Brenna Abroad

Skaftafell was beautiful in the morning light, but we decided to make it to Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon before making ourselves breakfast.

A relatively short drive later, we bounced down another rough gravel road to the parking lot.

You can walk two minutes down into the canyon from there, so we did that first. We waded out into the river a bit, trying not to get water in our shoes, to get better views down the way.

We then walked along the rim for awhile checking out the various angles and rock formations.

We made it back to the parking lot and grabbed a picnic table looking out into the canyon to heat up some oatmeal and coffee. Soon enough, crowds of people were arriving. We packed up our stuff and moved on.

We drove through the craziest little landscape on the way to Vik. Mossy lava rocks everywhere.

During this drive, we saw a tiny little arctic fox! Cutest damn thing I’ve ever seen, but as soon as we realized what we were seeing, we were speeding by it, and it was running back away from the road.  Icelandic arctic foxes are typically found in the Westfjords, which we didn’t have time for, so I certainly wasn’t expecting to see any on this trip. Pleasant little surprise.

We stopped by Hjörleifshöfði, which is basically an island that juts up out of the black sand plains near Vik. It also has a small Viking burial ground on top of it. The plan was to hike to the top to take in all the gorgeous views, but it was very windy, and I was pretty sure it would not be safe to stand on top of a little mountain with nothing to block the wind. Or to leave our car parked on black sand in an area that’s known for sandblasting cars.

So we drove along the south side and snapped a picture of the cave instead, and then continued on.

We stopped in tiny little Vik for awhile.

We had some delicious mushroom soup and margherita pizza at a cute little restaurant up on the hill.

Afterward, we drove over to Reynisfjara black sand beach. This was the first real shock of our trip. The last time we had been there, we literally had the entire beach to ourselves. This time, tour buses and cars packed the parking lot to where people had to park along the road. Tourists were everywhere, climbing up the basalt columns for pictures.  On the plus side, there were dozens of puffins flying around up there, diving off toward the ocean.

We had some time to kill, so we went on to Dyrholaey, which was Anthony’s favorite place last time we were here. We had sat on the black cliffs for awhile, watching and feeling the strong waves crashing against them. This time, there still weren’t that many other people there, but the waves were much calmer and it had lost its magic a bit.

After going back into Vik for a little shopping, we decided to go ahead and go to our campground, Þakgil, which was around a 45 minute-1 hour drive along a rough gravel road over and down a mountain.

The drive was insanely gorgeous. We left cloudy and black Vik for vibrant green mountains with the sun peaking out more and more.

It was also a bit perilous in parts as we were crossing little narrow land bridges with steep drop-offs and lots of wind. 100% worth it though.

The views got better and better, and then we arrived down in this lovely valley where the campground was located.

We selected our spot next to the little bubbling brook and then decided to go explore. We had to cross a couple rivers to get over to this little mountain we wanted to climb up, but it didn’t take us too much time.

And the base of that little mountain became my happy place. A crystal clear, freezing cold little spring ran down through it. Little flowers and berries and soft moss were everywhere. Just so peaceful.

We climbed up a ways to see as much of the valley as we could. (See if you can spy our tiny Jimny in the pictures below.)

And then after relaxing awhile, we decided to try and find our way back. Instead of crossing where we had the first time, Anthony decided we should follow this path because surely it would bring us to a better crossing point. So we spent a good 30 minutes just following along this path, hoping there would eventually be a shallow point to cross, but nope. So we turned around and went all the way back to where we had crossed before.

The campground had a little kitchen set up in a cave, so we wandered over there to cook our dinner.

And then the rest of the night was spent just enjoying our stunning campground, sipping some red wine.

We left our little campground in the East Fjords before anyone else was even getting up.

This meant we had the roads all to ourselves as we drove along the coast, passing through Stodvarfjordur and Breiddalsvik.

It was definitely the best weather we’ve had all trip. It was warm and sunny and absolutely beautiful. The water sparkled in the sunlight, and when we eventually reached a point where we were driving with fjords on our left and glaciers on our right, I didn’t think it could get any better.

We stopped in Hofn for a quick lunch and some groceries and gas, and then were off driving, catching up with all the tourists that make it as far as the south coast and no further. And the horses.

We saw a massive black sand beach along the side of the road, so we stopped there, trying to run up the black pebbles to get the views of the black sand meeting the ocean with the mountains in the background.

After that good fun, we continued on past countless mountains and waterfalls.

And then at last, we made it to Jokulsarlon. We went to Jokulsarlon the last time we were in Iceland, and we honestly didn’t get the hype that time. But it was cloudy and dull the day we had been there before. This time it was brilliantly sunny, and suddenly, we understood why everyone is so obsessed with it.

We could see little seal heads popping up out of the water here and there, bathing in the freezing cold glacier lagoon.

Once we had our fill, we crossed the road to the Diamond Beach, where chunks of ice land on the black sand. While it’s certainly pretty, we didn’t feel the need to spend too much time here.

We passed several outlet glaciers and eventually turned off a rough road to get down close to it. We had hiked the glacier last time, which was at the end of winter, and we could tell it had retreated quite a bit at this point. It was still quite pretty to see.

Our ending spot for the day was Skaftafell National Park. We got there early enough to set up camp and then do a hike through the park. I had some directions for a good loop hike to do, but apparently my directions were shit. We walked all the way up to Svartifoss just fine.

But then we continued on past it up another hill before realizing we had gone the wrong way. The day was still young, so we decided to go ahead and turn around and continue the hike we had planned to do. I hadn’t realized how long nor how difficult nor how damn hot it was going to be, though. I almost quit when we reached a point where I was barely able to lift my feet anymore and was just constantly kicking loose rocks, and then we see a sign saying the viewpoint was still 1.7 km uphill.

But, as Anthony tends to do, he strongly suggested we continue on. So I whined the whole way, but I did continue on. All. The. Way. And there we were, glacier behind us and glacier right in front of us, with views out over the plains as far we could see.

We sat down to drink some water, eat a cliff bar, and cool down.

And then we looped back down. Knowing how far we had gone and how high we were, I was expecting a pretty constant downhill walk. But no. Instead, it stayed level for quite awhile, and then turned into practically a downhill sprint.

There was one point where the path drastically narrowed and there was a very steep, dramatic drop-off right next to it. A split second after I said “Wow, this looks dangerous,” I tripped on a loose rock and fell. Luckily I felt straight down onto my ass instead of to the side at all, and Anthony and I were laughing about it 2 seconds later.

At last, we made it down, and walked back to our little campsite.  We enjoyed our views of the mountain in front of us as we relaxed for the evening before heading up to bed. The northern lights made another very weak performance during the night.

 

Happy, happy day.  As sad as we were to leave our peaceful little heaven at the Ásbyrgi campsite, we knew we were heading somewhere we would love.

We took road 864 back from Ásbyrgi to the Ring Road, which was somehow even worse than the road we took there. Well, really, it didn’t start off all that bad. We made it to the east side of Dettifoss without too much trouble. The mist and fog and rain that had set in the night before was still hanging around as we hiked out to the massive waterfall, but I do have to agree with what I had read online, that the view from that side was better.

Every spot I stopped at, I decided I needed to get just a bit closer, until I was standing near the edge right by the waterfall. I almost felt like I was just going to be sucked right into it. It was just so big, and so powerful.

But then we left Dettifoss, and the road was just ridiculous. It took us so long to bounce our way over the potholes back to the Ring Road.

And then we were flying down the road, taking in views of mountains and valleys and waterfall after lovely waterfall.

Iceland is ridiculous with its waterfalls. You’re just driving along the Ring Road, and there will just be a little pull off to walk up to some gorgeous waterfall that you know nothing about.

We reached Egilsstadir, the gateway to the East Fjords, and stopped to refuel and grab some groceries. And then onward we went, our little Jimny climbing up a mountain, looking out over forests (in Iceland!!) and beautiful land as far as we could see.

We were clearly in a cloud at the top of the mountain, but as we started climbing back down into the town of Seyðisfjörður, the views started getting clearer and prettier.

We pulled into a parking lot and were mesmerized. Seyðisfjörður is quite possibly the most picturesque little village I have ever seen.

We walked through the streets and checked out the little blue Church.

There was a ferry docked, but somehow there weren’t many people around. We walked the sidewalk along the fjord for awhile, and then stopped in a pub on the water for some lunch, where I had a wonderful veggie burger and baked potato.

We considered just staying there the rest of the day since we liked it so much, but the day was still young and we already had a lot of ground to cover the next day. So, we climbed back up the mountain, the weather having cleared up a bit to allow us to see the fjord and the little waterfalls along the way better.

We drove south and turned off toward Mjóifjörður. I almost chickened out of going after seeing the condition of the road. I looked at Anthony and said “I don’t know, maybe we should just skip this one.”
And he asked, “Well what’s going to be there?”
“Just some beautiful fjord.”

And so of course, Anthony decided we were going. And I am SO glad he did.

Not many people know about Mjóifjörður, or at least don’t make a point of going. It’s far off from the Ring Road for one thing, and the road there is rough, and there is barely even a town in the fjord (population around 35). But I had read online that it was beautiful and that the little fjord had wonderful weather from being so well-protected and that was enough to put it on my radar.

The views the entire way there were insane. Waterfalls everywhere we looked. And sure enough, the weather became sunnier and warmer and calmer the closer to that fjord we got. I swear it is magical. I fell so in love.

One of the only named waterfalls on the way down is Kliffbrekkufossar, which is actually a series of stepped waterfalls. And it was stunning.

I saw so many other little waterfalls in the distance that I wanted so badly to go try to explore. But the fjord itself was stupidly beautiful itself, and it was calling our names, so we drove down and along the water until the little town. I daydreamed of going totally off-grid and staying there for the rest of eternity. Ok, so maybe not for winter. But I could totally live there for the summer.

We slowly made our way back to the paved road, and drove down to the next fjord for the night, Reyðarfjörður.

They had a lovely little campground next to a duck pond looking out at the fjord.

It was absolutely freezing, so we ate some soup and drank some hot chocolate to stay warm, and huddled up in our top-tent for the night. We set an alarm for the middle of the night to see if the Northern Lights would make an appearance, and sure enough, they did, but it was a weak showing. Possibility looks good for tonight, though, so fingers crossed!