We disembarked and added life vests to our outfits, went to the waters edge and loaded 5 to a raft.  The water was actually a bit low, but that was okay as it gave us more time to enjoy the towering cliffs on our way down the west river.  10 minutes into the ride, we hit a stretch of rapids and BW went over in a flip.  He was back in in a flash and we carried on.  The dry suit had rupper suction grommets at our heads and hands so minimal water comes in. Another 20 minutes and we pulled to shore to enjoy a cup of hot chocolate, made with boiling water that was coming up at the river edge.  It was too hot to stick your finger into!  Totally unreal!

 

Then we set off again for about another hour, before pulling off again.  This time our guide said something about a cliff jump.  Whoa - I had serious doubts as I found myself climbing up a steep rock face.  One by one everyone was jumping off this ledge about 30 feet high onto the swirling river below.  When my turn came - I had to do some serious talking to myself and I don’t even remember jumping in, just hitting the water, going under and bobbing up, then swimming to shore.  Truly something you could never do in the US.

On our way, they let you even float in your suits down the river! Our trip was about 3 hrs and loads of fun.  Luckily one of the girls (BW was the only boy on our trip) said she got me with her camera jumping….

 

After all of the water, we were really dry and so continuing our trip to Dalvik later that afternoon was quite easy. 

 

Dalvik is a very small town on a beautiful fjord Eylajford, with high mountains all around.  The town was nothing much, about 600 with our hotel and one pizza restaurant in town.  We had - obviously pizza that night and then treated myself to a soft serve ice cream at the local 7/11.  But as fate would have it, we were crossing a parking lot just before reaching the hotel and I tripped on the curb and went down on both knees hard.  Bounced up, but lost a very deep patch of skin off my left hand, about the size of a quarter. My right knee took it hard too, but didn’t damage my corduroys.  Later my knee was pretty messed up as well, so I spent the night with an ice bag on my knee and 3 Motrin on board- praying that the whole thing was just a dream.

 

The next morning I was pretty lame, unable to bend my knee at all.  Thank goodness we were touring by car to Sigluford (Siglufjörður).  The town by the same name is only accessible by one road in, via tunnel. Before the tunnel, you had to arrive by boat, but it was the herring capital of the world.  They had a really cool museum of this industry (now dead) in three buildings, that was worth the $8 admission.  But the best was to come.  With a sunny day in the harbor, we found a cute little cafe painted blue and so charming on the inside right on the wharf.  I was hungry for lunch - BW had eaten leftover pizza earlier in the car.  The owner said he had a nice arctic char (similar to a salmon but better) that he would prepare for me.  And it was fantastic, served pan fried in garlic butter, with a salad, buttery baked potato with sour cream and little shrimp on top. Seated outside in the sun we spent close to 2 hours chatting with him and another fellow about Iceland, and the world.  Then a woman walked up with a big camera and asked to take my picture - she was working on the town’s website and was taking photos of visitors for the site.  All in all a really fun afternoon, we had a 2 hr drive to get back to Dalvik.  When we returned it was raining in Dalvik and the prospect of the local pizza place combined with my lunch. This is where my goodie bag with granola bars and local yogurt comes in handy for a snack. We decided to just stay in as watch TV and get to bed early. 

So this brings us to Wednesday.  We checked out of our hotel and headed to Akureyi the 2nd largest town in Iceland at 16,000. Wow what a busy place, no not really, but it’s on the water and they had some good tourist shops. BW found a great deal on a polarfleece jacket with a viking helmet on it and I bought a pretty Nordic sweater.  We opted for lunch from the supermarket, creamy coleslaw with pineapple, smoked ham sandwiches on like a 15 grain soft bread and drove to here to Husavik. 

 
Now Husavik is the prettiest town we’ve seen, a charming Nordic harbor filled with sailing ships and cute Icelandic buildings.  We'd called ahead and booked the 4:45 pm whale cruise and had time to check into our hotel and went to the harbor, it was sunny but brisk wind.  On the opposite of the fjord, the mountains line up with tons of snow rimming their tops, - just like a postcard.  They warned us that most of the whales had moved on, but we braved the wind and after about an hour, BW was the one who sited a bottlenose whale on the port side.  Though our sightings were slim, it was a great cruise and they warmed up us with hot chocolate and doughnuts - cause it was really cold out there!

Took me about an hour to defrost and then we chose a cute restaurant all done up with wood inside, very traditional (they have 3 here) for dinner, Arctic Char again with potatoes and a salad.  Very few places in the world have arctic char, so we eat when we can.

  
Today looked a bit grim so I was happy we’d done the whale cruise yesterday.  We looked around town for a bit then drove south to see Lake Myvatn.  The topography really changes here and the mountains turn to sand hills then lava fields, huge ones.  This is where Neil Armstrong trained for the moon landing.  We first stopped at the boiling mud pits, very lunar and very smelly - of sulfur and totally incredible to see up close, some of the fissures were blowing steam that would make a tea kettle at full boil look weak.  What a contrast though with the blue skies and bright yellow sand and turquoise water.  Then we drove up to the lava fields, they had a 3 mile walk tracked thru the lava fields and around the calderas of the volcanoes.  You could put your hand down some of the crates and feel the warm moist air. The walk took about 2 hours and it was amazing to see that much lava in one place and the scope of the lava field with little hills popping up where the lava didn't cover.

 

Then, we continued our drive around the lake. There are huge chunks of lava in the lake, so huge they look like towers.  BW wanted a nap, so I did a 3 km walk by myself. Yes my knee is much better now, still weak on stairs, but fine for walking. (The abrasion of my hand will maybe take 2-3 weeks to heal.)  My walk by the lake was wonderful, so peaceful and so many birds. And did I mention they have no snakes here?  So walking is a dream, actually besides sheep and horses they only have a fox in the wild- so it’s hiking with no worries!  This took about 45 minutes and the serenity of the lake was quite relaxing.

 

We drove back here to Husavik and ate again in the same place - once great - why take a chance. Tomorrow we will do another day trip out and return here for a third night, then we head south over the weekend to see the largest glacier in Europe.
So that’s it for now.