On the first day we went straight for Iceland’s standard programme: the Golden Circle. The highlight was to be the Brúarfoss; the pictures of it are coming in the next post. Somewhere between Reykjavík and the Brúarfoss an overcrowded car park appeared on the right – Þingvellir National Park.
Drones over empty land
Crazy how crowded the viewing platform already was at this time of year – I don’t even want to know what it looks like in summer. A few steps further on, though, we could finally unpack our drones and fly them over the deserted landscape. Þingvellir lies around 40 kilometres north-east of Reykjavík in a rift valley between the North American and Eurasian plates. The Icelandic parliament met here from 930 to 1798; the national park has been a World Heritage Site since 2004, and to the south lies Þingvallavatn, Iceland’s largest natural lake.
Snow-covered mountains beyond the water, the ridge dissolving into grey haze.Grey water and low mountains, the fog making the two hard to tell apart.A bird over the still water, shore and sky vanishing in the fog.Harbour cranes and containers in Reykjavík, their outlines almost lost in the fog.A snowy slope under a grey sky, with only a pale flat expanse in front.A long line of people on the horizon – the viewing platform at Þingvellir is busy even in winter.Rock walls of the Almannagjá frame the snowy gap between them.Round hay bales lie in a row on the snow-covered field.A car on the wet, winding road near Þingvellir, with snow along the verges.A wet road with a centre line, snow and bare scrub to the left and right.The dark river draws wide bends through the snow-covered plain.The river makes a large loop in the snow, with pale fields lying beside it.The straight road runs into the snow, dark tracks leading towards the horizon.A yellow bulldozer with a wide blade, and nothing around it but snow.Head-on, a yellow wheel loader, its bucket lying across the snow.An orange excavator with a long arm, standing on the snow.Pointed conifers in front of a snowy slope, the sky above them pale.A turquoise off-road vehicle with snow on the bonnet, in front of a pale house.A dark road in the foreground, and beyond it a plain with scattered patches of snow.
