Day 25 - Kirkjufell redo

 Well waddayaknow, the weather forecast was NOT accurate and the rain the was meant to come overnight .... arrived in time for sunrise.

The light was awful at Kirkjufell, even though it wasn't as bad as last time it did not inspire me. Instead I headed out on the "sword road" which has erosion barriers that look a bit like the hilt of a sword. I managed to get the drone up for some quick snaps between rain showers, although it came back with a few spots of rain on it.  

The rain seemed to lift a bit and the light improved so I went back to Kirkjufell for some snaps, got annoyed with people that thought barriers were not meant for them, they had important selfies to take don't ya know, and generally pottered around the area. 

Slightly better than last time

I had driven in on a different road from last time, as we'd approached from west rather than south, also it was dark and lashing rain last time too.  Anyway, I discovered some more amazing scenery. Evidence of past volcanic activity, lava flows, old craters with red rocks and green moss.

I saw two people climbing this, the photo doesn't do it justice, it was much steeper in reality 

By about lunchtime I had pretty much covered everything that had caught my eye, and was about to leave town. In a happy coincidence, I decided for one last stop at the campground loo, and as I walked in the door, spotted my thermal Svalbard mug on the floor  where I had placed it to brush my teeth. I had obviously walked out and left it there, so I'm very grateful to my bladder for prompting me to go back. I would have been really annoyed if I'd lost it.

We have been thoroughly amused by the picnic signs which have a tree on them. There are very few trees in Iceland, and never any at picnic stops. They would be better having a large boulder, or a picnic table instead of a tree.

See what I mean?  Not a tree in sight.

Another thing we observed on our travels was that farms seem to just accumulate their junk in one place and leave it there to decay. Seems odd to me, as it gives the impression of being run down and perhaps a bit shoddy. But I guess it's expensive to dispose of stuff, so why bother?

It's broken? Just chuck it over there mate.

You could almost lose the van in one of these potholes

In trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my time here, juggling with rotten weather forecasts, I decided I might as well head south again and hope the weather predictions are as wrong as they were for Kirkjufell.  But first another stop at the Blue Lagoon, as I had loved our last visit there. 

There have been swarms of earthquakes on the Reykanes peninsular, actually very close to the Blue Lagoon, so the lifeguard was telling people to stay away from the rocks in case the quake caused some to fall. There's a section that has rocks lining the edge, maybe 5 metres high. I actually felt an earthquake last night when I camped at Grindavik, and was woken by a large one this morning. The earthquakes continue and an eruption seems likely in the next few weeks. Doubtless AFTER I have left.  Sigh.