Travel · November 20, 2017

The Golden Circle

After our first day exploring the city, our second day in Iceland was set to be a day of solid Bear Grylls style exploration (or Bridget Jones on holiday, if you’re yours truly). Setting off when the weather was wet and the clouds rumbling and grey- we’d pretty much accepted that we probably wouldn’t be seeing snow this time around. We were met by the talented ladies behind organic skincare brand Soley– and set off, scarves and boots laced and wrapped, ready for a day of seeing more of what the island had to offer.

One thing we’d been told before our journey (and after indulging in endless posts from Julia) was how quickly the weather here can change. You can set off during drizzly showers, and five minutes later be met with bright skies or even snow storms- and well, that’s exactly what happened.

With the weather changing in what felt like almost minutes, people are always right when they say you’re always close to an adventure here- as we found ourselves carefully cruising along snow stacked roads and icy corners. Stopping off at various points, to hop out of the car and soak it all in- it reminded me a little of our tour of the Great Ocean Road last year in Australia. There’s something quite incredible about covering so much land and seeing the landscape change so rapidly across such vast expanses too.





Our first stop before lunch was the Fontana Geothermal Baths– a regular and noted spot for anyone doing any Golden Circle tours- but despite this, never felt too busy or cramped.

We sat down for a traditional Icelandic lunch (fresh fish, soups and bakes a plenty)- before Amy and Abi bravely dipped into the water (and sea), whilst a cosy Emily and I sat on watching (and promising we’d head in when it came to the Blue Lagoon later on in the week).

After drying off and hopping back into the car, we ventured to one of the most stunning sights I possibly saw on this trip (at least certainly the one that inspired endless TLC renditions)- the incredible waterfall, Gulfoss. With hundreds of tiny tourists bundled around watching it (funnily enough we were the only ones singing Chasing Waterfalls)- it felt somewhat other worldly, and reminded me a lot of being on safari and just seeing these incredible untouched wonders of the world; sounds simple, but it’s true.





Our next stops included an ice cream stop to the traditional Efstidalur farm in the hills- where the ice cream is fresh, delicious and you can even see the cows in the barn from the antique armchairs! We also continued on to see the Geyser (which, naturally sounds more fun when you call it a ‘geezer’) and largely spent the rest of our afternoon gawping in amazement at how many natural wonders this country truly boasts, and although we didn’t quite tackle the full extent of the Golden Circle tour, for an impromptu day of driving- we impressively managed to tick off more than I’d even anticipated- and we arrived back in Reykjavik ready for a hot bath and an evening of reliving the days adventures over dinner.




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