We arrived in Reykjavik early in the morning on the Silver Endeavour. After disembarking, we took the $25 taxi ride for 5 minutes to our hotel. We checked in and sent a message to Ian and Carmel. They had been in Reykjavik since yesterday and within 5 minutes were knocking on the door of our room. We spent some time talking at each other about our various adventures, and then left the hotel to hit the town.

One sensitive topic that was raised by poor Ian was that the trip over had given him a touch of constipation and he hadn’t been to the loo for 5 days. That is a long time not to drop the kids off at the pool. Fortunately, we had bought some prunes during our travels and so gifted him the packet.

Our hotel was ideally located on the main shopping street and we wandered around getting a feel for the place before meeting up with our local tour guide, Lalli, who took us for a walking tour around the city. We learned all about the violent history of Iceland, which was discovered by the Vikings. If some other country wasn’t invading and killing them, they were killing each other. Mostly with axes.

An interesting fact, though, is that the Icelandic language is exactly as the Vikings spoke it 1,000 years ago. Norwegian, Swedish and Danish have evolved, but not Icelandic. Another interesting fact is that all Icelandic people are related. They actually have an app that they can use to see how closely they are related to any other Icelander. I guess it helps ensure you don’t marry your cousin and produce a child with two heads. Our tour guide demonstrated this app, showing us how he is a direct relation to the first Vikings in Iceland, as well as English Royalty. Every Icelander is related to the same ancestors.

After the tour we walked to the old harbour, where we enjoyed a ride called Flyover Iceland. They strap you into a seat, raise you up into the air where a giant imax screen surrounds you and then simulate a flight over some of the most spectacular scenery in Iceland. It was a brilliant ride. Before we embarked on it, Ian asked Carmel if she would be ok with it, thinking it might be a bit scary for her. He then spent the whole ride next to me squealing like a toddler.

Poo watch: The next morning, we woke and had breakfast together. Poor Ian had been smashing down prunes like there was no tomorrow, however they had not yet kicked in and the pressure was starting to mount.

Ian and I took a 30 minute walk to the Hertz rental car office to pick up the car we would be driving for the next 7 days. When we arrived there was quite a queue, but we waited patiently for our turn. We stepped up to the counter, and the first thing the attendant asked for was my drivers licence. I plucked it out of my wallet and presented it to him. He looked at it, looked at me and said “this licence has expired.” Now, last year in Greece we had the same issue because the guy there had assumed my expiry date was in mm/dd/yy format. I confidently explained to this attendant that in Australia we use dd/mm/yy format and he replied with “yes, but the expiry year is 2024.” I took my licence back from him to check it and it turns out he was correct. My licence had expired last August. Now I know I had had it renewed so I desperately began searching through my wallet while simultaneously breaking out in a cold sweat. We had accommodation booked all over Iceland for the next 7 days and had to have a car. I then remembered that VicRoads now issue electronic driver’s licences and so I quickly opened the app and showed him the digital version. “We can’t accept that here” he said. “I can’t give you the car”. By this stage I was almost in a blind panic and went back to the fruitless search of my wallet. By some miracle, I removed a credit card to find my current drivers licence tucked neatly behind it. Crisis averted, with the only cost being 10 years of my life.

We quickly jumped into the car and drove back to the hotel to pick up the girls. Our first stop was Oxararfoss falls, a beautiful waterfall in the Thingvellir National Park. We then drove on to a place called the Fridheimar Tomato Farm. This is a massive tomato farm where they have built a restaurant inside the hot houses. We sat at our table amongst the tomato vines and ate the tastiest tomato dishes ever, including tomato soup, salads and ravioli, while huge bumblebees buzzed lazily around our heads. I even drank tomato beer! They had a massive table that was piled high with crusty bread. I must say the Icelanders sure know how to make bread.

After lunch, we drove to our accommodation and checked in. The advantage of staying in the area was that we were able to wait until all of the tour buses had left for the day before venturing out to see the local sights. We started at Stokkur Geyser, which is a geyser of boiling hot water that shoots 20 metres into the air. I stood behind Lidia, Ian and Carmel so that I could take a photograph of them standing in front of the geyser and thereby demonstrate how high it actually shoots. The guys decided to be funny and spin around just as I took the photo. Carmel didn’t quite make it.

The following morning  we gathered early in order to beat the crowd to our next sight, Gulfoss Falls. Poo watch: things are getting desperate. Ian has been finishing all of Lidia’s meals and so the food intake has been substantial. What’s going in has not come out for 7 days now. Something has got to give soon or sharing a car with Ian is going to be a very risky venture.

Gulfoss falls was amazing. We arrived there at 7:30 and there were no people there at all. We had the whole place to ourselves and the waterfall was massive. Several levels belted over the rocks until plummeting into a deep gorge with a thunderous roar.

We then drove back to our accommodation, ate breakfast, checked out and drove on to our next destination. On the way we stopped at a farm where the owners have opened up their personal hot spring to the public. This was a tip from our hotel receptionist. Little known and therefore not inundated with buses and crowds. There were hardly any other people there when we arrived and we spent a good hour soaking in the outdoor, warm natural spring, ringed with basalt columns with the green mountains as a backdrop. Idyllic. The only thing that broke this idyllic feeling was seeing Ian drink the water. We asked him why he was doing this and he replied “to prove I didn’t pee in it”. An Austrian lady in our pool thought this was hilarious.

We drove on to our next accommodation in Hvollsvollur. The journey there was spectacular. The roads in Iceland are very good, and this one wound its way through giant glacial valleys with imposing 70 metre cliffs accompanying us most of the way, waterfalls seemingly dropping from the heavens, cascading down their slopes at regular intervals.

On the way we stopped to gather supplies for lunch, which we ate in the hotel. We wasted no time in getting back out amongst it. We were keen to see Skógafoss Falls, a 62 metre high, 15 metre wide behemoth of a waterfall.

Lunch had tipped Ian way over the edge. His belly was now distended like he had swallowed a volleyball and the natives were restless. He played reveille from his back passage in the rear seat of the car all of the way to the falls and then walked amongst the crowd cropdusting the tik-tokkers, leaving a trail of devastation in his wake. We are beginning to become very concerned. When the captain finally clears the runway for landing, there is going to be a seismic event in Iceland to rival the last volcanic eruption.

Our hotel that night was at the base of the cliffs, with Icelandic horses in front of us and a green carpet of open land spreading out towards the distant sea.

In the morning we again postponed breakfast until we had driven to see another local waterfall, Seljalandsfoss. Don’t ask me to pronounce these words. There are syllables in the Icelandic language that are way beyond the comprehension or capabilities of English speakers. The waters of Seljalandsfoss drop from a precipice 60 metres above and you can walk right behind it.

We returned to the hotel for breakfast and then checked out. After reconvening, a very relieved Ian floated out to the car to inform us that the drought had finally broken.

Our destination today was Glacier Lagoon, and on the way we stopped to see a puffin nesting site. Again, I was lucky enough to get some fantastic puffin shots. For someone who last week thought they would never see a puffin, I now have had more than my fair share of puffin action. I’m a happy camper.