South Coast & Eyjafallajokull


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Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Reykjavík
February 3rd 2011
Published: May 6th 2011
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The massive Seljalandsfoss Waterfall on the South Coast of Iceland.
The plan for today was to head out to the South Coast of Iceland towards the glaciers Eyjafjallajokull and Myrdalsjokull, to get a good close look at the famous Eyjafjallajokull volcano that recently erupted. That was the plan, and after throwing on layer over layer and eating breakfast downstairs our tour guide from Volcano Tours arrived in his large 4x4 jeep. The majority of the morning was driving, I didn’t realise it was so far away and apart from a very short stop at a greenhouse to see banana trees with no banana’s we didn’t leave the car. Eventually we stopped at a small roadside café where we had lunch. Our tour guide recommended trying some traditional horse meat, however Hannah and I decided against that and went for hot chips and a sandwich instead. I was beginning to get a little concerned considering however expensive this tour was because we hadn’t really seen anything at all yet and it was already early afternoon. Once we finished lunch we jumped back into the jeep and continue driving towards Eyjafallajokull glacier.

It was now almost 2PM and we had just arrived at our first stop of the day the Seljalandsfoss waterfall.
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A Frozen staircase which leads to a path behind the waterfall.
It was massive, water was pouring off a cliff down into a small freezing river. We jumped out of the jeep into the freezing cold to get some fantastic photos. What made this particular waterfall even more impressive is that you could walk right up to it without getting drenched, in fact during the summer months you could even walk behind it. However in winter it was way too dangerous to walk on slippery rocks. Hannah came rushing over to me to show me a blade of grass which was entirely encased in ice, it looked like a finger. There were actually thousands of them, every blade of grass was frozen in a centimeter thick casing of ice, it was bizarre. After getting photos of every angle we all made our way back to the jeep and drove on. We were now at the off-road stage of our trip as we drove through knee deep snow. The landscape was beautiful, everything was dusted in a thick snow as we drove right next to huge ice covered mountains and glaciers, an extremely impressive place, like nothing I had seen before.

We continued on as the terrain became rougher, the snow
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The freezing cold waters of the Seljalandsfoss Waterfall
was deeper and worryingly, the weather was beginning to deteriorate. But we were having so much fun, especially whenever we came to a frozen river which we drove straight through, some of which were pretty deep. It starting snowing heavily and the further we went on the more both jeeps were struggling so it was long before the other jeep became stuck in the snow and ice. Our tour guides jumped out, attached a rope on each jeep as we pulled them out with no trouble at all, but the weather continued to get worse and worse. We drove on moving slower and slower and had to pull the other jeep out a few times as unfortunately they had broken the 4WD when going through a river earlier. Soon enough the other jeep got stuck really bad while going through a river and all attempts to pull it out were failing, our rope had broken. The guides got shovels out and tried to dig the jeep out of the snow, I offered help where I could. We were actually stuck here from over an hour as they struggled to get the jeep out but finally after a good push from
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Incredibly, every blade of grass was encased in ice!
all the blokes we freed the jeep from the frozen river.

The tour guides could not go any further, the weather was extremely bad and the jeeps we not coping well against the deepening snow, so we turned around and headed back. It was already late afternoon before we headed back and the tracks we made getting here had already disappeared under a fresh layer of snow. In fact at times it was so difficult to tell ground from sky that we had to get out and walk on the tracks so the jeeps could follow us, the weather was intense, everything, absolutely everything was white. So much snow had fallen that finding the jeeps tracks while walking in the snow was almost impossible. What took us no time at all coming out, now took hours as we headed back step by step, followed by two jeeps. Eventually we found the way back to the main road and began the very long drive all the way back into Reykjavik. Even though we didn’t get to see the Eyjafallajokull volcano, it was an awesome day out, a real adventure in Iceland.

It was now getting closer to 6PM and
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Heavy snow was making it difficult for the 4WD's.
we were still driving back to Reykjavik. It was around now that I was expecting a phone call to tell me our Northern Lights tour had been cancelled but it reached 6:30 with still no phone call. I rang the tour company who said that tonight it was going ahead, I couldn’t believe it. Where we were there was nothing but clouds but maybe we actually stood a chance tonight. After a huge day trip we got back to our hotel in Reykjavik at 7:15PM, our Northern Lights tour was picking us up at 7:30PM. I raced upstairs to change my soaking wet jeans while Hannah spoke to the bar staff to get some very quick dinner. We stuffed ourselves with a toasted sandwich and before we could finish the bus arrived to pick us up. We were taken to the Icelandic Excursions head office where we checked in and boarded a bigger bus to take everyone out to chase the lights.

Hannah and I were already exhausted and struggled to stay awake for the majority of the bus ride. We drove quite some time before our tour guide decided to pull over and get us out to stare
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Stunning landscape, our 4WD in heavy snow with huge mountains in the background.
up at the heavens. It was cloudy, but very patchy, in the far distance we could see only a very slight flicker of light above the clouds, but it was far from what I was hoping to see. We drove through the night and various stops, each of which was way too cloudy. We headed to the coast and it was relatively clear so I stood by the Sea waiting for any sign of the Northern Lights. After some time waiting, it suddenly got quite windy and most of us only just made it back into the bus before a blizzard swept in, that was it for tonight, no sightings, we made our way back to Reykjavik. Because we hadn’t seen them tonight we were given a free tour for the following night, however this was Hannah and I’s last chance, we were leaving tomorrow. However I was happy that we got to go on one Northern Light tour, even if we didn’t see them, better than sitting in our hotel room. Exhausted, we got back to our hotel and fell straight asleep.

Accommodation:
Hotel Reykjavik


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One of our 4WD's became stuck in the ice, the heavy snow was now unlike anything I've ever seen.
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The entire landscape was completely covered in fresh snow


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