Though I wanted to see the sights, I did not want to travel in a group of 30 on a coach bus, so I found Iceland Rovers who do more private tours in Super 4x4 Jeeps. Also, Iceland Rovers did a full day tour with the Golden Circle, dinner and a chance to see the Northern Lights. I figured this was a great way to do everything in 1 day, so I booked the trip and I had a fantastic tour guide - Christian. Christian was probably in his late 30s or early 40s, a very nice family guy who was born and raised in Iceland. He has held many jobs like a fisherman, hotel desk clerk and more recently adventure travel leader. Though he was doing this tour, most summer he spends time taking people on multi-week backpacking tours of the more remote areas of Iceland. Along with the history of Iceland, he also shared a lot about pop culture and music. I think my favorite music we listened to was a guy named Mugison and the album was Mugieboogie. Eventually I'll make a slideshow of Iceland set to music, and I'll use some Mugison for the soundtrack, so stay tuned!
Since the tour group was small (just me), Christian figured we could squeeze in a couple of extra stops before dinner at 8pm. So here is a rundown of our trip:
- Christian happens to belong to the Icelandic Caving Society, so he took me to a lava tube for some exploration
- Iceland is known for geothermal power so we went to visit one of the newest geothermal power plants in Iceland. Did you know over 90% of Iceland's buildings and homes are heated by water? Even driveways are heated by water so snow and ice do not build up!
- Our next stop was to visit Gullfoss - wow so breath-taking, this is certainly a must see sight. I was pretty stupid to take my camera so close, as it was icy and water was spraying everywhere, but the camera held up thanks to protecting the camera with my jacket.
- Then it was off to the hot spring area to see Geysir as well as some of the other hot springs.
- Next stop - The National Park. Here was took a drive around, saw where the continental drift where North America and Eurasia continents meet, plus we saw the magnificent man-made waterfall. Back during the early settlement of 900A.D., this area was where the "government" met, and they needed a water source, which is why they diverted a river to create the waterfall to bring water to them.
- We headed down to the South Shore for dinner. Before we went to the restaurant, we took the 4x4 Super Jeep on the beach, met up with another crew on a tour and had a toast with some Icelandic Schnapps
- Dinner time at Vid fjorubordid - This little restaurant is on the South Shore right on the black sandy beaches of Iceland. They are known for their lobster feast dinner. But instead of the traditional lobsters we know of, they serve these tiny juicy little guys know as Langoustine which are a type of lobster, just much smaller. So we got a few pots of the Langoustine which were steamed in a pot with butter, potatoes and veggies, plus they gave plenty of side dishes to go along with the main dish.
- After dinner we spent about 2-3 hours using the 4x4 to climb up a mountain to try and catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights. Christian played some Sigur Ros, which I am not a huge fan of, but driving up a pitch-black mountain at 11pm kinda set the tone and the Sigur Ros music kind of fit the bill to help set the mood, so that was cool. After such a great day, it was sad to say we did not see the Northern Lights - the forecast said they would be seen in the Northeaster part of the country so it was a long shot as we were in the Southwestern part of the country. Christian explained the Northern Lights peak every 11 years, so sometime around 2012-2013 would be the best time to plan a trip somewhere to go see them.
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