Category: Travelling Tales

Be warned, it’s a long one!

Last Friday after work we flew up to Glasgow, stayed there overnight, had breakfast (Bill’s, gotta love Bill’s) and a wander around the town, before our flight to Iceland (it was cheaper to do this including the hotel, than to fly direct).

Because we weren’t staying in the same place, we had hired a car, and then drove to our apartment. The lady at check in told us the first snow had fallen on the mountains that night, and to our surprise the following morning, it was snowing fairly heavily where we were!

We only had a little car (a VW Up, 2 wheel drive…) although all the rentals came with winter tyres and also they let some of the air out (which makes it sound like all the cars have punctures), but as a few cars drove on the roads tracks appeared, so we headed out to þingvellir national park for some snowy scenery.

On the drive there were plenty of scenic pull over stops (just look for the big info boards) so we stopped at a few.

There was a little visitors centre which we stopped at first (on the left if driving from Reykjavik)- this had free toilets (the bigger one, which we went to at the end, you had to pay 200 ISK for, which is about £1 I think)- and served warm drinks. We had a little look at the map, and then headed out to see the waterfall.

There were a few parking areas, each marked (I think we parked at P4) and then a mixture of paths and boardwalks led to the main sites.

It then started to snow quite heavily.

All the rocks were covered in snow, and the boards became quite slippery to walk on.

As it eased off, we walked around a bit more before heading back to the car.

It’s not every day that you get to see continental plates!

From the bigger visitor’s centre you could look down on the park, and see the church, and the paths we had walked on. Also, in the distance you could see plumes of steam rising from geothermal vents which looked very spooky.

The next morning we were heading south, so we checked out of our apartment and then drove to the other main Golden Circle highlights on the way there. We were so lucky to have the most gorgeous sunny day.

Still plenty of snow about, but most of the roads were cleared. Again there were a few scenic car parks so we stopped in a couple.

Our first stop was Geysir (around 100km from where we started), which is where all other geysers get their name from, although it doesn’t erupt regularly any more, there is another one, Strokkur, which goes every 5-10 minutes. It was so cold here, and the road was still snow-covered, and the car park was really icy. None of the paths had been gritted either, so it was a bit treacherous in places.

It was strange to see all covered in ice, with pools bubbling and steaming away. It did remind me of Yellowstone, only on a much smaller scale- Yellowstone in winter must be amazing but I think Iceland is more accessible!

We got to see an eruption, and then it was so cold we headed back (carefully- don’t slip!) to the cafe for a hot chocolate.

Then we drove the short distance (on more icy and snowy roads) to Gullfoss, an amazing waterfall. Again, here there was lots of ice and snow on the ground, but some of the boardwalks had been gritted. In the summer you can walk down to near the waterfall, but that was closed. There was still plenty of it that we could walk around, for plenty of amazing and different views.

Here you can see the path that was closed leading to the far edge of the waterfall.

There were some steps to walk down to get a different view, although it was so cold there as the spray was freezing (literally- it was sticking to all the grass, paths and railings as it came off the waterfall and then freezing). It was just stunning.

From there was had another 200km to drive to our next destination (Vik, on the south coast). We stopped off at one waterfall on the way, which I thought was called Skogafoss but I think is actually a different one.

The sun was getting low in the sky which meant we had this most amazing golden light.

We walked along a bit to see some other waterfalls (you could walk behind the main one, but people were getting soaked, and it was so slippery people were sliding down on their bottoms)- the little bridge was slick with ice so you had to hold the rail very firmly.

Then we finished the drive (another hour at least ahead of us)- the scenery was beautiful, and the snow ranged from barely there, to several feet deep.

We actually thought we had got lost for a bit, (even though we were on the main ring road) as it was so empty, but thankfully we arrived in the tiny town just after dark, dragging the case through the snow to get to our hotel. After being fairly frugal so far (we had breakfast in our apartment, lunch was a banana and a roll made up in the kitchenette, and dinner had been soup) we ate in the hotel restaurant as we could not face going out into the cold again! I was pleasantly surprised- they seem to cater for vegetarians and vegans much better than I had expected (I thought it would all be seafood)- but on the menu they had a vegetarian pasta, and then a vegan meal which I ended up having, which was thyme polenta (spell-check wants to change that to tadpole, but no, it was certainly not that!), poached pear and local mushrooms.

I shall save the other few days for another post as this one is already rather long!

Hey peeps! So I mentioned in my last recap that we took a flight over Kauai. It was a teeny plane- only 4 seats and the front two seats folded forward so I could get in the back! I was pretty nervous the whole day leading up to it, but it was only for an hour so I basically had to get on with it.

It was amazing. The pilot was fantastic, and we had those proper sound reducing headphones and microphones so we could all speak to each other. The pilot also had a tablet with music on it, so when we went over parts of the island where Indiana Jones was filmed, that music played (and repeat for Jurassic park, The Descendants, some old TV shows…

He gave us a commentary of the island, some history, interesting facts (on Kauai buildings are not allowed to be taller than the tallest coconut tree, as one hotel was built and was too high and the locals didn’t like it. Also they have a few roads with single lane bridges, and the locals don’t want these replaced as they don’t want large construction or chains or resorts), and answered questions too. Kauai is known as the garden island, and you could see why from the air. In the centre is a huge mountain, and it is pretty much constantly in cloud. Because of the way the valley is positioned, it funnels moist air up from the Pacific constantly. We were very lucky because the clouds cleared briefly, so we got to see right at the top. It was strange flying over such uninhabited landscape- every now and the you could see tents in tiny clusters- lots of scientists there looking at plants and things. But the ground at the top is more like a bog, he said it would be a foot or two of water under all the undergrowth.

We saw beautiful coastlines- most of it was privately owned so only viewable by sea, air, or extreme hiking (where you need a permit and are gone for days). About half an hour in to the flight, we had a bit of turbulence, as we flew through clouds, and then I did get a bit nervous (oh so sweaty hands) and wanted to get off, but thankfully it didn’t last long and the scenery took my mind off of the worry. It was so much smoother than a helicopter so I am glad we chose the plane option.

Earlier in the day we had driven to these waterfalls, but from the ground you only see 2 of them.

From the ground

They were from some old TV show title sequence, but of course pretty impressive anyway.

We saw plenty of rainbows and this one managed to come out on my phone! You are meant to be able to see a rainbow every day in Hawaii, and I think on Kauai we managed it as it was always sunny and cloudy.

And then the music of Puff the Magic Dragon began to play…

And there he is! For some reason I always thought he was meant to live in Wales, but no, this is Hanalei bay, which is mentioned in the song. The lava has poured out into the sea and is shaped like a dragon.

I was very relieved when we got to the ground again, but it wasn’t as bad as a helicopter flight, and I am so glad we did it, because so much of the island was not accessible at all.  It was a great end to our visit there. Kauai was just amazing. So chilled out, just like the Hawaii of the movies (The Descendants was based heavily on land that is there in Kauai, and we saw where some of it was filmed from the air), and pretty much the opposite of Oahu and Honolulu (which are great, but super busy, with massive highways and shops and restaurant chains and night-life).

Gosh these recaps are taking me a long time to get around to doing!

After doing the 5K in Honolulu, we had a flight to catch that lunch time. The islands are close together, so the flight was short (about half an hour) but there are no ferries or anything. Tip- if you sign up to Hawaiian airlines loyalty scheme you get money off checked bags.

We had a condo, which had a teeny kitchen area (we mainly used the fridge), and a balcony with beautiful views of the sea.

On the first morning we walked out a short distance to a local bakery for some breakfast, but later on in the day we discovered an amazing coffee house in a town up the coast, so tended to go there.

Not breakfast- we shared this amazing coconut, macadamia nut and chocolate slice.

Our condo was between two towns- I did look for a running route but there wasn’t much- we walked by the sea a bit but the path went into private apartment complexes, and the roads as soon as you got out of the small residential area were fast roads with no pavements. The town up from us had a lovely 8 mile path right by the sea, for biking and walking.

We spent a few days and evenings walking along there. The weather was again so interesting- the clouds clung to the centre of the island, but on the coast the sun was usually out.

One day we drove to the Waimea canyon, the “grand canyon of the pacific”. It is just stunning. Red rocks, bright green plants, waterfalls everywhere, just amazing. At some points there are viewing platforms, and I was at one when a family asked me to take their photo. I took a few, and tried to aim the camera so that the metal railing wasn’t in the photo, but when they looked, they said to me “a bit too much sky, can you try again?”- a bit cheeky, but also, why would you prefer metal railing over beautiful sky?? Some people!

There were some hikes, but they were pretty extreme (and not really allowed due to soft surfaces)- some people had hiked down to the coast and back and were pretty filthy!

Then we went to the coast- this was where the expensive resorts were and basically always sunny. There was a thunder hole- always exciting! (There are tubes of lava rock and so as the waves crash in some of the water gets forced into the holes and out of the top like little fountains).

We had dinner with a sea view as the sun was going down – so relaxing.

We drove up the coast to a nature reserve (the lighthouse features in my favourite Disney film- Lilo and Stitch- the artists were inspired by the beautiful green landscape of Kauai and so that was where Lilo was meant to live).

More beautiful coastal views.

We drove a bit north, and saw big rice paddy fields. Then we went south through a bit tree tunnel at an old plantation town.

On our final day we went to the largest coffee plantation in the USA (free samples, Andy was pretty happy).

Then we went in a tiny plane. A really tiny plane. Now, I have been in a helicopter (we did a flight over New York) and I wasn’t keen. And I hate the tiny propeller planes-we flew from Vegas to the Grand Canyon and I really hated it.  But so much of Kauai is privately owned, so you can’t see a lot of it from the roads and paths. So I agreed that a little plane would be better than a helicopter.

I was so nervous though! We got some amazing photos, so I am going to save them for another post.

A few years ago, during the Easter holidays, we had an awesome trip around the west of the USA, taking in a few National Parks (we had a year’s pass, so it was rude not to) including Yosemite. It really was amazing. Breathtaking views, fantastic hikes, waterfalls, ancient redwood trees, mountains, valleys…

Anyway, when booking our trip to Hawaii, the cheapest way turned out to be via San Francisco, so we decided to have a few days at the start to revisit the park (and a few days in the city at the end).

We flew, picked up the car, drove a few hours in rush hour traffic and checked into our hotel, partway there, 4.45am UK time. A long day. The next morning we had another few hours to get to the park, but it was all worth it (and once you get to the park, the time it takes to get anywhere is huge- from the entrance to the valley in the centre must be well over an hour of driving still). As we arrived early, we could not check in so headed to the valley for a walk (and lunch). Last year there were very bad forest fires, and the lack of trees at some viewpoints were in stark contrast to our last visit.

After checking in, and getting some dinner, we headed along to a high point in the park (Glacier point I think)- it was closed at Easter due to snow, so we wanted to see it. On the way, we were lucky enough to see a black bear with two cubs. Amazing.

We found a great place to watch the sunset, and the colours were just wonderful. This was just taken on my mobile phone- no filters or anything like that. It looks more like a painting I think.

Side note- on the way we had stopped at a shop (a Trader Joe’s- it was a very nice shop indeed) to get water, bananas and cereal bars, and I had bought some trail mix. It sounded brilliant- cashews, almonds, pistachios, cherries, cranberries and dark chocolate chips. But it was in the boot, and the temperatures were 100F on our journey. So when I unpacked it in the evening, the chocolate had melted (luckily I had not opened the packet yet). The room was so warm it didn’t even solidify again!

Our hotel was lovely, but over 100 years old in parts, so fairly basic. 

Day 2 and we headed out to another part of the park closed in the winter (Tuolumne meadows)- we got there in time to hear a ranger talk- I love these. We had a walk around the valley fields, but we were a bit late in the year for the main wildflower display.

After that, we drove to a small redwood grove (the main one, Mariposa Grove, which we visited last time, was closed due to work going on). It was a very steep walk downhill, and that uphill walk on the way back was so tough!

It is hard to describe just how huge they are, and of course hard to photograph too!  It was another fantastic part of the park to visit. Even though we went to Muir Woods (near San Fran) several years ago, and the grove on our last visit, they are still just amazing to see.

We drove back to the valley for a more gentle (flat) walk around, and to get some dinner from the cafe there.

A deer ran across the path in front of us!

The biggest change we noticed was the size of the waterfalls. They were huge when we visited at Easter, and you could hear the roar of the main one from inside buildings. This time, they were just a trickle in places, and other waterfalls were dry (we were comparing photos of both trips once home). It was also baking. On the day we drove in, the car temperature display said 100F, and hiking up and down steep paths (and at a fairly high elevation) is pretty tough in that heat.

On Day 3, we had to get back to San Francisco (staying in a hotel near the airport for the night) so we went back into the valley for some more walking. They have free shuttles that travel around the valley floor, so after walking for a bit, we caught one and walked up towards a waterfall (and the stair case of terror, although we didn’t go up all the way this time).

After catching the bus back to the valley and walking to another view point, we got some late lunch and then had to head back to the car for the long drive back.

I am really glad we went back. We had a fantastic few days with lots of walking and sightseeing. Yes, the waterfalls were not as spectacular, but more of the park was open, and when we visited before, the bears were still sleeping. What can I say, I love the American National Parks.