After camping in Hveragerði, the trip along the South coast of Iceland began. The road along the South coast is some of the most scenic country you can see from the road, and, given the proximity to Reykjavik, there are plenty of tour busses along this stretch. The roads themselves are built up a meter or so above the often barren topography, without shoulders, and they slope off to the sides at a 45 degree angle with no shoulder. So sightseeing can be hazardous. A couple of times, we just stopped in middle of the road to look at the spectacular scenery.
The first stop along the route turned out to be the first chance to test out our rain gear. It was a mostly sunny day, but the Seljalandsfoss waterfall, in the shadow of famous Eyjafjallajökull volcano, is such that you can walk behind it, with all the moisture that’s likely to bring.
The next big waterfall along the route is Skógafoss, which is off the road a little bit. The Skógafoss waterfall is a short walk from the parking area, and is surrounded by photographers and other tourists. The best part of this stop is the trail that climbs above the waterfall and along the Skóga river, giving views out over the landscape, and waterfall after waterfall after waterfall, in really rugged settings.
Before reaching the town of Vik, where we planned on picking up more groceries, we stopped at the black sand beach nearby, which features some amazing black basalt caves, and a beach of black pebbles. Here we saw puffins nesting in the grass above the cave features, and we got a second chance to test the rain gear, this time from the rain.
We pulled into Vik, found the grocery, and went shopping. It was a small store with not a lot of selection, and no English packaging, so we went by shape. Hot dogs were easy to pick out, and we got some dried fish snacks. Not a ton of veggies. Having left our coffeemaking equipment behind accidentally, we also picked up some canned espresso (priorities!), and went on down the road.
We found a tidy campground near Kirkjubæjarklaustur for the evening, and ate in the cafe nearby, celebrating with a cold glass of Gull beer and some fish stew, which was tasty, but had a surprising look and consistency. Like potato salad.
The next morning we started out for Skaftafell, and hiked up the ridge above the Skaftafellsjökull glacier, which looks out over not just the glacier but the vast outwash plain to the South.
It is impossible to convey the scale of this landscape through photographs.
Along the hike we met a couple from Vancouver on their honeymoon, who had also rented a Happy Camper. We learned that our decision to get the bigger van was the right one — I’d have been hanging off the edge of the bed in the smaller one.
Leaving Skaftafell, we picked up a hitchhiker who was on her way to Jökulsáurlón, the famous ice lagoon. This stretch has some of the best views of the Vatna ice cap, and even though there was low cloud cover that day, our conversation consisted mostly of “Wow!” “Wow!!!!” “Oh, wow.”
The lagoon is filled with slowly melting, turning, dripping icebergs, and the sound is entrancing. We spent a lot of time walking around the lagoon taking photos and listening.
Near the lagoon, a large number of Kria, or Arctic Tern were nesting. One path to the East side of the lagoon was too close to the nesting ground, and we were attacked multiple times as were passing cars.
More photo sets of the South coast of Iceland are below:
