Wednesday, May 27 – The heat in England these last few days has been unprecedented. Not only are all time high temperatures being set each day, but the overnight low temperatures have been breaking records as well. And in a country where very few places have AC, that makes for some uncomfortable nights.
We slept on top of the duvet with a fan blowing on us all night and it was still uncomfortable. We got up early and were itching to get outside before things started heating up. Our B&B started serving breakfast at 8:30, so at 7 we went for a stroll.
The River Arun runs through the town and has a dike to help cope with tidal variations. We walked along the dike top listening to birds sing in the reeds and watching waterfoul along the river. We have enjoyed using the Merlin app and identifying new speciies of birds. I’ve added 26 new species to my life list while in England, including eight this morning.
We returned to eat our breakfast and then loaded the car for our ride to the airport. With three hours to burn before we needed to start our drive, we went for another walk while we waited for the village shops to open. This time, we headed around a stream that may have once been part of the castle moat. After about half a mile, we came across a pair of nesting swans with four cygnets, who couldn’t have been more than a day or two old. They had nested right along the footpath and a section had been cordoned off and a volunteer sat nearby in the shade to help protect them. We then entered into a wetland area filled with streams, ponds and one larger lake. We saw three species of mama ducks with ducklings in tow (Mallard, Coot and Mandrin).
We turned around and walked back into town for a little shopping. Arundel is full of antique shops and specialty food stores. We made a few purchases at the latter, and decided that it was time to start enjoying the air conditioning of the car. On to Gatwick.
Our drive was non-eventful. Pam relished the wide, multilane highways after two weeks of narrow country lanes. We boarded our flight in London with the temperature about 92 degrees and three hours later, we arrived in Iceland where the feels-like temperature was 39. Our rental car is a tiny Toyota Yaris and we regretted not having something this small in England. On the wide open highways of Iceland, it feels tiny.
Keflavik Airport sits on a pennisula about 20 miles from Reykjavik. We both prefer the country to city, so we had booked a hotel in a smaller town about 22 miles further down the Golden Circle. The first part of the drive was through barren land, so geolocially new, that about the only vegetation was lichen growning on the rocks. When we passed through Reykjavik, things were much greener with grass along the highway and medium-sized trees. A few miles outside of the capital, things became very surreal. Vents of steam came out of the ground all over the place. Geothermal energy is the main energy source on Iceland and it is easy to see why.
We arrived at our hotel in the small town of Hveragardi – which translates to “Hot Spring Yard.” This town has large scale greenhouses everywhere and we learned that has been the primary industry in town for nearly a century. As we pulled into our hotel parking lot, we parked a few yards away from a large steam vent over which a brick oven had been constructed. The hotel had an on-site restaurant that used the heat of the earth to cook its food.
We arrived just as the restaurant was closing, but they seated us by a riverside table and we enjoyed a delicious dinner of baked chad and beet salad. Our room is very comfortable. There are large robes and sandals to facilitate use of the two hot springs tubs, the swimming pool and the river for those wanting to cool off. While eating our dinner, we watched an older couple take a plunge into the river – which we later tested to find quite cold. Thank goodness for the blackout courtains becase sunset tonight was at 11:13 and sunrise at 3:36. Time for a good nights rest before our day exploring this fascinating country.
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