This morning we made the 3 hour journey to Vik, our home for the next 3 nights. All journeys in Iceland take a lot longer than at home as there is only one real road around the island (virtually none crossing the interior) and its single lanes each way which then get considerably reduced when it snows. Its quite difficult to find somewhere safe to stop to take photographs enroute as parking on the verge is frowned upon as its dangerous.
Being a volcanic island the scenery is very stark at this time of year. Jill has a degree in Geology so she is able to tell is in great detail what the various rocks are and how they are formed.
A few pretty coloured lichens - I understand in the late spring/summer the colours are fantastic and wild lupins grow in many areas.
The glacial water freezing as it lapped up on the river bank looked like a cystal necklace.
This roadside waterfall looked lovely to the eye but the harsh snow white against the rocks doesn't come out to well.
Soon after that it began to snow rather heavily again.
However it didn’t stop Jo sitting down. She has this lovely long black coat which she
never does up and so when she walks along she looks, by her own admission,
rather like a dalek.
This poor Fulmar was sheltering in a cave, it had oil all over one wing and presumably couldn't fly but didn't seem to mind me sitting near for a short while.
The floor of the cave was covered with these beautiful small black stones.
There is a sign at the entrance to the beach warning of "Sneaker Waves" as apparently several
people have been killed in recent years.
We all had a good laugh at this but it’s absolutely true, every once in
a while an absolutely massive wave hits the shore and runs up the beach faster
than you can.
Jo doing a Snow Angel, when I’d done one earlier I'd almost
got caught by a Sneaker.
There were eventually a few breaks in the clouds but nothing like a sunset.
(Sorry - I've corrected the white balance in some photos but couldn't be bothered to do them all, hence the strange colour casts)