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We are at the #1 site at the top of the map: Akureyri |
Akureyri, Iceland: A
40km view of an active volcano
The Ruby Princess left the Shetland Islands yesterday and
sailed north to our next destination, Akureyri, (pronounced a-kur-ray-re),
Iceland. We sailed up the east coast
crossing the Arctic Circle and turning south into the Eyjafjorbur (inlet).
Akureyri is the largest city in Iceland's northern territory.
I will say that we encountered some heavy seas last night. But
the ship's stabilizers take a lot of the rocking and rolling out of the heavy
seas. This morning we were greeted with
a beautiful sunrise. The ship docked and passengers were allowed to go ashore
about an hour later.
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| Our small tour with Taxi 17 |
Mary Alice (MA) had hooked up with fellow cruise passenger, Marty
Reed and husband Don from San Antonio. Weeks before the cruise Marty worked via
email to arrange private tours here and at our next two ports in Iceland. Today
we were a party of six which is so much better than a busload of sixty!
MA and I went ashore and found our driver from a tour company
called "Taxi No.17". Our driver was Benedict and we nicknamed him
Ben. The other two other passengers (Mark and John) found us and then Marty and
Don arrived. Ben led us to his vehicle, a Toyota Land Cruiser 4WD with some very
big tires. I saw the reason for the big tires later.
Ben was a real hoot.
He was born in Iceland, speaks Icelandic and as a young man he learned
English in where else? England! He took
us through the town, down the hill and across the bridge over the Eyhafjarbard
River. What struck us about the town is how clean and modern it is and there is
no graffiti! The highway crossed over a thermal spring that is piped in to heat
the entire town. Ben told us you can
take a 30-minute very hot shower and it'll only cost 10 cents on your utility
bill.
As we climbed up the highway I was struck by the natural
beauty of the place. The mountains that
form the valleys are about 3000' high. They are actually volcanic formations covered
with plants of pastel colors: yellow, green, red, orange and brown. I'm not
sure my camera can capture the beauty of the place.
Ben drove us right past the famous and largest waterfall
named the Godafoss. All the tourist buses stop there first. He said we would stop last on the way back,
"not so crowded". I knew we
had a great guide!
He followed the highway and then turned south toward the river
Fnjoska. The paved road soon turned into
a volcanic gravel road. We passed many large farms with cut green fields of
baled hay covered with white plastic.
Most of the farms, set back in the hills, have herds of long hair sheep
grazing in the field. We also came upon
a herd of Icelandic horses, which are pure bred and we saw some small herds of
cattle.
We continued on to a rough gravel road with two gates, thus
the big tires! I was in the front passenger seat so I had "gate duty",
opening and closing them so we could pass on through. We got to our first stop, an isolated waterfall
called, Aldeyjarfoss. The word "foss" in Icelandic means waterfall.
The water comes from melting glaciers to the south along with
melting snow runoff. It is an awesome sight and sound experience because of the
rushing water falling and roaring against large rocks.
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| Active volcano 40km away |
We visited another waterfall and then Ben took us up the highest point that we could get to in a vehicle. He pointed out the smoke and ash to the south of us and told us it was an erupting volcano. See above picture. It was 40 km from us and we could not go closer because the area is closed off.
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| Godafoss Waterfalls |
We headed back to the large falls at Godafoss where all the
tourists had already come and gone, took a few pictures and returned to the
ship. It was a great day, a great guide
and great company along on the tour. Thank
you Marty for arranging all this! We have two more tours with her and Don and a
few others at our next two stops in Iceland!
Super interesting, Wayne! :)
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