South Iceland 2022
Sept 15
Iceland is not a huge country, and it can be broken up into 7 basic regions; West, East, North, South, The Westfjords, Reykjavik City and the Rykjanes Peninsula. Our plan was to travel counter-clockwise around the entire loop road that circles the country, and end up back at the Reykkanes Peninsula where the airport is. This would allow us to see most of the country excluding the Westfjords area and the center of Iceland.With 2 weeks of time ahead of us,we'll do the best we can.
TRAVELER TIP
We had to get used to the weird letters in Iceland, the latin alphabet has 26 letters, the Icelandic alphabet has 32. C, W, Q and Z are not included. So the Icelandic alphabet has ten extra letters that are not part of our regular alphabet.
The first 6 letters are vowels with an accent that changes the pronunciation. It’s Á, É, Í, Ó, Ú, and Ý. Two others are vowels, too: Æ/æ and Ö/ö. The letter Æ is also used in Danish and Norwegian, while Ö is used in the Swedish and German language.
There are two letters however, that are a bit special: Ð/ð and Þ/þ. The letter Ð is called eth and its pronunciation resembles the th in that. The letter Þ is called thorn, it is pronounced like the th in thing. I know, I can't tell the difference either.
As we start driving out of the city, you really notice the landscape is very different, flat, low hills, rocky terrain, and hardly any trees.
Just East of Reykjavik is a small loop known as the Golden Circle. It is where those with a short layover in Iceland can get a good sampling of the features that make up Iceland, some waterfalls, some geothermal activity, and rock formations.
The first stop on our Golden Circle journey was Þingvellir National Park, a huge park that contains the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. The center of the park is Þingvallavatn, the largest natural lake in Iceland. (Had to get used to calling it Thingvellir, not Dingvellir, or Pingvellir)
It's a nice hike through the Almannagjá canyon which shows the split between North America and Europe.
Eventually you end up at the Öxarárfoss waterfall. These are the falls that appear on the cover of Nine Inch Nails' album The Fragile.
A pretty nice little hike for our first stop, and then it's back in the car to our next destination. Next on the circle was Geysir, a geothermal area smelling of sulfur with steaming vents, many bubbling/boiling pools and a geyser.
You can tell where the main geyser is, a group of people standing around a pool in the center, waiting for it to erupt, as it does every 5 minutes just like clockwork.
Back in the car again, to head towards the farthest end of the Golden Circle loop where the impressive Gulfoss waterfalls are. I should probably mention, if you are not a fan of waterfalls, you are going to hate the rest of this blog story on Iceland. Gulfoss is found in the Hvítá river canyon, the water in the Hvítá river travels from the glacier Langjökull, before cascading 32 meters (105 feet) down Gullfoss in two separate cascades.
From the road you can see the glacier in the distance.
As we start making our way South, one stop most tourists seemed to drive right past, and tour buses didn't want to venture into was the very pretty Faxi waterfalls and salmon ladder. We watched for a while as a couple fly fisherman tried their hand in the river below.
Our last stop before turning off the loop and heading South was the should-be-impressive Kerið Crater. Interesting as it's a dormant volcano that has filled with water, but felt like a tourist cash grab as they collected their fee to enter the area, and pointed you kilometers in either direction if you needed a WC.
Selfoss
After a very water themed day, we pulled into the small town of Selfoss and found our Þoriston apartments for the night. A pleasant surprise, Cute, Quiet and Comfortable. They left the key in the door for our arrival, and asked we do the same when we leave.
Dinner that night was at a recommended restaurant called Missino Selfoss, a seafood restaurant where the meals are served in a frying pan. It was delicious and the first place we had been that didn't have a tippy table.
Feeling very full, we wandered the town a bit to find a bakery for in the morning. Back at the apartment, the TV didn't work, but it was the best night of sleep, and we badly needed that.
Traveler Tip/Credit Card Rant
Iceland uses credit cards and even debit cards almost everywhere, so it's fairly easy to make your purchases (even if everything is fairly expensive here), but once in a while for a simple transaction like a parking lot, using an EV charging station or booking an attraction, MasterCard decides they need 2 factor authentication and want to send you a text with a code to verify.
That's great, if you are willing to pay $15 a day to have your cell service turned on. We switched to Airplane mode when we left Vancouver, and just used our WiFi... but it quickly became very frustrating when I would have to cancel a transaction using our TRAVEL MASTERCARD, and pull out the rarely used VISA to finish a sale.
I ended up turning my phone on for 1 day to ensure I could park, and use the car recharger stations, then phoned MasterCard to complain. They removed my cell phone # so that it would ask me for an email to do the verification instead, why email verification was never a choice before I have no idea.
Sept 16
After a great nights sleep, I took the car over to a nearby hotel to recharge the Renault's battery while we wandered to the local GK Bakery and had breakfast, but as detailed above it didn't work due to my MC issues. So we jumped in the car and drove to the bakery instead, and got an earlier start on the day.
We drove further East away from Reykjavik, and today would be another day of water filled wonders. The first of our stops being the Seljalandfoss waterfall and the nearby Gljúfrabúi waterfall. The Seljalandfoss waterfall being special because of the ability to walk a trail that goes completely behind it... of course you may get a little wet in doing so.
After circling the Seljalandfoss it's about 300m down a trail past another nice little waterfall.
Eventually we arrive at the Gljúfrabúi waterfall, which is basically hidden inside a large tube-like tunnel. There is crowds of people all trying to get inside while staying as dry as they can, which is pretty much impossible.
We leave the crowds behind, and head back down the trail past the Seljalandfoss and to the parking lot with just one more important stop before we jump in the car.
This Southern stretch of the ring road is quite stunning, with more mountains, waterfalls and glacier views than we expected... and sheep, lots and lots of sheep.
Driving away from the falls, Norine has us stop and turn around because of this "fence" that she sees. Nobody can really explain why there is a fence covered in bras on the side of the highway, but we had many theories, some a little darker than others. Were they the results of late night partiers freeing their inhibitions, or souvenirs of a serial killer? We may never know.
Very close to the bra fence is a little cave tucked in the side of a rock, we climb the fence and take a short venture through sheep fields to see what is inside this mystery building.
A narrow doorway leads to a narrow path and you find yourself in a mystery filled cave full of gnomes. a small sign says "Please leave a payment in the little tin box to keep this place magical".
The next stop on our water filled journey was the expansive Skogafoss. Pictures and video don't do it justice. It's a little bit of a hike to reach the base of the falls, and about 370 steps to climb up to an overlook. Are you getting tired of waterfalls yet?
Our final stop of the day was the massive glacier known as Sólheimajökull, we could walk down to the snout of the glacier, and see the floating icebergs in the glacial lake. They are black and dirty after hundreds of years of air pollution and pushing dirt out of the way.
We chose not to stop and do the hike in to the Solheimasandur DC-3 Plane Wreck of 50 years ago, as it seemed pretty boring and a bit grim to want to go see it. That, and it was a long hike, and we were tired.So we drove the windy road to our hotel.
Vik
Just to the left of Sólheimajökull glacier is the threatening Eyjafjallajökull, the infamous volcano that erupted in 2010 and shut down European air space. We have a very nice view of it from our hotel for the next 2 nights. Hotel Burfell is about 20 minutes outside of the town of Vik, it's a quaint farmhouse style hotel with an amazing view of not only the glacier but also the sunset.
We had a simple dinner at the hotel, their last service for the season, you could choose from three meals... Vegetable, Fish, or Meat. The Fish was Char, the meat was Lamb, and that's what we had for dinner. Our server/bartender/maid/chef gave us free desserts because it was the last meal of the year, chocolate coconut cake and carrot cake, Norine's least favourite desserts... but we ate them and enjoyed them like they were the last 2 desserts ever being served. Of course, all served on a tippy table.
It was so quiet in our room, being well away from any nearby town, another decent night's sleep.
Sept 17
Our hotel included the traditional travelers breakfast, breads, meats, cheese, eggs, and bacon. So we filled up before heading out for our Vik based explorations.
Of course we had to pull over when some adorable Icelandic Horses were calling us over from the roadside fence.
First stop was the breathtaking Dyrhólaey Peninsula with a lighthouse at the peak, and amazing views over black sand beaches, a large sea arch and the glaciers behind us.
We made a quick side trip to the often missed Loftsalahellir cave, a short steep climb up into a small cave that looks back out at the peninsula. We didn't slip, we didn't slide, we didn't throw a hip... but we came close.
Back around the other side of the peninsula is Reynisfjara Black Beach, a massive stretch of black sand backed with cliffs and caves consisting of basalt formations.
Off the shore are towers of jagged rocks known as Reynisdrangar, and sneaking in behind them are the dreaded Sneaker Waves that you are warned about many times while wandering the area. You never know when one will crash the seemingly dry sand beach and soak your shoes or pull you in. Can't say we weren't warned, we managed to keep our feet dry, even if our shoes were full of sand.
After a nice little lunch at the Black Beach Restaurant, we headed into the town of Vik, from Black Beach it's a short scenic drive.
Our first stop was the Vik/Myrdal church nestled at the top of a hill overlooking the town of Vik. A great place to get your bearings of the little town and its half dozen streets.
We drove into town and found a free charging station for our hybrid so we could wander around the small town.
We took the trail down to the black sand beach which is just East of where we were earlier in the day, looking at the same Reynisdrangar jagged rocks from the other side. Written on a sign at the beach is a couple fables of how those rocks came to be...
Reynisdrangar
Once upon a time, a three-masted merchant ship was caught in a storm by these shores.
Onboard the ship was a king's son on a voyage to seek his future wife. As the crew
waited for the storm to pass, a troll woman appeared and asked to go with the ship but
the king's son refused. When they sailed on, the troll woman threatened to turn the ship
and crew into stone if they left without her. The king's son said in turn that she
should then also turn to stone. thus the ship, crew and troll all turned into the rocks
we know today as Reynisdrangar sea stacks. In another version of the story, two trolls
were pulling their own ship ashore. Due to difficulties, they were still struggling with
the ship at sunrise and as trolls turn into stone when exposed to sunlight, they are
still standing there along with the ship.
We did a little grocery shopping, and stopped at the tourist information centre where we met the most helpful person ever. He gave us a list (including showing us on Google satellite view) of the next 2 days worth of recommended stops.
We had planned to check out the Lava Show, but it was sold out, so we had a tea and a hot chocolate at another tippy table while our car finished charging, then grabbed a Black Crust Pizza to take back to our hotel... since they no longer serve dinner.
The pizza looks burned, but it's just the dough that they make, and it was actually pretty good.
Looks like the clouds are starting to roll in, and our sunset wasn't so spectacular
tonight.
We're hoping it clears up a bit for tomorrow's adventures.
Sept 18
We had our free Icelandic breakfast, packed up our bags, and headed towards East Iceland.