Iceland Day 2

On Sunday morning we were unsuccessful at finding an open shop to get a replacement tire. We decided to carry on North; avoiding all gravel roads to minimize the risk of blowing another tire. The guy running the hostel recommended checking out a nearby volcano, which ended up being a really nice hike about 1½ hours long. Following the hike we had some sandwiches and headed for a national park. The park featured a big lake with two tectonic plates that separate Europe & North America. We stopped at a couple nice viewpoints around the lake and then carried on with our loop around Iceland.

As we were rounding a curve in the road, Chantal suddenly found the car very hard to control. I suggested that we had blown another tire, to which she replied, “Noway, not again!” Very shortly after that we all felt the unfortunately familiar vibration that confirmed we had another flat tire. With our spare tire already used up, we had no choice but to call the rental company in need of help. Luckily I got in touch with the same guy to whom I reported our first flat, and re-iterated what I had said the day before – the tires are crap – and now the only solution is either five new tires or a replacement vehicle. He agreed to send a new vehicle. The good news was he had one available, the bad news was it was in Reykjavik; over two hours away from our current location.

For the next couple hours we sat at the side of the road, chatting amongst ourselves, telling stories,laughing and wondering around outside. The locals were very nice with stopping to see if we needed help, but we just waited for the rental company to come with the replacement car. The time passed pretty fast and before we knew it two guys arrived with a replacement vehicle.We signed some papers, transferred our belongings and were once again on our way. The consensus was to carry on to our planned destination,despite the fact that this meant arriving at our hostel after 10pm.

That ended up being a really good decision because the hostel was a cool old farmhouse in a fairy deserted area, and we were the only ones staying there. Upon arrival we quickly got started on making dinner; a stir fry with lamb and lots of vegetables, and by the time we sat down for dinner it was nearly 11pm. After dinner & dishes we all felt pretty exhausted and ready for bed. Hussain spotted some Northern Lights through the window and we all enjoyed the sights before dosing off to sleep. I popped up and remembered I should charge my cell phone; a rather handy device to have when there's car trouble. When I went out to the car to grab it, I saw amazing Northern Lights all around the farmhouse – enough to warrant running back to the room to wake up Hussain & Chantal. After playing around with shutter speed on my camera, I managed to get some pretty cool pictures of the Auroraborealis.

I can't upload my volcano pictures at the moment because they were on my point-n-shoot and I don't have the cord, but here's what I got on my other camera.