We checked out of our somewhat weird place (with a munted dishwasher and not really brilliant setup) and headed the 45 minutes up to Thingvellir to meet up with our tour into the Silfra fissure.

Again, the Icelandic scenery did not disappoint en route. It is simply incredible. We were delighted to have clear skies, no real wind to speak of and comfortable temperatures again of 3-4C. We parked the car, paid the $13 parking fee and headed up to meet our guide. The next bit wasn't fun. In answering what we had assumed were questions prior to signing a "all care no responsibility waiver", when asked about high blood pressure and asthma, we both started to answer about the mild, non concerning/controlled nature of our respective realities. The young (nose and lip pierced non Icelandic) lady, said, "do you have a letter from your doctor that says you are fit to do this?". The obvious answer of no was met with a "well then you are not permitted to do this". No amount of information about having letters from Doc saying these are our medications (ie to manage these conditions making us happy, healthy and well) was going to cut it. Somewhat, bewildered, we walked back out of the meeting area and just didn't know what to do. This aspect of our time in Iceland was one of the most anticipated and excited things I had wanted to do, and the upset/frustration was very high.

No opportunity to explain about my swimming background, aquabike events, recent activity levels was going to do anything, and she just didn't seem interested. Told me we could contact the customer relations team, which I have done, but have received a bot generated "we're really busy so we'll get back to you in 3-5 days". A real let down.

Unsure what to do/look at next, we did explore around the walks and waterfalls in the national park. This park was a very significant part of Icelandic history with self-governance from 950-1296AD. Their laws were very strict and at this site, at least 72 people were recorded as having been sentenced and put to death. 30 women were drowned (their method of executing women) and the men were either hanged at Dead man's passage that we walked past, or beheaded down near the river. They also flogged people too as punishment for crimes, with not any real mention of incarceration. The Icelanders have a strong tradition of retribution for crimes, that was to be carried out by family members of the victims in an "eye for eye" fashion. Other common crimes were incest and infanticide of children born from incest...low population and isolation I guess.

I forgot to mention that at the hot springs yesterday, I did make the effort to lift the smallest of the atlas stone.s I think 75kg or 110kg...not sure. It was heavy enough for me. Decided against trying the heavier ones.

So, after navigating the walks in the park, and being highly irritated by both our experience and the raft of ignorant, self centred fellow tourists with zero ability to share pathways or show any inkling of consideration for anyone other than themselves and the other members of their group, we headed back to the car to find some other places to explore before the drive down to Selfoss. The habit that people have of a million vacuous selfies, where it is very clear that they are the centre of the picture with just enough in the background to prove they were somewhere "cool" is really annoying. As are the majority of people who when walking along a trail, continue to walk 2,3 or even 4 across the pathway, sometimes not even leaving enough room for two Aussies who have already made it to single file to make room...just disgusting behaviour. Italians seem the worst but French (arrogant and aloof) and Americans (loud, obnoxious and unaware). Interestingly, the Poms come off well :) We met a terrific group of school students at the hot pools yesterday and a great couple asked us to take their photo, even apologising for others when we said how nice it was to meet a good couple! It's not hard but apparently, looking outwards just isn't a "thing" for most of the tourist community.

Rant over. Next stop was a set of geysirs about 45 minutes drive away. Again, the scenery en route was special, and we think we might have spotted the venting (slowly) of a volcano in the distance. Another $13 to park the car, but with entry free from there, all good. We walked across the road to the geysirs. They were brilliant. The strong smell of sulfur in the air and several steadily blipping pools gently boiling away, just beside the path was hot! 80-100C hot. As we walked up the hill we came to the main attraction...a large one that apparently goes off every 10 minutes or so. Wow!!!! Amazing. We stood and watched/recorded it. We were shocked/surprised at how close we were allowed to stand, given the clear variability in timing and volume of water ejected each time. From burbles to massive jets I reckon to 40-45m high, with the steam cloud enveloping people down wind...hmmm...felt less safe than a float around in a neoprene wetsuit would have been in the morning, just saying. We walked up the rest of the hill, dodging the vaping sets, loud Japanese and Italian types and enjoyed seeing the other pools too. This one was very good!!!!

Final stop for the day was the famous Gulfoss falls. Shock, no parking fee!!!!! Anyway, a series of vantage points gave us wonderful views over this iconic Icelandic waterfall. During the year on average it has the largest volume of water going over any waterfall in Europe. Not the highest but the most powerful. Some lovely photos, rainbows and ice formations probably won't do it justice but is was pretty excellent to see. A narrow canyon with rocks that have differing porosity and hardness means the area is constantly changing.

Further edit on the Thingvellir NP area is that infact the whole area where we explore is in the rift valley that is the spreading of the two plates, Europe and North America and it's still pretty active as a fault line. This makes it also a great place to view great waterfalls and rock formations as seen in our photos there. The area where the Vikings used as a meeting point until 1790 when tectonic activity saw the ground sink 2m, to the collapse of the pathway leading up from where our car was parked to the viewing platform at the visitor centre in the 1980s. All very interesting.

An uneventful drive to our accommodation. The kind of shitty day concluded in us starting to cook dinner after shopping at the local Netto (where we met a lovely young fellow who spoke excellent English although he reckoned that his teachers weren't very good and he'd learned most of it from Youtube), that our hotplate was broken, so a change of room just when the 20000 steps of the day were starting to bite...just what we needed. Bronnie's fair complexion has been suffering a little, especially in the afternoon sunlight, even when in the car. The low angle of the rays seems to make her skin flush really strongly, like a painful sunburn and heat that's not very nice. Perhaps the arctic atmosphere/UV penetration difference to home makes her susceptible and on sunny days, it seems hard to avoid, even with hats, scarves, linen shirts!!! A slight sore throat from the gases at the geysir is looming, so tomorrow might be a quieter day as much of today's things we did were planned for tomorrow. With the scenery in the car being equally as good as the points of interest, we're still working out the best way to see the good bits we want to. Stay tuned and enjoy the photos!