Iceland

What a trip that was. Where do I start? Firstly it was awesome seeing the South African bunch that I so rarely get to catch up with. Alison looked cute as ever and in spite of missing Dani very much, the new girl, Kate, is equally as lovely. Manny, the SA Manager, also invited his dear friend, now a partner of ours, Lindi to the trip. I had met Lindi two years ago, she's the kind of extra-ordinary fun-loving-ultra smart woman, and I loved her.

(Kate, Me, Alison, Lindi)

We wasted no time in celebrating our reunion at Heathrow airport with a free flow of Gin and Tonics for the girls and beers for the boys, it was 11 am... The trip was non-stop amazing sights and activities so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves... except the last one maybe, which will require a bit of explaining.

We started with the Blue Lagoon

The hot spring was so warm that when I went out in the cold and wind to take the pictures I did not feel the cold at all. These images were followed with a drinking session in the designated area of the Lagoon, specifically Blue Lagoon Cocktails which were lovely. It's a wonder no one drowned.

The evening was followed with something equally unique... A drink in Surely the Coolest Bar in Town (Me, Alison, Nikolaj, Lindi and Peter)

You guessed it! It's an Ice bar. Woo-hoo. Although, with my over-acting imagination, I thought it was going to be like in that James Bond film with Pierce Brosman, a giant igloo with ice scuplture and ice furniture, this was mostly a fridge freezer with ice on the walls but still Minus 20 degrees celsius.
(Here with Alison and Clive)

After a hard day of work, we went to a typical Icelandic dinner. It was a regal, I stuffed my face silly I enjoyed so much, sachimi, rainbow trout, cod fish and lots of delicious things I wasn't sure what they were.

Here with Torsten thanking him for the great organisation (he's the man who planned it all). He promised me at that point that I had seen nothing yet. Followed by after dinner drinks:

A little too much drinking

(Kenneth and Martin)

A little bounding

(Kate and Peter)

A little singing

(Torsten and Ron)

After a hard day's work and a hard night partying; we went on a tour of the island (in fact just a small portion, the island is gigantic and it would take 8 hours to drive to the next town just a eighth of the island away) This is where the Tectonic Plates meet, on the right, the American Plate and on the left, the Continental plate; in the middle Peter, Rudiger and Manny.

We then went to the Gullfoss Waterfalls, absolutely amazing, I loved it, you walk along a long and narrow, snow covered cliff to reach the waterfall and it is breathtaking, there is three levels of falls, this is the third one and most impressive - I kept wondering what the debit of water was ?

but got even more mesmerised when I saw the first level of the fall, because you cannot see where the water is coming from? Then my brain went into a buzz of whether the power of the water could actually defeat gravity!!! (you also notice the geek in me)

So I walked back up above the waterfall and there I saw it, for miles the water is gently coming from the mountain in the distance.

This is a 20 meter geyser, I managed to catch it just as it was emerging. Martin who had been freezing his hands trying to video it ran out of memory on film just before it erupted.

Okay, at first, this looks weird, but it's not, it's my foot. Well, okay, it is a weird looking foot and that's why I am showing it and what looks like shadow under the bump is in fact a bruise. I have no pictures to explain why I am injured, so you need to use your imagination

On the last trip of the day, we were going to visit a glacier, we were in these huge four wheels drive and I thought, like everyone else that we were going to drive there - none of us knew what to expect. but in the middle of the snow covered mountain, were snow mobiles waiting for us. I was scared so I jumped on one behind Nikolaj who is a big strong man, he'll take of me. It was frightening enough because of the speed we were travelling at, my helmet was shaking and I was scared it would fly off and injure Martin who was right behind us. But we made it safely to the Glacier and it was impressive, I did not take any pictures because I was all wrapped up and could not reach my camera, we had a snow ball fight which was good fun and started our journey back. Half way back, we had to climb a steep slanted slope, Nikolaj and I were very good and as told by the instructor leaning as much as possible towards the slope so that the snow mobile would not roll back, but now that you've seen my foot you all guessed it, we did tumble - I never saw it coming, one minute I was leaning to the left and the next I was lying in the snow with the 280kilos snow mobile crushing my right foot while head in the snow I was whailing 'my foot is stuck, my foot is stuck and thinking it's lucky I'm wearing this helmet or I'd be freezing my face right now.' Martin jumped off his snow mobil and Nikolaj got back on his feet and the two of them heaved the machine back up and away from me. That is the story, so since I have been in pain. nothing's broken and my doctor was incapable of giving me something for the pain, so I am treating myself with herbal and natural remedies like foot bath in Dead Sea Salt recommended by my dad and lots of Arnica and Bach flower recommended by my mom. It seems to help, today my foot is less swollen and less painful but rest and foot up it is for me...

Anyhow, this remains the best trip we've had as a group and altough Iceland was never one of my top 20 destinations I would now strongly recommend it and it's only a matter of time till I go back there with Alex.