Deutsch | English

1 Þórsmörk hiking area 2 Between Skógafoss and Vik 3 Mýrdalssandur and other sandur plains 4 Skaftafell and Svartifoss 5 Jökulsárlón 6 The East Fjords and the northeast of Iceland 7 Asbyrgi and 8 Dettifoss 9 Husavik

10 Highland track Sprengisandur 11 Landmannalaugar 12 Gullfoss 13 Kerlingarfjöll 14 Hveravellir 15 Vatnsnes peninsula 16 The Westfjords 17 Dynjandi waterfall

18 Látrabjarg 19 Flatey 20 Snæfellsnes 21 Þingvellir 22 Geysir 23 Seljalandsfoss 24 Vestmannaeyjar 25 Reykjavík

So now I cycled the Gullni hringurinn, or in English the Golden Circle, attractions of Iceland that can be visited from the capital Reykjavík in a day trip by bus for tourists; these include Þingvellir (see also part 5), the waterfall Gullfoss (see also part 3) and the area of the Great Geysir and its neighbour Strokkur, which reliably erupts every few minutes.

22 Geysir

I reached the high-temperature area Haukadalur in the evening around 6 pm. Right next to it is a campsite, and the area is surrounded by a low fence but also open at night, so that I could visit the geysers after most of the day tourists had left.

The namesake Geysir for all geysers worldwide erupts only very irregularly; in the picture at the bottom right it can be seen sulking and bubbling to itself.

Much more industrious is its neighbour Strokkur, which erupts every few minutes to the amusement of the tourists (how it works is explained, for example, here, in German). The lower 8 small pictures were taken within 1.5 seconds, and underneath I made a moving gif image from them...

Not only geysers are to be found in this high-temperature area but also a multitude of hot springs, at the bottom right the diatomite-containing and therefore blue-coloured spring Blesi.

and because it was so nice, another 12 small pictures of Strokkur, which were put together into a little film below...

The next day I visited Skálholt, which was a bishop’s seat until about 1800 and from the end of the 12th century also had the first Latin school in Iceland.

Soon, a little east of Selfoss, I reached a part of the Ring Road that I had already cycled on the first day here in Iceland, and after a few kilometres I reached the Seljalandsfoss.

23 Seljalandsfoss

The weather was fantastic and from the Ring Road you can see the Vestmannaeyjar in the sea.

After I had pitched my tent 500 m from the waterfall, I made a little excursion by bike, about 500 m of climbing on a track, to catch a better view of the Eyjafjallajökull (made famous by its eruption in 2010, when it paralysed Europe’s air traffic), the surroundings and the Vestmannaeyjar.

Back at the campsite I visited the Seljalandsfoss twice, which especially in the evening (in suitable weather) knows how to shine with quite fantastic rainbows and colours.

The next morning I rode about 15 km to the ferry port Landeyjahöfn and with the Herjólfur to the Vestmannaeyjar. I report on these islands and on Reykjavík in the next and last part.