Today was the ultimate in touring of sites with unspellable and unpronounceable words...we were picked up from our hotel for a 2 day adventure with Hidden Iceland (Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon & Ice Cave Discovery 2 Day Tour) covering the south of the island but primarily to see Vatnajökull, Europe's largest glacier and the surrounding sites.
We expanded our collection of photos of frozen waterfalls with Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss. The former gets its source of water from the infamous Eyjafjallajökull glacier capped volcano, which was the cause of our 2010 travel woes and never to be forgotten! Curse you volcano. It also has the famous walk behind it which has the popular shot that one might see if one were to visit in summer...Fortunately for us, the path was closed because of ice and our social media pressures were relieved. The latter was all power, and we had to brave icy and slippery surfaces just to take a photo to make it look like no one else was there! Most visitors were respectful and took turns, except for one obnoxious tourist who ventured into everyone's shots and then decided to stand there and have a video call! Curse you tourist.
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| Seljalandsfoss Falls. No behind the waterfall photo today |
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| Stark nothingness around it |
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| Mmm refreshing glacial water |
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| The stunning Skógafoss Falls |
Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach was next with its hexagonal basalt columns. We were warned that in winter rogue waves might wash us into the cold Atlantic Ocean, so like the good law abiding citizens that we were, we dutifully stayed clear of the wet sand line. Mal had already pre-warned the family that this was where one of the scenes from Rogue One was filmed and we made sad attempts to recreate the scenes. Hopefully those footages would never see light of day.
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| Reynisfjara |
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| Basalt columns |
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| One of the better family photos |
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| One of the not so better family photo |
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| Lunch at the nearby cafe. Surprising good! Fish and chips better than that in England |
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| Skyr cake. Icelandic version of blueberry cheesecake |
We continued driving east past the seaside village of Vík and Fjaðrárgljúfur gorge before finally arriving at our overnight destination of Branholl. Our lodging was on a farm with simple but super clean and comfortable rooms. Dinner was surprisingly decent, no fermented sharks yet in sight. We dined on lamb and burgers and home made dandelion ice-cream. The early promises of a good northern lights showing (dark night and clear skies tick!) never eventuated. We braved the cold a few times in the evening but to no avail. We did see a lot of shooting stars though! We later found out it was the Geminid.
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| Fjaðrárgljúfur gorge. Seriously we had no chance of even pronouncing this |
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| View from the top |
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| Basic but comfortable |
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| Superclean |
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| Our northern lights capture attempt |
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