I slept over 8 hours last night. I don’t remember the last time I’ve slept a SOLID 8 hours. It was amazing. I probably could have slept longer but I had to get my butt moving.
After getting a quick bite to eat and a cup of tea at an “ehh” place I was back on the road. It was beautiful and sunny as I began my drive to Seljalandsfoss Falls and I took my sunglasses off to clean a smudge off them. Then put them back on and realized that smudge wasn’t my sunglasses, it was my eye. Last year’s detachment still hasn’t fully “healed” and I still get some clouds across my vision. Oh well, it was a minor one and passed quick.
I made it to Seljalandsfoss Falls and was surprised that it was right there, right off the main road. She was a pretty impressive fall and had a walkable path all the way behind and around the back of the falls. I put on my light jacket, threw my rain coat over, and headed down the path as the spray started raining down on me more with every step. It was pretty cool to be behind the waterfall, I got a little wet but not terrible, exchanged photograph taking with other random tourists, and made my way back around to the front.
There was a little trail from Seljalandsfoss and I could see at least one other fall so I decided to head down it and see what I could find. It didn’t seem too promising to be interesting but I’m glad I decided not to turn back! I came upon a little sign for Gljufrabui Waterfall. I could see a little waterfall overhead but when I came around the corner it was not the falls but a stream running through a narrow crevice between some rocks. I could hear the sounds of the falls and people were walking out of this crevice, balancing from rock-to-rock in the little stream so I figured it looked like I was about to crawl into a crevice. It was a very narrow “path” available to get through so I waited for a stream of people to come out and then followed a couple folks through. As another reminder today of my eyes, trying to locate the right rock to balance on to move across an ice-cold stream, when you can’t even touch the sides to balance is a BITCH when you have shitty depth perception. While I didn’t have my depth perception to thank during this journey, I did have my new Salomon Gore-Tex hiking shoes to thank since my feet stayed COMPLETELY dry the entire time and the tread was incredible; never felt as much as a slip scrambling across all sorts of slippery rocks and such today. But I digress…
I made it a very wobbly 40 ft or so through this crevice and was rewarded by finding myself fully surrounded by walls with a beautiful waterfall streaming down right before me. It was pretty awesome and, per usual, the pictures don’t do it any justice. I stood in awe as the falls soaked me and spun around a couple times looking up at the magical little oasis I had found myself in. Once again, I wobbled myself back through the narrow crevice (talk about a great core workout) and headed out to try to dry off. As I walked back to the car I caught glimpse of a giant white bird soaring overhead in front of the falls. I stood and watched it gracefully gliding and appreciated the beauty of the moment. Passing over a little brook in front of the falls I noticed coins glistening in the water and wished I had some coins with me so I too could make a wish.
Driving down the Ring Road, I saw a beautiful site I wanted to capture and pulled off the road beside a herd of sheep. Unlike the sheep in New Zealand that are skittish and flee, these guys see a person and coming running for you, apparently any person must equal food here. They were quite vocal and had a lot to say to me. Next I drove through the town of Hella. Thinking back to my teen years I had to life at the town of Hella. I thought it would be hella cool to get a picture of the Hella town sign but didn’t have a safe place to pull over. At least I found Hella horses.
As I turned off the main road to Skogafoss Falls, I knew I didn’t love the looks of this one. So many people and again right off the main road. There is a trail of steps up the side of the falls though that you can take all the way to view it from the top. And from the top there is a long hiking trail that takes you by about 26 other falls so I thought it might be worth it. There were some clouds on the glacier above it but they seemed a ways off. I was feeling pretty warm so I just had my long-sleeved thin shirt on and my warm jacket in my pack. It was cold as I walked towards the falls but I looked at the long trail of steps up the top of this 60 meter tall waterfall and knew doing that trek was going to warm me up. I walked to the base of Skogafoss and was not too impressed. Way too many people, viewing it wasn’t even enjoyable or serene like viewing a waterfall should be! I barely snapped a picture and headed to the trail up to the top. It was cold. And I could feel a few drops of rain coming down. But I knew the stairs would warm me up. I started up the steep stairs asking my asthma to please be nice and getting a little worried as I felt the burn in my lungs. But then I looked up again and laughed to myself reminding myself that I’ve done the Devil’s Staircase (Kyra will know) and this was NOTHING. I told myself to stop being a wuss, took deep breaths, kept my head down so I didn’t fall and step-by-step made it to the top before I knew it. Now unfortunately my plan for the steps to warm me up didn’t quite work out as planned since it also started to rain heavier and heavier with each step I took. I was still in my thin shirt and I was completely drenched. And cold. And my hat was drenched and cold. And I was already not in love with this waterfall for being so crowded. So I stopped at the top for a minute, snapped a couple pictures, and decided to turn around and head back to the car instead of taking this hike.
As I got closer to the car little bits of hail started coming down. I’m not sure if it was from the little trek, the cold, or the crappy breakfast I had but my blood sugar also dropped quick and I did not feel great. I got in the car, turned on the heater, ate a date bar, dropped an electrolyte tab in my bottled water and chugged it, and immediately felt better.
My next planned stop was the beach hike to the plane wreckage site but I started noticing that I was getting closer and closer to a large glacier. I saw a little side road and decided to turn off and follow it towards the glacier. Good call since this road led me to a little glacier head parking lot. I changed into a dry shirt in my car, put on all my warm gear as I was still frozen, and embarked on a little path to view the Solheimajokull glacier and her glacial lagoon. And you know what, she was ugly. Covered in ash and dirty, I was not a fan. I was very unimpressed by my first up close and personal encounter with a glacier. I was glad I didn’t book a trek to climb her. I have high hopes the glacier I should see up close tomorrow should be prettier.
Finally warmed up I arrived down the road at the trail head to the Solheimasandur plane wreckage site. It was a two-mile hike each way down the sandy beach to the plane wreckage and again, I was not impressed. I was more impressed as I made my way the rest of the way down to the ocean and saw what looked like a boat anchor washed up ashore; that too had to be a rough day for someone. On the hike down I had gotten legitimately warm but now wind was coming in and the sun was hiding behind the clouds. I layered up and headed back. As I walked back past the wreckage I spotted a piece of litter on the ground and decided to pick it up since it was such a clean area. I picked up the piece of paper and it was someone’s plane ticket. Talk about ironic. And cue my eye roll. After about 5 miles walking in the sand I was finally getting tired again. But at least I was dry still!
From there I headed to a lighthouse promontory for some scenic views. It was freezing cold and windy up there and I was not feeling like this was a promising stop but I’m glad that I still made myself go for it. The views were amazing. Absolutely stunning. And so very cool to stand in one vantage point with the wide open ocean on one side of you and a glacier covered range on the other side. Very unique perspective to have these two wonders within about 10 miles of each other.
As I made my way from there to my last stop of the day I drove right by my AirBnB for the night so I could stop and drop off my stuff. It is an adorable little cabin. Very little, probably 400 sq feet, but warm and has everything I need.
My last outing of the day was a trip to the Reynisdranger black sand beach. It was a beautiful beach but what made it stunning and special was the basalt columns along the edge of the cliff against her waters. It was some of the most stunning rock formations I have ever seen. I loved them and spent a long time just staring at them and appreciating their perfect chaos. They were almost as gorgeous as my volcanoes. Almost. Puffins perched above them and flew all around. And on the hill to their side little sheep balanced on steep hillsides enjoying some damn good grass. It was fantastical scene. Along the black sand beach it appeared that perhaps a big wave had thrown a school of fish ashore as there was an entire line of dead fish. I appreciated that someone even made some fish art.
But now I was getting really tired, once again cold, and hungry. I headed into Vik and decided I wanted a nice fish dinner so I picked the nicest place I could find in town and stopped by for a proper meal. I started with the lamb bits, which was quite interesting – it was a salad with pears, goat cheese, strawberries, balsamic, and basically lamb jerky on top. And it was surprisingly good. Apparently I like lamb jerky. My arctic chair was delicious and felt like it had been bathed in butter. But it hit the spot. Tomorrow is a 4 hour drive to my next AirBnB with plenty of stops along the way…
Taking On the World 
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