Well, it is SUPPOSED to be a nice day today with a prediction of rain later in the afternoon. So we decided to go on the longer drive which will take us to some less popular tourist sites, but still recommended, which will be past the “Golden Circle” area on the road to Vik. We will be doing the Golden Circle route tomorrow. Almost all roads in Iceland lead to Reykjavik – so after filling up the tank at 3.20 CDN a litre, we were off towards Reykjavik and then down to the south coast to do some sightseeing.
Our first stop, after a 2 hour drive, was the Seljalandsfoss Waterfall which was beautiful, and we actually could see it from the highway. We stopped and got out and walked towards it where a lot of other people were standing and admiring it too! It is 60 metres tall and one of the “features” of this waterfall is that one (if able) can walk on a narrow path behind it and take pictures looking out through the falling cascading water. There are also two smaller waterfalls to the north of the main waterfall.
After this wonderful experience, we then continued down the highway for about 20 minutes to the Skogafoss Waterfall which is one of Iceland’s biggest waterfalls due to it’s 25 meter width and a drop of 60 meters. It is hidden in the very small town of Skógar which has a population of under 100 people however it blossoms in the Spring/Summer as a resort area for hikers. At the Skogafoss Waterfall there are 500 steps going up the right side that one can climb to get to the viewpoint at the top of the waterfall. In winter these are icey due to the spray coming off the waterfall – so climb at your own risk! The waterfall was amazing and loud – along with the black sand (very hard to use a walker on) that was around the area.
Then we got back into the car and continued onwards to Solheimajokull Glacier. This visit was a flop. We saw the glacier from the highway actually however from the “viewpoint” and parking lot one could not see the glacier. I did not feel like walking on a rocky path up to perhaps see the glacier so we then we decided to proceed to our next spot. While driving down from the glacier I read up on the Solheimasandur Plane Wreck which I had understood was close to a parking lot. However it was not – the parking lot was next to the highway and it was a 25 Euro bus trip or a “moderately challenging” 6 km round trip walk out to the plane wreck. As we got close to the parking lot, we could see the busses that were used to transport people and they were the glacier roamer type with big wheels and they would be very hard for me to get onto – so we decided to pass on that stop!
Just for the unaware – the Solheimasandur Plane Wreck is a DC3 US Navy plane which had to make an emergency landing when the weather changed abruptly on the beach. Everyone survived and the US Navy did take the parts from the plane that were important, however they left the airframe on the beach. It has now become a popular landmark and tourist attraction. I have some downloaded pictures below.
Next on our list of sights is the Black Sand Beach also called Reynisfjara Beach in Icelandic. This world-famous volcanic black-sand beach features basalt columns and the dramatic Reynisdrangar sea stacks. It is near Vik,, the southernmost village on the mainland of Iceland. While the wind was blowing a bit which made it a little chilly, it was an awesome site to visit after having to skip our last two stops. While walking to the beach there was a funny sign saying “Dangerous sneaker waves” – nope, it did not mean it was going to take your running shoes – it was a bit of a funny translation to mean “killer waves”. This was a fairly long beach as you can see to the right where we were parked and entered to the left side which was near the basalt columns. The surf was QUITE active at this time too – with it heading to the beach from the south east and south west so sometimes there was a big clash of the waves! It was HARD going using my walker on this beach as the black sand was not packed down, however I made it down to the sea and back up so I was happy with that accomplishment! To reward ourselves, we then had coffee and hot chocolate in the cafe prior to eating our lunch in the car. At that time, the weather was turning and we decided to skip going to Vik, which was just about 10km down the highway and instead turn and head back to the hotel, this time taking a different route back.
We arrived back at the hotel about 6pm – which was 8 hours after we had left in the morning! It was an interesting day seeing the southern part of Iceland. Where we drove is shown below. Tomorrow is the famous Golden Circle Drive!
