our last stop our guide specifies latecomers will be left behind! That is motivation enough for laggards. Now our timing is exceedingly short. However, nearly back in Reykjavik traffic is halted by

emergency vehicles. Our driver proceeds on the road-side shoulder to get us to the front of the waiting line of vehicles. We arrive back at the ship at precisely 16:30!! Our friend the Guest Relations Officer, Caroline, gives Kerrell a big hug welcoming us aboard! Having a fantastic cruise, ‘till next we have the pleasure of seeing you, love to all, Bob and Kerrell,

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