Cake & Ice Creams

When we first booked our week in Iceland, we figured we’d spend the week in different cities and make our way around the entire island.  Upon further planning we found we would probably spend most of our week in a car so decided to stick to only the south coast.  We’d fly in, drive all the way to Hofn (about 5 hours), then leisurely work our way back to Reykjavik.  As I’m sure you’ve noticed that didn’t happen either as ALL accommodations were booked along the way (there aren’t that many to start with, then add the busiest travel month plus last minute planning – we were doomed from the start!) and rental cars were in the two and three thousands for the week.

SO.  We found a cool place in Reykjavik where we could enjoy the convenience of a city and rented a minivan for a couple of days to get our nature on and explore more of the country.

Our tour of the south coast was a 17 hour day, much of it driving (Ambrose was our rock star designated driver!). Everyday has been easy to have a super long extended day as it never gets dark. Ten o’clock feels like six and with so much to see, 17 hours comes and goes really quickly.

The landscape of the south coast went from miles of rolling green hills to miles of mossy lava rock to miles of flat land. Sprinkle in some waterfalls, a few glaciers, sheep and the Atlantic Ocean and you’ve got yourself a lot to look at in one day.  Along the way, I would look out my window and would reminisce back to our New Zealand trip a few years ago. Then, an hour later, I looked out and felt like I was on the Big Island of Hawaii. I expected breathtaking scenery but I didn’t expect to have so much variety in one day.

Our first destination on our 17 hour tour was Hella. You can guess why we wanted to stop here. It had very little to do with an exciting destination and a lot to do with making our crappy “Hella” puns funny all week long. In addition to our hella good puns, every time I heard “Hella” my head also heard “Ella Eh Eh” and therefore had that fabulous Rihanna song stuck in my head.

Next stops = waterfalls!  We stopped first at Seljalandsfoss where you can walk behind the huge waterfall.  Then Skogafoss where legend has it a pot of gold is hidden behind the waterfall.  Despite all of the mist rainbows leading the way, we didn’t find it.  To wrap up the first half of our day we found Reynisfjara, a black sand beach near Vik (our uneventful lunch stop).  Here were incredible basalt columns that looked like giant church organs.  A beautiful ocean stop! 

The second half of our day took us the farthest east we would go to Jokulsarlon, a glacial lagoon.  Yes, it was as cool as it sounds (literally and figuratively).  From the beginning of trip planning we have seen pictures of people kayaking with huge pieces of ice behind them.  We assumed this was the place but failed to find a kayaking outfit to rent from.  I finally wrote to someone and they said, “there is no kayaking here because you could get berried.”  So, fearful of getting “berried” we joined the masses of tourists who floated around the lagoon in amphibious boats (similar to our “ducks” in Seattle).  We got some really beautiful pictures of luminous blue icebergs.  We even got to eat 1000-1500 year old ice – the oldest thing we’ll ever eat.  It tasted like really cold ice.

The day did not end here, headed back west again, we stopped at another glacier, Svinafellsjokull and walked around.  After Jokulsarlon it seemed like just another glacier – I know it’s sad that I just said that.  We found a place for dinner, where we all ate rotten shark (see previous post) then made the long drive home.

It was a super long day.  Well worth it and it made us thankful that we decided not to spend the whole week doing what we just did in a day.