Iceland Part Deux, Days 2-3

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As our Icelandic friend told us the night before, a wind storm was coming. We still made our way north towards the Golden Circle from Reykjavik the next morning before being turned around about 10km onto the route. There were many stopped cars and ahead of them we could see massive wind gusts and snow blowing across the road, which didn't look to be letting up any time soon; I was bummed as I was looking forward to imparting my geologic knowledge onto some unsuspecting teenagers. So, we turned around to head back on Highway 1 south towards Vik. After getting a little lost in Reykjavik, we made our way to our destination. I knew we were going up the mountain pass, but I was amazed at how scared I was driving here; I grew up in lake effect snow country, so snow does not scare me, but snow, hurricane force winds, tiny rental car, mountains, kids in the back who are not mine, etc - scary. The wind blew the snow across the road and there were times it was about 6-8 inches deep and we just had our tiny little Yaris. I followed a Rav4 type of car and went as slow as necessary. No one really seemed the need to pressure me, and I was by no means the slowest on the road, so we all went slow until the roads cleared up on the other side of the mountain.

Our first stop was Seljandsfoss. This is the waterfall that you can walk behind and the one my Dad and I liked the most on our last trip. The difference between the times could not be more obvious. The cliffs were all but frozen over and the falls were significantly smaller. It was still quite busy, but as soon as we stepped out of the car, we had a freezing cold shock. The wind whipped our doors open and attacked our exposed faces. The parking lot was covered in slippery ice, so walking was difficult, not helped by the intense wind. I, and others, were literally blown to the sides of the path multiple times. It was hilarious not just trying to walk but seeing others have the same difficulties. We decided to run up to the falls, snap a few photos and run back. We even attempted to see about the walk behind the falls, but a nice gust of wind carrying the spray into our faces quickly turned us back. It was insane, but still beautiful.

Our next stop was Skogarfoss, the high one with the wooden steps to the top. Again, the water flow was significantly less, and in this cold there was no way we were climbing to the top. However, there was an incredible rainbow at the base of the falls, which provided great photo ops. This was another place with intense wind and ice - I actually fell shortly after getting out of the car. I have a problem with getting the giggles during intense situations; apparently, trying to navigate ice with sneakers is one of those times. After we saw the falls, we headed to the nearby restaurant for a decent lunch. Again, comedy ensued as we tried to get from our car to the door on the thick sheets of ice. Gabe's hat also blew straight off his head and across the field and road as soon as he got out of the car. There was nothing we could do at that point, so we refueled on some decent grub. On our way back to the main road, we attempted to find Gabe's hat. He and K walked across the road towards a fence, thinking surely it could not have gone over. After searching for five minutes, they found his hat as well as another! However, we lost the cover to our left hand side mirror somewhere between here and Seljandsfoss and dreaded to think about how our rental company would react…

We soon found our accommodations for the next two nights: Midvoll Cottages near Vik. We found the cottages themselves easy enough, but had trouble locating the reception. When we finally spotted it, we were so focused on getting there we did not see the ground and K drove right through the ice and our car got stuck… Yep, stuck. We went into reception, which was hot as a sauna, checked in and waited for someone to pull us out. Fortunately, the guys said this was the third time this week and since it was a farm, a man in a tractor came out within five minutes. We went to get settled into our quiet cottage, which had a main room with full kitchen and a separate bedroom and bathroom. It was IKEA'd out. I slept on the surprisingly comfortable pullout couch in the main room, while Gabe got the top bunk and the sisters shared the double bed in the bedroom. No geothermal sulfur smelling water here, so we all enjoyed nice hot showers both days and got to work on our wine. We also made some pasta for dinner, using supplies we bought in Reykjavik; you can easily leave your food in the car as it is basically a refrigerator.

The next day of our road trip we first stopped at the black sand beach, which you could see from our cottage, but was even more incredible up close. The beach here contained more small rounded gravels than sand but had lots of rock formations nearby. After spending a few minutes here, we made our way east towards the lagoon, the furthest point of the day. On the way, we passed a car stuck in the snow on the side of the road. I stopped the car, thinking about how not a single person stopped for us with our flat tire in October despite being in the middle of nowhere. It was a couple from Brooklyn who were happy to have help and it was like a chain reaction as two more cars stopped to assist too. The funny thing was, the guy sat behind the wheel while his girlfriend helped us to push; fortunately, we got the car out and cheers all around. Good karma for the day!

We continued onto the Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon, which was also much different from October. Now I realized I needed to stop expecting so much based on my previous trip. I knew the winter would affect the locations but I was not prepared for how different they would be. I think the Glacial Lagoon was the most drastic. There were not large blue icebergs floating in the lagoon, but there were lots of flat ice floes and many seals just lounging around on them. So, it was neat in its own way, but I much preferred the haunting beauty of the blue icebergs. However, the black sand beach just across the road was still awesome, with its perfect sand and ice lining the the beach.

Due to the time it took to push the couple out of the snow, we were unable to go on the hike as planned, but we did get to see the glacier as before. In fact it was easier as the road was covered in compacted snow and ice, so the potholes were not as noticeable. In fact, this is how we felt the whole drive. We were worried about snow and ice the whole drive, but our car did an amazing job. The ice and snow on the not heavily traveled roads were still quite compacted and our studded tires made it easy to drive; we almost never slid.

On our way back to the cottages, we thought we would stop for dinner at a restaurant at the last site: Reynisfjara Beach. Here was a continuation of the black sand beach from the morning, but with some impressive basalt columns along the cliffs. Unfortunately, the restaurant closed at 6, about two minutes before we arrived, and it was still cold and windy, so again we ran in for some photos and ran back. We found a grocery store in Vik and stocked up to make another round of pasta and have some snacks for the next day's road trip. No Northern Lights though, despite fairly clear skies both nights. Bummer...

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Midvoll cottages
We loved our two weeks in Iceland. These cottages look adorable. We'll have to check them out next time.