Same day as the power plant. Next we are going to Gullfoss waterfall. It is close to Langjokull glacier (there is an umlaut over the “o”). On the way we pass summer cottages. The summer cottages are apparently considered a real coup if you have one surrounded by trees. Many were and almost buried in them but others were just out on the grassy plains. The trees come from Norway and Alaska. apparently after an island is made of volcanic origin, someone or something has to bring in trees. They have a very short growing season too. No kidding! Everyone is already wear parkas and hats and the wind is cold. anyway, so many fresh fruits and vegetables are grown in green houses and now they also have an active fish farming industry. Now they even have some heavy industry like aluminum smelters and also a cement factory.
Arriving at Gullfoss, our guide told us there was an upper and lower falls and also an upper and lower viewing points. We had about an hour there. I thought to go to the lower first because I would be fresher to climb back up the steps. I hadn’t heard the bit about lower falls so as I was walking towards the falls, I was surprised to see the lower falls and then translated in my head what she had said. I really do pay attention to guides but sometimes it just doesn't sink in until I see it. and that's even without the added nuance of translating out of some accents that are hard for me to understand.
The falls were quite beautiful. She had said it was called Gullfoss because it means gold and rainbows are seen on Sundays. I thought, only Sundays, how odd. Later I realized it was sunny days. Took a ton of photos and some videos from all angles. What was frightening, is there are many places close to the waterfall where you can stand right on the edge and anyone bumping you would push you right into the water. There weren’t a lot of restraining ropes to keep anyone back from the water just a few ropes in places where the ground was obviously giving way. hmm, was it giving way because someone had fallen off there? I climbed up on all the rocks and in many cases was just a couple of feet from the edge. I didn’t want to get any closer but a few people did.
Climbed back up to the top and went around the upper overlook to take photos of the falls looking down. Just beautiful. Again, no restraining ropes and it would have been easy as pie to fall off the rock onto the rocks below or into the river in spots. Really falling into the waterfall could only be done from the lower level.
We could also see the glacier from the upper level. It seemed to be pretty far away and if she hadn’t told us it was a glacier, I might not have known that. There were also a lot of stacked rocks up there. Must ask the reason behind the stacked rocks. It is the Langjokull glacier and there is an umlaut over the "o" in case you missed that in the first paragraph.
So lots of photos there. Then we drove back to the geysir area. They only have the one in this area that erupts and it does so as steam takes up more volume than water so erupts to release the steam. It had a name but I did not write it down and they ever only called it geysir.
Arriving at Gullfoss, our guide told us there was an upper and lower falls and also an upper and lower viewing points. We had about an hour there. I thought to go to the lower first because I would be fresher to climb back up the steps. I hadn’t heard the bit about lower falls so as I was walking towards the falls, I was surprised to see the lower falls and then translated in my head what she had said. I really do pay attention to guides but sometimes it just doesn't sink in until I see it. and that's even without the added nuance of translating out of some accents that are hard for me to understand.
The falls were quite beautiful. She had said it was called Gullfoss because it means gold and rainbows are seen on Sundays. I thought, only Sundays, how odd. Later I realized it was sunny days. Took a ton of photos and some videos from all angles. What was frightening, is there are many places close to the waterfall where you can stand right on the edge and anyone bumping you would push you right into the water. There weren’t a lot of restraining ropes to keep anyone back from the water just a few ropes in places where the ground was obviously giving way. hmm, was it giving way because someone had fallen off there? I climbed up on all the rocks and in many cases was just a couple of feet from the edge. I didn’t want to get any closer but a few people did.
Climbed back up to the top and went around the upper overlook to take photos of the falls looking down. Just beautiful. Again, no restraining ropes and it would have been easy as pie to fall off the rock onto the rocks below or into the river in spots. Really falling into the waterfall could only be done from the lower level.
We could also see the glacier from the upper level. It seemed to be pretty far away and if she hadn’t told us it was a glacier, I might not have known that. There were also a lot of stacked rocks up there. Must ask the reason behind the stacked rocks. It is the Langjokull glacier and there is an umlaut over the "o" in case you missed that in the first paragraph.
So lots of photos there. Then we drove back to the geysir area. They only have the one in this area that erupts and it does so as steam takes up more volume than water so erupts to release the steam. It had a name but I did not write it down and they ever only called it geysir.
There was only one boiling pit of water that I could see and nothing like the mud pots we have at Yellowstone but some of the signs were calling them mudpots. The geysir erupted every 5 minutes or so and sometimes did a couple of eruptions back to back and then went a little longer than 5 minutes. There was a rope around the geysir but you could walk across the silica plates surrounding it and get pretty close. The first time I watched it, you could see the water heaving up and over the sides and then going back into the water pipe. It is such a living thing to watch. Finally it got heaving a little harder and suddenly this big bubble of steam comes up though the water, a big blue bubble and the pit erupts. When it is finished and the steam is drifting away, all the water is busy running back into this natural pipeline to start all over again. Pretty cool. I stood there for a couple of eruptions then walked up to the upper pools which were pretty much just small hot pools. Then I walked further up the hill to get photos of the geysir erupting from a distance so I could get the full cloud of steam.
There is not a lot of volcanic action because of all the steam vents throughout the country. Pretty much the crust just opens and lets out steam rather than an eruption of lava or anything so they also don't have a lot of earthquakes either.
So that's pretty much the geysir action here.
I have yet to get to the thermal pools for a soak. I will go do that before I leave.
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