During the warm months, if you can really call them that, as you travel around the island you meet many adventurers from all around the world. Some of them hitchhike, others ride bikes, some even walk. Every time we pass a cyclist on the road we wonder and try to imagine what it’s like travelling around Iceland on a bike. But the truth is we really can’t! With the unpredictable and always-changing weather conditions and the usual presence of strong wind and rain you really need a lot of courage for such a challenge. But one thing is for sure – the experience is a lot more exciting.
We travelled by car on that day as well, which is not at all boring around here. It’s even hard to stay concentrated while passing by so many breathtaking views, the roads are very narrow and most of them have just one lane in each direction. The maximum speed in Iceland is 90 km/h. There is only one major road, which encircles the whole island near the shoreline – road number 1, also known as the Ring Road. It connects the bigger towns and travels through fields of volcanic rock and by waterfalls, glaciers, craters and countless farms.
The rest of the roads are secondary ones at best, many of them are unpaved. There are also quite a few roads forbidden for vehicles without 4x4. They are called F roads and many of them will take you to the central parts of the country, called the Highlands. In many occasions these roads are closed due to extreme meteorological conditions. And during the winter, when we add lots of snow and ice into the mix, driving around the country becomes very hard. When there are storms and bad conditions during the winter even parts of the main Ring Road are closed, not just some of the smaller roads. In Iceland both weather and road surface are unexpectedly fast-changing, so if you ever come here and want to rent a car we definitely recommend a 4x4 one. Below you can see photos of some of the cars that impressed us on the road. That’s the type of car that people have if they want to be sure they can get anywhere around the country, regardless of the road and weather conditions.
On that day we decided to travel around the south of Iceland. In the morning we headed for Reykjavík, where we picked up our friend Tuomo and then we turned south toward one of the most amazing places we’ve ever visited. Our companions on the road were no other than the beautiful creatures you can see on the photo below.
Icelandic horses nearby the Ring Road
In Iceland there are always animals wandering freely. Most often we meet horses, sheep and cows. Sometimes they just appear before the car, get scared and run off funnily. In some parts of the countries the main the main representatives of the fauna are the birds. There usually are signs, warning you to slow down when there are animals in the area, even for the birds.
Warning sign for entering an area, rich of birdlife
There are many hitchhikers as well, of course, and as usually if we have a spot in the car – we pick them up. On this trip Leaton joined us – a guy from the USA who had studied geology. When he heard what our plan for the day is he decided to stick with us for the whole day.
And so a bit later we saw the magnificent waterfall Seljalandsfoss (60m) not far from the road. This is one of the most famous and frequently visited waterfalls in Iceland, as well as one of the most beautiful and breathtaking ones in the world, its photos appear in many calendars and books.
View of the waterfall Seljalandsfoss from the road
What distinguishes it from many other waterfalls is the fact that there is a path in the lower end of the rocks, going behind the waterfall, where we went and were almost bathed after the walk. There was also a rainbow in the water.
Seljalandsfoss, South Iceland
We were already hungry so we decided to have a little picnic there and after that we saw that there are two paths going above the waterfall. We headed that way and got up to the river behind it all – Seljalandsá.
Seljalandsá river, South Iceland
After that we kept driving to the next waterfall – Skógafoss, which is the 5th biggest in the country. All the water falling from that big rock comes from two glaciers – Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull – which come together to form the river Skógá, travelling through the canyon of the same name to reach the edge and create this beautiful fall. Because of all the water whenever there is sun there are amazing beautiful rainbows here as well. Both waterfalls - Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss, are right next to the main Ring Road and are 20 km apart. Usually there are many tourists there, in many buses, especially during the summer days. Right next to this waterfall there is a camping ground and this is where one of the most famous hiking trails starts – Fimmvörðuháls, leading to Þorsmörk. When we were there we even saw a newly-married coupled from Asia, you can see them on one of the photos below.
In Iceland art and literature don’t exist just in books and museums. When visiting any natural wonder you can read the signs that inform you about the process of formation, but you can also read about the folklore that surrounds the place and its history. According to legend one of the first settlers of Iceland, Þrasi Þórólfsson, hid his chest of gold in a safe place behind the waterfall. For a long time one of its corners could be seen in the water. Three men from the closest village decided to try and get it out. To do that they attached a hook to one of the metal tings of the chest and started pulling as hard as they could but the chest was so heavy that the metal ring was ripped from it and taking the whole thing out proved to be impossible. Later on this ring was placed on the door of the village church and now it’s in the local museum. The generations have preserved a verse about the story as well, still surviving to this day:
The chest in Þrasi’s secret lair
Under the Skógar waterfall
Rewards the one who ventures there
With endless riches, great and small.
The waterfall Skógafoss, South Iceland
The waterfall Skógafoss on the coast of Southern Iceland
Later on we visited the Black Beach of Reynisfjara close to Vik. A very beautiful place, and as it turns out not only popular among tourists but as a photo session stage. While we were there we saw a whole camera crew, horses and models, taking photos with the rocks and ocean as a background.
In the meantime Leaton was telling us about the forming processes of the rocks and noted the fact that he had never seen such perfect rock columns. As far as we understood (and remembered) this phenomena is the result of lava cooled by the water, which leads to the reduction of its volume. While it’s shrinking because of the cooling, the lava made thousands of hexagonal columns.
The Black beach of Reynisfjara
And so we arrive at the last stop of this trip – the U.S. Navy aircraft that crashed in 1973. The exact reason for the incident is unknown, supposedly they were out of fuel and had to land. There are even different versions about the exact date of the crash. The crew survived and the plane became very popular with the tourists.
Crushed American airplane on Sólheimasandur beach in the Southern coast of Iceland
Crushed American airplane on Sólheimasandur beach in the Southern coast of Iceland
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