It was still damp and miserable and fly-infested at Laugarvatn when I woke up, still no sign of anyone to pay. I decided it was time to move on, stopping first at the roadhouse to contend with an automatic petrol pump that demands you put your card in upside down and then demands the value of petrol you plan to put in. 1) I have no idea how much petrol costs here 2) I have no idea how much my car plans to drink.

I stopped at Thingvellir at exactly the same time as approximately 16 coaches from a cruise ship and immediately became quite possessive about Thingvellir – how dare all these people crowd it, with no understanding of or interest in the cultural and geological significance of it. It also rained heavily.
I drove on towards Borgarnes, going around the Hvalfjordur instead of through the tunnel under it. This meant my route from Thingvellir was via the lesser used road 47 (I think) – a gravel one. I’m allowed to drive on gravel – I’m allowed to drive at 80kph but if I got up to 40 it felt far too fast. I did meet a nice waterfall called Thoráfoss but the whole road (all 14km of it!) felt isolated and scary. I am not going to the Westfjords where I’ll have to drive over 50km on gravel, not this time. I have a car. I’ll explore the north instead.
I drove around the Hvalfjordur which took a while but was nice ans scenic, drove up the Ring Road to Borgarnes and stopped at the N1 service centre where I discovered there was a cafw which did soup. In Iceland, soup comes with free bread and butter and it seems the bread and butter remain free even if you don’t have the soup.
Fed at last (having skipped breakfast in favour of bundling a wet tent into the car and yelling at the flies while trying to force a brush through my hair) I set the satnav to take me to Fossatún. I’ve been here twice before – I saw the Northern Lights here eighteen months ago and I also had a long lunch stop here last summer. It’s a nice site.

Windy though but that made sure my tent was dry within five minutes of pitching it and then I made straight for the hot tubs. I sat in there for hours, enjoying the hot water and lack of rain and reading my guidebook.
After the hot tub, I put out a groundsheet and had a cheese sandwich sitting out in the wind. It turned out to be a bit cold and windy on the troll trail so I’m back in my tent now.

I’ll be here a while – two nights paid for and I’ll almost definitely add a third before heading for the North coast at the weekend.