We're travelling east. Mountains to the left of us, and mostly flat to the coast on the right. I have become adept at a quick photo from a moving car, but it is a bit tricky when the most scenic spots are on the left. Highway 1, the one and only highway that circles the island, is 2 lanes and quite often built up from the surrounding land. There are few stopping points. Rest areas when they appear are mostly a gravel patch.

Waterfalls abound here, and they are usually spectacular. With the height of the mountains and the abundant runoff from snow and glaciers they carry monumental amounts of water. We see all types, high and narrow, high and wide, stepped etc. And all around these areas is very green.

We see farms set below the mountains. The mountains are so high the buildings look like miniatures. Lots of buildings on farms as well, as many are collective farms.  Often we see sheds built partly into the ground.  

 
 
 We come across one large farm which is situated directly below the Eyjafjallajokull volcano. This is the volcano that made worldwide headlines in 2010 when it erupted and disrupted air traffic and the travel plans of many. Eruptions here are accompanied by glacial flooding and Porvaldseyri Farm was flooded and also covered with 10 cms of ash. Tonnes of ash had to be taken away. I can't imagine living there.

We are surprised just how uninhabited Iceland is away from the capital. The name of a town may have quite large print on a map, so we expect a petrol station, a coffee shop, or at least a public toilet, but mostly no such luck. Usually there are just under a dozen buildings. The sign we see most often is the 'bed' diagram. Every where are people offering rooms for the night, but as there are not many houses, and in summer plenty of tourists, these all come at quite a price. A room with a shared bathroom is mostly over A$150 a night. But the scenery is spectacular - raw and unmatched, so it is totally worth it. 

Farms give way to kilometres of purple flowering lupins. They were introduced to hold the sand together so it does not blow over the roads, and at this time of the year they look gorgeous.

It is chilly as we stop at Vik for lunch. We had planned a picnic but the cold wind drives us into a roadside 'bistro' (plus it had a WC). Here tall cliffs tower over a dark sand beach. We see many more kilometres of this dark sand and gravel as we resume driving. In fact kilometre after kilometre of it as we travel across the Mýrdalssandur floodplain. Here the coastline was extended by 5 km after the last major eruption in of the Katla volcano in 1918. It really is grey gravel as far as the eye can see. 

But there is another change as we climb higher and the gravel gives way to fields of green moss. As far as the eye can see. Nothing done by halves here. We travel a few kilometres off Highway 1 to our guesthouse for the night. Here the moss looks silvery white. Apparently it goes green when it is wet.

Certainly it was a day of variety and contrasts. Impossible not to love.