ICELAND:CONTINUING

Internet connections have been very spotty as we've moved around the country ... not to mention the fact by 10 pm, after copying over the day's video and photo's I'm just falling into bed with a can of Viking Beer

We're currently in the eastern part of the country and have just finished up the second last day of our guided tour, with another full day in Rejkivavik still to come

We've seen a lot in the last couple of days. We wandered through an incredible volcanic landscape with gigantic rock formations that resembled churches and were just as big. We watched geysers and bubbling pots of lava that had the consistency of my chili but smelled a lot different.... whether better or worse is not for me to say

We came through another volcanic landscape that reminded me of Utah only to come to a gigantic waterfall across which flows more water than any waterfall in Europe

Collette and I wandered around a quaint fishing village where a long deep fjord meets the ocean.

Later we boarded an amphibious craft and cruised across a glacial lagoon to watch ice bergs, made of ice thousands of years old, glisten in the sun

Today we hiked some 300 meters (or so) up steep, rubble strewn hill sides to gaze out at the tongue of Iceland's largest glacier, some 8,000 squared kilometers in size. We stood there and gazed out across a landscape that has been completely determined by this glacier, a vast plain guarded by giant moraines where huge cirques glistened in the morning sun

Later we travelled to see more waterfalls. Iceland, in my experience so far, is a land of sheep and horses and waterfalls. The latter are everwhere, from thin streams of water pouring down steep cliffs to massive deluges flying away from the glaciers

We learned about how this country has been created, and oft times destroyed, by these titantic forces: Earthquakes and floods and eruptions. Today we drove through lava fields some 60 km in length, stretching horizon to horizon that all resulted from a single eruption. More than once the entire population of the island has been on the verge of extinction due to its own nascent nature, and yet the island survives and its people have thrived

Although our last few days have been blessed by absolutely beautiful weather, today the rain returned to Iceland. We walked along a shoreline of black volcanic sand where the surf pounded against the shore and flung up white foam like giant skirts of Irish lace and where puffins nested on the cliff faces

And where Collette and I found a black farm dog with a white muzzle that, if not a border collie, had the heart of one. I gave the border collie whistle and he came right to me and accepted a scratch under the jaw before flying off to herd up some errant ATVs ...

Tomorrow will not be our last day in Iceland but the last day of our tour. We have seen a great deal of this remarkable, death defying little country ... and already, I am missing it