Iceland III: SE Iceland - August 14/26

 We headed out immediately back to the Dyrholaey promontory, driving to the top where there is a lighthouse. My comment on the itinerary for this stop was "possible puffins". We encountered these cute birds directly after arrival and had the place almost to ourselves for a while. Jude's camera came in handy for some close-ups. The view from the promontory is quite nice. There was also a path down to the lower parking lot at sea level, where we saw a lot more puffins up close. What appeared to be some old artillery placements finished out the sites here. This may be Nancy's favourite stop on the entire trip.

Lighthouse

Puffins

Next, we headed back towards Vik to a famous black sand beach, Reynisfjara, also moved from the prior day due to time constraints. An enormous cave carved by the waves was the chief feature here. The waves in this location are called "sneaker waves" - they can easily sneak up on you and pull you in, so constant vigilance was necessary.  On the way we passed a picturesque church in what we have come to regard as the standard Iceland design - we have seen many of these churches, almost identical, across the country. 

Beach

Cave

Church

Cave

Going back through Vik for gas and a quick grocery store snack, we also stopped at the Vik church at the top of the hill. It's almost identical to the one we found at the beach, but it offered great views of the surrounding area and the rest of Vik. 

Vik church panorama

 

We headed to our next stop, but an information board on the mossy rock that Nancy favours called us off the road. This moss takes a very long time to grow and so is protected in Iceland.

Lichen-covered boulders

The next item on the program was a stop at Fjodrargljufur, a beautiful canyon carved by a glacial river. It features craggy columns in interesting shapes, mostly blanketed by the ubitquitous moss. It would hardly be Iceland without a waterfall as well.

We continued heading east into the Vatnajokull National Park. The visitor centre was right by the side of the road so we stopped in. We had a good chat with the ranger who recommended a few things, firstly being the canyon we had just seen, but also a waterfall (Systrafoss) and a natural basalt rock formation that looks like a church floor (Kirkjugolf). She also recommended a waterfall in a nearby town (Kirkjubaejarklaustur) with a small loop hike. We had the church floor and the waterfall in our plans but decided to do the hike from the waterfall as well. Her final recommendation was some small basalt columns at the side of the road to get up close to the formations, which we did as well.

The hike itself reminded me a lot of doing a very low ridgewalk Kananaskis, including going through some woods (rare in Iceland as they were mostly burned for firewood centuries ago). It did offer good views of the surrounding area. We somewhat lost the trail but the town was easy to see, so we made our way back and visited the "church floor" on the way out of town. 

Systrafoss

Systrafoss ridgewalk

Basalt "church floor"

Basalt formations at the roadside

We continued on to Skaftafell, also in the national park. There are several hikes starting from there, but the premier one visits a waterfall called Svartifoss, with impressive columnar rock formations surrounding the waterfall, looking very faucet-like pourly cleanly into its pool below.

We had a bit of time and were having good weather (by Icelandic standards) so decided to push for another hike in Skaftafell. This one also led to a glacier lagoon, Skaftafellsjökull. Moraines clearly indicate the extent of the ice's recession. 

Sheep graze freely; we got some close-ups at the conclusion of our hike

Finally, to get back on schedule, we headed to our last planned stop, which was another glacier lagoon, Svinafellsjokull, which is an outlet glacier of Vatnajokull, the largest glacier in Europe. It was a bit more photogenic than the one we had just visited in Skaftafell. We caught it just as the sun was setting, a fitting cap to the day (we thought).

On the way back, we saw a kind of airplane thing on the side of the road and stopped for a quick photo. I slid down - it was faster than it looked.

All that remained was the small matter of getting to our lodgings, which was a glamping tent in Haukafell, a 75-minute drive. It was getting late (we arrived at about 10 PM) and the camping was located some distance down a very rough dirt road, composed mainly of potholes and razor-like rocks that I thought were sure to assassinate at least one tire (especially as we passed a broken-down car on the side of the gravel road with exactly that ailment). We made it, though not without significant stress. The tent itself was pretty nice and a nearby heated seacan had a full bathroom and showers. Italians were merrymaking nearby but with the aid of earplugs, we fell quickly asleep in our heated tent. 

Glamping tent interior

Very long day, great scenery, lots of extra things we hadn't planned for, and a late finish.