Exploring the Southern Coast of Iceland: Waterfalls, Rain, and Adventure

Started with another misty morning today – meaning light rain—again, and headed South today (to explore the Southern Coast). Luckily, we drove out of the rain and had a mostly clear and wonderful day.

First stop, Seljalandsfoss and Gljufrabui, two beautiful waterfalls. Seljalandsfoss is 60 meters high and has a footpath behind it. Seljalandsfoss is the only known waterfall in Iceland where it is possible to walk behind it. Gljufrabui is partially obscured by its own canyon. There are some additional waterfalls there that are quite striking, but these two are worth getting wet for to get such unique perspectives. Plus, afterwards we stopped for hot chocolates, an Icelandic cinnamon bun, and for Audrey to purchase a Puffin sweater.

We had a decent amount of driving today, so a brief stop at Skogafoss, another beautiful waterfall. We were told by a guide that the Icelandic language is fairly literal. I need to do some research, but definitely getting the impression that “foss” means waterfall or something similar.

Continued on to Dyrholaey--(meaning "door hole"). Dyrholaey is a spectacular cliff with a massive arch just off the South Coast. It is believed to have been formed by an underwater volcanic eruption in the glacial period and then shaped by sea erosion. It was super windy. Super. Windy. Also, we had our first sighting of Puffins!

Next, we drove into Vik for our Katla Ice Cave Tour. Highly recommend this! Not for the mobility impaired. The tour is on the Myrdalsjokull glacier. The glacier covers the Katla volcano. It starts with a super jeep drive that goes off road to get us near the glacier, with a stop for pictures at the mountain featured in Star Wars, The Force Awakens. Apparently, it’s Hoth (?). Gillian is my Star Wars expert. After you get closer to the ice cave, you leave your super jeep, grab a quick picture of an arctic fox (Fun fact, the arctic fox is the only native mammal to Iceland.), you put on your micro spikes/ crampons, and hike up on the glacier to get to the ice cave. It’s just beautiful. The glacial ice is clear, often with a blueish tint, but there are also layers of black volcanic ash. Volcanic ash can insulate or cause increased melting depending on the thickness of the ash layer. Glacial ice is always in motion, though you can’t feel it. 20 meters of snow compact to 1 meter of ice. There are 500 meters of ice on top of Katla. If the volcano erupted there would be catastrophic flash flooding and speculation that everything but 1 church would be underwater. Katla last erupted in 1918. Rest assured geologists monitor Katla!

Super awesome tour!

We also learned about Lupine. Alaskan lupine brought into Iceland intentionally, is now an invasive species, but it’s really beautiful. Huge fields of purple flowers.

Over to Smidjan Brugghus brewry for dinner and beer.

After dinner we zipped over to Reynisfjara & Reynisdrangar.

“Considered one of the best beaches in the world, Reynisfjara beach features black volcanic sands, geometric basalt columns and caves. From the beach, you can see the 66m tall Reynisdrangar sea stacks. Although folklore tells stories of trolls, these formations originate from a volcanic eruption during the last Ice Age.” (Sometimes the notes from your trip advisor give the best explanation.) Waves here were beautiful and crazy—as would anyone be who went into that surf! Enough for one day. Night all!