Mark's 500th Dive

 

And ... I was there! 

The underwater stills and videos are all Marks' with the exception of the one still I took of him. Mark used an iPhone 14 Pro in a SeaLife SportDiver case.

Surface photography is by Helen and Mark.

Click on the blue links for additional information.

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We are diving in Parque National Arrecifes de Cozumel.

Our first tank dive of the day was at Columbia Deep to a deepest depth of 94'. 

Reef Description:

Experience level. Intermediate to Advanced. Current is sometimes unpredictable.

This is a beautiful wall dive. The coral formations are extremely healthy. You will see towers of coral built on the skeletons of ancient coral that has built up over millions of years. Giant Barrel Sponges, as well as Deepwater Fans and Black Coral form a nice backdrop for photography. There tend to be more fish and animals here than on Palancar. If you are lucky, you might spot an eagle ray cruising the sand or the depths. You'll see some Scrawled Filefish, Queen Angelfish, and lots of schools of blue Creole Wrasse. You can hardly miss seeing a few turtles here. 

All photography is taken at Columbia Shallow, second tank dive to a deepest depth of 27'; no surface interval required ... ascend, travel a short boat distance, change tanks and re-enter. The dive is under 30' so divers just off-gas for the duration; in our case a little more than 1 hour bottom time. 

Reef Description:

Experience level. Beginner. Mild Currents in a protected bay like area.

These shallow coral heads rise 10-30' above the sandy ocean floor. Situated near Colombia Lagoon this area sometimes gets cool fresh water coming from the lagoon. This may make visibility less than the 150' -200' that you normally expect in Cozumel. For this reason, you will see a lot of fish and turtles that have been relatively undisturbed.

Fastboat Johnny, Captain Lyka, Dive Master Sergio

Fairly calm surface conditions during the boat ride, a rainbow overhead and a small group of divers ... couldn't ask for a better start to this epic day.

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Columbia Deep & Columbia Shallow 

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What we saw ... octopus, turtles, toadfish, scorpionfish, needlefish, nurse shark, lobster

What we saw & photographed ... 

Scorpion Fish ... hard to spot, rare to see

Juvenile (2-3 feet) Nurse Shark

Hawksbill Turtle

Octopus

Mark ... holding up 5 fingers

 

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On Shore 

Helen made arrangements with our friend Pau; owner and baker at The Noisy Cupcake here on the island. A conspiracy was hatched to deliver the cake while we were out diving and then store it away in a refrigerator for later. After our lunch was over and without Marks' knowledge one of the servers snuck the cake to the table ... I believe he was surprised.


Congratulations mi amigo ... as a Master Diver with 500 dives in 17 years, yours is an accomplishment to be proud of.

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We're on a 5-week SCUBA/Snorkel adventure this time.

LOAF couldn't make the trip ... literally. 

  

You can follow all our travels here.

  

For all photos from this trip see our Trip159 gallery.

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Driving ICELAND's Ring Road: Akureyri to Reykjavik

 

Northwest ICELAND

Part 4/4

Akureyri>Laugarbakki Village>Budir>Borgarnes>Reykjavik

   

Tunnels - Waterfalls - Lava Fields - Ravines  - Shipwrecks - Canyons

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More Fun Facts

Iceland is considered an Arctic country, however only a small portion of it is actually north of the Arctic Circle; just the Island of Grimsey at latitude 66.55334. The furthest north we drove to was near Manartakki, (a couple of days ago) at latitude 66.20449. Just 0.3 degrees south of the Arctic Circle or as a distance ... approximately 35 kilometres. So, my personal goal of driving across the Arctic Circle in all Arctic countries won't happen ... drat; I'll have to settle for just visiting them all I suppose.

I imagine winter driving can be quite treacherous in the more remote parts of Iceland. Many farms seemed to have both a high-hoe (to dig a hole or maybe, dig a vehicle out) and an Arctic Truck 'build' (or the equivalent) parked in the driveway. We passed one large, expensive estate along the north coast and the landowner had a snow cat at the ready.

Iceland probably has the tastiest drinking water you will find anywhere! It's available everywhere here, you can drink as much as you want and ... it's FREE!

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Route

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JOURNAL

I've used the Iceland font for Icelandic placenames where we stayed on our driving route or as sidetrips we took and for some Journal details.

My sincere apologies to any native Icelanders for any spelling errors I may have made.

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How to View This Post 

Normal: View photos and scroll by any text that doesn't interest you.

Quick: Two options that will skip all the text.

1. Single click on any photo in the post. That will launch a gallery of all photos for the post displayed along a horizontal bar at the bottom of your browser. Then, just scroll through using the arrow keys (< >). 

2. See * below.

Long / Very Long: Depending on your level of curiosity, additional information and detail is available by clicking on any of the blue links; most often the source for content that is not ours. 

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Photography

Cameras: NIKON Coolpix P610 & CANON DSLR EOS Rebel T8i

* For all photos from the 4 posts that were published for this trip, see our Trip158 gallery. Viewing our photography this way, has the advantage of displaying the photos as full screen on your monitor. But, just so you know ... there are several hundred.

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Day14

Route: Akureyri > Laugarbakki Village 

Sidetrip: > none 

Distance (Daily / Cummulative): 285.3 / 2261.0 kms 

Hiking (Daily / Total): 2 / 93.4 kms 

Camp09: 1 night @ Hotel Laugarbakki

A bright, sunny🌞and clear morning ... still fortunate with the weather; this is our day 14 and we've only had 2 days with mild drizzle and some overnight heavier rain. 

Four tunnels today, 2 single lane and one of the double lane tunnels was 7 km long; a new record for us. Mostly a driving day along the coast, no hikes just some short walks. We're following the 'primary' Eyjafjordur, Skagafjordur and Hunafjordur fjords and heading westerly.

The dual Hedinsfjorour Tunnels, with a total length of 11 km, were dug between Siglufjordur and Olafsfjordur to connect with the region of Eyjafjordur in the east, and opened on 2 October 2010. Siglufjordur was already connected by the 800 m tunnel Strakagong to the west; it used to be the town's only road connection open year-round. That tunnel was completed in 1967.

Siglufjorour

Look closely and you'll see the avalanche fencing (photos above and below) across the high mountain slopes above the village. This is the northernmost village that you can drive to in Iceland. To get here you can bypass the tunnels and still follow the old mountain road (only in the summer months) ... it's the highest road in Iceland. We took the tunnels ... 😀

Whooper Swans

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Day15

Route: Laugarbakki Village >Budir

Sidetrip:  > Stykkisholmsbaer  

Distance (Daily / Cummulative): 268.1 / 2529.1 kms 

Hiking (Daily / Total): 1 / 94.4 kms 

Camp10: 2 nights @ Hotel Budir

It was a very rainy day; drizzle with periodic heavy rain and a lot of fog higher in the mountains. The drive also passed through an area of new highway construction, so much of the road surface was gravel. Fortunately, the weather cleared somewhat and enough times, for us to take a few pictures along coastal Highway 54 ... we decided it has the most dramatic scenery of the 2529 kms we've driven, so far in Iceland ... the vibrant Autumn colours probably helped us reach that conclusion.

Shipwreck in the foreground and the fishing village of Stykkisholm in the background. There are nearly 2700 islands in the bay north of the village.

That's a lava field you're looking at.

Stykkisholm (Stock Photo)

Budahraun Lava Fields 

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Day16

Route: @ Budir

Sidetrip: Budir > Olafsvik

Distance (Daily / Cummulative): 135.6 / 2664.7 kms 

Hiking (Daily / Total): 7.41 / 101.8 kms 

Camp10: 2 nights @ Hotel Budir

Rain overnight, early morning low fog, drizzle, cleared before noon, fogged in again by mid-afternoon, heavy rain around 4 pm, high 13 C. Gewme (that's how he pronounced it) at the National Park visitor centre, told us this is the nicest September he can recall. Even though it rained today, this really is only the 2nd half day (in 16) we've been 'rained out'.

Hotel Budir ... our accommodation for 2 nights.

The Black Church

On the south coast of Iceland’s Snæfellsnes peninsula, there’s a village with only a hotel and a tiny black church called the Búðakirkja. It was erected in 1703 by Bent Lárusson, who was a merchant in Búðir. It rotted down but was rebuilt by Steinunn Sveinsdóttir in 1848. Legend has it that she did this following a request by Bent Lárusson in a dream.

Friends

Raudfaldsgja Ravine

Rauðfeldsgjá is a deep, high and narrow ravine in the cliffs south of the glacier Snæfellsjökull with a dramatic story and family tragedy attached to its name. The location is near the tiny hamlet of Arnarstapi. Seen from the road, it looks like a small crack in the berg that slid just a bit, enough for people to enter and observe. If you look closely, you can see 2 hikers just at the entrance.

Barour Snaefellsnes

Bárður was according to Bárðar Saga Snæfellsáss the settler of this area, half a troll, and half a man, his father was half a titan, but his mother was human. Bárður came to Iceland in the 9th century and gave the peninsula its name, Snjófellsnes peninsula, but both words "snær" and "snjór" mean snow in Icelandic.

In ... Snaefellsnes National Park 

Note: Remainder of the photos in this post are taken in the NP.

Djupalonssandur

Driving the Budahraun Lava Field - estimated eruption date 250 A.D.

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Day17

Route: Budir > Borgarnes

Sidetrips: > Gianni & Hraunfossar Waterfalls

Distance (Daily / Cummulative): 242.7  / 2907.4 kms 

Hiking (Daily / Total): 4.7 / 106.5 kms 

Camp11: 1 night @ B59 Hotel

Some overnight rain, early morning drizzle, some low fog; then it cleared for several hours in the afternoon ... by 6 pm the drizzle moved back in. Just a couple of easy walks today. We only have a short drive to our final (on the road) nights stay at Borgarnes today; then it's back to the capital; Rekjavik for a couple of additional days, before flying home to Canada ... this adventure is winding down.

... just another beautiful canyon!

Last Lupins of the season.

Gianni Waterfall

The locals believe it to be the dwelling place for elves and trolls. 

Hraunfossar Waterfall

The lava field that Hraunfossar trickles through flowed from an eruption of one of the volcanoes lying under the nearby glacier of Langjökull, the second largest ice-cap in Iceland. The waterfalls pour into the Hvítá river from ledges of less porous rock in the lava; that seemingly originate in a field without a river or a lake. The water is actually streaming through rivulets in the Hallmundarhraun lava field. 

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Day18

Route: Borgarnes > Reykjavik

Sidetrips: None

Distance (Daily / Cummulative): 160.7  / 3068.1 kms 

Hiking (Daily / Total): 2.0 / 108.5 kms 

Camp12: 3 nights @ Iceland Air Hotel

Mostly a clear day, high 15 C. The highlight of our final driving day was the trip along the inside coastline of the scenic Hvalfjordur fjord.

This cairn holds an emergency food cache. Carefully piled rocks formed into a cairn make a landmark. In centuries gone by, cairns could mean the difference between life and death in the less hospitable parts of Iceland. They would break up long journeys on foot and reassure the weary traveller that they were indeed on their way to their friend’s farm or the next village, and not over the edge of a hidden cliff, or into the mouth of a volcano. Important stuff, right?

Iceland’s cairns are carefully catalogued and are protected structures. Some of them are hundreds of years old, and one is even believed to be the oldest structure in the country—literally built by one of the Viking settlers. 

Unfortunately, in recent years, modern-day visitors have started building a lot of cairns of their own. ... All. Over. The. Place. Much like the proliferation of countless Inukshucks in Canada's north (and south); this cultural appropriation by uninformed people only has the effect of making both of these symbols irrelevant. Personally, I knock Inukshuks down and scatter the stones; when I find them in places they shouldn't be.

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Days 19 > 21

Route: Around Reykjavik 

Distance (Daily / Cummulative): 0.0 / 3068.1 kms 

Hiking (Daily / Total): 7.5 + 5.3 / 121.3  kms 

Camp13: 3 nights @ Icelandair Hotel Marina

We had mixed weather over our time here; some drizzle and rain, some clear and sunny skies ... typical for this time of year.

Walked the main shopping district of Rekyjavik, visited the National Museum of Iceland.

Rekyavik Scenes ... pedestrian malls mixed with some vehicle traffic, local youth on scooterboards, more building art and graffiti than other parts of the country, some streets are fairly steep, lots of bars and restaurants, a lunch at the Old Iceland Restaurant

A few photos taken at the National Museum of Iceland ... certainly worth a visit.

Lunch at the Old Iceland Restaurant ... appetizer of cured salmon, trout roe, pickled cucumber, dill mayo, rye crumble !

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About Food

We've had some fabulous 'eats' in Iceland.

We haven't prepared any food on this trip; all our meals have been in restaurants and often at the hotels where we were staying. We've eaten in roadside cafes, roadhouses, pizza joints and higher end eateries and restaurants. We've had very few disappointing meals. Icelanders really know how to prepare and serve up breads, soups, butter, skyr, arctic char, salmon, trout, lamb. Matorka Farms in particular, is worth mentioning here because of their environmentally friendly and innovative programn for farm raised Arctic Char. 

There seems to be a short supply of fruits in some regions; we were offered very few berries and limited citrus, mostly just a couple of different melon varieties and bananas. I had one of the best takes ever on a 'caprese salad' here in Rekyjavik. A variety of cheeses is also not often offered; however the burrata cheese used in a number of traditional Icelandic dishes is certainly worth trying if you can find it offered on a menu.

                                                  

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If You Come to ICELAND

We want to extend our appreciation to the Nordic Visitor travel service and in particular to Margrét, who was extremely helpful and very quickly answered any questions we had.

Right up front ... the only negative we found, was that ... everything is very expensive here. Other than that, you will meet friendly and helpful Icelanders, experience some of the most rugged and scenic landscape on the planet, all in an environmentally conscious and very clean country.

We were here for 3 weeks in September; a time of year when the country can experience a lot of rainfall; however we didn't have much and the little we did, didn't affect our daily travel plans. The temperature ranged from just above 0 - 15 C and the winds were only ever as strong as moderate.

We didn't find it that difficult navigating our way along the various driving routes. Our rental vehicle was supplied with unlimited WIFI and I would suspect other rental companies offer the same option to tourists. Detailed area map boards are usually available at road intersections, signage is large and colourful, speed limits are clearly posted. 

As in most European countries, tipping is not required in ICELAND, but you can tip if you want. Workers in service and restaurant industries are paid according to sectoral wage agreements which are supposed to guarantee a minimum living wage. At restaurants and bars the wages of the servants, baristas and bartenders are all included in the price. The same applies to taxis and all guided tours. 

'Carving on a Sperm Whale tooth' 

A work by Icelandic carver Greta Por Palsson.

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Next

Flight from Reykjavik ICELAND > Toronto CANADA

Regroup and repack for some LOAFin Around in October ...

Then, 5 weeks swimming with the fishes in Cozumel MEXICO ... December 2022 to January 2023.

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We're Kanoe Tripping with a Mitsibushi Eclipse Crossover Hybrid this adventure 

... LOAF stayed at BASECAMP. 

  

You can follow all our travels from here.

  

For all photos from this trip see our Trip158 gallery.

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