Our first full day in Iceland

We got off to a good start, leaving our hotel at 0830. Breakfast was entertaining. The restaurant was crowded by 0730. Some people were eating enormous quantities of food before their tour buses collected them.

The food was excellent.

Today was one of our long drive days, meaning over 5 hours of driving, interspersed with short stops for photography.

It was very hot this morning. The air conditioning in our vehicle is inadequate. We drove east from Reykjavik and stopped at two of the popular waterfalls. I can’t describe how crowded each place was. We waited in a queue to go behind the first waterfall,

People were stopping for selfies all the time. The spray was strong and we were glad of waterproofs. There was really nowhere to set up a tripod and produce any images.

Our second waterfall was equally crowded, but we photographed it from afar.

The nice thing was that everyone was smiling and enjoying themselves.

As we drove further a strong wind blew up. We went to some cliff tops to see puffins. It was quite hard to stand up and the wind was blowing towards the sea, so it was quite dangerous.

I did manage one image of a puffin in flight, but I’ve chosen a sedentary one for my extra.

We stopped at the famous church in Vik, where a couple from the far east were posing in wedding attire.

By now, I was pretty tired. We went to a black beach where the wind whipped the sand into our hair, our camera bags and everywhere.

I would call today quite challenging. Tomorrow should be easier.

The group is beginning to gel. We are 3 men and 2 women. The other woman is charming, but seems not to have realised the sort of holiday she was coming on. She is happy to make a record shot, but can’t understand why the rest of us want to stay for longer. She does not have the gear recommended in the trip description either.

I don’t know how she will manage tomorrow when we stay at places for much longer than today…..

Outside the hotel the artic terns are swooping and diving, making quite a racket. There are other birds calling too. It is suggested that we might get up very early to go to photograph the birds. I’ll see how well I sleep first!