August 9 - Southern Iceland

On our way to the southernmost city of Iceland, Vik (pronounced Veek), we passed the volcano responsible for last year’s travel disruptions: Eyjafjallajokull. Although the name looks like a handful, it is actually 3 Icelandic words run together: Eyja (island) Fjalla (mountains – the j is a y like ‘you’), jokull (Glacier). It is so named because the Westman Islands are visible just off the coast. Place names are very much inclined to be descriptive. Despite the fact that this is a small country, there are at least 3 communities called Reykholt or smoky hill – because of all the volcanic activity here. We stopped at the farm made famous in a photo of the eruption. The ash on parts of the countryside has destroyed farming in some areas of the most fertile area of Iceland.

My photo

Professional photo

Our first official stop was Skogafoss, which was wider than most of the waterfalls we saw and also had a rainbow. We took a stairway (up 181 steps) to a promontory about halfway up to get great views of the falls and rainbows.

Lookout point we climbed to at top right of photo

Nearby was Skogar Folk Museum, developed by Thordur Tomasson who is now 90 and still actively involved in the Museum. While we were being told about the artifacts in the building, he joined our group twice – once to demonstrate playing the dulcimer, and later to show us how to spin wool without a spinning wheel. He looked pretty spry for 90, and reminded me of  how good my Mom is doing as she turns 91. One of the interesting things I learned was about the wooden soup bowls. Apparently these were very common in the old days, but, being wood, when their usefulness was over, they were recycled for heating, leaving very few examples for modern people to see. Some were nicely decorated. The museum, we were told, is second only to the National Museum in Reykjavik in terms of the volume and quality of items on display.  For me, the more interesting part of the museum were the examples of homes through the ages. There was a sod house, and a couple more modern (but still old) homes, a church, and a schoolhouse. The school house had a book apparently listing all the students and details like birthdates and years of attendance.

Before lunch, we drove off road to the finger of a glacier that came within a couple of kilometers of the main road and walked around on it for a bit. The Solheimajokull is a finger of a larger icecap. It melts from underneath and you can hear the roar of a waterfall without seeing anything more than a few drips. The glacier is covered with the ash from last year's eruptions (which slows its melting) and so it looks pretty dirty and it is rare to see the characteristic blueish ice normally seen readily on glaciers. It apparently has receded about a half a mile in the last few years too.We apparently were only supposed to set foot on the glacier and get off because Snorri is not a certified glacier guide and we did not have crampons or ice axes. We're pretty uncontrollable though and walked around quite a bit. I didn't think we were too far out of line, but I guess he was pretty relieved when we all exited safely.

At least some interior areas showed the bluish ice typical of glaciers

We had lunch at a hotel on a bluff overlooking Dyrholaey, famous for its sea stacks (or trolls caught out in the sun). After lunch, we drove to the foot of Reynisfjall to black sand and pebble beach with views of magnificent formations of basalt columns and sandstone as well as back to Dyrholaey

Dyrholaey rock formations

Nearby was Vik, a somewhat unremarkable town, which fortunately had a post office and a bank, allowing some of us to buy stamps and others (who will remain nameless...) to buy money and Magnum Bars.

On our way back to Selfoss, we stopped at another famous waterfall called Seljalandfoss.  This one didn’t have the volume of Skogafoss, but the hill behind it had been hollowed out, so we could talk a walk behind the falls. It was another example of a great activity for a hot day, because spray from the falls was impossible to avoid at some points. It also had great rainbows from some viewpoints. As we walked up there, I noticed another interesting falls that dropped halfway down the cliff into a hole and disappeared.

Back in Selfoss we were on our own for dinner and 8 of the 14 of us arrived at the same pizza place, two at a time, expanding the table as we came in. The pizza was pretty good and not that expensive, a positive improvement from the sushi we tried in Akureyri.