Iceland - the Southeast

Welcome back to the land of fire and ice.

We returned back along the same F-road that we went up earlier, then hit the Ring Road (Route 1) again and turned east. The next couple of hundred kilometres were spectacular. Gorgeous houses and farms sat beneath huge cliffs with waterfalls tumbling down them or they sat snuggled in verdant green pastures. There were even some trees, lol!

An information centre had a turf roof which we stood on for more stunning views over nearby farms.

Inside this information centre we saw photos of how much the Icelandic glaciers have retreated in the last 100 years or so due. There were photos taken last century then new photos taken in the same spot and you could clearly see how much the glaciers had retreated. 

Jump forward a few days and we came across this sign on a walk which was explaining some of the geological features of the landscape in that area:

We drove through the impossible-to-pronounce village of  Kirkjubaejarklausur and started approaching the massive Vatnajokull ice cap, the third biggest ice cap in the world after Antarctica & Greenland. 

Looking at a map, glaciers ran outwards from the icecap like fingers from a hand. To us, they curved gracefully along the lowest points between the mountains.

As the Ring Road wound its way eastwards it opened up more spectacular views of the glaciers.

The Ring Road is new and well made but there are very few places to pull over. We soon learned that if we saw a number of cars pulled into a car park that there was something worth looking at. We saw such a group, pulled in to a car park and saw there was a sign showing a few short walking tracks. We followed them and what we saw blew us away.

The short walk took us to a lake at the end of a glacier where the ice was wildly rugged.

The glacier was massive!

Again, I was astonished by the tiny flowers that existed in this harsh environment.

Much to our surprise there were icebergs!

Back on the main road, there were often houses in the middle of nowhere. It just doesn't seem to be the thing to plant trees around houses,

More stunning views of glaciers and the ice cap.

There's a famous place to see icebergs. It's called Jokulsarlon. It's a huge tourist destination so we weren't sure if we'd visit as we figured it'd be packed. The car park was busy but not chockers so we drove in. We were so glad we did. One of the glaciers from Vatnajokull tumbled down to a lagoon. Icebergs calved off it and slowly floated lazily in front of the glacier.

The blue icebergs are older ice. They've been compressed so much over time that the air bubbles get squeezed out of them and they reflect light differently, giving a blue appearance.

A bird taking off among the icebergs.

Bizarrely, a bride and groom posed for photographs with the icebergs behind them. The bride wore a bare-shouldered wedding dress. It was less than 10 degrees!

As icebergs slowly melted in the water, they moved forward down a short river towards the sea. They often got stuck on rocks or the river bed on the way. We watched as one loose iceberg came down the river and knocked several others off the places where they were stuck. It was cool!

Our next accommodation was on a farm on the west side of the icecap. We had a great room here and the people were lovely. Like many places, the staff were from everywhere except Iceland. There aren't enough people in Iceland to staff the accommodation and restaurants for all the tourists so staff are brought in from all over the world, but largely eastern Europe. They get paid well so many young people come for the summer to save money. They still get time off to see Iceland as well. Most of them love it.

We managed to speak to the farmer here and learned a lot about sheep farming in Iceland. Basically the sheep spend half the year or so in a shed. They lamb down there, most commonly having twins although triplets and even quadruplets aren't unusual. They all go outside in summer (yes, this freezing time we're experiencing here is summer!) and roam far and wide over the various landscapes. When it's time to bring them in, the community gets together and rounds them all up. It's so different to the way we raise sheep.

The sheep have special wool to protect them and are pretty cute.

We went for a walk in the wild country behind the farm.

It started to rain then it started to hail. The hail stung our faces and we were so cold! At least it didn't last too long and we continued to walk.

We came to another calving glacier.

It was another great walk but we were pretty happy to eventually see the farm come into view.

That afternoon, the wind picked up and soon it was a howling gale. The grass in front of our room was being blown in every direction and spray was being whipped up from the river.

We had one dinner at the accommodation then the next night we went to the large town nearby called Hofn. The way to pronounce this is more like "hup" said in the way you might say it when you're hiccupping! This is such a strange language.

We left the farm and drove past more snow-capped mountains with lupins in the foreground.

We had lunch at a gorgeous fishing village on the way.

We headed over the Oxi Pass where more beautiful waterfalls tumbled down rugged cliffs.

Our next destination was quite different. Set in a pretty valley, the Wilderness Centre was the most friendly place we stayed at. All the staff were so welcoming and one even came from Australia! They were great to talk to. 

We walked up the valley and crossed the river on a hand-pulled cable box. This was how they used to cross the river in centuries past. It was surprisingly scary and hard work!

On the other side we walked through an area where there were heaps of Icelandic ponies. They were so friendly and started coming up to us. Soon we were surrounded by them!

Check out how long the manes and forelocks are!

This one's mane and forelock were so bushy!

One of the staff was an Icelandic guy (yes, a local staff member!) who was working there as a builder. He had worked on film sets and had interesting stories to tell. He was out there but was such a lovely guy. Look closely at his glasses.

Heading off again, the sights continued to roll on. These columns are created by lava reacting with water.

Stunning Hengifoss tumbled down a striped cliff.

What an amazing part of the country this was!

'Til next time.

Heather and John

Iceland - at last!

I was so excited to finally get to Iceland. This country has been on my bucket list for a while. 

We landed in the evening so we picked up our rental car and drove just a short distance to a small town called Gardur. We stayed right at the tip of a peninsula where two lighthouses overlooked the flat, barren land. Purple lupins lined the roads and filled paddocks. We checked in to our simple but very good hotel then raced straight out to try to catch the only restaurant that was open in the area. We made it and had a wonderful dinner. We had done a quick calculation of what the Icelandic krona was worth to the Aussie dollar but when I read the price of my soup it didn't make sense. I thought at the time that the sensational soup cost us about $3.50. I was wrong - I later realised it was $35! We knew that Iceland would be expensive but that was a shock.

It was hard to sleep that night. I kept wanting to get out of bed to see what the sky was doing as there is 24 hour daylight here. Technically, the sun goes down for a few hours but it only just dips below the horizon then comes up again so the sky is still light. This, combined with the flat, bleak landscape made everything seem a bit surreal.

On the road the next day saw acres and acres of those purple lupins.

Our destination that night was one of a group of rugged islands called the Vestmannaeyjar. To get there, we left our car at the port and caught a ferry. Amazingly, it was an electric ferry! It had a huge charging station to charge from and it was so quiet. I love the way the ferry's nose opened to let the cars in!

As we approached the island, we glided gently past amazing volcanic islands. They were so striking! 

It was sunny but absolutely freezing out on the deck.

We caught a taxi to our cabin, just outside the only town of Heimaey. The cabin was tiny but warm, comfortable and oh so cute.

The view from our window was amazing! This was just a part of it that looked over some of the other nearby islands.

The weather was looking dodgy so we put our coats on and headed out for a walk. The tracks were mostly made of black scoria and I was surprised that anything could grow in this let alone delicate-looking flowers.

Sure enough, it started raining on the way. Our destination was a bird hide from where we could watch the huge array of seabirds that flock to Iceland, but the main attraction here was a puffin colony. Puffins dig holes in the hills and raise their chicks in these. We sheltered in the bird hide and managed to see a few puffins close by but not the hoards we were expecting.

It eased off but grey clouds loomed not far away so instead of pushing on we returned home. We walked along a lovely clifftop track. The views were amazing. The views are all so big.

We had to climb a stile on the way.

We got much wetter on the walk home. At one point the rain suddenly stopped but we could physically see it moving away just in front of us. Rain danced madly on the road only a few metres ahead while we suddenly walked in sunshine. The dancing moved away from us in a line. It was so strange!

The moody skies made for some striking scenes.

Turf-roofed houses are an old tradition here.

As we walked, the "pheep-pheep" sounds of birds surrounded us. They are all sea-birds and I'm not familiar with most of them. There are a variety of sandpiper-types, gulls, probably terns and plenty that I have no idea what they are.

A very friendly German couple were staying in the next cabin and we got talking to them. They ended up joining us for a lovely dinner.

They had been on the island for a day more than us and they had brought their car over on the ferry so they very generously showed us around. They took us to a spot where a volcanic eruption in 1973 changed the island forever. All the inhabitants managed to evacuate to the mainland but the lava continued to flow for five months. As it crept outwards, it threatened to block off the harbour which would have destroyed the fishing industry that the island relies on. Firefighters then pumped six million litres of seawater onto the lava and managed to stop it with just 175 metres to go. The harbour, and consequently, the island, was saved.

It was so weird being able to see exactly where the lava flow stopped.

Standing on 50-year old lava. After all that time, only moss has been able to establish itself on it.

Nearby sat a pretty traditional wooden church that was donated by the Norwegians.

Surprisingly. there is a golf course that sits beneath some towering craggy peaks. The wind is so strong here that I think your golf score might be more related to luck than skill!

It only took 24 hours before we realised that three weeks isn't going to be long enough here. We always knew it was going to be rushed but I wish we'd allowed a bit more time to see things properly. The reason we kept it short is because we didn't want to spend too long in such cold climates. (We are going to Greenland after this so that will be six or seven weeks of cold weather!)

On our return trip on the ferry I was ready for that stunning ride past the outlying islands. The wind whipped my hair around but what we saw was truly spectacular. We eased slowly past huge cliffs topped with emerald green grass. 

On one island, the land rose sharply up then just stopped and that emerald green carpet ran right to the edge. It was like someone has literally laid a carpet on the rocks. On another island, a solitary house stood defiantly in the artcic gale. That's one brave family that lives there!

The Ring Road runs right around the island and most of the things to do and see are close to it. Subsequently, there are heaps of tourists on it, particularly in the south-west as this is close to the capital, Reykjavik, which is where the only international airport is. We drove off the ferry and onto the Ring Road and immediately hit the first of the tourist hoards. Seljalandfoss Waterfall was just nearby but, as we got close, we could see there were oodles of buses and cars parked there. The waterfall was great though. We could walk behind it which was cool.

Everyone got soaking wet walking through the spray. Check out the number of people and vehicles in the background.

Further along was another waterfall that disappeared into a small canyon. We went inside the canyon only to find a busload of tourists all taking photos of each other in the middle of it. From this distance it was gorgeous.

There were a series of waterfalls here and they were really beautiful. And yes, the grass is that green!

Next stop was a beach that had interesting rock formations but all it seemed to really have was hoards of tourists. I grabbed this photo in a lull. Fortunately, by re-jigging what to see and when to see it, we haven't seen this concentration of tourists since.

On the Ring Road again, we started passing lovely houses and churches.

It's weird how a church can seem to be in the middle of nowhere.

The landscape varied a lot in short distances, often depending on how recent the volcanic activity in that area was! 

Next stop was well off the beaten track. We headed up into Lakagigar, just beside the Vatnajokull National Park. The road in was our first "F road", rough mountain roads that only open in summer. We were ready for the worst but the road had recently been graded and it was pretty tame. It took us through some amazing, stark scenery.

Home for the night was a wooden cabin in the mountains. It was pretty basic but the host was really helpful. We learned that our cabin gets completely covered by snow in winter!

We headed out on a walk. It turned out to be one of the best walks we did in all of Iceland (so far). Where we wanted to go involved a shallow river crossing but our car was a hybrid and our host informed us that hybrids can't be taken through water. What the? So we parked the car at the river and walked via a bridge into the valley where the walk was. The walk in was so pretty yet it was like walking through a weird Dr Seuss landscape.

We saw the river flow through a lava tunnel.

The walk proper followed along the river at the bottom of a very deep gorge. It was amazing.

After a couple of kilometres we saw a waterfall come into view. It wasn't until we were quite close that we could see how amazing it was. It started way up above us at the top of the canyon and tumbled all the way down is a series of falls. It was stunning! It's hard to get a sense of the size of it from this video.

We then climbed up to the top of the canyon. The views from the top were incredible!

Broad views opened up as we slowly descended back to where we started from.

These delicate-looking flowers must be so tough to survive here!

Back in our cabin we feasted on rehydrated pasta for dinner. After an uncomfortable night (the mattress was useless) we did a short walk to another waterfall just near our cabin. The small canyon was lined with twisted basalt columns formed by lava meeting with cold water.

The weird landscape around the canyon looked like it was a mass of boulders with that strange green moss forming a carpet over everything. It was so cool to walk through it.

My shadow waving hello on what looks like another planet.....

Nearby, yet another spectacular waterfall plunged over a rocky edge.

Dragging ourselves away from this stunning region, we headed back down the F-road. At one stage we stopped the car. There was absolutely no sound around us.

I found I was getting really tired. It took me a few days to realise that the permanent light skies were interrupting my sleep. I found it hard to relax properly when it didn't seem to be bedtime. I gave up and started sleeping with a mask and found it was much better.

I'm truly captivated by this stunning country. It's so extreme - vast horizons disappear with no tree or building to break them up. Carpets of green moss grow over jagged rocks from (relatively) recent lava flows. The landscapes alternate between bleak, wild and desolate and lush green and so pretty. What a country!

Heather and John