The South Coast

The Seljalandasfoss waterfall.

The Eyjafallajokull volcano with the farm in the foreground.

Skogafoss waterfall.

The basalt formations in the rock.

 A puffin emerging from its burrow on a cliff.

Black Beach and the rugged coastline.

Wednesday, August 16^th.

We had a beautiful start to our day. The weather was sunny and mild. We started out at 9 and drove a short distance to Seljalandasfoss waterfalls (which is a bit redundant as I have figured out Foss means waterfall). This is a spectacular waterfall that drops off a cliff. This cliff used to be the coast of the country but is now a couple of kilometres inland. The drop is impressive but what makes it amazing is that the cliff has an overhang, so with a little climbing over slippery rock and through spray, you can actually walk right around behind it and out the other side.

Do you remember the volcanic eruption in 2010 that grounded air traffic around the world? Well our next stop was at the base of the Eyjafallajokull volcano that caused it. There is a farm at the base of the volcano that weathered the storm and they have created a visitor centre and a 20 minute movie that shows footage and explains the ramifications to their life. It was amazing. Having never experienced anything like that, I could only marvel at the destruction and what they lived through (seven days of complete darkness caused by the ash).

After taking some photos of the farm that is still there, we went to the Skogar Museum. This is a museum created by one man who collected over 25000 artifacts from Icelandic life from the early days to the present. He is now 92 and the state has taken it over. It was a very interesting place where we learned about how hard and isolated life was. The people had few resources to build things and since there were no trees, the houses were made from rock and turf. All tools, furniture and boats were made from the only wood they had access to: driftwood. Really an interesting place.

Then we went to another beautiful waterfall, Skogafoss, which is 60 metres high and 25 metres wide. This one had a 430 stair climb to the top for an alternate view of the river tumbling over the cliff.

The next stop was the village of Vik, the southern most point of Iceland, and the Dyrholaey area and its black beach, which is black from the volcano activity over the centuries. There is a unique columnar basalt formation here which forms a large vaulted cave. There are also a number of eroded offshore rock formations reminiscent of the Great Ocean Road in Australia. We stayed here for a snack before driving around the mountain to reach the beach on the other side. Here there were cliffs where puffins were flying to and fro to catch fish to feed their chick in their burrows.

Finally we drove to our new farm guesthouse for dinner and the night. This is another example of farmers taking advantage of the booming tourist trade and setting up rooms and a dining area. This one seems quite new and is well appointed. We had a terrific fresh Arctic char dinner.

Before turning in Mohammad, Leonard, and I went for a walk down the farm road swapping travel stories.