Geysir .. the golden circle tourist trap!

the next morning we followed the F35 south towards Geysir ... the first part of the tourist trap called the Golden Circle.

For most this is about as far north as they get ... but I tell you ... unless you have travelled further north then Geysir into the wilds beyond you have NOT seen Iceland!!

we continued the F35 passing dusty bicycles riders (we read somewhere that a biking holiday in Iceland is both refreshing and relaxing! OH REALLY!!!) until we could see the two glaciers Langjökull and Vatnajökull.

We had spoken to a ranger at the station and he suggested a skiddoo tour up the glacier.

Seeing no sign at the car park at the skiddoo centre I slow did the climb up the glacier to the summit cabin ... also fun!

We could see the big 6x6 bus at the car park but no sign of the skiddooers!

So we decided to take some pictures and hang around a bit . .......

Suddenly we could hear the sound of engines and like a long snake curving its way across the ice we could see the skiddoo tour coming  back.

we arranged a tour and followed the 6x6 bus down the hill ..... parked we got changed into special clothing and headed back up the mountain!

The skiddoo tour was great and we did learn some things about the glacier ... some interesting ... like the average snow fall on the peak is  25m annually!   But some also sad ... like that the glacier is melting fast and the summer melt is now around 10m more than the past years .... great cracks are opening in the ice ... who knows how long it will continue but this was a clear sign of the impact of global warming when they showed in the past where the snow did come to in the summer.

After a fun trip of over 1,5 hr across the ice and a bargain 2 for 1 offer from the owner we head south into the tourist trap of geysir and the stares of tourists around my dusty, muddy and orange car :)

geysir is interesting but very touristy ... lines of tourists head out to the geysir field to see the steam vents ....

Interesting to see but we didnt stay too long ..... funny thing was watching a german cooking a wurst in the hot water for his lunch .... I kid you not!!!!

Escaping the tourists we head down the A1 towards Reyjavik.