Road trip Iceland part 3

phil79 (49)in #travel • 7 years ago (edited)

... after a nice breakfast with a breathtaking view over the lake, we left for a 7hrs ride from North to South.

Of course a 7hrs ride across Iceland is a lot more exciting than at other places. We had planned several stops during the day, and the first one was not so far from the lake. We stopped by a place called "Grotagja", it's a natural hot spring located in a cave. The place became famous as the love cave of John Snow and Ygritte during season 2 of Game of Thrones

A few km further down the road we arrived at a geothermal area called Hverrir. We went for a short walk along bubbling mud pools, steam vents and fumaroles which was quite impressive. It felt like walking on a different planet... the smell of sulphur( comparable with the smell of rotten eggs), the sizzling noise of the fumaroles and the beautiful orange/red landscape half covered by snow made it incredibly beautiful.

40 minutes later we arrived at the Dettifoss waterfall which is regarded as the most powerful waterfall of Europe (100m wide with a drop of 44 m) It's a short walk from the parking, and from there you can already hear it. Once you see him in front of you, you'll be quietly impressed. Definitely the number one of Iceland.

From there we went straight to the south. The next day we paid a visit to the famous Jökulsarlon, one of the main attractions of Iceland. It's a big glacier lagoon full of large chunks of ice. We went for a long walk alongside of the lake, where we caught the attention from a group of seals who did their best to entertain us.

Later on we went to a lesser known ice lagoon named fjallsarlon to have a boat trip. I found out about the lake by watching a videoclip of an Icelandic rockband called Kaleo. They have a song "save yourself" which was filmed on a iceberg in the middle of the lake.

I wrote an e-mail to Steindor the owner of the lake, and he was very helpful to us. He told me before that as long as the lake is still frozen, he couldn't organise any boat trips yet. Fortunately, during the last few days the temperature was rising, and we were lucky. He welcomed us at his place, and gave us a private tour on his magical lake.

After saying goodbye to our friendly host we went further down the road the our final stop of the day. A small village named Vik. The place is well known for the black beach of Reynisfjara . Once you enter the dramatic stretch, you'll see the Reynisdrangar rock formation pointing out of the Atlantic Ocean. According to folk legends, they were 2 sea trolls pulling a three-mast ship to the shore, but unfortunately they were caught by the sunlight at dawn and turned into stone.

Although the place is a gem, it also has a dangerous side on it. The waves are quite strong and unpredictable, and a few fatal accidents have occurred at this beach. Most of them were tourists who ignored the warning signs (never turn your back on the ocean) and got dragged into the ocean.!

Before we would go into our last night in this beautiful country, I wanted to end the day at a very unique place. 5 minutes driving of our cottage, you could do a 45 minute hike on the beach of Solheimasandur to see a twisted wreckage of an old US Navy DC 3 plane. Back in 1973 this plane was forced to crash land on Solheimasandur beach due to an empty fuel tank. Luckily all crew members survived the crash. Nowadays this place has become a photography dream location.

On our last day we had a 3hrs ride back to the airport, and of course we had a few stops to see some other breathtaking waterfalls.

This one is with my best friend @borhide in front of the powerful Skogafoss waterfall.

This picture is taken for behind of the Seljalandsfoss

After 8 exhausting but unbelievable beautiful days, our trip came to an end. We had an unforgettable time in a country where you had the feeling you were the last people on earth. Yeah, It was quite expensive...yeah, the food was quite average (our gastronomic highlight was the world famous Baejarins Beztu Pylsur hot dog in Reykjavik)... the locals were nice people but a bit reserved...and yeah, you smell even worse after taking a shower because of the volcanic smell...but all that didn't matter at all.

When you go to Iceland, it's for exploring unspoiled nature... for watching Northern lights above you, while relaxing in a hot tub... it's for driving hours trough desolated landscapes accompanied by the ideal music on your Ipod that made the place even more special (for me...Kaleo, Sigur Ross, Oscar and the Wolf, Eddie Vedder and of course Björk became the soundtrack of my trip)

For me, Iceland is the ideal escape from your busy life on the continent.