Blogs from South, Iceland, Europe - page 5

Nez jsme se rano vykyblikovali a dohodli, co vlastne budeme delat, bylo pul jedenacte. Prejeli jsme do Skogaru, odkud se da jit hezka tura do horskeho sedla. Takze neco pred jednou jsme vyrazili. Hned na zacatku byl moc pekny vodopad Skogarfoss, zcela obklopeny turisty. Cesta pokracovala proti proudu reky, ktera tu vykotlala moc peknou roklinu s mnoha vodopady. Turistu postupne ubyvalo, porad jsme stoupali a slo se docela dobre. Na rozcesti jsme se podle planu vydali obtiznejsi cervenou trasou. A na ni jsme od posledni doby ledove byli asi tak desati v poradi. Uplne opustene se dve postavy sunuly do kopce, pomalu se ztracely v mlze a jedine rusily okolni ticho. Prvni prechod asi 5-metroveho snehoveho jazyku zpusobil dobrou naladu. Pozdeji nas z letargie nevytrhl asi prechod asi pulkilomertoveho snehu. Fakt to zacinalo byt nekonecne. Podle ... read more

We left Reykjavik in our Toyota Rav IV after filling up with Diesel at the nearby N1 gas station. Navigating the numerous roundabouts to leave the city wasn’t too difficult and we were soon on the open highway on a cool, windy and drizzly day. We chose to circle the country heading east first, along the south side of the island with the coast more or less on our right. In this direction, we found ourselves spotting waterfalls regularly, crashing down off of the hills and cliffs that were constantly along our left side. Our first stop after 90 minutes or so was Seljandfoss waterfall. Clearly visible from the highway, this group of 3 waterfalls was quite impressive. All of the tourist sites or points of interest are signed, but only small signs located at the ... read more

We did not know what to expect today except that the weather was going to be “not pleasant”. It turned out to be extremely cold with temperatures varying during the day between below zero to 7 degrees plus the icy rain and wind with low cloud made conditions just a little less than comfortable! We didn’t shirk any walking to sites, particularly the Katla Glacier, where the conditions were at their worst. This glacier has receded nearly a kilometre since 1990 due to global warming. We visited Skogar and Seljalands Waterfalls, neither as powerful as yesterdays but they had height. Due to the wind, the spray from both was not refreshing to say the least. Reynisfjara, the black beach, was exactly as described; black. Black rock, black stones, black pebbles, black sand. The sea was rough ... read more

Full day today! Time for the South Shore. The tour was cancelled yesterday because it was so windy in the south that they literally closed sections of the main highway - it's not that they get too much snow or anything, but they don't have lights on the roads (and honestly they don't really have barriers... they just have yellow sticks every 20ft or so), so if there's a snow drift you are screwed because there is nothing to guide you or even indicate you're still on a road rather than veering off into a lava field lol. We were ready to roll today though - we got the monster truck-bus :) I've seen them before in the summer, usually used for the glacier hikes and tours that are a bit more "adventure" based. Basically it's ... read more

We woke to a frosty morning, very suitable as today we set off to visit glaciers & glacial lagoons in Vatnajökull National Park! Vatnajökull is the largest and most voluminous ice cap in Iceland, and by area one of the largest in Europe, dominating south east Iceland. All the glaciers we saw today were offshoots of Vatnajökul. We drove past Vestrahorn (where they filmed Vikings!) to reach our first stop at Jökulsárlón – the blue icebergs in at the base of Breiđamerkurjökull. We also walked down the incredibly short river to see the icebergs washed up on the black sand beach, shining in the sun. We then stopped just up the road to see Fjallsárlón, another glacier lagoon where icebergs calve from Fjallsjökull.So lucky we had a sunny day for this bit as the ice just ... read more