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Campervan Adventures in Iceland: Day 11 - Kerid Crater & Reykjanes Peninsula

Day 11 our first stop was Kerid Crater. This was nice, but nothing special. You have to pay to get in, you can walk around the top and then down to the water, but if you are going to be seeing other craters then this is an easy one to skip. Nice, but nothing special. 










Next up was Vífilfell where I had noted there was a hike with nice views...only the road to get to it was closed (they were working on it and you couldn't drive through) so we stopped on the next road to take some photos and walked down a gravel road to a quarry



It was a really beautiful area, but I had scheduled a good amount of time for the hike so I didn't have a lot on the list for this day. 

So we headed off to Kleifarvatn Lake to see what we could see. This was a last minute addition to my list of things to do so I didn't have a lot of info about the area more of a drive by because it is pretty stop. 





It was beautiful when we got there so we looked to see if there were any trails and there was one that went around the left side of the lake by where we were parked so we headed out







And found so many cool rocks! Lots of sand or siltstone on top of the lava and we loved it! 






It was sunny and beautiful when we headed out, but after sitting and enjoying for a bit it started to get windy, cloudy and cold so we headed back. 


By that time it was lunchtime and we decided to head to the viewpoint down the road to eat lunch. This was really busy! Lots of big tour buses stopped and let everyone out to take photos. While we were eating lunch it started to snow!! 




While eating lunch, since we had so much time left in the day I did a google maps search of points of interest in the area and found some things that sounded like fun to fill our day and they were highlights of the trip!

First up was Seltún Geothermal Area which was super fun













This was so loud!













I love the colors at these geothermal areas! I asked Raymond afterwards which he liked more this one or Geysir and we both agreed that we loved them both! They are just different so it is hard to compare. 

There was also this pool on the other side of the road that was another hot spring too hot to swim in




Then on to the next stop - Gígvatnsvatn, the emerald green lake

This was a quick stop to look at the pretty lake, though there were trails that started from here

Our next stop was one of our favorites of the trip - Stóra-Eldborg next to Geitahlíð

This was a hike up a tiny crater and was so much fun!! We only saw one other person there and it is not something I came across in my research, but it should have been! 



It was a really beautiful area by the ocean

And the rocks were so cool!! The colors don't show up as bright as they were. Lots of shades of pinks and purples that are not usually found in nature! 










As well as some oranges and yellows, some greens and blues and all of them also in shades of grey. 






These rocks were just so pretty! I loved it! We spent way more time than I expected here. It is just a short hike, but the rocks were so cool we spend forever just looking at all of them! So many different colors and shades of the rainbow! So cool



Next up was Gunnuhver Hot Springs which was kind of crazy!

So much steam just constantly coming out and being blown over the pathway. This was another guy who just disappeared into the steam!


Then I thought I will follow Raymond through and film it...which...was kind of scary! Pretty much immediately you are disoriented as it is just everything is white and you can't even see the walkway and I for sure did not want to step off into the super hot ground!! So yeah, kind of scary, but luckily it cleared up enough at one point to see the walkway and get out!







All the steam!

And our next stop - the lighthouse


Reykjanesviti lighthouse - the oldest standing lighthouse in Iceland

It's pretty far away from the water which I was surprised by

The area where we just were - to the right is the steam we walked through!



The lighthouse from farther down the road by the water

This is where they filmed a scene from Eurovision movie, which we have not seen, but was fun nonetheless. 




There is a big lava field between the water and the lighthouse






This was another beautiful area and we definitely could have spent more time there!

Next up was the bridge between continents which I was super excited about - the rift between two tectonic plates...but it ended up being just meh


These prior 2 photos are looking both ways on the bridge. I think after everything else we did today this was a bit of a letdown. Nothing really special. 



The pathway to the bridge

 At the beginning of the day I thought we would get to camp super early since we couldn't do the hike I had planned, but we filled our day with so much fun we actually got to camp pretty late! This was the only day where I lost track of how late it was because of the sun setting so late. We camped at Vogar Campsite which was pretty nice and had wifi at the building. 

Longer than expected day today with 16.1km walked

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So it started raining on us for days and we cut out to come back to Seattle for a few days and wait for it to clear up.....and then Raymond decided he really did not want to go back out. So I at first was pretty upset cause I really wanted to get to Canada, or at least as far as we could while the weather was still nice this weekend. And I was feeling really like we were giving up for no reason. Like if one of us were injured or if I was hating it or something then I would have been better about it. But instead it was like the forecast called for gorgeous weather this weekend and we were just going to sit at home. I figured we could have at least gotten to the next stop and then only had one more chunk to do next year, but Raymond really didn't want to go back out so we decided not to. But hopefully by this time next year we will get the last 2 sections done, and maybe go back and do the section from white pass to snoqualmie as we went RIGHT by Mt Rainier and it is supposed to be g