Driving home from Coos Bay a couple of weeks ago, we stopped along a road in Appleton to get a good look at the Siuslaw River. It was flowing quietly in the evening light and the riverbank was in full summer flush.
Iceland delivered! The beauty was everywhere, ridiculously casual! The most astounding sights breezed past our moving car. We took many photos while in motion because there were very few places where the road was wide enough to pull over. This was one of those;
Just a farm with a waterfall and canyon in the backyard.
Another.
Many places were quite similar to New Mexico but with even less people. The place was immaculate too. No litter, billboards, crappy tourist attractions, or distractions of any kind other than the extraordinary landscape. The smallest waterways were lush with healthy vegetation;
Art Travel booked us into a remarkable place called Solheimar, the oldest intentional community on earth. It was our base as we explored the South.
Word to the wise, get Icelandic made GPS if at all possible. We had two that often proved worthless. The small, tasteful roadsigns were barely legible so maps became much more necessary. Although everyone graciously speaks English, the language is still ball busting. With seven extra letters, the pronunciation of anything is an embarrassing guess. John was making some headway, he loves languages, but Icelandic is a tough nut. Place names are naturally in the mother tongue, and that makes talking about them very difficult. But with lots of stops to confer with the locals, we found our destinations. Gjian was one of them. In dusty terrain that could have been Utah, one tiny sign directed us to this extravagant oasis;
So over the top magical, it reminded me of a hippie, back to the earth poster from the sixties. BTW, you pronounce it gal-win. It wasn`t easy to find and Fjaorgliufur wasn`t either;
Even though I was there less than a week ago, it`s hard to believe something so completely fantastical exists. Look at those curves!
We also saw some of the more famous sites too, such as Gullfoss;
Although geothermal activity was visible with steaming fumaroles throughout the landscape, there were also concentrations of features like at Yellowstone.
Now being so far north, the day stretched on endlessly. As a night owl who wishes he could be a morning person, the vast daylight was a total luxury. One can go visit Geysir at 11 pm! or 2 am! Plenty of light in July and no tour busses then! Sunset at midnight is a beautiful thing!
Not much artwork was made except for I-pad doodles drawn on the plane or in downtime;
