Our 4WD picked up (thankfully we were upgraded from the tiny toy Suzuki Jimny to the slightly less tiny Suzuki Grand Vitara) we set off into the great unknown. Not that unknown though, as initially we drove around the famed ‘Golden Triangle’, consisting of Þingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss.
Conclusion: They’re not that golden, unless that’s as far from Reykjavik as you’re able to get.
Þingvellir is mainly of interest as a historical site, being the place where Iceland’s first parliament was founded back in 930, and continued for centuries. It’s also smack bang on the divide between the North American and Eurasian continental plates, so there are some cool holes in the ground, and bits of ground being unexpectedly higher than other bits beside it.
Geysir was the source of the English word geyser. It only geyses sporadically now though, and the regular erupter is Strokkur (which only did a few half-hearted flubs while we were there – apparently it reaches 30m, I don’t think any of the eruptions we saw topped 10m)
Gullfoss is a waterfall (foss = falls). I’ll save the photo of that for a massive Foss post, as there were quite a lot of them by the end of the trip. But after driving around the three biggest tourist attractions in Iceland, we were happy to dive off onto a random 4WD track, and camp by the foot of a glacier.
There was just one other vehicle there, and they seemed happy to keep to themselves. After hiking up the mountain by our tent and taking some photos, we had some dinner and curled up in the warm to sleep.
The next morning we set off back into civilisation to find some groceries, and then it was to be northwards and into the highlands.
