We were meeting our bird watching guide at 6am in Vieux Fort, so set our alarms for 5am. It was still dark when we woke, but had lightened enough for me to drive by 5:30.
It’s a beautiful drive along the coast from our hotel. Our first time in after arriving I was too focused on adapting to the new car, and couldn’t take in the view. There were quite a few locals waiting roadside for buses to get to work.
We met up with our guide, Nestor, in the Massy parking lot in Vieux Fort (Massy is main grocery chain in St Lucia). We joined him in his vehicle and drove north along the east coast towards Dennery. The water is much rougher on the Atlantic side than the Caribbean side we’d seen thus far in St Lucia.
There’s seven birds endemic to St Lucia (five species and two sub-species). On our excursion we were hoping to see six; with the highlight hopefully being the St Lucia parrot.
We made a couple stops at seemingly random places along the highway, but were actually access paths for workers to maintain electrical towers. We managed to spot four of the endemics, so a good start to the day!
The second stop was also the habitat of the St Lucia pit viper, a poisonous snake. Our guide had a long stick to beat the grass before we got through to the access path. We were glad to be done with that part.
Finally we drove 30 minutes inland towards Quilesse Forest Reserve, over roads in pretty bad shape. We would have turned around (not that there was anywhere to turn) if we had tried to do this independently.
We got to the park gates and the start of the trail through the rainforest. The trail goes through the heart of the rainforest to the west coast; we were only going in about 2km. The mosquitoes were bad, but our bug spray worked fine. It’s the only time we’ve had to use bug spray on this trip - in the evenings at dinner, it’s been mostly bug-free.
We enjoyed the walk through the rainforest, over a roughly maintained path. It was a nice temperature under all the trees, we were also at about 500m. After about 30 minutes we arrived at the lookout with a view across the valley.
Less than a minute after arriving, we saw a St Lucia parrot! It’s a really colourful bird, with blue, black, white and splashes of red, yellow, and green. Nestor hadn’t even set up his scope yet :) It's the national bird of St Lucia, and its flag also incorporates its colours.
We watched for another 45 minutes or so, and saw around 8-9 parrots in total. You hear the parrots squawking as the fly through the valley, waiting for them to appear and then hopefully track them until they land. It was too far across the valley to see their colour without binoculars or a zoom lens, we were lucky to track a few. I got a very blurry pic of one.
Finally we started the trek back to the vehicle, and then drove back to Vieux Fort to our car. Overall it was cool to see the St Lucia parrot and walk through the rainforest.
We had planned to have lunch at Mamma Tilly’s, a popular St Lucia seafood place, but it was closed Mondays. So picked a random place from Google maps and had a local lunch, which was okay.
Our dinner was excellent, we both had the catch of the day which was tuna today. (In some other places, the ‘catch-of-the-day’ is the same every day, like the wahoo in Fiji). It was super fresh and was served with the usual assortment of vegetable sides. Very yummy :)
Monday, September 29, 2025
Sunday, September 28, 2025
Anse Chastenet & Sugar Beach, St Lucia
We had arranged through our hotel for a snorkeling excursion today. We were meeting the boat at the dock in Soufriere at 10am, so had plenty of time for breakfast and getting our snorkeling gear together.
Had the same breakfast as yesterday, it’s really good. I think we had read in the reviews where someone complained about the lack of variety at breakfast. We don’t actually vary our breakfast much, even at home, so that didn’t matter to us. I’ll have fresh fruit, freshly baked bread, eggs and bacon, and coffee every day, thank you very much.
We changed into our snorkel gear and then drove into town. The hotel had shown us on google maps exactly where to park (at the bus station) and airdropped a pic of the boat, so it was pretty easy to find our way.
It was just the two us on the excursion. We chatted with the boat guy about what we wanted to do, and then we were off. The waters were really calm - no bumping at all.
First stopped off at a crevice in the rock cliff where bats make their home. We could see some of them flitting about, even though it was day.
Our first snorkel site was off Anse Chastenet, about five minutes by boat north of Soufriere. We were the only snorkelers which was cool. The water was super clear, and very still, which made for great pics. On other trips there’s slight bobbing about which makes it harder to focus the camera, especially zoomed in. Saw lots of trumpet fish and fan coral. Supposedly it’s a good place to see turtles, although we didn’t see any.
Next was Sugar Beach, one of the most popular snorkeling sites in the south end of St Lucia. It’s at the base of Petit Piton, and we actually saw the activity from our little trek yesterday. There’s a snorkeling area marked out with buoys.
We docked at the beach, which is surrounded by resorts. We were glad we hadn’t booked into any of these, it was really busy with tourists. Dodged our way through the tourists on the beach to the snorkeling area, put on our fins and away we went.
It wasn’t too busy once we got away from shore. The visibility was excellent, even better than Anse Chastenet. Saw lots of parrotfish and eels, as well as schools of Seargeant Majors. Our boat guy said that tourists feed the fish, and that’s why they are so tame here. We snorkeled out to the far end of the buoys and back, about 800m round trip.
Our last stop was around the ocean side of Petit Piton. My camera battery had died (I think our first two snorkels were 30m and 45m) so just left it on the boat. There was a bit of a current, and we were getting tired, so called it a day after about 20 minutes. It was a good site for snorkeling, not much coral but lots of boulders and crevices for fishies to swim in and about.
Overall it was great snorkeling excursion. It’s possible to drive to these and snorkel out from the beach (no need for a boat) but we had nice views of the pitons and of Soufriere from the ocean. The water temperature was the warmest we’ve been in. Great for snorkeling, although maybe not as good for the environment.
Our boat guy suggested Stone Yard for lunch, and called ahead to reserve a table for us. It’s geared to tourists, with lots of other groups ending their excursions here. It fit the bill though, as we weren’t out of place in our wet snorkel gear, and they had a good bathroom. The food was okay, we liked Belle Vue better.
Drove back to our hotel, the road now familiar to us the 4th time through. Rinsed and hung to dry our snorkel gear, and then relaxed the rest of the afternoon.
The temperature has been consistent every day, high of 30C and low of 27C. It felt cooler this evening at dinner, so maybe we’re adjusting to the heat and humidity.
Tomorrow we’re on a birding excursion, we have to meet our guide at 6am :( I guess it’s like safari time. We’re hoping to see the elusive St Lucia parrot!
Had the same breakfast as yesterday, it’s really good. I think we had read in the reviews where someone complained about the lack of variety at breakfast. We don’t actually vary our breakfast much, even at home, so that didn’t matter to us. I’ll have fresh fruit, freshly baked bread, eggs and bacon, and coffee every day, thank you very much.
We changed into our snorkel gear and then drove into town. The hotel had shown us on google maps exactly where to park (at the bus station) and airdropped a pic of the boat, so it was pretty easy to find our way.
It was just the two us on the excursion. We chatted with the boat guy about what we wanted to do, and then we were off. The waters were really calm - no bumping at all.
First stopped off at a crevice in the rock cliff where bats make their home. We could see some of them flitting about, even though it was day.
Our first snorkel site was off Anse Chastenet, about five minutes by boat north of Soufriere. We were the only snorkelers which was cool. The water was super clear, and very still, which made for great pics. On other trips there’s slight bobbing about which makes it harder to focus the camera, especially zoomed in. Saw lots of trumpet fish and fan coral. Supposedly it’s a good place to see turtles, although we didn’t see any.
Next was Sugar Beach, one of the most popular snorkeling sites in the south end of St Lucia. It’s at the base of Petit Piton, and we actually saw the activity from our little trek yesterday. There’s a snorkeling area marked out with buoys.
We docked at the beach, which is surrounded by resorts. We were glad we hadn’t booked into any of these, it was really busy with tourists. Dodged our way through the tourists on the beach to the snorkeling area, put on our fins and away we went.
It wasn’t too busy once we got away from shore. The visibility was excellent, even better than Anse Chastenet. Saw lots of parrotfish and eels, as well as schools of Seargeant Majors. Our boat guy said that tourists feed the fish, and that’s why they are so tame here. We snorkeled out to the far end of the buoys and back, about 800m round trip.
Our last stop was around the ocean side of Petit Piton. My camera battery had died (I think our first two snorkels were 30m and 45m) so just left it on the boat. There was a bit of a current, and we were getting tired, so called it a day after about 20 minutes. It was a good site for snorkeling, not much coral but lots of boulders and crevices for fishies to swim in and about.
Overall it was great snorkeling excursion. It’s possible to drive to these and snorkel out from the beach (no need for a boat) but we had nice views of the pitons and of Soufriere from the ocean. The water temperature was the warmest we’ve been in. Great for snorkeling, although maybe not as good for the environment.
Our boat guy suggested Stone Yard for lunch, and called ahead to reserve a table for us. It’s geared to tourists, with lots of other groups ending their excursions here. It fit the bill though, as we weren’t out of place in our wet snorkel gear, and they had a good bathroom. The food was okay, we liked Belle Vue better.
Drove back to our hotel, the road now familiar to us the 4th time through. Rinsed and hung to dry our snorkel gear, and then relaxed the rest of the afternoon.
The temperature has been consistent every day, high of 30C and low of 27C. It felt cooler this evening at dinner, so maybe we’re adjusting to the heat and humidity.
Tomorrow we’re on a birding excursion, we have to meet our guide at 6am :( I guess it’s like safari time. We’re hoping to see the elusive St Lucia parrot!
Saturday, September 27, 2025
Têt Paul Nature Trail, St Lucia
We fell asleep last night to the sounds of frogs croaking and other creatures of the night. It’s a natural white noise machine here :)
We were up for breakfast pretty early (for vacation) at 7:30, partly cause we were in bed by 7pm last night, and also cause the large transoms in the room let in the morning light.
Had an excellent breakfast, local (homemade) lemonade, scrambled eggs with herbs and crispy bacon, fresh bread and seasonal fruit (mango, melon, watermelon).
Planned out our next couple days with the hotel staff. Today we planned a short one-hike along the Têt Paul Nature Trail and lunch at a local restaurant in Soufriere. We also booked a snorkeling excursion for tomorrow.
Sorted ourselves out in the room (we hadn’t done much reorganizing from airplane mode yesterday), and then headed out.
Now that we were familiar with the road conditions we had more confidence in determining if Google maps was taking us on a ‘shortcut’ or if it was indeed the normal state of the road.
The trailhead for Têt Paul Nature Trail was about 20 minutes from our hotel. We got there around 10:30am, there was just a trickle of other tourist groups. A friendly driver for another group helped us pointing out the best road-side place to park to get the future shade.
Paid our 15 CAD each at the trail ticket booth (they took ApplePay!), which included a guide. A guide’s not really needed, and it would have meant joining other folks, so we just went on our own.
The path is well-maintained, with stairs and boardwalks over possible muddy areas. We took our time admiring the lookouts along the way. At the top are great views of the pitons, two volcanic plugs which are the symbols of St Lucia (they appear on the flag), and are also a UNESCO world heritage site. There’s a couple side trails near the top for alternate views. Took our pics and then headed back down; round trip was about 35 minutes.
We had expected a longer walk (we were told 60-90 minutes), it was still too early for lunch, as most places only open at noon. So decided to stop in at Project Chocolate along the way. They only did scheduled tours, so chatted with the friendly security guard about the schedule for later in the week.
Carried on towards the sulphur springs. We’re not keen on mud baths or hot springs, but figured to check out the bubbling mud. At the entrance, and enterprising guy (Tim) asked if we preferred a short walk to see Superman Falls. That sounded more picturesque than a dull grey mud puddle, so we were in :)
Followed Tim down a dirt road for about five minutes, and then walked down a rustic path to get to falls. These were really cool to see, with the contrast of the sulphur-tinged rocks behind the falls and the ash-coloured pool at the bottom from the lava granules. Plus we were the only ones there. It’s possible to swim under the falls, and there’s mud and ash buckets for skin cleansing, but we were just there for the view. The falls featured in Superman II, thus the nickname, and also in Romancing the Stone. It was well worth the side trip.
We asked Tim about our lunch plans at Martha’s Tables. He thought they might be closed for lunch and suggested Belle Vue Restaurant as a backup.
Tim was right on both counts - Martha’s Tables were closed, and Belle Vue was an excellent spot. It was in the centre of Soufriere, with a nice view of the harbour, as its name suggests.
Had a local juice to start which was refreshing. We had the jerk chicken and Creole chicken. Both came with an assortment of the usual provisions, banana pie (sort of like a potato dish my Mom used to make, but with plantains), baked mac and cheese, coleslaw, mmm good. It was exactly what we were looking for.
We had ideas to walk around town but it was midday sun and probably not recommended. So headed back home to relax for the rest of the afternoon.
Dinner was again excellent at our hotel. It’s Saturday night so a few locals were gathered at the bar adding to the ambience.
We were up for breakfast pretty early (for vacation) at 7:30, partly cause we were in bed by 7pm last night, and also cause the large transoms in the room let in the morning light.
Had an excellent breakfast, local (homemade) lemonade, scrambled eggs with herbs and crispy bacon, fresh bread and seasonal fruit (mango, melon, watermelon).
Planned out our next couple days with the hotel staff. Today we planned a short one-hike along the Têt Paul Nature Trail and lunch at a local restaurant in Soufriere. We also booked a snorkeling excursion for tomorrow.
Sorted ourselves out in the room (we hadn’t done much reorganizing from airplane mode yesterday), and then headed out.
Now that we were familiar with the road conditions we had more confidence in determining if Google maps was taking us on a ‘shortcut’ or if it was indeed the normal state of the road.
The trailhead for Têt Paul Nature Trail was about 20 minutes from our hotel. We got there around 10:30am, there was just a trickle of other tourist groups. A friendly driver for another group helped us pointing out the best road-side place to park to get the future shade.
Paid our 15 CAD each at the trail ticket booth (they took ApplePay!), which included a guide. A guide’s not really needed, and it would have meant joining other folks, so we just went on our own.
The path is well-maintained, with stairs and boardwalks over possible muddy areas. We took our time admiring the lookouts along the way. At the top are great views of the pitons, two volcanic plugs which are the symbols of St Lucia (they appear on the flag), and are also a UNESCO world heritage site. There’s a couple side trails near the top for alternate views. Took our pics and then headed back down; round trip was about 35 minutes.
We had expected a longer walk (we were told 60-90 minutes), it was still too early for lunch, as most places only open at noon. So decided to stop in at Project Chocolate along the way. They only did scheduled tours, so chatted with the friendly security guard about the schedule for later in the week.
Carried on towards the sulphur springs. We’re not keen on mud baths or hot springs, but figured to check out the bubbling mud. At the entrance, and enterprising guy (Tim) asked if we preferred a short walk to see Superman Falls. That sounded more picturesque than a dull grey mud puddle, so we were in :)
Followed Tim down a dirt road for about five minutes, and then walked down a rustic path to get to falls. These were really cool to see, with the contrast of the sulphur-tinged rocks behind the falls and the ash-coloured pool at the bottom from the lava granules. Plus we were the only ones there. It’s possible to swim under the falls, and there’s mud and ash buckets for skin cleansing, but we were just there for the view. The falls featured in Superman II, thus the nickname, and also in Romancing the Stone. It was well worth the side trip.
We asked Tim about our lunch plans at Martha’s Tables. He thought they might be closed for lunch and suggested Belle Vue Restaurant as a backup.
Tim was right on both counts - Martha’s Tables were closed, and Belle Vue was an excellent spot. It was in the centre of Soufriere, with a nice view of the harbour, as its name suggests.
Had a local juice to start which was refreshing. We had the jerk chicken and Creole chicken. Both came with an assortment of the usual provisions, banana pie (sort of like a potato dish my Mom used to make, but with plantains), baked mac and cheese, coleslaw, mmm good. It was exactly what we were looking for.
We had ideas to walk around town but it was midday sun and probably not recommended. So headed back home to relax for the rest of the afternoon.
Dinner was again excellent at our hotel. It’s Saturday night so a few locals were gathered at the bar adding to the ambience.
Friday, September 26, 2025
Choiseul, St Lucia
We’re off for 6 days in St Lucia and then 3 days in Guyana, the Guyana part is mostly to see Kaiteur Falls. We booked back in March, based on it being just after rainy season in Guyana, so that in theory the falls will be full, but we’ll have good weather. We also planned the trip around direct flights from Toronto-St Lucia and St Lucia-Georgetown.
We were up at 4:45am to catch the flight to St Lucia. For some reason we both had viewed anything in the Caribbean as a ‘short’ flight, even though it’s 5.5 hours to St Lucia. We actually took off 20 minutes early!
Unfortunately most of the North American flights arrive in UVF around 2pm, so there’s a big spike in tourists and line ups for all the arrival stuff. We got through immigration really quickly cause we had filled out the online form earlier in the week. But then we waited about an hour for our luggage. Felt like we were at Pearson!
Picked up our car rental, a Suzuki Jimny from Sixt. Yet another country with left-hand drive where we’ve rented a car (now 10 out of 13). Set up my phone mount and then we were off on our adventure!
The main ring road in St Lucia is nicely paved. The secondary roads aren’t too bad, single width in some stretches, but least without sharp drop-offs like in Dominica. Our hotel was 45 minutes from the airport, in the SW corner of St Lucia, just south of the pitons.
We’re staying at Tet Rouge, a small place with 8 chalets. There’s only one other couple here right now so the hotel was expecting us as we drove up. Checked in, and then arranged for dinner in an hour, at 6:30pm. We hadn’t had lunch and were on very little sleep, so an early dinner suited us just fine.
Cleaned up and cooled down in our air conditioned room. The hotel has a cute little outdoor restaurant, with an excellent kitchen. We ordered a bit too much, although it was all delicious. My favourite was the tuna ceviche appetizer. We were in bed very early, the heat and lack of sleep getting to us.
We were up at 4:45am to catch the flight to St Lucia. For some reason we both had viewed anything in the Caribbean as a ‘short’ flight, even though it’s 5.5 hours to St Lucia. We actually took off 20 minutes early!
Unfortunately most of the North American flights arrive in UVF around 2pm, so there’s a big spike in tourists and line ups for all the arrival stuff. We got through immigration really quickly cause we had filled out the online form earlier in the week. But then we waited about an hour for our luggage. Felt like we were at Pearson!
Picked up our car rental, a Suzuki Jimny from Sixt. Yet another country with left-hand drive where we’ve rented a car (now 10 out of 13). Set up my phone mount and then we were off on our adventure!
The main ring road in St Lucia is nicely paved. The secondary roads aren’t too bad, single width in some stretches, but least without sharp drop-offs like in Dominica. Our hotel was 45 minutes from the airport, in the SW corner of St Lucia, just south of the pitons.
We’re staying at Tet Rouge, a small place with 8 chalets. There’s only one other couple here right now so the hotel was expecting us as we drove up. Checked in, and then arranged for dinner in an hour, at 6:30pm. We hadn’t had lunch and were on very little sleep, so an early dinner suited us just fine.
Cleaned up and cooled down in our air conditioned room. The hotel has a cute little outdoor restaurant, with an excellent kitchen. We ordered a bit too much, although it was all delicious. My favourite was the tuna ceviche appetizer. We were in bed very early, the heat and lack of sleep getting to us.
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Toronto, Canada
Heather's friend Fed once said that the enjoyment of a trip was directly related to the weather. This was true of our trip to Iceland. The weather in February is hit-and-miss, and we had a miss. We were prepared for rain and cold, but not 80km/h winds! Our main reason for choosing Iceland in the winter was to see the Northern Lights. We had only one cloudless evening, but the Northern Lights didn't appear that night :( We haven't had much luck with celestial events, having a very cloudy day for the recent solar eclipse in Apr 2024, and a hazy night for the lunar eclipse in Nov 2022. I think technically the Northern Lights aren't a celestial event, but it's in the sky and seeing them is dependent on lack of clouds.
The tourist-local ratio in Iceland is much higher than we usually prefer. I couldn't believe the volume of traffic on the road from Laugarvatn to Reykjavík. It was a continuous stream of cars, campervans and buses, in low season. We did do the most popular things in Iceland, which contributed to us running into high number of tourists. The Golden Circle is visited by over 2 million people per year. The sites are popular for a reason though — they are prety cool to see. It's on our list to see the sites around the Diamond Circle in the northeast (like Dettifoss and Goðafoss), but this is pretty busy too — 360,000 people visited in 2019, compared to Akureyri's population of about 20,000.
There is beautiful scenery in Iceland, and I'm sure even nicer when things are green. The drive along the shoreline to Vík was gorgeous, up there with some of the best road trips we've taken. The food was excellent too. It's possible to hike slightly past the main sites and get away from the crowds.
Overall I found Iceland a beautiful place to visit, but probably a bit over-touristed for my liking (given the small population), even in low season. Probably we will head to other places on our list before going back to see the rest of Iceland in the summer.
The tourist-local ratio in Iceland is much higher than we usually prefer. I couldn't believe the volume of traffic on the road from Laugarvatn to Reykjavík. It was a continuous stream of cars, campervans and buses, in low season. We did do the most popular things in Iceland, which contributed to us running into high number of tourists. The Golden Circle is visited by over 2 million people per year. The sites are popular for a reason though — they are prety cool to see. It's on our list to see the sites around the Diamond Circle in the northeast (like Dettifoss and Goðafoss), but this is pretty busy too — 360,000 people visited in 2019, compared to Akureyri's population of about 20,000.
There is beautiful scenery in Iceland, and I'm sure even nicer when things are green. The drive along the shoreline to Vík was gorgeous, up there with some of the best road trips we've taken. The food was excellent too. It's possible to hike slightly past the main sites and get away from the crowds.
Overall I found Iceland a beautiful place to visit, but probably a bit over-touristed for my liking (given the small population), even in low season. Probably we will head to other places on our list before going back to see the rest of Iceland in the summer.
Saturday, February 22, 2025
Reykjavík, Iceland
Heather had started feeling a bit sick yesterday, and was worse this morning. Probably we had caught whatever was going around with the groups in our hotel in Vík, Heather worse than me.
We emailed the Lava Tunnel folks to let them know we wouldn't be joining the lava excursion. It was too late to cancel but they offered that we could rebook at no cost, at any point in the next five years, which was very nice of them. So if we get back to Iceland for a summer trip based out of Akureyri, we can rebook the lava tunnel excursion.
After breakfast, we packed up and drove back to Reykjavík. The route took us through Thingvellir NP so we had another view of the park. There was lots of traffic on the road heading out from Reykjavík to the Golden Cirle sites, a continuous stream of cars, campervans and buses.
We were able to get early check-in at the Skuggi Hotel, but only at 1pm. That was enough time to walk over to Hlemmur Mathöll (food hall) and grab some lunch. We both had phở at Báhn Mí, it was pretty good given the ingredient options in Iceland. We're spoiled with the excellent Vietnamese restaurants in our neighbourhood back home.
We got back to the Skuggi and checked in, and we both promptly fell asleep mid-afternoon. I got up around dinner and went back to the food hall for dinner at Kröst, it was excellent.
...
The next morning we stayed until checkout and then drove back to the airport. The car return at Europcar was easy -- just dropped off the key and walked over to the terminal. It was different seeing the airport during the day -- when we arrived it was before sunrise and we were pretty tired. It's a rather large airport!
Luckily we had booked business and were able to use the lounge. It's one of the more pleasant lounges we've been through. Got some chaise-lounge type seats facing the runways, and rested until our flight at 5pm.
We emailed the Lava Tunnel folks to let them know we wouldn't be joining the lava excursion. It was too late to cancel but they offered that we could rebook at no cost, at any point in the next five years, which was very nice of them. So if we get back to Iceland for a summer trip based out of Akureyri, we can rebook the lava tunnel excursion.
After breakfast, we packed up and drove back to Reykjavík. The route took us through Thingvellir NP so we had another view of the park. There was lots of traffic on the road heading out from Reykjavík to the Golden Cirle sites, a continuous stream of cars, campervans and buses.
We were able to get early check-in at the Skuggi Hotel, but only at 1pm. That was enough time to walk over to Hlemmur Mathöll (food hall) and grab some lunch. We both had phở at Báhn Mí, it was pretty good given the ingredient options in Iceland. We're spoiled with the excellent Vietnamese restaurants in our neighbourhood back home.
We got back to the Skuggi and checked in, and we both promptly fell asleep mid-afternoon. I got up around dinner and went back to the food hall for dinner at Kröst, it was excellent.
...
The next morning we stayed until checkout and then drove back to the airport. The car return at Europcar was easy -- just dropped off the key and walked over to the terminal. It was different seeing the airport during the day -- when we arrived it was before sunrise and we were pretty tired. It's a rather large airport!
Luckily we had booked business and were able to use the lounge. It's one of the more pleasant lounges we've been through. Got some chaise-lounge type seats facing the runways, and rested until our flight at 5pm.
Thursday, February 20, 2025
Laugarvatn, Iceland
The forecast looked good for today! We had our big excursion planned to the Golden Circle highlights: Gullfoss (waterfall), Strokkur (geyser) and Þingvellir National Park (continental drift). Gullfoss was at the top of my list so we headed there first.
Gullfoss is open 24/7, so we planned to be there for sunrise (9am). It’s more common for folks to visit the Golden Circle highlights on a long day trip from Reykjavík (about two hours away) so at 9am we had the falls pretty much to ourselves! Luckily the sun was poking out through the clouds to brighten our pics. There was good water flow what with all the recent rain. There’s several vantage points for pics, a couple which are in the mist shadow from the falls. Waterproof smart phones are excellent for these types of conditions. The lowest trail down to the falls was closed due to ice. Gullfoss is really cool to see, one of the top 10 visually impressive waterfalls in the world.
Next up was Geysir, about 30 minutes drive. There’s a single-lane bridge along the way, I could see that causing traffic congestion later in the day. At this early hour we were the only car on the road so we just drove through.
Geysir is home to the original geyser, in fact that’s where the word comes from. Geysir erupts infrequently nowadays, the last time was in 2016. Also in the park is Strokkur, which erupts up to 35m every seven minutes or so. This is also pretty cool to see. There’s a path leading up the hillside for different views. We saw five eruptions while we were there.
I had researched some fancy place for lunch (actually very close to our hotel) but we both had a hankering for Icelandic lamb soup so just ate at the cafeteria at Geysir. They also had a mushroom soup which Heather got. The lamb soup was so-so, not as good as the one at Seljalandsfoss.
We got through the single-lane bridge no problem, and drove on to Þingvellir. The road to the entrance passes through the national park with a speed limit of 50 km/h. It’s beautiful scenery, and also a UNESCO world heritage site.
I couldn’t find Þingvellir in the Parka parking app, when I asked it turns out they’re not part of it. That’s confusing to tourists. It was easy enough to pay at the machine though.
The first view Þingvellir (if you’ve parked at P1) is the path down between the walls representing the North American and Eurasia plates separating. It’s a unique sight. About 1km down the path is Öxarárfoss waterfall, tucked in behind the path. You can’t see or hear it until you turn around the bend, which is pretty cool.
The path then winds back towards the main entrance, and passes by Thingvallakirkja, the iconic church and summer residence of the Prime Minister. Last up is Silfra, where it’s possible to snorkel or dive between the plates. We took some pics of folks snorkeling and then called it a day. We were lucky that with all the rain we’ve had recently that we were able to have a nice day today.
Gullfoss is open 24/7, so we planned to be there for sunrise (9am). It’s more common for folks to visit the Golden Circle highlights on a long day trip from Reykjavík (about two hours away) so at 9am we had the falls pretty much to ourselves! Luckily the sun was poking out through the clouds to brighten our pics. There was good water flow what with all the recent rain. There’s several vantage points for pics, a couple which are in the mist shadow from the falls. Waterproof smart phones are excellent for these types of conditions. The lowest trail down to the falls was closed due to ice. Gullfoss is really cool to see, one of the top 10 visually impressive waterfalls in the world.
Next up was Geysir, about 30 minutes drive. There’s a single-lane bridge along the way, I could see that causing traffic congestion later in the day. At this early hour we were the only car on the road so we just drove through.
Geysir is home to the original geyser, in fact that’s where the word comes from. Geysir erupts infrequently nowadays, the last time was in 2016. Also in the park is Strokkur, which erupts up to 35m every seven minutes or so. This is also pretty cool to see. There’s a path leading up the hillside for different views. We saw five eruptions while we were there.
I had researched some fancy place for lunch (actually very close to our hotel) but we both had a hankering for Icelandic lamb soup so just ate at the cafeteria at Geysir. They also had a mushroom soup which Heather got. The lamb soup was so-so, not as good as the one at Seljalandsfoss.
We got through the single-lane bridge no problem, and drove on to Þingvellir. The road to the entrance passes through the national park with a speed limit of 50 km/h. It’s beautiful scenery, and also a UNESCO world heritage site.
I couldn’t find Þingvellir in the Parka parking app, when I asked it turns out they’re not part of it. That’s confusing to tourists. It was easy enough to pay at the machine though.
The first view Þingvellir (if you’ve parked at P1) is the path down between the walls representing the North American and Eurasia plates separating. It’s a unique sight. About 1km down the path is Öxarárfoss waterfall, tucked in behind the path. You can’t see or hear it until you turn around the bend, which is pretty cool.
The path then winds back towards the main entrance, and passes by Thingvallakirkja, the iconic church and summer residence of the Prime Minister. Last up is Silfra, where it’s possible to snorkel or dive between the plates. We took some pics of folks snorkeling and then called it a day. We were lucky that with all the rain we’ve had recently that we were able to have a nice day today.
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Laugarvatn, Iceland
We left Vik this morning in the wind and rain. It rained the whole time we were here, with the winds never dropping below 30 km/h. For all I know it’s still raining in Vik.
It stopped raining shortly after we exited Vik city limits, heading back towards Reykjavík along Hwy 1. After an hour we turned inland, en route to Secret Lagoon, a geothermal pool near Flúðir.
We wanted to try a geothermal pool whilst in Iceland, and the Blue Lagoon sounded too busy and touristy. Several travel bloggers mentioned Secret Lagoon as a good alternative, so I bought timed-entry tickets online when I booked the trip.
We arrived at 11:45am, fifteen minutes early, but they didn’t mind. We took off our boots in the common shoe room, then split up to our respective change rooms. Changed, put my stuff in a locker (with bracelet key), showered, and then entered the pool area. We timed it perfectly as we both got to the pool at the same time.
The pool was nice and warm, about 40C. We gravitated to the warmer spots where the hot water enters the pool. It wasn’t too crowded, we could move about easily without bumping into folks. The pool bottom is lava gravel which felt nice on our feet.
After about 30 minutes we had had enough and changed back out. We had left our phones in our lockers and there’s no clock around the pool, so we had no idea how long we had been in the pool at the time. Maybe that’s the idea.
We had lunch at Vínstofa Friðheima. It’s an interesting concept. It’s a greenhouse, growing most of the tomatoes sold in Iceland. They have a large restaurant, with tables in and amongst the vines, with most of the dishes involving tomatoes. We spilt a salad, ravioli with a romesco sauce, seafood skewers, and non-alcoholic takes on a Bloody Mary. It was all very excellent, but I don’t want to look at tomatoes for at least a week.
Our hotel for the next couple nights is the Héraðsskólinn Historic Guesthouse. It is a former boarding school, and one of the few hotels with character that I found while booking. Our room was recently renovated, and had a nice view of Laugarvatn (a small lake with geothermal springs).
We cleaned up and then went over to the nearby Lindin restaurant. It’s a pretty fancy restaurant for a town of 300! We enjoyed our dinner.
It was overcast and no chance for the Northern Lights yet again :(
It stopped raining shortly after we exited Vik city limits, heading back towards Reykjavík along Hwy 1. After an hour we turned inland, en route to Secret Lagoon, a geothermal pool near Flúðir.
We wanted to try a geothermal pool whilst in Iceland, and the Blue Lagoon sounded too busy and touristy. Several travel bloggers mentioned Secret Lagoon as a good alternative, so I bought timed-entry tickets online when I booked the trip.
We arrived at 11:45am, fifteen minutes early, but they didn’t mind. We took off our boots in the common shoe room, then split up to our respective change rooms. Changed, put my stuff in a locker (with bracelet key), showered, and then entered the pool area. We timed it perfectly as we both got to the pool at the same time.
The pool was nice and warm, about 40C. We gravitated to the warmer spots where the hot water enters the pool. It wasn’t too crowded, we could move about easily without bumping into folks. The pool bottom is lava gravel which felt nice on our feet.
After about 30 minutes we had had enough and changed back out. We had left our phones in our lockers and there’s no clock around the pool, so we had no idea how long we had been in the pool at the time. Maybe that’s the idea.
We had lunch at Vínstofa Friðheima. It’s an interesting concept. It’s a greenhouse, growing most of the tomatoes sold in Iceland. They have a large restaurant, with tables in and amongst the vines, with most of the dishes involving tomatoes. We spilt a salad, ravioli with a romesco sauce, seafood skewers, and non-alcoholic takes on a Bloody Mary. It was all very excellent, but I don’t want to look at tomatoes for at least a week.
Our hotel for the next couple nights is the Héraðsskólinn Historic Guesthouse. It is a former boarding school, and one of the few hotels with character that I found while booking. Our room was recently renovated, and had a nice view of Laugarvatn (a small lake with geothermal springs).
We cleaned up and then went over to the nearby Lindin restaurant. It’s a pretty fancy restaurant for a town of 300! We enjoyed our dinner.
It was overcast and no chance for the Northern Lights yet again :(
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Vik, Iceland
The forecast did not improve overnight, so we ruled out our plans to go hiking along the Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon. We had breakfast and then researched indoor options near Vik. We landed on a couple small museums and going to see the Lava Show, all in the historic part of Vik.
Unfortunately both the Skaftfellingur Museum and Hafnleysa Maritime museum were closed on Mondays & Tuesdays :( We had some time to kill before our 1pm booking at the Lava Show, so drove over to see the Dyrhólaey Lighthouse, about 20 minutes west of Vik.
The Dyrhólaey Lighthouse sits atop a cliff overlooking the ocean. Google maps said the road was closed, but the gates were open so we drove up. It was extremely windy at the top, so much so that we were afraid of getting thrown off the cliff. Visibility was really poor too, so we just decided to stay in the car and drive back to Vik.
The Lava Show seemed like it might be cheesy, but it was one of the few indoor things open today. We booked the tickets for the 1pm show online after breakfast. We arrived a bit early at 12:30pm, so browsed the gift shop. I ended up buying a small piece of obsidian-like lava glass for our souvenir shelf. The show seats about 50 and is general admission, so we chatted up the staff about the best seats.
The show was sold out, with an Icelandic school group taking up about 40 seats. It started promptly at 1pm with an intro spiel about the volcano and the safety awareness of all residents. Katla, which overlooks Vik, is overdue for an eruption, so every household has an emergency bag packed. Each home also has a large poster-sized sign they leave in their window after vacating, so emergency personnel know not to bother searching the house. Everyone then heads to the church on the hill, the nearest high point, to escape from the main danger of flooding.
Anyways back to the lava. After a short educational and historical video, the main event: molten lava is poured down a ramp. We could feel the heat from our seats.
The host then described and showed how the lava solidifies into different forms, including silica hair and glass. It was way more interesting than I had imagined! The whole show took about 45 minutes.
We grabbed lunch at the Soup Company which shares the building with the Lava Show folks. We both had the traditional lamb soup. It’s unlimited servings but we could barely finish one bowl each :)
The rain and wind seemed to have dissipated, so we went to check out the basalt columns on Reynisfjara beach. Paid for parking using the Parka app (much easier and faster than the booths), and walked 100m down the black sand to Hálsanefshellir Cave, which houses the basalt columns. The beach has rogue waves so we had timed this for low tide (I had looked up the tide tables earlier this morning). The basalt columns were cool to see, and the rain and wind wasn’t too bad.
So overall it was a pretty good day for a rain day. If it was nice weather I’d suggest seeing the natural wonders in Iceland rather than a lava show, but it was cool that it was an option for today.
Unfortunately both the Skaftfellingur Museum and Hafnleysa Maritime museum were closed on Mondays & Tuesdays :( We had some time to kill before our 1pm booking at the Lava Show, so drove over to see the Dyrhólaey Lighthouse, about 20 minutes west of Vik.
The Dyrhólaey Lighthouse sits atop a cliff overlooking the ocean. Google maps said the road was closed, but the gates were open so we drove up. It was extremely windy at the top, so much so that we were afraid of getting thrown off the cliff. Visibility was really poor too, so we just decided to stay in the car and drive back to Vik.
The Lava Show seemed like it might be cheesy, but it was one of the few indoor things open today. We booked the tickets for the 1pm show online after breakfast. We arrived a bit early at 12:30pm, so browsed the gift shop. I ended up buying a small piece of obsidian-like lava glass for our souvenir shelf. The show seats about 50 and is general admission, so we chatted up the staff about the best seats.
The show was sold out, with an Icelandic school group taking up about 40 seats. It started promptly at 1pm with an intro spiel about the volcano and the safety awareness of all residents. Katla, which overlooks Vik, is overdue for an eruption, so every household has an emergency bag packed. Each home also has a large poster-sized sign they leave in their window after vacating, so emergency personnel know not to bother searching the house. Everyone then heads to the church on the hill, the nearest high point, to escape from the main danger of flooding.
Anyways back to the lava. After a short educational and historical video, the main event: molten lava is poured down a ramp. We could feel the heat from our seats.
The host then described and showed how the lava solidifies into different forms, including silica hair and glass. It was way more interesting than I had imagined! The whole show took about 45 minutes.
We grabbed lunch at the Soup Company which shares the building with the Lava Show folks. We both had the traditional lamb soup. It’s unlimited servings but we could barely finish one bowl each :)
The rain and wind seemed to have dissipated, so we went to check out the basalt columns on Reynisfjara beach. Paid for parking using the Parka app (much easier and faster than the booths), and walked 100m down the black sand to Hálsanefshellir Cave, which houses the basalt columns. The beach has rogue waves so we had timed this for low tide (I had looked up the tide tables earlier this morning). The basalt columns were cool to see, and the rain and wind wasn’t too bad.
So overall it was a pretty good day for a rain day. If it was nice weather I’d suggest seeing the natural wonders in Iceland rather than a lava show, but it was cool that it was an option for today.
Monday, February 17, 2025
Vik, Iceland
We checked our email first thing when we woke up to see if our Katla Ice Cave excursion was canceled. It was miserable outside, with wind gusts up to 95 km/h, rain, and a wind chill of -18C. Luckily it was still on!
We had a nice breakfast and then tried to figure out appropriate clothing layers for the excursion. The departure point was at Black Crust Pizzeria, 500m down the street. We probably could have walked if it wasn’t so windy. We barely made it from the hotel to the car without being bowled over by the gusts.
We booked through Katlatrack cause of their safety focus and small groups. There were only eight of us in the group, and we left right on time at 11am. (I think we were the last to arrive out of our group at 10:40am!)
We all got in a Super Jeep. It reminded me of a monster truck demolition derby vehicle, with its oversized tires. Our guide had a Nordic sense of humour, and seemed to really like his job. He also was into his tunes, and cranked Icelandic bands most of the trip.
We headed east on Hwy 1 for about ten minutes, and then cutoff to an F-road. In Iceland, this denotes a mountain road, the F is for fjall which is Icelandic for mountain. The F-road was closed due to the weather conditions, except for Super Jeeps. Our guide stopped briefly to deflate the tires for broader contact with the volcanic sand.
After a few minutes we off-roaded, although I couldn’t tell the difference as the road wasn’t all that great.
The scenery (at least what we could see of it in the poor visibility) was not anything I’ve seen before - a combination of snow and black sand, with volcanic peaks and hardened lava flows. Apart from monitoring the weather, our guide also had alerts for earthquakes and volcanoes. Katla is active every few years. The danger is not just from an eruption, but also the lava melting glacial dams and flooding the surrounding area.
We drove on towards the Kötlujökull glacier. Our guide pointed out where various film shoots occurred, including Star Wars (Episode I), Game of Thrones, and Interstellar.
We reached the glacier and parked on a raised area (in case of flash floods). Luckily at the glacier it wasn’t raining, and was somewhat sheltered from the wind. Our guide handed out helmets and crampons. We geared up and were on our way!
It took about 20 minutes to walk to the cave entrance. The coolest part was the view - it was all monochrome, with the grey cloudy sky, and mix of snow and black sand peaks.
The ice caves are natural and constantly changing. For our visit, the cave was only about 20m deep, which is about normal. Creative pics make it look much more spectacular.
We retraced our path back to the car. Took some more pics before our hands froze completely, and then boarded the Super Jeep for the drive back to Vik.
The excursion normally includes a visit to the black sand beach of Reynisfjara and its basalt columns. However the wind and waves made it too dangerous.
We got back to Black Crust Pizzeria around 2pm. It was a worthwhile excursion, just for the views of the interior landscape!
Heather and I split a pizza for lunch which was mmm good, although any pizza fresh out of the oven tastes good. They didn’t do coffee, so went to Lava Bakery for an espresso.
That was it for the day. It was quite a successful touristing day, considering the weather conditions.
We had a nice breakfast and then tried to figure out appropriate clothing layers for the excursion. The departure point was at Black Crust Pizzeria, 500m down the street. We probably could have walked if it wasn’t so windy. We barely made it from the hotel to the car without being bowled over by the gusts.
We booked through Katlatrack cause of their safety focus and small groups. There were only eight of us in the group, and we left right on time at 11am. (I think we were the last to arrive out of our group at 10:40am!)
We all got in a Super Jeep. It reminded me of a monster truck demolition derby vehicle, with its oversized tires. Our guide had a Nordic sense of humour, and seemed to really like his job. He also was into his tunes, and cranked Icelandic bands most of the trip.
We headed east on Hwy 1 for about ten minutes, and then cutoff to an F-road. In Iceland, this denotes a mountain road, the F is for fjall which is Icelandic for mountain. The F-road was closed due to the weather conditions, except for Super Jeeps. Our guide stopped briefly to deflate the tires for broader contact with the volcanic sand.
After a few minutes we off-roaded, although I couldn’t tell the difference as the road wasn’t all that great.
The scenery (at least what we could see of it in the poor visibility) was not anything I’ve seen before - a combination of snow and black sand, with volcanic peaks and hardened lava flows. Apart from monitoring the weather, our guide also had alerts for earthquakes and volcanoes. Katla is active every few years. The danger is not just from an eruption, but also the lava melting glacial dams and flooding the surrounding area.
We drove on towards the Kötlujökull glacier. Our guide pointed out where various film shoots occurred, including Star Wars (Episode I), Game of Thrones, and Interstellar.
We reached the glacier and parked on a raised area (in case of flash floods). Luckily at the glacier it wasn’t raining, and was somewhat sheltered from the wind. Our guide handed out helmets and crampons. We geared up and were on our way!
It took about 20 minutes to walk to the cave entrance. The coolest part was the view - it was all monochrome, with the grey cloudy sky, and mix of snow and black sand peaks.
The ice caves are natural and constantly changing. For our visit, the cave was only about 20m deep, which is about normal. Creative pics make it look much more spectacular.
We retraced our path back to the car. Took some more pics before our hands froze completely, and then boarded the Super Jeep for the drive back to Vik.
The excursion normally includes a visit to the black sand beach of Reynisfjara and its basalt columns. However the wind and waves made it too dangerous.
We got back to Black Crust Pizzeria around 2pm. It was a worthwhile excursion, just for the views of the interior landscape!
Heather and I split a pizza for lunch which was mmm good, although any pizza fresh out of the oven tastes good. They didn’t do coffee, so went to Lava Bakery for an espresso.
That was it for the day. It was quite a successful touristing day, considering the weather conditions.
Sunday, February 16, 2025
Vik, Iceland
We had a slow start to the day, still a bit jet lagged. Had a filling breakfast at the hotel, and then packed up. The 2nd day of a vacation always takes us the longest to pack up cause we’re switching from airplane mode to travel mode. Plus we were also switching from urban to hiking stuff.
We also had to sort out car stuff, and finally got on the road around 11am for the two hour drive along Hwy 1 to Seljalandsfoss. We had a pit stop in Hvolsvöllur, which looked to be a common thing based on all the tour buses. Sort of like the 1st gas station on the 401 heading out of Toronto.
Seljalandsfoss, and the nearby Gljúfrabúi, are visible from the road about 5-10 minutes before the cut-off. The parking lot was about 80% full, it would be a disaster in the busy summer season. Paid for parking at the machines (I had downloaded the Parka app but hadn’t set it up yet).
It was another beautiful day, about 6C. Seljalandsfoss is just off the parking lot. It’s possible to walk behind the falls, but we just stayed dry and took our pics from the front. From there it’s about 10 minutes along the trail to Gljúfrabúi. These falls are somewhat hidden from the path, and it’s possible to get very close and wet. We chose wisely and stayed dry.
I had planned for lunch at the famous Mia’s Country Van, a fish&chips food truck. It was another 30 minutes down Hwy 1. It was almost 2pm so instead we just had a sandwich and split a soup from the little takeaway booth at the entrance to Seljalandsfoss. It was quite tasty. Checked out the small but excellent gift shop, and got a couple more items for the souvenir shelf (a lava bracelet, and felted soap).
We got back on Hwy 1 and continued towards Skógafoss, one of the more famous waterfalls in Iceland. The road conditions were getting worse with the strong winds picking up. There was almost a 20C difference (!) between the actual temp (5C) and the feels-like (-13C).
Stopped for some pics of red barns against cliffs and smaller waterfalls, careful to make sure the wind didn’t catch the car door and damage it. There’s actually warnings on the car doors about the wind, which neither of us had seen before Iceland.
We got to Skógafoss around 3pm. There’s a staircase to the top of the 60m, we could see two bus groups making their way down, looking much like the pics of the queues at the top of Mt Everest.
First we took our pics from the bottom. In warmer weather folks will wade in for the classic Instagram pic; only one person braved the cold water today.
It was pretty cold in the wind as we started our climb up to the top. There’s a handle rail on one side most of the way up. Without the railing, we might have been blown off the stairs.
We made it to the top, took some quick pics before my hands completely froze, and then carried back down. It was worthwhile to climb up for the view, which apparently gets better and better if you continue inland at the top.
Got back to our Dacia Duster, warmed up, and decided to skip the last item on the agenda, the Solheimasandur plane wreck. It’s a 45 minute walk each way along a beach to get to the DC3 which crashed on the beach in 1973 and is now a cool photo op. From the road, we could see waves crashing on the beach and spitting mist, it did not look pleasant at all.
So we called it a day and headed for the hotel. The wind picked up and was pushing our car all over the road. Two-handed driving as Heather called it.
We had to walk at a 45° angle from the parking lot to the entrance of Hotel Kría, the wind was that strong. We almost took flight with the smaller suitcases like a Mary Poppins umbrella.
Checked in, relaxed, and had dinner later on. It’s a nice hotel to be storm-stayed if the weather gets worse. We’re here for three nights, with an excursion planned tomorrow to the Katla Ice Caves, and then a day trip to more waterfalls on Tuesday. We’ll see what the weather brings!
We also had to sort out car stuff, and finally got on the road around 11am for the two hour drive along Hwy 1 to Seljalandsfoss. We had a pit stop in Hvolsvöllur, which looked to be a common thing based on all the tour buses. Sort of like the 1st gas station on the 401 heading out of Toronto.
Seljalandsfoss, and the nearby Gljúfrabúi, are visible from the road about 5-10 minutes before the cut-off. The parking lot was about 80% full, it would be a disaster in the busy summer season. Paid for parking at the machines (I had downloaded the Parka app but hadn’t set it up yet).
It was another beautiful day, about 6C. Seljalandsfoss is just off the parking lot. It’s possible to walk behind the falls, but we just stayed dry and took our pics from the front. From there it’s about 10 minutes along the trail to Gljúfrabúi. These falls are somewhat hidden from the path, and it’s possible to get very close and wet. We chose wisely and stayed dry.
I had planned for lunch at the famous Mia’s Country Van, a fish&chips food truck. It was another 30 minutes down Hwy 1. It was almost 2pm so instead we just had a sandwich and split a soup from the little takeaway booth at the entrance to Seljalandsfoss. It was quite tasty. Checked out the small but excellent gift shop, and got a couple more items for the souvenir shelf (a lava bracelet, and felted soap).
We got back on Hwy 1 and continued towards Skógafoss, one of the more famous waterfalls in Iceland. The road conditions were getting worse with the strong winds picking up. There was almost a 20C difference (!) between the actual temp (5C) and the feels-like (-13C).
Stopped for some pics of red barns against cliffs and smaller waterfalls, careful to make sure the wind didn’t catch the car door and damage it. There’s actually warnings on the car doors about the wind, which neither of us had seen before Iceland.
We got to Skógafoss around 3pm. There’s a staircase to the top of the 60m, we could see two bus groups making their way down, looking much like the pics of the queues at the top of Mt Everest.
First we took our pics from the bottom. In warmer weather folks will wade in for the classic Instagram pic; only one person braved the cold water today.
It was pretty cold in the wind as we started our climb up to the top. There’s a handle rail on one side most of the way up. Without the railing, we might have been blown off the stairs.
We made it to the top, took some quick pics before my hands completely froze, and then carried back down. It was worthwhile to climb up for the view, which apparently gets better and better if you continue inland at the top.
Got back to our Dacia Duster, warmed up, and decided to skip the last item on the agenda, the Solheimasandur plane wreck. It’s a 45 minute walk each way along a beach to get to the DC3 which crashed on the beach in 1973 and is now a cool photo op. From the road, we could see waves crashing on the beach and spitting mist, it did not look pleasant at all.
So we called it a day and headed for the hotel. The wind picked up and was pushing our car all over the road. Two-handed driving as Heather called it.
We had to walk at a 45° angle from the parking lot to the entrance of Hotel Kría, the wind was that strong. We almost took flight with the smaller suitcases like a Mary Poppins umbrella.
Checked in, relaxed, and had dinner later on. It’s a nice hotel to be storm-stayed if the weather gets worse. We’re here for three nights, with an excursion planned tomorrow to the Katla Ice Caves, and then a day trip to more waterfalls on Tuesday. We’ll see what the weather brings!
Saturday, February 15, 2025
Reykjavík, Iceland
Iceland in February to see the Northern Lights seemed like a good idea in October when we booked this trip, though we were questioning our decision after a particularly cold January in Toronto.
Packing winter stuff takes up way more space than summer gear. We made our way to Pearson on Friday evening, both of us with two pieces of luggage in tow (a suitcase and carry-on). We took less luggage for three weeks in Namibia!
Our Icelandair flight departed 30 minutes early, cause all the passengers were there. We didn’t sleep much on the five hour flight :( We were lucky to get out at all, in between two major snowstorms on Thursday and Saturday in Toronto.
We arrived at Keflavik International Airport (KEF) around 6am. It’s a much larger airport than I expected. I googled, it handles about 10 million passengers a year! That’s impressive for a country of 400,000. (For comparison, Pearson handles 50 million.)
There was a bit of a line up at immigration which moved quickly. The agent just asked how long we were staying and if we had booked accommodation. We got the standard Schengen stamp and were through.
Our luggage was already touring around the carousel. We picked up our Dacia Duster from Europcar and were on our way by 7:15am, a very impressive 75 minutes after touching down at KEF!
It was still dark as we drove to our hotel in Reykjavik. It’s been a while since I’ve driven a standard, most rental car companies don’t have them anymore.
We checked in at Hotel Skuggi. They have an early check-in plus breakfast for 55 EUR, which worked well for us. Cleaned up, had breakfast and then took a two hour nap.
We woke up at 11:30am feeling much better. It was a beautiful day - sunny and about 3C. I had sketched out a few things to see today, all within walking distance of each other.
We started at the Sun Voyager sculpture, and then continued along the waterfront to the Harpa Concert Hall. This is an impressive building which has multiple floors open to the public (just the concert halls themselves are for ticket holders only). The Iceland Symphony Orchestra youth had a free concert in the foyer for young listeners, which filled the floors with music. It was quite nice.
We walked further past the shipyards on our way to lunch. There were a few art installations along the way which we stopped to look at. (There’s a lot of art sprinkled throughout the city).
We had lunch at Kaffivagninn, a classic old diner. The food was excellent and the atmosphere great. There were more regulars than tourists which was nice. We tried the local Egils Gull 0% beer which was pretty good. The homemade desserts looked tasty but we were too full from our mains.
Next stop was National Gallery of Iceland (Listasafn Íslands). (‘Íslands’ is Icelandic for Iceland, and not the English word ‘island’ as I mistakenly thought before I got here). We toured around their curated exhibits. It’s a smaller art museum, with four exhibition halls.
We still had time to get to Hallgrimskirkja Cathedral before it closed at 5pm, so headed back out. The route took us through residential streets and their brightly painted houses.
Hallgrimskirkja Cathedral is a famous landmark in Reykjavík. It’s more impressive from the outside; the inside is nice too, but if you’re there when it’s closed you’re not missing out. It’s possible to take the elevator to the viewing platform in the tower for 14 CAD. It looked touristy and windy & cold, so we didn’t bother.
Got back to our hotel and cleaned up. Heather was stilll full from lunch but I was peckish, so I headed to the nearby Hlemmur Mathöll food hall. I ate at Kröst, which was really good. I tried their IPA, which is brewed by a local craft brewery for the food hall. It was excellent, and reminded me of the great IPAs we had in Estonia.
And that was it for our first day in Iceland! It’s country number 105 for me and 65 for Heather. Tomorrow we head to Vik.
Packing winter stuff takes up way more space than summer gear. We made our way to Pearson on Friday evening, both of us with two pieces of luggage in tow (a suitcase and carry-on). We took less luggage for three weeks in Namibia!
Our Icelandair flight departed 30 minutes early, cause all the passengers were there. We didn’t sleep much on the five hour flight :( We were lucky to get out at all, in between two major snowstorms on Thursday and Saturday in Toronto.
We arrived at Keflavik International Airport (KEF) around 6am. It’s a much larger airport than I expected. I googled, it handles about 10 million passengers a year! That’s impressive for a country of 400,000. (For comparison, Pearson handles 50 million.)
There was a bit of a line up at immigration which moved quickly. The agent just asked how long we were staying and if we had booked accommodation. We got the standard Schengen stamp and were through.
Our luggage was already touring around the carousel. We picked up our Dacia Duster from Europcar and were on our way by 7:15am, a very impressive 75 minutes after touching down at KEF!
It was still dark as we drove to our hotel in Reykjavik. It’s been a while since I’ve driven a standard, most rental car companies don’t have them anymore.
We checked in at Hotel Skuggi. They have an early check-in plus breakfast for 55 EUR, which worked well for us. Cleaned up, had breakfast and then took a two hour nap.
We woke up at 11:30am feeling much better. It was a beautiful day - sunny and about 3C. I had sketched out a few things to see today, all within walking distance of each other.
We started at the Sun Voyager sculpture, and then continued along the waterfront to the Harpa Concert Hall. This is an impressive building which has multiple floors open to the public (just the concert halls themselves are for ticket holders only). The Iceland Symphony Orchestra youth had a free concert in the foyer for young listeners, which filled the floors with music. It was quite nice.
We walked further past the shipyards on our way to lunch. There were a few art installations along the way which we stopped to look at. (There’s a lot of art sprinkled throughout the city).
We had lunch at Kaffivagninn, a classic old diner. The food was excellent and the atmosphere great. There were more regulars than tourists which was nice. We tried the local Egils Gull 0% beer which was pretty good. The homemade desserts looked tasty but we were too full from our mains.
Next stop was National Gallery of Iceland (Listasafn Íslands). (‘Íslands’ is Icelandic for Iceland, and not the English word ‘island’ as I mistakenly thought before I got here). We toured around their curated exhibits. It’s a smaller art museum, with four exhibition halls.
We still had time to get to Hallgrimskirkja Cathedral before it closed at 5pm, so headed back out. The route took us through residential streets and their brightly painted houses.
Hallgrimskirkja Cathedral is a famous landmark in Reykjavík. It’s more impressive from the outside; the inside is nice too, but if you’re there when it’s closed you’re not missing out. It’s possible to take the elevator to the viewing platform in the tower for 14 CAD. It looked touristy and windy & cold, so we didn’t bother.
Got back to our hotel and cleaned up. Heather was stilll full from lunch but I was peckish, so I headed to the nearby Hlemmur Mathöll food hall. I ate at Kröst, which was really good. I tried their IPA, which is brewed by a local craft brewery for the food hall. It was excellent, and reminded me of the great IPAs we had in Estonia.
And that was it for our first day in Iceland! It’s country number 105 for me and 65 for Heather. Tomorrow we head to Vik.
Friday, January 10, 2025
Toronto, Canada
It took us 42 hours door-to-door to get home from Cape Town, one of the longer journeys home we've had after a vacation. We flew CPT-JNB-LHR-YYZ with a bit of a layover in both JNB and LHR.
Overall it was quite a diverse trip, which we enjoy. The landscape changed with every place we stayed. The highlight for me was Sossusvlei, and Deadvlei in particular. It's hard to pick a favourite lodge because they were all really good, however Hoodia and Mowani did stand out. Namibia is one of the most photogenic countries in the world (Myanmar is still tops), everywhere we looked was so scenic. It's so photogenic, some of our pics look like fake AI-generated pics!
One surprise for me was that we never used mosquito repellant at all over the entire trip. Most of the trip was in very dry conditions across the Namib and Kalahari deserts (where the humidity was 15%). I thought we might have sand flies in the desert, but there was nothing. Around Etosha, we had swarms of big moths, but no mosquitoes. We already had our malaria tablets so just took them anyways. I suppose it must be a seasonal thing, because it is a malarial area.
There were some gadgets that we were glad we packed: the Peak Design car phone mount, the Casetify phone wrist strap, and Solbari UPF driving gloves. All worked really well. The wrist straps came in handy bouncing around in open safari vehicles, as we didn't have to worry about dropping our phone.
We didn't have much down time, especially in the first half of the trip. The excursions took up most of the day, and I could barely keep up with editing pics and posting to our travel blog. When we got home, I realized that some of my Namibia pics were out-of-focus -- I've since replaced with pics that are actually in focus :) We really enjoyed Cape Town at the end of the trip, it was sort of a vacation after the safari.
There were a couple bonus sites along our Namibia route that were pretty cool. Seeing the Hoba Meteorite, the largest meteorite in the world, was really impressive. I can't believe it's just sitting there in a field. The Zeila Shipwreck just outside Swakopmund was cool too.
We were pretty impressed with how easy it is to transfer through JNB nowadays. Ten years ago, there were officials looking for bribes at every opportunity, and long line-ups everywhere. This has all been cleaned up. Immigration is now fully automated, and fairly quick. Unlilke Pearson, which remains one of the worst airports we have flown through. It took us over 90 minutes from landing at Pearson to exiting the airport. Pearson is the only airport that relies on staff yelling out directions to herd passengers through immigration and customs, as opposed to just having clear signage like everywhere else in the world.
We drove over 2,600km in Namibia, further than we traveled in the South Island of NZ, most of it over gravel and sand roads. It really felt like an adventure, in particular the rural areas around Damaraland. Gas stations were fairly common throughout our route, we were able to fill up no problems before we dropped below half a tank (Toyota Fortuners get over 700km per tank). Marissa had a SIM card and got a signal about 80% of the time; offline Google Maps worked for me. There was hardly any traffc on the roads, we passed just a handful of vehicles each direction most days. This matches up with Namibia being the 2nd lowest country in the world by population density (Mongolia is lowest), and being low season for travel.
We were super lucky with lack of rain (Namibia's rainy season goes from November to March). We only got rained on once, and we were just relaxing in our cabin anyways. It didn't rain at all while I was driving, and it didn't rain during any of our excurions. With climate change, we're finding that rainy season doesn't seem to reflect actual rainfall any more, and really just means less tourists.
Next up, Iceland in February!
Overall it was quite a diverse trip, which we enjoy. The landscape changed with every place we stayed. The highlight for me was Sossusvlei, and Deadvlei in particular. It's hard to pick a favourite lodge because they were all really good, however Hoodia and Mowani did stand out. Namibia is one of the most photogenic countries in the world (Myanmar is still tops), everywhere we looked was so scenic. It's so photogenic, some of our pics look like fake AI-generated pics!
One surprise for me was that we never used mosquito repellant at all over the entire trip. Most of the trip was in very dry conditions across the Namib and Kalahari deserts (where the humidity was 15%). I thought we might have sand flies in the desert, but there was nothing. Around Etosha, we had swarms of big moths, but no mosquitoes. We already had our malaria tablets so just took them anyways. I suppose it must be a seasonal thing, because it is a malarial area.
There were some gadgets that we were glad we packed: the Peak Design car phone mount, the Casetify phone wrist strap, and Solbari UPF driving gloves. All worked really well. The wrist straps came in handy bouncing around in open safari vehicles, as we didn't have to worry about dropping our phone.
We didn't have much down time, especially in the first half of the trip. The excursions took up most of the day, and I could barely keep up with editing pics and posting to our travel blog. When we got home, I realized that some of my Namibia pics were out-of-focus -- I've since replaced with pics that are actually in focus :) We really enjoyed Cape Town at the end of the trip, it was sort of a vacation after the safari.
There were a couple bonus sites along our Namibia route that were pretty cool. Seeing the Hoba Meteorite, the largest meteorite in the world, was really impressive. I can't believe it's just sitting there in a field. The Zeila Shipwreck just outside Swakopmund was cool too.
We were pretty impressed with how easy it is to transfer through JNB nowadays. Ten years ago, there were officials looking for bribes at every opportunity, and long line-ups everywhere. This has all been cleaned up. Immigration is now fully automated, and fairly quick. Unlilke Pearson, which remains one of the worst airports we have flown through. It took us over 90 minutes from landing at Pearson to exiting the airport. Pearson is the only airport that relies on staff yelling out directions to herd passengers through immigration and customs, as opposed to just having clear signage like everywhere else in the world.
We drove over 2,600km in Namibia, further than we traveled in the South Island of NZ, most of it over gravel and sand roads. It really felt like an adventure, in particular the rural areas around Damaraland. Gas stations were fairly common throughout our route, we were able to fill up no problems before we dropped below half a tank (Toyota Fortuners get over 700km per tank). Marissa had a SIM card and got a signal about 80% of the time; offline Google Maps worked for me. There was hardly any traffc on the roads, we passed just a handful of vehicles each direction most days. This matches up with Namibia being the 2nd lowest country in the world by population density (Mongolia is lowest), and being low season for travel.
We were super lucky with lack of rain (Namibia's rainy season goes from November to March). We only got rained on once, and we were just relaxing in our cabin anyways. It didn't rain at all while I was driving, and it didn't rain during any of our excurions. With climate change, we're finding that rainy season doesn't seem to reflect actual rainfall any more, and really just means less tourists.
Next up, Iceland in February!
Friday, January 03, 2025
Cape Town, South Africa
Heather and I wrapped up our vacation with a visit to Zeitz MOCAA (Museum of Contemporary Art Africa). Marissa joined a separate excursion to Robben’s Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned.
The Zeitz MOCAA is built out of former grain silos on the waterfront. It took a couple years to carve away the thick concrete to create the interior space. It’s a stunning building inside.
There’s exhibits across three floors, all curated from their extensive collection of African art. We thought it was really well done.
Walked around the V&A waterfront after. It’s a nice waterfront, with lots of restaurants and boutique shops, filled with tourists. We browsed a bit and then headed over to the Loop St area that we walked through on Jan 1. Things were back to normal hours today. In fact it was a weekday, and so there were office workers in the CBD!
We had lunch at a random sushi place that rated highly on Google, it wasn’t too bad. Then browsed through some of the art galleries, we really liked the art at Eclectica Contemporary.
We got back to the hotel around 4pm, exactly when Marissa returned from her excursion. Relaxed, had some excellent chocolate cake (the hotel has freshly baked goodies every day at 4pm), and then started packing up for our return home.
We had dinner at Miller’s Thumb, an happening seafood place on Kloof Nek Rd. Chatted about the trip highlights (there were many), and got home early-ish (9pm) cause we had an early start tomorrow. Cape Town was a nice little vacation after the safari.
The Zeitz MOCAA is built out of former grain silos on the waterfront. It took a couple years to carve away the thick concrete to create the interior space. It’s a stunning building inside.
There’s exhibits across three floors, all curated from their extensive collection of African art. We thought it was really well done.
Walked around the V&A waterfront after. It’s a nice waterfront, with lots of restaurants and boutique shops, filled with tourists. We browsed a bit and then headed over to the Loop St area that we walked through on Jan 1. Things were back to normal hours today. In fact it was a weekday, and so there were office workers in the CBD!
We had lunch at a random sushi place that rated highly on Google, it wasn’t too bad. Then browsed through some of the art galleries, we really liked the art at Eclectica Contemporary.
We got back to the hotel around 4pm, exactly when Marissa returned from her excursion. Relaxed, had some excellent chocolate cake (the hotel has freshly baked goodies every day at 4pm), and then started packing up for our return home.
We had dinner at Miller’s Thumb, an happening seafood place on Kloof Nek Rd. Chatted about the trip highlights (there were many), and got home early-ish (9pm) cause we had an early start tomorrow. Cape Town was a nice little vacation after the safari.
Thursday, January 02, 2025
Cape Town, South Africa
We arranged through the hotel for a car and driver to take us around the highlights of the Cape Peninsula. It was about the same cost as the three of us booking an excursion with a tour company, but this way we’d have full flexibility.
Our driver, Roger, suggested an early start at 8:15 to beat the crowds. It’s about an hour drive to the park gates, where we paid our entrance fees and continued on towards Cape Point.
Everyone stops at Cape Point to walk up to the lighthouse (there’s also a funicular but it was out of service today). Due to early hour, we had it mostly to ourselves. There’s nice views of the ocean and Cape of Good Hope. We could also see the boardwalk from Cape Point to Cape of Good Hope, which was our next activity.
It takes about 45 minutes to walk one way. Roger drove to the other side to pick us up. We saw some elands along the way. The boardwalk is in rough shape - some boards were broken in half, and most felt like a heavy step could snap them. But we survived.
We had lunch reservations at Two Oceans, which overlooks False Bay. Supposedly it’s where you can see the Atlantic Ocean and Southern Ocean meet, but in reality it’s just all blue water. (We had the same experience in Dominica trying to see where the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic meet). The lunch was pretty good, given that you’re really here for the views.
Next on the itinerary was Boulders Beach, home of a colony of African penguins. Unfortunately access was blocked because of overcrowding (too many tourists today!), so we had to skip it.
We cut across the peninsula back to the west side to drive along Chapman’ s Peak, a spectacular drive.
Roger then tried to find something else to fill the time (as we’d missed the penguins). We stopped for a coffee, and then drove through the popular beach communities around Camps Bay and Clifton. It was jam-packed today, and we crawled in traffic for about 90 minutes. I would have preferred to have skipped all of it and just got home early but oh well.
We pushed out our dinner reservations to 8pm cause we were still full from lunch . We ate at Manna Epicure, a French restaurant with snobby waitstaff and good food. Walked back home along the hip and busy Kloof St.
Our driver, Roger, suggested an early start at 8:15 to beat the crowds. It’s about an hour drive to the park gates, where we paid our entrance fees and continued on towards Cape Point.
Everyone stops at Cape Point to walk up to the lighthouse (there’s also a funicular but it was out of service today). Due to early hour, we had it mostly to ourselves. There’s nice views of the ocean and Cape of Good Hope. We could also see the boardwalk from Cape Point to Cape of Good Hope, which was our next activity.
It takes about 45 minutes to walk one way. Roger drove to the other side to pick us up. We saw some elands along the way. The boardwalk is in rough shape - some boards were broken in half, and most felt like a heavy step could snap them. But we survived.
We had lunch reservations at Two Oceans, which overlooks False Bay. Supposedly it’s where you can see the Atlantic Ocean and Southern Ocean meet, but in reality it’s just all blue water. (We had the same experience in Dominica trying to see where the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic meet). The lunch was pretty good, given that you’re really here for the views.
Next on the itinerary was Boulders Beach, home of a colony of African penguins. Unfortunately access was blocked because of overcrowding (too many tourists today!), so we had to skip it.
We cut across the peninsula back to the west side to drive along Chapman’ s Peak, a spectacular drive.
Roger then tried to find something else to fill the time (as we’d missed the penguins). We stopped for a coffee, and then drove through the popular beach communities around Camps Bay and Clifton. It was jam-packed today, and we crawled in traffic for about 90 minutes. I would have preferred to have skipped all of it and just got home early but oh well.
We pushed out our dinner reservations to 8pm cause we were still full from lunch . We ate at Manna Epicure, a French restaurant with snobby waitstaff and good food. Walked back home along the hip and busy Kloof St.
Wednesday, January 01, 2025
Cape Town, South Africa
Happy New Year! As is our tradition, we booked something for Jan 1 morning that is otherwise very busy. This year it was the cableway up to the top of Table Mountain.
It took a while to get an Uber from the hotel, I guess most drivers were working late last night. We had pre-booked FastTrack tickets for the 10am-10:30 window. We managed to get on the next cable car after arriving (capacity is about 65 people). According to the internet, usually there’s a 2-3 car backlog, about 30 minutes, even for the FastTrack. Our Jan 1 morning strategy paid off again!
We had perfect weather: low wind, about 22C, and not a cloud in the sky. We did a little circuit around the top, about half on the boardwalk and half on the rocky path. There’s pretty orange flowers growing alongside the path, which Marissa initially mistook for flags marking the trail, lol.
We spent about 90 minutes at the top, including lots of stops for pictures, and stopping in at the gift shop.
We caught the next car going down as well. It’s a four minute ride, and the car spins about a one full revolution along the way, so everyone gets a view out the front.
We took another Uber to Bo-Kaap, near the waterfront. (All the Uber rides here are about 8 CAD, it’s a compact city). Bo-Kaap is known for its brightly painted houses & cobblestone streets. It’s a multicultural neighbourhood, about half Muslim. It’s very picturesque.
Had a tasty döner at one of the few places open (Jan 1 is a public holiday). Dropped into an art gallery for photo inspiration, walked around and took more pics.
We then made our way to the boutique shops and cafes along Bree St / Loop St / Long St. Unfortunately almost everything was closed here too. Jan 1 is a tricky day on vacations, but at least we saw Table Mountain and the street scenes in Bo-Kaap.
We walked the rest of the way back to the hotel, about 30 minutes. It’s way more pedestrian-friendly in Cape Town vs Johannesburg, and as safe as any big city in the central areas of town.
We relaxed back at the hotel, still full from our döners at lunch. We had dinner reservations at Carne on Kloof at 7pm, which was okay. I think most restaurants had trouble staffing Jan 1.
It took a while to get an Uber from the hotel, I guess most drivers were working late last night. We had pre-booked FastTrack tickets for the 10am-10:30 window. We managed to get on the next cable car after arriving (capacity is about 65 people). According to the internet, usually there’s a 2-3 car backlog, about 30 minutes, even for the FastTrack. Our Jan 1 morning strategy paid off again!
We had perfect weather: low wind, about 22C, and not a cloud in the sky. We did a little circuit around the top, about half on the boardwalk and half on the rocky path. There’s pretty orange flowers growing alongside the path, which Marissa initially mistook for flags marking the trail, lol.
We spent about 90 minutes at the top, including lots of stops for pictures, and stopping in at the gift shop.
We caught the next car going down as well. It’s a four minute ride, and the car spins about a one full revolution along the way, so everyone gets a view out the front.
We took another Uber to Bo-Kaap, near the waterfront. (All the Uber rides here are about 8 CAD, it’s a compact city). Bo-Kaap is known for its brightly painted houses & cobblestone streets. It’s a multicultural neighbourhood, about half Muslim. It’s very picturesque.
Had a tasty döner at one of the few places open (Jan 1 is a public holiday). Dropped into an art gallery for photo inspiration, walked around and took more pics.
We then made our way to the boutique shops and cafes along Bree St / Loop St / Long St. Unfortunately almost everything was closed here too. Jan 1 is a tricky day on vacations, but at least we saw Table Mountain and the street scenes in Bo-Kaap.
We walked the rest of the way back to the hotel, about 30 minutes. It’s way more pedestrian-friendly in Cape Town vs Johannesburg, and as safe as any big city in the central areas of town.
We relaxed back at the hotel, still full from our döners at lunch. We had dinner reservations at Carne on Kloof at 7pm, which was okay. I think most restaurants had trouble staffing Jan 1.
Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Cape Town, South Africa
We drove from Windhoek to the airport at dawn. The car rental return with Europcar was quick and easy. We drove 2,637km over the past two weeks, averaging about 300km per driving day. That’s more than I imagined, and further than we drove on the South Island in NZ. Most of it was over gravel roads too. Our Toyota Fortuner held up pretty well over all the bumps, and I was was suitably impressed with our Peak Design car mount.
Check-in with Airlink was also quick and easy. We had some time to kill cause everything had been so quick, so grabbed a cappuccino and croissant before dumping our water and going through security and immigration.
Windhoek’s international airport is pretty small - there were only eight gates, and about ten departures today. Checked out the souvenir shops and used up our remaining Namibian dollars.
The flight to Cape Town took under two hours. Airlink served a decent meal again - they’re a really good regional airline. Not sure what I will do with my Skybucks frequent flyer points though.
The immigration line up at Cape Town was huge - it looked like all the big jets from Europe arrived just before us. We took bets, Heather won with a guess of 1h15 that was almost bang-on. (I had guessed 2h, and Marissa 1h30). The immigration officer was very friendly once we actually got to the front of the line, maybe cause we’re commonwealth.
As expected, our luggage was waiting for us (I had checked the AirTags so we knew it had made it here). Customs waved us through and then we searched for our driver. The poor guy had been waiting the whole time, holding up the sign with our names for the past 90 minutes as passengers slowly streamed out. Marissa quickly got a SIM card, and then we were off.
Got a whirlwind tour of Cape Town on the drive into the hotel. We’re staying at Derwent Boutique Hotel in the Tamboerskloof neighbourhood of Cape Town, walking distance to all the restaurants along Kloof St.
Relaxed the rest of the afternoon, and then met up for the NYE mini-celebration at 5pm for the hotel guests. Chatted with the owners, who are Canadian. At 6pm we left for dinner at the Black Sheep, we had the early seating and had to be done by 8pm. The food and service were excellent, with an amazing view of Table Mountain as a bonus. (All the restaurants we are dining at in Cape Town are recommendations from the hotel owners).
We stayed up until midnight to celebrate the New Year for the first time in years. We had a nice view of the fireworks over the V&A Waterfront from our deck. The air had cooled to about 18C, very comfortable for sleeping.
Check-in with Airlink was also quick and easy. We had some time to kill cause everything had been so quick, so grabbed a cappuccino and croissant before dumping our water and going through security and immigration.
Windhoek’s international airport is pretty small - there were only eight gates, and about ten departures today. Checked out the souvenir shops and used up our remaining Namibian dollars.
The flight to Cape Town took under two hours. Airlink served a decent meal again - they’re a really good regional airline. Not sure what I will do with my Skybucks frequent flyer points though.
The immigration line up at Cape Town was huge - it looked like all the big jets from Europe arrived just before us. We took bets, Heather won with a guess of 1h15 that was almost bang-on. (I had guessed 2h, and Marissa 1h30). The immigration officer was very friendly once we actually got to the front of the line, maybe cause we’re commonwealth.
As expected, our luggage was waiting for us (I had checked the AirTags so we knew it had made it here). Customs waved us through and then we searched for our driver. The poor guy had been waiting the whole time, holding up the sign with our names for the past 90 minutes as passengers slowly streamed out. Marissa quickly got a SIM card, and then we were off.
Got a whirlwind tour of Cape Town on the drive into the hotel. We’re staying at Derwent Boutique Hotel in the Tamboerskloof neighbourhood of Cape Town, walking distance to all the restaurants along Kloof St.
Relaxed the rest of the afternoon, and then met up for the NYE mini-celebration at 5pm for the hotel guests. Chatted with the owners, who are Canadian. At 6pm we left for dinner at the Black Sheep, we had the early seating and had to be done by 8pm. The food and service were excellent, with an amazing view of Table Mountain as a bonus. (All the restaurants we are dining at in Cape Town are recommendations from the hotel owners).
We stayed up until midnight to celebrate the New Year for the first time in years. We had a nice view of the fireworks over the V&A Waterfront from our deck. The air had cooled to about 18C, very comfortable for sleeping.
Monday, December 30, 2024
Windhoek, Namibia
We ended the safari part of our trip today. Marissa got up early for the morning game drive. Heather and I had a leisurely breakfast, watching the wildlife grazing in the savannah.
We were on the road by 10am, on the B1 back to Windhoek. There was nice scenery but boring to drive, just a straight road and no other cars.
Marissa had learned about the different types of fences on one of her educational excursions. At the time she thought it was knowledge she’d never use, but now we found it really interesting because we could identify private reserves vs farms or other land uses. A lot of the land approaching Windhoek was private reserves.
The guidebook said there was a good curio place just outside Otjiwarongo but we didn’t see anything. The A1 started shortly after, a divided highway with two lanes in each direction, speed limit 120km/h and devoid of other vehicles. Seemed like a lot of infrastructure for us.
We reached our hotel, the Olive Grove, around 1pm. Checked in, had some lunch, and then went into town for some souvenir shopping. Unfortunately the main curio shop, Namibia Craft Centre, was closed over the holidays. There were a handful of stalls outside.
Back at the hotel, we reconfigured our packs for airplane mode, had a nice dinner and settled up our hotel so we could just leave in the morning. The weather was really comfortable for dinner, about 24C and low humidity.
We were on the road by 10am, on the B1 back to Windhoek. There was nice scenery but boring to drive, just a straight road and no other cars.
Marissa had learned about the different types of fences on one of her educational excursions. At the time she thought it was knowledge she’d never use, but now we found it really interesting because we could identify private reserves vs farms or other land uses. A lot of the land approaching Windhoek was private reserves.
The guidebook said there was a good curio place just outside Otjiwarongo but we didn’t see anything. The A1 started shortly after, a divided highway with two lanes in each direction, speed limit 120km/h and devoid of other vehicles. Seemed like a lot of infrastructure for us.
We reached our hotel, the Olive Grove, around 1pm. Checked in, had some lunch, and then went into town for some souvenir shopping. Unfortunately the main curio shop, Namibia Craft Centre, was closed over the holidays. There were a handful of stalls outside.
Back at the hotel, we reconfigured our packs for airplane mode, had a nice dinner and settled up our hotel so we could just leave in the morning. The weather was really comfortable for dinner, about 24C and low humidity.
Sunday, December 29, 2024
Okonjima Nature Reserve, Namibia
It was nice and cool for our morning safari, about 18C and overcast. Marissa had joined the excursion to see the cheetah rehabilitation centre; Heather and I went on a nature drive. It was just the two of us plus our guide, Mathew.
Mathew was really knowledgeable about the local wildlife and fauna. We learnt quite a bit, even though we’ve been going on lots of game drives the past week or so. We saw a number of species we hadn’t yet seen on this trip, including dik-diks, duikers, and warthogs. We also saw a family of bat-eared foxes, and a canary, which I’ve not previously seen in the wild.
We returned to the lodge around 9:30am, and had a large breakfast (probably better classified as a brunch given the time and the amount we ate).
The safari schedule here at Okonjima Bush Camp is more what we were accustomed to - breakfast after the morning safari, a long break over the afternoon, and then an evening safari. It’s much more relaxing than the six hour excursions we had earlier on the trip.
The afternoon safari was tracking leopards, which are collared here. We started with spotting a non-collared one, which was a bonus! Our guide then used an antenna to locate two other leopards. Unfortunately they were sleeping in dense underbrush and not photographable. (I took some anyways).
The collared leopards are all named by the researchers. Our guide said that one of the leopard’s name was Luka, and we all wondered the same thing, if it lived on the 2nd floor.
We ended the game drive with a collared leopard who was resting after eating. It wasn’t interested in us and was habitualized to the vehicle, but we still got a little close to it for our comfort and the leopards imo.
Anyways we got back to the lodge a little after 8pm. We were still full from our brunch and then lunch, so it was a small dinner.
Mathew was really knowledgeable about the local wildlife and fauna. We learnt quite a bit, even though we’ve been going on lots of game drives the past week or so. We saw a number of species we hadn’t yet seen on this trip, including dik-diks, duikers, and warthogs. We also saw a family of bat-eared foxes, and a canary, which I’ve not previously seen in the wild.
We returned to the lodge around 9:30am, and had a large breakfast (probably better classified as a brunch given the time and the amount we ate).
The safari schedule here at Okonjima Bush Camp is more what we were accustomed to - breakfast after the morning safari, a long break over the afternoon, and then an evening safari. It’s much more relaxing than the six hour excursions we had earlier on the trip.
The afternoon safari was tracking leopards, which are collared here. We started with spotting a non-collared one, which was a bonus! Our guide then used an antenna to locate two other leopards. Unfortunately they were sleeping in dense underbrush and not photographable. (I took some anyways).
The collared leopards are all named by the researchers. Our guide said that one of the leopard’s name was Luka, and we all wondered the same thing, if it lived on the 2nd floor.
We ended the game drive with a collared leopard who was resting after eating. It wasn’t interested in us and was habitualized to the vehicle, but we still got a little close to it for our comfort and the leopards imo.
Anyways we got back to the lodge a little after 8pm. We were still full from our brunch and then lunch, so it was a small dinner.
Saturday, December 28, 2024
Okonjima Nature Reserve, Namibia
We’ve seen a lot of cool stuff this trip, but today we saw something that was out of this world! We checked out of the Mushara Outpost and headed east on the C38. It’s paved roads the rest of the road trip, yay!
We had a detour past Grootfontein to see the Hoba Meteorite, the largest intact meteorite on earth. It’s estimated at 60 tonnes, and remains where it landed. It skipped into the ground, so there’s no crater. Up until 1987, it just sat in a farmer’s field, when it was donated by the farmer to the state. Combined with Namibia’s independence in 1990, it has become a proper tourist attraction, with security to prevent vandalism and the like. We paid our admission (about 20 CAD), had a short 10 minute guided tour, took our pics and touched the meteorite. It’s probably the only time I’ll touch something not from earth.
We stopped for a break in Otavi. Had some really good chips (french fries), topped up the gas tank, and carried on to Okonjima Bush Camp, our final safari lodge of the trip. The landscape had changed back to dry desert and shrubs. We had just gotten used to the humidity around Etosha!
The chalets at Okonjima Bush Camp are spaced about 100m apart and all have private views of the savannah. There’s no a/c, but unlike the pizza ovens we slept in at Rostock Ritz, these actually worked at cooling down the inside.
We were too late for the afternoon game drive so just relaxed in our chalets. We had dinner after sunset, enjoying the lack of big moths we encountered in the (wet) Etosha area. We had an early start for safari tomorrow morning so went to bed early.
We had a detour past Grootfontein to see the Hoba Meteorite, the largest intact meteorite on earth. It’s estimated at 60 tonnes, and remains where it landed. It skipped into the ground, so there’s no crater. Up until 1987, it just sat in a farmer’s field, when it was donated by the farmer to the state. Combined with Namibia’s independence in 1990, it has become a proper tourist attraction, with security to prevent vandalism and the like. We paid our admission (about 20 CAD), had a short 10 minute guided tour, took our pics and touched the meteorite. It’s probably the only time I’ll touch something not from earth.
We stopped for a break in Otavi. Had some really good chips (french fries), topped up the gas tank, and carried on to Okonjima Bush Camp, our final safari lodge of the trip. The landscape had changed back to dry desert and shrubs. We had just gotten used to the humidity around Etosha!
The chalets at Okonjima Bush Camp are spaced about 100m apart and all have private views of the savannah. There’s no a/c, but unlike the pizza ovens we slept in at Rostock Ritz, these actually worked at cooling down the inside.
We were too late for the afternoon game drive so just relaxed in our chalets. We had dinner after sunset, enjoying the lack of big moths we encountered in the (wet) Etosha area. We had an early start for safari tomorrow morning so went to bed early.
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