Tuesday Today we left the hotel around 8.30 am and headed by bus to the south coast of Iceland. Iceland has a size of 132000 square km and is 300 km x430 km in size. We had a brief stop at the Queen of the lookouts as the road came off the plateau to the valley below which many many years ago was sea We passed the Seljalandsfoss waterfall but as it was raining we elected to return later in the day when the weather improved . This is referred to a the bridal ...

Sunday Today we travelled east from Reykjavik by bus to the Blue Lagoon geo thermal spa stopping at a freshwater lake on the way where Mark our tour leader flew his drone to take pictures much to the amazement of all of us We then stopped at the hot springs and bubbling mud pools at Krysuvik which smelt strongly of what we call rotten egg gas When we got to the Blue Lagoon we were able to swim in a beautiful warm pool and put white silica mud on our faces. We ...

Thursday 25/6/15 Woke to find that the Vavilov ( everyone called the ship that ) has sailed overnight South from Longyearbyen to An area called Bellsund Our first lecture was at 7 am the dangers of Hypothermia ( getting too cold ) After the lecture and breakfast we went onshore in Zodiacs ( big black rubber dinghys) . We had to dress in red wet skins with long pants up to our armpits, coats and rubber gumboots. The aim was to keep us warm and dry. It was hard...

Wednesday We started off the day with a walk up to the next settlement to check out the handcraft store and art gallery but that was closed till 10 am . Up and back took about 1 hour. There was a glacier behind that settlement. We were warned not to go outside the edge of the settlement as polar bears roam there. ,,,, We then went on a tour outside the settlement visiting No 7 coal mine , the huge satellite dishes at the top of the hill and the worlds only see...

Tuesday A very early start today with a wake up call at 4.30 am. Had to have luggage at reception by 4.45 am then breakfast and onto the bus by 5.30 am for drive to Bergen Airport Checked in and did self baggage drop then to departures for security screening which was very busy. My suitcase weighed 21 kg which seemed odd as I had not done much shopping and my suitcase weighed 17 kg when I checked in at Brisbane ?.... Flight at 7 am. Boarded the plane but then...