Recently in All Letters Category

Image at left: Anchored off Norris Point, in Gros Morne National Park on the northwest coast of Newfoundland, +49° 30' 36.70"N, -57° 53' 11.19"W, we are greeted by amazing light of the morning sun.  A lone Zodiac driver waits for his call to duty on the side of the ship.  Meanwhile, he/she was the perfect scale for my photo.  The rest of the pictures are here in chronological order.  I'll start a small gallery of the best dozen soon, meanwhile they are all included in this 150 or so.  If you want to see people and food pictures, they are found here.  Both of these galleries will be annotated as I get to it, but for right know, what you see is what you get.

Often I wonder why I like to travel.  I examine, consciously, what it is that makes it work for me.  It has changed in my experience over time, decades I mean, something to do with scale and contrast, light and dark, times that we are in now and times that are forgotten, or nearly so.  When one leaves the comfort of familiar surroundings and are thrust into the world beyond your doorstep, possibilities exist for a greater chance of something unexpected happening.  Seeing, smelling, tasting or otherwise sensing a new environment.  We frame our plans around increasing the odds that what we will experience will match our expectations.  Therein lies the trap that nature has laid for us.

The conundrum is to observe but not quite participate if the activity is not what we expect.  However to truly observe, one must participate.  This seems to me to be the fulfilling act of travel.  To engage in the activity that intertwines and highlights differences with your own life experience is the plum of the event.  The act of observation in and of itself often affects the outcome of an event.  So we try to balance the expectation and the experience in our mind.  What is really important?  I think the answer is to accept the outcome of the travel experience for the plums it offers and not to twist it into something else (like what you had planned).  Sharing journeys, written, spoken or photographed (or all) helps others to reach a value in their own planning.  With each iteration the act of travel gets closer to the "planned" experience.  Which of course, if the journey is truly an "expedition" then it's purpose has little chance of occurring at all.  I think I prefer the term exploratory.

Depending upon one's life experience the simple act of just crossing a road can be a life changing experience.  Michael Fay in his epic "megatransect" of 1200 miles of central Africa several years ago was accompanied by a Pygmy crew who had never seen a road before.  As he said, they were something akin to kids on an escalator for the first time... "You can go so fast!" they exclaimed as they ran back and forth on the dirt road surface.  For other travelers, nothing short of a ride to the edge of space would be enough to satisfy their expectations.  The rest of us, somewhat thankfully, fall somewhere in between.  Michael Fay's trip, was an expedition with a defined purpose.  Silversea's PRINCE ALBERT II, was very much a luxury cruise, even calling it "expedition light" would be misleading.  It is a smallish, 354 ft., lavishly appointed, cruise ship with some Zodiacs.  I loved it for what it was, not for what I thought it was going to be.  It does not however execute a travel experience that even remotely begs for "expedition" to be included in the title.  No matter what it says on the side of the ship "expeditions" don't arrange for buses to transport you to lovely museums six blocks away from the ship.  An expedition with a purpose, would have headed north into the waves and wind from St. John's, Newfoundland, however since the purpose was not expeditionary, but moreover luxury cruising and comfortable explorations, we turned south.  Here is the story.

My friend Pam and I left Austin, Texas late morning on August 13th, 2008 for New York City and onward to St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.  My expectations were high, and that was in part to see as much of Newfoundland & Nova Scotia as one could via ship and some land excursions given a lot of time constraints by the published itinerary.  I also wanted to know about Silversea and it's new "expedition" ship, the PRINCE ALBERT II.  I am interested in the other places she is going as well.  What I learned in the process, is what I learned on my trip to Iceland last summer, to accomplish an intimate observation of the large island land masses of the Canadian Maritimes, will require a return trip and slower methods.

The PRINCE ALBERT II only went into service under this name, officially, on June 12, 2008.  The refit was begun last fall to revive a ship once known as the WORLD DISCOVERER.  I won't go into the full history, but millions have been spent on polishing her up, and by and large it shows.

We arrived in St. John's on the evening of August 13th.  Well it was actually 12:14 a.m. August 14th when we were finally exiting the airport.  My new friend, Terry Adey, was there to greet us.  A charming and talented photographer during the day, and a registered nurse by night.  He drove us to Signal Hill to the the flickering lights of St. John's harbor, then on to the Balmoral Inn (38 Queens Road).  After some sleep we were off for a walk and then met Terry and his wife Debbie for lunch and a tour of the environs.  I cannot thank Terry enough for his warm welcome and help.  On a future trip I am sure we'll have a lot of photography to share.

August 15th turned out to be a damp, cool and breezy morning, but after at least 10 hours of rain, heavy at times, the night before, it was a welcome respite to have the late morning clearing.  At least we could move our luggage from the Inn to the wharf without getting soaked.  The transition from the dock to the ship was fast and efficient considering that the PRINCE ALBERT II was receiving one hundred plus new passengers in addition to the seventeen or so that remained aboard from the sixteen day trip from Reykjavik, Iceland.  Champagne was plied upon us as we waited in line to get our room key and a quick photo taken.  In line with us was our soon-to-be new life-long friend, Dr. Arlene Segal.  A veteran of Silversea and almost any other outfit you can conjure up.  From the North Pole to the Antarctic peninsula, she has a bucket full of memories and I was eager to listen (and still ready now).  Fate would have it that Arlene was also just across the hall from us.  Perfect planning.

One of the first items of business shipboard is to have a life boat drill.  The Silversea routine was quite different from my drill on the Russian ship, PROFESSOR MULTANOVSKIY.  Silversea has you try on the life vest, secure the straps.... and you're done.  I have no idea which lifeboat I would go to should there be a problem.  The MULTANOVSKIY had us go all the way to the lifeboats, board them (it was raining too, a lot), and start the engine.  In retrospect that was a very good exercise after I heard about 3 of the 4 lifeboats from the now sunken EXPLORER last fall having engines that would not start.  So this seemed to be just Lifeboat Drill 101 on Silversea.

The first disappointment came when the ship's captain and the Silversea staff concluded that the weather system that moved in the previous night had created an itinerary-changing set of wind and swells from the north.  Rightly so, it would have been a very tough go to head north to L'Anse aux Meadows, so it was scratched.  A big blow for me as this was the one spot, along with Gros Morne National Park, that I had really wanted to see, and was much of the reason I chose this particular trip.  I could not argue with the logic however.  We turned south to the port of Argentia to visit a historic site there.  In retrospect I think this stop could have been skipped in favor of saving the time for better experiences at Gros Morne National Park.  The gritty photo opportunities that I sought were still eluding me, but I learned long ago to focus (literally) on what is in front of you when what you are expecting is not there.  I found one of my best images of the trip in a bright yellow cleat that the PRINCE ALBERT II had her bright blue "spring line" on, complete with a contrasting red edge and the uniform black hull of the ship.  I was very pleased, and it made my day.  The other good image of the day turned out to be of Camille Seaman, the resident photographer on the ship.  Unfortunately she was too preoccupied with her family and ship-board duties to talk much about photography to me, so I just took her photo and will give her a lesson on how I made it another time.

That evening we set off to the Ramea Islands, a bit of a forlorn fishing community off the south coast of Newfoundland.  It was an interesting to see, but the weather was being uncooperative during our visit.  Next we headed north to Gros Morne National Park.  Again the Silversea staff had shortened our visit here.  There is a disconnect between what is published in the itinerary (that I purchased) and what the ship's staff says we are going to do.  I provided copies of these documents to the staff leader.  He said and did nothing in response.  So much for being expeditionary.

Gros Morne provided a beautiful morning arrival for us.  It was here I took the photo at the top of this journal entry.  The best weather day yet.  I made a panorama of the morning light on the south side of the bay from 10 images.  We had a choice of a three mile hike to the foot of the Western Brook Pond (initially reached by motor coach) or just a coach ride around the park with little or no walking.  It seems about half of the ship went for the hike.  The other half, many of whom had never been in a Zodiac before, opted for just motoring around the park.  This was an out and back hike, flat, paved, gravel or board walk for the most part.  They had a nice local fellow who tried to say that he was going to walk as fast as the slowest person.  That remark pretty well eliminated Pam and me, along with my new friend Fred, from the interpretive stops as we were not going to walk at one mile per hour no matter what.  We were even told to "stay with the group" at one point, and I chose to walk on rather that to tell the fellow to "get lost" on the trail (it was impossible to get lost unless you believed you were on an expedition and had completely lost your senses).  Nice walk, too bad we had no time to do the famous boat cruise up the fjord.  Just enough time to walk back, board the bus and subsequently the ship and depart for St. Pierre & Miquelon to the south.

St. Pierre remotely reminded me of St. Barthélemy, French West Indies, albeit a lot cooler.  I think the French as a colonial power left some good systems and traditions in place in the islands.  We took a short boat ride over to "Sailor's Island" which is inhabited by summer residents now.  It was a pleasant and quiet little place but they could use a good patisserie to liven up the populace.

Soon we were sailing for Fortress de Louisbourg, Nova Scotia.  This is a very interesting cultural stop in the history books of North America.  A partially restored Fort of quite a large scale.  What has been done, is very well done, and well worth the visit.  From here we sailed to Halifax.

We pulled into Halifax in the early morning where I spied Harlan Crow's yacht, MICHAELA ROSE, stern to at the wharf.  We tied up a short distance away, then boarded buses for Halls Harbor on the north side of Nova Scotia along the shores of the Bay of Fundy where the tides range up to 40 feet or more. First was a quick stop in the old part of Halifax to visit the cemetery where many of the TITANIC victims were buried.  An odd tourist site for any "expedition."  We also were able to squeeze in a 45 minute stop at the maritime museum that was quite interesting.  In a whirlwind of bus riders we were headed north to the Grand Pre winery and a tasting.  Perhaps with time and a bit more global warming their grapes will catch up with Napa and Sonoma Valleys in California.  Meanwhile, this slowed us down so much that we had a VERY late fresh lobster lunch at 3 p.m. in Halls Harbor.  Time enough to see the water rise during lunch and refloat the harbor boats.  A nice tour for what we did although they tried to micro manage the passengers to the level of telling them how to cross the street.  I bolted again.  Back in Halifax at about 5:45 p.m. we were told that the maritime museum would be open until 8 p.m.  Sadly it was only open until 5:30 p.m. and most everything else was closing rapidly.  Why we stayed in port for several more hours remains a mystery to me. One hightlight of the departure was the bag piper and drummer that serenaded us.  They were absolutely outstanding.  I have it all on HD video.

Next up was the very pretty little town of Lunenburg, where we got a morning sail of sorts on the BLUE NOSE II.  More of a motor sail really, but that was the weather in the morning.  I had some nice chats with the crew on the vessel about their life and sailing experiences as contrasted with mine.  Always fun to talk to a sailor.  Arlene, Pam and I had lunch at the GRAND BANKER restaurant overlooking the harbor.  Then we were off for a walking tour of town.  I photographed several interesting wind vanes from quite a distance.

The next morning was perhaps the best of all, more or less an unplanned nature-in-your-face experience cruising the mouth of the Bay of Fundy off the west coast of Nova Scotia.  We saw more whales than I saw the year before in Antarctica, and ten times as many breaching whales (jumping).  I'll put the video online soon too, but the stills are in the gallery now.  We cruised into the sunset and towards America.

The morning was clear as we entered Gloucester, MA.  Captain Fabien Rocher did a remarkable job of backing the PRINCE ALBERT II down the length of the harbor to the dock as there was no room to turn around mid-harbor.  A tug stood by, but I don't believe she was ever used.  A fog bank raced down the harbor about as fast as we were backing in and reached us only as we we throwing lines out to secure the ship.  Job well done.  After the lengthy process of clearing US immigration we were able to disembark and make our way to the excellent CAPE ANNE MUSEUM.  Highly recommended.  At lunch we were off to New York City.  I made a panorama of three images of Boston which was clearly seen 19 miles away.  Passing though the Cape Cod Canal we came within three miles of our Austin neighbor Dave Welland's house near Falmouth.  A small world we live in now.

Morning twilight brought us by Coney Island and then under the Verazanno Narrows Bridge.  It was not the clearest of days, but a warm and humid one.  I made a panorama of the New York City skyline as we approached it.  We had to be out of our cabins by 8 a.m. so the staff could prepare the ship for hosting travel agents and other visitors.  We were not able to get off the ship until 11:35 a.m.  After securing a taxi we had just enough time to drive by Dean & Deluca on Broadway to pick up some lunch and then head to Newark Airport.

Some side notes:  our new friends, Fred and Julia, who were a deck above us in Cabin 411 (Silversea calls them "suites" but with only one room, again, it is a bit of a linguistic stretch) and HAD NO AIR CONDITIONING - THE ENTIRE TRIP.  The only solution by the Silversea staff was to give them a fan, and after complaining for days.... they got a second fan.  I think they could have fixed this almost immediately by switching their cabin with one of the staff members.  Several of whom I know were in cabins comparable to ours, a less expensive class from the forth deck, but nonetheless cool and comfortable.  I hope that Silversea makes some reparations with Fred.  If they do not, I will make some contract changes on any future voyages with Silversea.  It should also be known that Silversea allows smoking in the cabins.  A door away from Fred was a smoker who has his door cracked open as was polluting the hallway and their non-ventilated room.  I felt terrible for Fred and Julia with the inaction of the staff and Silversea headquarters.  

There was also a pot smoker from time to time somewhere in deck three down the hall from our cabin 313.  I never identified exactly where, but the aroma was very strong and distinct.

On deck five, there was one "suite" (and up here it really might have been one) that was overwhelmed with the odor of the head (the toilet to landlubbers).  Little was done to fix this situation either.

Cabin 313 was more or less perfect save for the television.  They seem to have a satellite tracking system for receiving live TV but the only channel they offered was FOX NEWS which is pretty much no news at all.  I thought it was so embarrassing that they should have just turned it off altogether.  That's what people say (inside joke about Fox News).  So sadly, no Olympic coverage at all on the telly.  While I am on the TV.... the movie system worked perfectly and had a wide range of choices.  I was quite impressed, no DVD fumbling or check outs, just click and play.

There is also a pay as you go ($0.50/minute), or package deal, on Internet service.  It was amazingly reliable and fast, probably twice the speed of a 56 kbps dial up line at its best.  I purchased a block of 250 minutes time for $85 and by typing mostly off line and then cutting/pasting my messages I was usually off in 4-6 minutes.  I could log into my accounts when and where I wanted, respond to emails, upload photos/comments to my blog.... even look out the side window of our house with a live web cam WHILE WE WERE AT SEA.  This was pretty amazing.  I ended the whole trip with 30 minutes left over that I never used (no refunds).  Some people complained about the service but they were using the computers in the "internet cafe" in the library.  I was always using my own notebook and logging on wirelessly from anywhere on the ship.  Geeky stuff and it worked.  Also while I am on telecommunications, the AT&T cell service works with Silversea.  Once one has international roaming, taxes and fees make each minute cost about $3.50.  We never did use it, but I know it works from observing others.  I never could get Skype to show a connected signal on the internet connection or I would have tried a Skype VoIP call from the ship ($0.02/min usually, plus the internet connection fee of about $0.35).  Anyhow, I would suspect that this sort of thing could work, but perhaps they block those ports so AT&T can keep the monopoly while onboard the ship.

Lastly I have to say that the staff for the most part was exemplary.  While I've said little of the food in my notes here, but if you look at the photos of it you will see 10,000 words.  There is nothing more I could improve upon in this category.  Top drawer, A+, top to bottom, it was the best.  Cindy, our cabin stewardess was perfect.  The expedition leader did have one huge faux pas by showing an off color joke series on the LCD projector in the theater.  Very low class and out of place.  Bad judgement all around on that one.  Otherwise his bungling of Fred & Julia's accommodations was my only added complaint aside from his itinerary problems.  I should also note here that the wait staff, bar tending and wine sommelier were exceptional.  Always remembering the preferences of the crankiest "expeditioners".  Brent Stephenson, a.k.a. the Birdman, was fun and fascinating to talk to as well. The geologist, Juan Carlos Restrepo, was my favorite of all.... great story teller and no matter which passenger he engaged them in real conversations.  I would go anywhere with these two guys.

Here is the route we did take.  Just follow the green line from St. John's to New York City.  Google Earth and a GPS great for creating such maps. I left this image large so it can be seen easily.  It is 1762 x 1342 pixels.

Cheers, Rj.
September 3, 2008
in Austin, Texas.

P.S. Septermber 14th I added a ZIP file off all the Google Earth KML files with the tracks of the ship, hikes, drives, etc.  Download it here.

Commentary on blogging:  It is best done when traveling alone.  That said, I'll do a paragraph to get from St. John's Newfoundland to Halifax, Nova Scotia where we will arrive in about 10 hours.  Ramea Islands were rainy, foggy and interesting, but not very special insofar as photography of my interests.  Gros Morne was wonderful, but we had had barely enough time to do a short walk, let alone a boat ride up the fjord and a hike at the end.... so only the former was accomplished.  I'll be back without slow moving guides.  Today we were in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia... one of the last defenses of the French.  Begun in 1713 and elegantly preserved in that period.  It was a superb historical tour of the early province.

I have new life long friends from Los Angeles and Kansas City.  Who would have known.  It's just the way the stars aligned.

More from Halifax where we will have an all day tour across the island and an evening in Halifax to catch up before leaving for Lunenberg, Nova Scotia.

Aboard the Prince Albert II, leaving the Ramea Islands off the southern coast of Newfoundland.

My first update since arriving in St. John's, Newfoundland.  Upon arriving at the St. John's airport non-stop from Newark, New Jersey on Friday night we have had a lovely welcome to this maritime province.  Terry Adey who lives and works in the St. John's - Twillingate area was there to greet us just after midnight.  We did a quick tour around town in the early Saturday morning hours, even venturing to the top of Signal Hill for a splendid night time panoramic view of St. John's.  Signal Hill was the place where Marconi received his first transmissions across the Atlantic.  

The two nights in St. John's were at the Balmoral Inn (38 Queens Road).  It has a nice self serve cold breakfast available most of the morning, comfortable rooms albeit with a small bath.  The biggest drawback is the necessity of moving almost 200 lbs of luggage (video & still camera gear is more than 60% of this) up almost two full flights of stairs.  However I survived and it was an altogether pleasant stay.

Terry and his wife Debbie were exceeding gracious hosts and tour guides on the Saturday before departure.  Cape Spear, the village of Quidi Vidi, the Battery along with harbor front... all wonderful walks on a picture perfect day.  I'll annotate these days more when I am not uploading posts via satellite and can add more pictures & text easily.

We boarded the Prince Albert II about 1pm on Friday.  St. John's is in the Newfoundland time zone, and it is 1.5 hrs ahead of Eastern Time.... so 2.5 hrs ahead of Texas time.  The night before boarding it has rained for about 10 hours and for sure the weather pattern was changing.  Once upon the ship the 3pm sailing was pushed back to 8:00 pm due to the wind, and sadly our first destination, L'anse aux Meadows, was cancelled due to the high wind and north swell bearing down on our planned course.  Plan B was to turn south and do some of the itinerary in reverse.  The small port of Argentia and some historic ruins there, then then Ramea Islands followed by Gros Morne National Park in the north, and finally returning south to the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon before resuming our original schedule toward Nova Scotia and eventually New York City on August 25th.

The photo is of port side in Argentia of the ship and one of her moorings.

Written at noon, Sunday, August 17th, 2008.

I am heading to France in a month.  Well, not the motherland, but one of the last vestiges of her colonial past, the isles de la Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon.  These small islands are the only remnants of the empire of New France that extended from Newfoundland to the Rocky Mountains.  Along the way I'll circle Newfoundland and touch parts of Nova Scotia slowly heading for New York City on the maiden voyage of Silversea's PRINCE ALBERT II, their new expedition ship.  My last such adventure was onboard Quark Expedition' PROFESSOR MULTANOVSKIY in February of 2007.  Here are the two ships oceans apart and at somewhat similar scale:

The PROFESSOR MULTANOVSKIY is 256 ft. and the PRINCE ALBERT II is 354 ft.  Tonnage wise the PAII is just shy of four times the PM.  The crew to passenger ratio of the PM is 1:2.4 has been cut in half at 1:1.2 on the PRINCE ALBERT II.  The latter carrying a maximum of 132 passengers.

I had an absolutely grand time on the PROFESSOR MULTANOVSKIY, and I expect a lot more from this new ship, PRINCE ALBERT II.  For those that followed along with me on the last trip, I'll be doing the same routine this time as well.  Daily dispatches from the ship and perhaps even a few photos along the way.

The first stop after boarding in St. Johns, Newfoundland will be at L'Anse aux Meadows ("Jelly Fish Cove") where Leif Ericsson landed a thousand years ago.  Inasmuch as I visited the town (Eyrarbakki) in southern Iceland last year, where Bjarni Herjólfsson lived, who had sold his boat to Leif and given him some directions to the land west of Greenland that he accidentally  discovered (but did not land on) when he was trying to find Greenland in the year 985.  Columbus knew all of this, now you do too.  More to come....

A wonderful start for 2008.  My Iceland travel story was just published in the JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHERS.  Here is the link to the full story on the IAPP web site.  If that fails to load, here is the PDF on my server. 

Today I uploaded all of the "travel photos" (food, road shots, story telling images) along with the hopefully, excellent printable images.  They can all be found here:

http://www.terra360.com/iceland/ice_all/index.html

The FINE ART images are now available for viewing (lower left link on front page) or here:

http://www.terra360.com/iceland/iceland_art/index.html

Prices will be posted shortly (really)... enjoy! - Rj.

Day 15 (July 5)

At the airport in Reykjavik... and one last photo of food.  It's only because this one was just so "beyond expectations" as Steve said.  This was breakfast.  $35.00.  And it wasn't very good. What was good at the airport was the free Wi-fi connection to the Internet.

Iceland Air charged me 6,000 Krona (expected) for my extra 20 kilos of baggage.  I don't think at this end they are counting 3 pieces, just weight, so I was glad that in lieu of my bathroom scale to weigh me and my bags, I just loaded up my Lowe Pro Computrekker AW (rolling bag) with all the heavy items I could get into it.  I am sure I moved 10 kilos out of the checked baggage for the return trip.  What was all this stuff you might ask... a short list, of Canon equipment: a XH-A1 HD cam, 1DsMkII, 5D, SD800, 15mm FFF, 16-35mm, 24-105mm, 70-200mm, 400mm DO, 1.4 extender, 2 tripods, 1 monopod, heads/pano brackets, Steadicam Merlin, rain slickers, lots of batteries, parts, and cleaning equipment.  Oh, and don't forget the notebook computer and parts.  I should have left the Merlin at home, I forgot a rain slicker for the 1DsMkII, but most of the rest was used.

All & all it was a lovely time for sure. Almost 4100 km. in total over 14 days.  Thanks to Steve for all the driving.  A great trip.

cheers, Rusty

Day 14 (July 4)

Click here for the Google Map (then zoom out, and click on "Hybrid" in the upper right)

The last day.  We hadn't that far to travel to our hotel in Reykjavik, so like days before in similar situations, we got creative.  Loops, odd roads, going places no one except locals would ever go.  We dashed to the coast just south of Selfoss, the somewhat large town of 6,000 souls that was between our hotel and the sea.  We were heading for the harbor town of Eyrarbakki, where in 985 AD., Bjarni Herjólfsson, a young merchant, sailed for Greenland, but instead reached the shores of North America along the way. Upon his arrival in Greenland, Bjarni told Leif Eriksson of his discovery and sold him his boat, which Eriksson used for his own journey to North America.  I wanted to see where this stroke of incredible bad luck started.  Unfortunately we had our own bad luck when we got there and the museum would not open for another 45 min. after we arrived in town.  So we pressed on to Þorlákshöfn and watched the ferry from Vestmannaeyjar arrive! This is exactly the ferry I want to ride on my next visit to see this group of islands (16 in all, newest being Surtsey).  Along the way we caught a few shots of some swans (Steve said they were swans)... very beautiful.  I wished I had a little more time to photograph them. 

Our energy spent from all this tourist activity we were famished yet again and on the prowl for one last super expensive lunch.  We found it at the Hotel Rangá just east of Hella.  The wait staff was outstanding, the food delicious (salmon on lettuce and herbs), potato soufflé and a nice glass of white wine (standard Spanish import I recall).  Best $120 lunch you can get in Iceland.  Highly recommended if you have no other choice like us.

Starting on the second of these somewhat large impromptu loop tours we could see from many kilometers away, a white streak on a very large cliff.  Being experienced would-be-saga-loving-Norseman-wanna-be's we of course struck out straight for it.  No sooner had we arrived and deployed our digital assets to the field as it started raining, really big drops... with some thunder even.  Steve went left, and I went right, we both managed a few shots before being changed back into our Mitsubishi mud-mobile.  This is Seljalandsfoss falls.  Certainly one of the most beautiful of the hundreds in Iceland.

We ended the day back where we started at the Iceland Air hotel in Reykjavik.  It was noisy this time with many bus loads of tourists arriving and departing at all hours of the day and night (well, early morning, it was never dark).

Day 13 (July 3)

Click here for the Google Map (then zoom out, and click on "Hybrid" in the upper right)

We were heading north again, after fueling up in Vik, which is pretty much at the southern end of Iceland, we headed north to circle the Myrdalsjökull ice cap.  To Landmannalaugar in the interior.  It has a rich history of tectonic activity and it is still very active today with steam vents, hot springs, colorful hillsides, and rocks that have not been there that long!  It is an exciting passage over rivers and pot holes, the roads are fairly well marked but the GPS was a definite help a few times.  It is all a one-track dirt or gravel road, sometimes over riverbeds, crossing and re-crossing streams.  A few times we even had what could be called a traffic jam and had to wait a few minutes for everyone to ford the river.

By this point of the trip our car was pretty trashed.  Dirt flying in the back hatch back was a problem every time we opened it.  We just learned to live with it.  Think of it as "good dirt".  We had lots.

We arrived early enough at our last hotel-on-the-road, the Hotel Hekla/Brjánsstaðir, where I was destined to meet one more new friend, EMMA.  She is a 3 month old Border Collie.  And full of trouble for the hotel employees.  The hotel was comfortable, but not lavish.  The ADSL Internet connection was almost non-existant.  Steve and I had both had dial up connections that were faster in the "old days".

Day 12 (July 2)

Smyrlabjörg to Geirland (thanks again to Steve for the spelling!)

Click here for the Google Map (then zoom out, and click on "Hybrid" in the upper right, Google Maps lacks data for much of Iceland).

I have to throw away all concepts of phonetic spelling and study the map two or three times to get these place names typed correctly.  Much like memorizing a password, pronunciation, it's always a shocker when the locals speak to me in their native tongue and says something that does not remotely come close to permutations that dance around in my imagination.  We had a room here on the end of the building, closest to the stairs and hot tub, the latter which we did not use, and the former we heard a bit too much.  We are continually surprised to find Internet access almost ubiquitous around the island, which means we can get updates from the world, and for me, telecommuncation via voice as well.

Cloudy again, we did our usual roll out (that means in the car, gone) about 10 a.m. and immediately headed up the mountain behind us to the Skalafellsjokull glacier.  Climbing up a steep, crumbly road we mounted the lateral moraine of the glacier to almost 800 m.  This was higher than any other point thus far in Iceland, about 2500 ft.  Our arrival at the top coincided with the departure of a follow-the-leader group of snowmobilers across the glacier and the icecap beyond.  Such activities can only be done with a guide due to the always present danger of falling into a hidden crevasse.  A quick look about, some video, a 360, many still shots, and we were off down the mountain again.  My favorite shot of the day was taken on the way back down.  I spotted the location on the way up and nailed it coming back  down the mountain.  The lateral moraine of the glacier is bounded between the thick ice in the center of the glacier with many transitory zones of ice.  One of which, just before the ice goes away, is an almost blackish boundary of progressively thinning ice.  It looks like SEA WAVES.

Continuing our circle we stopped oh-so-briefly at Jökulsárlón. It was likely once a nice place to see the terminus of a glacier in a lagoon.  However it seems to have morphed into a tourist rip-off with surly help.  The thinnest, smallest, and most expensive bowl of self-serve-seafood-soup-from-the-pot (850 Kr. about $15 USD) from a not-so-friendly-tourist-jaded-employee.  Only because we were VERY hungry did we pause here.  It was the worst place in Iceland I saw.  It is just so sad places have to turn out like this sometimes when they become "over trafficked".  Don't go, keep on driving.... you'll pass over this bridge next (right).  Then onward across one of the many one lane bridges in Iceland.  We speculated that retrofitting these to be two lane bridges would be very expensive.  Since many of these bridges are long, they, like the one lane tunnels, have extensive pull outs, for stopping to allow traffic to continue in the opposite direction.

Next after skipping the masses of tourists at Skaftafell National Park (looked interesting, but we were running out of time) we stopped at Núpsstaður, a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Stop here, be patient, wait for the tour buses to leave.  It is a wonderful place.  Nestled beneath the cliff of Lómagnúpur, known from the Njál's saga, built sometime before 1200 AD, was the original church.  It is small, still used, and very uniquely preserved.  Check Steve Ginn's web site for interior views.

We arrived at Geirland in time for dinner, and I met a new friend (self portrait of both of us).

There were a few bus loads of tourists that arrived here, with high clearance vehicles for interior travel.  Something we were about to find out about tomorrow with a few dozen rivers to ford.

We were leaving the "ring road" again, and we were happy about it.

Day 11 (July 1)

Gistihúsið Egilsstöðum to Smyrlabjörg (thanks Steve for the correct spelling!)

Click here for the Google Map (then zoom out, and click on "Hybrid" in the upper right, Google Maps lacks data for much of Iceland).

A fairly early start for us, we were on the road by 9 a.m. I think.  We had a circuitous route to manage (see link above) from Egilsstaðir to Smyrlabjörg along the winding coast of fjords.  Naturally we skipped the one tunnel that would have shortened this long route but were rewarded with some magnificent views from the end of the peninsula.  We were being watched most of the way by the local residents who did not see many strangers in these parts.  Odd looking I am sure (one of us).

There are more than 50,000 Icelandic horses here, and they never leave the country.  If they do they cannot return as they might bring back viruses and other maladies that could infect the local population. Unfortunately we missed the largest horse show of the year in HELLA which was the end of June.  We were on our march around the island and this wasn't on our short list.

The little village of Briddalsvik is where we found Cafe Margaret.  Look closely for the building in the left photo at the base of the mountain.  Here is a close up (right).  The place was built of Norwegian pine I read, and was, for its construction, quite unique and seemingly out of place for such a small town.  Lunch was one of the best on the road we had found.  I had the pan fried cod with potatoes.  It was fabulous.

In and out we went around the fingers of land that were left by glaciers in the past to form long, almost river-like fjords.  Birds and livestock abounded.  This one goat, who had lost his right horn, was particularly interesting to me as he posed for this shot.  Steve can make the best sheep/cow calls going... his talent was key to these images.

Djúpivogur was wrapped around the end of one of these peninsulas formed by the fjords.  Easily accessible from the sea, it has been a trading port since 1589 when German Hansa merchants were granted a trading license by the Danish king.

Along the way we spotted an odd home.  We drove as close as we could get to it without trespassing, but still, we could not quite believe what we saw.  I think it is a DC-3 converted into a house.

We stopped in Hofn for dinner at the Cafe Hornid.  It was OK, but not on our recommended list.  We reached Smyrlabjörg about 8:30 p.m.  It had been a very long day on the road (and off the road).

Day 10 (June 30)

Click here for the Google Map (then zoom out, and click on "Hybrid" in the upper right, Google Maps lacks data for much of Iceland).

Morning came early for me, albeit briefly, when I closed the drapes of one window at 3:45 a.m. as the sun was warming up the room too much.  We were on the road after a slow start to Seyðisfjorður, a fjord to the east of Egilsstaðir.  It is a short and scenic drive over snowbound passes to the village of 800 or so souls.  This is where the first submarine cable for telephone arrived, as well as more recently, a fiber optic link.  There was an odd steel "phone booth" embedded in the rock on the south side of the fjord. It does make an odd sight to passers by, including me (self portrait on right) in the door of the phone booth.

It also is the terminus for the ferry service between Denmark and Iceland via the Faroe Islands (Danish).  Lunch at the Hotel Aldan on the harbor.  Grilled cod on a nice spring salad.  The oldest part of the town was built in 19th century Norwegian-style architecture, which makes Seyðisfjörður architecturally unique among fishing villages in Iceland.   Many are well preserved.  After a photo tour of the north side fjord, mostly old buildings and turf houses (in ruins), and a photo along the fjord's waterfront (yes, clear and cold) we headed west again to try to a northerly fjord.

Along the way, Steve had the great idea to cut the day short, it was already 4:30 p.m., to go back to the hotel to catch up on computer work and perhaps take a nap.  So we stopped in the middle of the road beside the Dyrfjöll Peaks ("Gates Mountains") and snapped our closest photos we were going to get on this trip to the 1136 m. tops. 

We were anticipating taking photos at midnight with the sun and full moon.  It was during this afternoon respite that we discovered that, yes, the moon was full, but would be 1.5 deg. below the horizon for Iceland!!  It would not return until July 2nd!. 

Day 9 (June 29th)

Click here for the Google Map (then zoom out, and click on "Hybrid" in the upper right, Google Maps lacks data for much of Iceland).

A little short of sleep today, perhaps a bit less than six hours.  Not my preferred way to start a long day.  So the fix, slam some coffee. The only problem in this country is the cups are about 1/3rd the size I like, so frequent trips to the self service buffet.  Breakfast of some small crunchy biscuit-like bread with jam (blueberry, my favorite) and then some cheese slices, boiled egg slices, ham slices and some juice. Next course was cereal and milk.  I knew it would be a long time to the next meal.  We had gotten our laundry done the day before which was a huge help.  The whole basket full for about $15 (1000 Krona) a relative bargain, and one we both needed.

Walking outside to load the car, I knew the day would be different, the weather was mild for the morning, and the skies clearing.  So we departed for the north country... well that meant going a bit south first.  We passed Lake Mývatn again, then turned north on the road that passed Dettifoss Falls again, but on the east side of the Jökulsárgljúfur National Park.  The downstream portion looked like the Grand Canyon (left image).  Lake Myvatn looked like a wholly different place without the wind and fog, it was clearing in the north and warming rapidly.  We stopped again at Dettifoss Falls, although after leaving the "ring road" (#1) and heading north on #864 was very much a wash board rattle, it was worth it.  Dettifoss was clear, dry (mist was blowing to the side we were on before!) and although many tourists were there, we managed to squeeze in some shots, panos, and video.

The falls behind us, we turned north in a serious pursuit, first stop was the settlement of Kópasker.  Population 175 give or take 10 souls depending on which guide book you read.  We were headed as far north as you can go on Iceland.  About 2.5 km. from the Arctic circle.  Crossing the Melrakkaslétta plain (fox plain) to Hraunhafnartangi point.  We stopped short of the "H" point, to photograph and video an old abandoned farm.  Stone walls, collapsing "turf house" and other structures, all clearly close to a century old, all vacant except for sea breezes.

N 66'31.829 W 016'00.765 is where I turned south.  Steve's GPS says N 66'31.492 (see his image) but he got cold and went back to the car and didn't go as far north as I did.  Oh well, next time Steve!
In February we made it to S65.12 before we turned north.  The Greenland Sea looked very cold, and if the wind was any indication, IT WAS... our day had warmed to 16 deg C (a veritable heat wave at about 61 deg. F) but out here on the plain, it was windy and back down to 9 degrees (48 deg F).  Next stop, or in this case, cruise by, was the village of Rauferhöfn.  And then pressing onward to Þórshöfn.

By the time we arrived at Þórshöfn it was 4:30 p.m. and we had only consumed a granola bar and some English crackers.  So we hit the grocery for some water, Italian salami, sliced cheese and more crackers.  Two "sandwiches" later we mutually agreed we could survive until some real food was available.  Note:  This is about $5 for eight pieces of salami, and $4 for a similar amount of mild cheese. 

This peninsula held the largest fields of lupine I had ever seen.  We stopped a few times to gorge our cameras on this visual feast.  While I was making the image at the right ready for this page, I noticed what I thought was dust on the sensor.  It was not.  It was bees swarming all over the lupine.  The area is also rich with birds, and in the late light of day, wonderfully illuminated as they watched us.

Now it was over two sets of mountains that form the backbone of the Langanes peninsula, and Bakkaheidi range that presses into the northeastern sea.  The latter was covered with intermittent fog banks and banks of snow on either side of the car as we zigged and zagged our way up and down the mountain passes.  We stopped so many times for a while it seemed like we would never make any progress taking so many photos.

We climbed through the clouds one more time crossing yet another peninsula jutting into the sea, too steep on its face to allow roads to ring its sharp edges.  We stopped for diesel fuel in Vopnafjörður (fjord of weapons).  The image at left translates to $7.69 USD/gallon.  So it was $122 for 2/3rds of a tank. 

Finally we were in Egilsstaðir and "home" for the night. 456 km. in total.  A long day.  We'll be here for two days.  Dessert was taken to a whole new level in Iceland here.  But the view of the lake from the grounds of the Gistihúsið Egilsstöðum at 10:45 p.m. was the best of all!

Day 8 (June 28th)

Click here for the Google Map (then zoom out, and click on "Hybrid" in the upper right, Google Maps lacks data for much of Iceland).

It's like college again.  Freshman year.  A dance around another's personal space in confinement, studying late, getting up early... dotted with moans of "it's too early" (myself included), but today I was the last asleep and the first awake.  I worked an hour after "lights out" catching up on this travel log.  It's exam time.

Some tech side notes in the saga, Iceland IS the land of SAGAs (this is a double pun in tech talk as ".IS" is the top level domain for Iceland):  Skype (VoIP= voice over Internet Protocol) works great, day in and day out.  I continue to be surprised and amazed.  I can make calls the the USA and I have RECEIVED calls from the USA via Skype.  The photo at the left shows me on the Skype phone (blue) with some help from my new friends.  Most people don't even know they are using VoIP, but this IS my phone number (Dallas and Austin).  Not the cell phone number, just what appears to be the "land line".  In fact, it is not.  It is a technical liberation of my notebook computer, and I have a little blue phone that attaches to the notebook and IT DOES RING when someone calls my Austin or Dallas number.  It rings in Iceland just like it does in Buenos Aires or Bariloche, Argentina.  The other day I had a wi-fi connection at the hotel we was staying in Hrútafjörður.  It was only a good connection in front of the hotel and not in my room, so phone in hand (small like a cell phone) connected to the notebook's USB port, and the operating notebook tucked under the other arm, I walked to the front of the hotel, and still outside, called my friend Pam in Austin.  It was early there, and I got her voice mail recording and hung up.  Disappointed I did not reach her, but knowing Steve was loading up the car, I started to walk away... and the phone rang!  Amazing stuff.

Other tech notes... with Apple's iTunes I can download the ABC or NBC national news and a plethora of other information sources (PBS, Internet radio stations, etc.), all free.  Both Steve and I carry Garmin 60CSx GPS units to track where we take photos.  I have my unit configured to generate a daily GPX file (see GPX link) recording all information about where it has been, the unit also generates a Garmin "Mapsource" file (GPB) that I can read into the mapping software each evening before I download my data cards with photos on them.  I then use Downloader Pro (Breezesystems.com) to copy the images from my data cards to the computer, simultaneously saving a back up copy (2nd copy) to an external hard drive.  Downloader Pro also is simultaneously reading the already downloaded GPS tracks and matching the time positions to the images (cameras were synchronized to the GPS time earlier).  When the location times are found that match image capture times, the GPS data is written to an XMP reference file for each captured image.  Then I import these images with the tagged GPS data, into Adobe Systems' Photoshop Lightroom 1.1.  Now with the images in Lightroom, I have the date and time of capture, and the GPS coordinates of where the image was taken.  If I mouse click on the GPS location in Lightroom, my web browser will open and take me to a Google Earth page where a pointer is aimed at the exact location I pressed the shutter button.  This becomes much more appreciated when you take one or two thousand images in a week while you are traveling.  I also have the .KML files that will plot the same GPS journey tracks on Google Earth.

We filled the SUV up with diesel this morning, about 3/4 of a tank... (see picture)... divide the top number by 63 and you'll be pretty close to U.S. Dollars.  Coming to filling stations in America one day soon.

Back to Iceland... today was another visual movable feast from steam vents and boiling mud pits, to steamy water filled lava tubes... all around Lake Mývatn.  The most interesting parts were the hot steam vents which were roaring a steady blast.  Hot magma is just 2-5 km. below the surface.  This is half of the depth of some gas wells in west Texas.  The entire Karfla crater by Lake Mývatn seeming has been taken over by the island's power company for geothermal heat extraction.  Hollywood could not create a more alien like place of blue white stream that steam with heat, fog covered hills, shiny pipes in multiple succession that rise in unison to form an arch over the roadway.  The last big eruption here was about 1724, with some smaller ones after they started drilling into the magma zone... but they are due for the big one.  I read that the warning sign the said "visitors forbidden" has now been taken down as it was just photographed a lot as tour buses with grand parents and children were photographed behind it.  The speculation is that when this volcano erupts, instead of fleeing, most of Iceland's population will want to come for a visit.

It was early, we had circled the lake and had time to search out something new.  Inasmuch as we have a long road journey tomorrow, driving to the northern tip of Iceland, just below the Arctic Circle (shy by a few kilometers only), we went south into the interior of the island.  Still, another journey where we really did not know quite what was at the end of the road, but onward we traveled.  Really a metaphor on life, so many roads and we don't know where they lead.  Some are dead ends and we knew that was a possibility too.  But sometimes you get the prize... It was an epic road, not so much for the path, but for the river.  We stopped to photograph trees, a short forest, a rarity on Iceland.  The sheep were here too, but the trees somehow survived their foraging. 

The end held what was likely the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen, Aldeyjarfoss falls on the Skjalfandafljot River, spilling over volcanic rock which had been extruded in hexagon shapes eons ago.  The flow was astounding, but it was the location... in the middle of nowhere.  Water squirted from springs in the sides of hills that on the surface high above them could be confused with the surface of Mars.  A deafening canyon of water.  Video, still shots, and 360 degree images, we took the time for all of it.  The wide image of the falls was taken with my Canon 1Ds Mark II, 70-200mm zoom (forgot the wide angle up the path at the car) at 70 mm, but 12 images (3 rows of 4 images), hand held, shot in RAW, input into Lightroom 1.1, tweaked, output as 16 bit TIF file, stitched in PTGUI (thanks Joost!).  Better than a wide angle lens!

Dinner by Godafoss falls on the way back in a cute little restaurant... again, soup, fish course, dessert, cheapest bottle of white wine... $150.  We leave a week from today, I hope we can afford it.  I am getting used to it.

Day 7 (June 27th)

Click here for the Google Map (then zoom out, and click on "Hybrid" in the upper right, Google Maps lacks data for much of Iceland).

Finally I am caught up more or less with where we are on the green land called Iceland.  Sleep was short, rising at 7:20 a.m.  I shaved slowly and then eased myself into the tiny shower (relative to my almost 2 m. frame) more or less on auto pilot owing to the fog of the previous night's feast.  Eastward crossing the Skjalfandafljot River past Laugar to our new inn, relatively close, called Narfastadir, where we will be for the next two nights.  Quickly we were on the road again to