Day 9 - Iceland baby

 Off to Iceland today. Heather kindly drove me to Manchester Airport for my 1pm flight. I had been warned by both her and Fiona that the aiport is less than stella and what should be a hub for transport in the north isn't really reflected in the facilities and set up. Security was a long snaking line and a cacophony of shouted instructions, with two of my trays pulled aside for closer inspection. They wanted a closer look at my bag of cables and charging docks, and the drone batteries were pulled out for look. All eventually got the thumbs up and I trekked through the terminal to get some lunch before my flight.

Boarded on time and departed early. I like Iceland already.

The flight was uneventful, although I had stupidly forgotten to charge my headphones so couldn't listen to the inflight entertainment. I took the opportunity to catch up on my neglected blog instead.  

I was quickly through immigration - how long do you plan to stay, have you booked accommodation, you've rented a camper van for the full 3 weeks (with an unspoken "are you MAD???").  A quick stop to buy a bottle of wine to celebrate catching up with my roomie for the first time in 4 years and I was through.  We phoned Camp Easy for pick-up from the airport and went to wait by P2.  Not totally clear exactly where the pick-up point was, and we initially were in the wrong place, but Belinda spotted the van and we were able to hook up and get a lift to the rental place.  All the check-in palaver we had done online so it was reasonably painless, watch a few videos on "how to" use the van and the tablet etc and we were off.

Home for the next 3 weeks.  PUN22

Heather made me a Grinch and he is our trip mascot.

First stop a supermarket to get some supplies, but we couldn't dally as we had a 6pm booking for the Blue Lagoon.  We found arrived not long after six and were given a wrist band each that would get us a free "facial"- a gob of mineral something to smear on our face, which neither of us fancied, and a free drink.  You have to strip off and shower before you put your bathing suit on and enter the pool.  Putting togs on wet is not my favourite trick.  Your wrist band will also lock/unlock a locker to store your clothes, and of course I messed this up and ended up dripping water and unable to get into my locker to get my togs.  There was someone hosing the floor of the showers and she kindly came to my rescue and unlocked it for me.

I was expecting it to be touristy and crowded, but maybe it is not so busy at this time of year, it is a huge area and not nearly as busy as I was expecting.  The water temperature varied from super warm to quite cool.  There was a very cool breeze blowing, so any wet skin raised above the level of the water cooled very quickly.  The water was a lovely blue colour and very opaque, you couldn't see your hand about 6 inches away under water.  

We spent a couple of hours in the water, maybe more.  It was really pleasant and difficult to leave, but with prune-like skin we eventually hauled ourselves out and collected our towel to go shower and dry off.  Despite my initial reservations I thought it was fabulous and would recommend.

At the entrance to the Blue Lagoon.  The pix inside are on my go-pro, not uploaded yet.

Toasty warm, we headed to the campsite at Grindavik, and purchased a spot for the night (about 4400 KR which is about $45 dollars).  It was quite windy and raining, so Belinda put up her tent in the shelter of the camper, and we called it a night.