I know it sounds much like a Kung Fu movie title but the golden circle is one of the recommended areas in Iceland. For those with limited time you are able to see beautiful waterfalls, geysers, volcanic craters, and a volcanic lake.

In fact Golden Circle is the name that is used for marketing, there is no historical roots for this name, got to love PR.

There are recommended stops on this tour/route and in total its about a 300km drive. I am getting used to driving Miss Daisy/Jason about so it really does not seem that far.

We decided we would spend our day driving the Golden Circle and in the hope that we would avoid all the tour buses, with the masses of tourists that go with them, we would do it in reverse order.

Packing up our lunch, some snacks, we picked up our faithful steed and hit the road.

Hot tip: for those who visit and stay in Reykjavik, parking at the Church is free! That’s right free. And there is not a time limit on your parking. You are welcome!

Oh, another interesting fact! Drowning was commonly used as a form of execution in “olden times” and there is a plaque listing the names of those drowned in this particular water source. Women, in particular, were put in a sack, thrown in the pond, and held under. Civilisation at its best.

Pingvellir

This is a historic site and was the place of the first parliament, 10^th – 18^th centuries.

The other cool thing is the park is the result of a rift valley where two tectonic plates have separated. There is even a place where you can stand with one foot on each of the plates. As you are doing this, feel free to look down and do not drop your keys!

Also, take a moment to think about what would happen if there were an earthquake at that exact moment…

The park has loads of little pathways where you can explore the river, lake, church, and rocky cliffs. It really is beautiful, you can see all the way to the mountains on a clear day (we had a stunning day).

The cliffs also have the basalt structures but with more boulders than we saw at Black Beach. The rocks are so precariously balanced in some areas it makes you walk on the far side of the path. Definitley look up and around you on this walk and see how nature is playing pick-up-sticks. Very cool.

As we were walking around the small riverside path, we came across a couple of geese families. As we all know geese are friendly and welcoming creatures, said no one ever, so we walked carefully and gently past them. Actually, I did, Jason proved again that birdlife were not his friend and put Lulu in the middle of their patch for a photo op.

Needless to say the geese were not impressed and he got hissed at a lot. But, they didn’t go for his head, so that’s a bonus.

The day was so stunning we pulled up a rock and had lunch before heading to site number two.

Geysir

Any of you kiwi folk will be familiar with geysers. Geysir is not a spelling mistake, it seems our geyser is derived from geysir. Oh the things you learn!

Iceland is a very active wee country, not so wee as noted in the last update, with lots of volcanic remnants to make it an interesting landscape.

This particular geyser spouts boiling water up to 70 meters in the air, take that Rotorua! So you would think that many people would avoid that. I mean who wants to be boiled, Not me!

Usually the geyser is pretty regular, every 10-15 minutes something happens. That something varies in ferocity and size. When we park up and wander over to the geyser it is slightly reminiscent of home, but the sulphur smell is nowhere near as bad. There are little bubbling ponds, the sulphur stained rock, steam, and crowds. Welcome to Hell’s Gate 😛

One thing we did note is there was no boiling mud. Maybe that is why the sulphur smell was not as strong?

We watch as groups of kids, and some adults, gather up to the rope waiting for the eruption and then run screaming, as fast as they can, from the water. Duh, physics, you aren’t gonna win. So they just get wet. I guess the water was not that boiling after all.

Jason had identified the wind direction, he’s so clever like that, and we stood very close but out of the water’s path. Watching the eruption occur was very, very cool. If you watch the pool of water you can see the massive gas bubble building, and building, and then eventually exploding out of the pool driving the water into the air. AWESOME.

We did not spend too much time here, some of it was so similar to home, but the geyser itself, fabulous.

Gullfoss

I am beginning to figure out that foss has something to do with waterfalls, so if it ends with foss, you can happily assume that there is a waterfall.

And Gullfoss was QUITE a waterfall.

On the way there we encountered our very first asshole driver. There were roadworks with people working, and gravel, the speed limit was set to 30kms.

Some of you may know I am not huge on speed limits, but when people are working on the side of the road and there is gravel is manners to slow down. Not this w*nker! He sped up and over took us all! We saw him later and both Jason and I gave him the New Zealand wave of affection!

We walk down to the waterfall and WOW, really, seriously WOW. It is massive, easily 20 times larger than the ones we saw the day before and it has tiers.

The noise that the waterfall makes gives you an indication of the power behind the beauty. You definitely do not want to go rafting, that would not end well with 140 cubic meters of water per second. WTF, crazy mothernature and all her quirky stuff.

The height of the waterfall is 32 meters, but I swear when you are standing near it, it seems much bigger than that! The first tier has an 11 meter drop followed by a more drastic 21 meter drop. Disappearing down the canyon and out of sight.

Amazing!

Kerid (Kerith)

Its kind of hard to write this name as the d actually looks like an o with a tail on the top, very confusing for our attempts at pronunciation – which must offend the locals!

Anyway, Kerid is a crater lake, one of several in the area, but the easiest to get to so most popular with tourists.

When we arrived there were very few people there, our backwards plan was working!

This is the only attraction on the Golden Circle that we had to pay for, it was not a lot and definitely worth it. The money goes towards keeping the area pristine, and it certainly seems to be working.

The first think I noted was the scoria and, given my interaction with scoria on Mt Etna, I was a little nervous walking about. Slippery shite!

What also makes Kerid so interesting is the caldera is very distinguishable and intact. It is what happens when a volcano collapses in on itself. So Kerid is very clearly defined and most of the walls are sheer and not suitable for climbing, Jason would disagree of course.

One face of the caldera has quite a gentle slope so this has been maximised with steps created so you can walk right down to the volcanic lake and around the edge.

We were at the top, it is like a viewing/photo op spot. Taking photos and generally admiring the surroundings. A very nice, and very good looking, couple asked if we would like a photo together.

Please note whenever we are offered this opportunity we jump at it, that way you guys know we are actually travelling together. I don’t have to do a selfie where I end up looking like an emu!

As polite peeps, which we are, we returned the favour and offered to take a photo of them.

The chap, who turned out to be called Manu, started telling me where to stand to take the photo and what to do. Being the shy reserved creature that I am, I sarcastically asked if he was a director or something, he said “something like that”, I told him in my world, you are just bossy. Always the charmer aren’t I.

Anyway we started talking and instantly noted the Kiwi accents. What an absolute HOOT. Turns out they are brother and sister doing a bit of a world travel, some of which was work related.

It is always wonderful to meet nice people from your country when you are travelling but to meet these two lovely folk was awesome. Manu, his sister (so sorry I cannot remember her name – but I could easily picture a bottle of wine and fun afternoon in the sun with her), spent the next 30 minute chatting and swapping recommendations with us.

They were starting the GC, NOT Gold Coast in case you were wondering, tour late in the day as we were nearing the end of our excursion so time was short (not that they were going to run out of light, ha, ha).

Manu declared “this deserves a selfie”, took a great photo and emailed it to me, how cool is that. ANYWAY, eventually we bid farewell. We all had places to be and things to see.

Jason and I climbed down the steps to the water’s edge. On the way Jason said, oh he’s famous or something. Been in a bunch of stuff. Oh really? Said I. End of that.

We finished our tour, it was late in the afternoon and time to head back to town.

Manu and Sis had recommended a drive up North. It was a long way so we wanted to get back, get organised, and get some sleep in preparation for the next day.

Jason did his navigation homework, cooked dinner (fresh fish again – will never get sick of that), and we went for a walk around the town at 900pm because it was light and seemed rude not to make the most of it.

I saw the email, with the selfie, from Manu and replied saying how lovely it was to meet them and they should catch up if they are in Wellington. Hit send!

Then we thought, maybe look him up. Onto Google we went.

Oh, did we feel silly! Yeah he’s been in a lot and is quite famous. Hobbit, Spartacus, Arrow, Shortland Street (of course). And we suggest he pop by for a BBQ – ha, ha.

OMFG! Insert embarrassed emoji here. Ha, ha. But, god bless the man, he replied to our email. What a gem.

Bed time! Thanks Iceland.