Finally time for a bit of R&R and lounging around the pool or more to the point, in the pool. We are on holiday after all so back on a bus to the Blue Lagoon

Air temperature 11c, main pool temperature 38c and the little hot tubs a scorching 40c

Not sure I would want to use this in the depths of the Icelandic winter when air temperature is below zero, you would freeze to the decking. They are a hardy lot these Icelanders.

It's a surreal place. Set miles from anywhere in a black lava field that is just a mere 800 years old. The lagoon is geo-thermally heated and is open all year and virtually 24 hours a day too. The water is a sapphire blue milky colour due to the minerals and silica deposits. Because of the mineral content of the water, no bacteria can grow and so they don't need any chemicals. No chlorine smell or green hair here.

Staff float by with buckets of what looks like yoghurt which is in fact silica mud. If you stand still long enough they just slather it on you. I have to admit my skin is baby bum soft tonight but my hair is like a brillo pad though.

An in-pool bar serves beer and wine, can you imagine the local lido doing the same? Showers dispense copious amounts of free shampoo and conditioner. You get a large fluffy towel on entry too. It's all so civilised.

I didn't want to leave so I now have very pruned fingers

Tomorrow we are off to see whales but going by some of the very large Russian women we have seen floating by today I think mother nature is going to have to pull the stops out to match them!