For our last day in Iceland, we enjoyed with grace the beautiful things that nature has offered us. Our footsteps first led us to Kerid, an ancient, effusive volcano that collapsed on itself, before being artistically filled with water by the water table. This gives us, in common language, a crater that houses a lake. And that’s nice. There is also something very paradoxical: this place was boiling red lava that spilled over the surroundings (in itself, it’s not a fundamentally nice place), and yet, the presence of water is extremely soothing.
We are then going to sweat a little on the trails of Reykjadalur, or the valley of the hot river. We do not leave the path and we will not touch the water that smokes just because it’s really funny. It’s less funny when your finger realizes that the water is at 80° C, that you are in the mountains and that help is far, far away. The hike lasts an hour (on paper … when you have cardboard muscles, it’s a little longer) and the primer is a little rough because of the steep. The walk is still very gratifying, because it makes us discover sumptuous landscapes, pass in geothermal formation fumes that spit their vapors of water, admiring pools of boiling mud. Nevertheless, do not forget your swimsuit, because at the end, there is a hot river where it is possible to bathe. The place is very well laid out. Xim had the courage to go play fish. For my part, given the wind, I preferred not to risk it for fear of bringing back a memory of Iceland type cold or angina. And then at night, we had an appointment at the Blue Lagoon…
This little hike and the bath having us busy, we were almost late on the activities of the late afternoon. We went to see the bridge over the rift between the American and Eurasian continents. A bridge to change continent, that is not commonplace. We sped out our stuff in our (huge) hotel room to go to the Blue Lagoon.
The Blue Lagoon or “I enjoy life, the ass on a volcano”. It is the must-see tourist complex of Iceland, 30 minutes from the airport, consisting of huge pools fed by hot water from the depths of the earth. The place is surrounded by geothermal power plants, but when you swim just 10 meters away because of the steam, you are not too distracted by the landscape. The water is very loaded with silica, which is very good for the skin, but a horror for the hair (despite the luxury of precautions taken). We did the aquatic tour of the pools singing “the little fish in the water swim, swim, swim, swim, swim, the little fish in the water swim as well as the big ones” (thanks Lohan;)), we we are made a silica mask (so we have very soft skin now), we relaxed ourselves. Given the very high degree of clutter in the cloakrooms, I expected the basins to be crowded… but no… because they are really very big. Well, it’s totally overpriced for a spa. Let’s say these are Icelandic prices. It lacks cabins to change and the girls’ locker room is not sufficiently equipped with a hairdryer. Some women still come with all of their beauty product in their vanity and do not care to see that the world is waiting to dry the pulp that makes them hair on the way out of the bath. I moan a little, it’s not against the Blue Lagoon but against me-you-see who make unlikely selfies in the water. The day I’m (very) rich, I’ll come back with the Xim for a pack “luxury super premium”. One day…
We ran a little to finish the bags, refuel, clean the car, return the car… but the return went very well.
Xim is now taking photos for future slide shows (30-minute format, because we’re thinking of you…) and we’re still full of beautiful landscapes. The return to everyday life is a little tricky, when you pass from deserted roads and wild landscapes to the A8 on the Côte d’Azur…
Leave a Reply