We awoke to a winter wonderland! the small road we were on was snow packed and everything around us was white except for the fence posts and occasional herds of Icelandic ponies.
Taking it very easy we drove to the Geysir about 20km up the road from our hotel, but had to abort continuing on to Gullfoss. We’ll try and do that on our way back to Reykjavik.
The ponies are adorable; they must be very rugged to be outside in all weather. Evidently they are used for competitive racing.
We made a lunch stop at Fridheimar greenhouse farm. Tomatoes are grown year round in 11,000 square meters of electrically illuminated greenhouses – producing about 700 tons annually. The greenhouses are heated with the geothermal hot water (about 95C/203F) from a borehole just 200 meters from the greenhouses. Iceland has abundant “green electricity” generated by hydro and geo-thermal power plants. No pesticides are used in the greenhouses. The mirid bug is imported from Holland and eats just about all the pests found in Icelandic greenhouses. Bees are also imported from Holland for pollination.
The sun came out lighting up the stark white mountains, and the sky was like an artist’s palette with colors from light turquoise to purple to orange.
