Freezeguy

This is Robert Mitchell's Iceland! Final update in progress! 

Phone or Whatsapp: +61 419 368 063; email or messenger: rahm@bigpond.com

Back in Oz since 12 July. Yay!

Iceland phone number no longer connected.

So, now that I'm home, I'm trying to finalise this site! Links provided in the menu (top left) and in the text below.

Siena, Dom and I left Sydney mid December 2023 and flew to Dublin for time with my cousins (Dad's side) family.  We left Dublin for Reykjavik, with Covid! on 20 December and the 3 of us stayed in a very central Airbnb until S&D left on 4 Jan. I then moved to a studio on the edge of touristic Reykjavik before taking a winter bus tour around Iceland with a guide and 3 other passengers. After the tour I moved to a 1b/r apartment 15 minutes from downtown. April 1 I moved to Akureyri (Capital of the North) for a month during which Caroline (friend from Sale and London) visited, as did Jim and Helena. Hazel and Karen tried to visit (they spent a week in Reykjavik) but the roads were closed on the relevant days so they never made it! May 1 I picked up a Suzuki Jimny, a baby 4wd and drove around the Island for a month visiting as many of the crinkly bits as I could. Highlights included lava tunnels, ice caves, dogsledding, the Grindavik volcano, Aurora Borealis plus lots of art and street art.

There are lots of lonely and abandoned farms and lighthouses, loads of cutesy churches and a bazillion waterfalls and lakes. Puffins were a highlight, but there are loads of seabirds and birds generally.

I left Iceland on an Aurora Expedition (Sylvia Earle) early June. we sailed through a big storm (50+ knots, gusting 75; 6 to 8 m waves) to Jan Mayen then onto Svalbard through slightly less awesome weather! The Svalbard Fjords were calm! Stayed a night in Longyearbyen, flew to Tromso, Hurtigruten mail boat through the northern Norwegian archipelago to Bergen then a very scenic train trip to Oslo.

I left Oslo after a few days and visited my cousin Jeanette and husband Harry in Edinburgh (we spent some days in the Lake District, a few hours south) then by bus to Nairn in northern Scotland to catch up with Hazel, a friend from my years in London. From there to Switzerland where Karen and Gerard took me on a road trip to Marseille, by way of their chalet in Val d'Illiez, Milan where we caught up with Milano, Lorenzo and Alessandra from IMEDE then onto Milano's beach house at Deiva Marina for a few days. Thence to their Montfort apartment in the Haute Alpes de Province!

Best to contact me by phone, WhatsApp or Messenger, details at the top of this page. That said, comments welcome!

NB you can comment as a guest/visitor, look for a relevant check box! So, no need to sign up to Discus.