We slept soundly. So soundly, in fact, that we slept through a level 5 earthquake! We had no idea until our tour guide mentioned it the next morning. Emily thinks it’s because we were stacked in the bed like sardines—there’s no way to feel movement when you’re all smushed in together. As it turns out, we’ve been “experiencing” earthquakes all trip but none of us would know.
That’s when we learned why Reykjavik mostly consists of lower buildings and no skyscrapers. They’re more resistant to earthquakes!
South Coast Tour
We hopped on another tour bus today: an all-day tour to the southern coast of Iceland with Reykjavik Sightseeing. Our tour guide Monika is originally from Hungary but has been in Iceland for 6 years. It was a perfect day for our big sightseeing tour because the weather was a bit warmer and the sky was incredibly clear. We got to see several different glaciers during our drive that our tour guide said she normally couldn’t see during that drive.
The white at the top of that mountain is a glacier!
Skògarfoss
Our first stop was the waterfall Skògarfoss. Some people were camping at the base of the waterfall. We were able to get pretty close, although you risked some serious misting if the wind suddenly changed directions. It was more than 80 feet wide!
All around us during the drive were these amazing cliffs surrounding flat plains, which led to the ocean. Local mythology says that trolls and elves live in the caves.
Rejnisfjara
This was my second black sand beach. (First was in Kona, Hawaii.) They’re pretty cool to contrast with a traditional beach.
We saw some birds flying around but didn’t realize until after we left that they were puffins, the famous penguin-like bird of Iceland. We also saw some seals just bobbing around in the water watching the people on the beach.
There were also these really cool rock formations from the cooling magma. Apparently, when magma cools and solidifies, it can form the hexagonal shapes in the rock. Check them out!
Rock stacking is also popular here. You stack some rocks and then make I wish, I think. It’s cool to see these little rock stacks everywhere. So we did that at the black sand beach, too!
Vik
“Vik” means “bay,” so this southernmost town on the coast in Iceland is simply but appropriately named. This was our lunch stop, and Em, Jo, and I camped out on a nearby black sand beach for an hour or so. We packed a grocery store lunch, so it was pretty chill.
This is the Vik church, which is at the highest point of the town. If there is some natural disaster emergency, the town is supposed to meet up there.
Sólheimajökull Glacier
Next up was a glacier! This was my second glacier (the first one was in Patagonia) and we didn’t hike on this one. But we got pretty close to it! We also got to drink some glacier water from the pond. It was a little cloudy from the ash and some minerals, but it tasted really refreshing!
We saw some of the glacier fall into the lake beneath it as it slowly melted. Some facts about the glacier:
- the top layer isn’t “dirty” per se—it’s covered in ash from the last local volcano eruption in 2011;
- the really blue parts of the glacier are freshly cleaved—as the “fresh” ice is exposed to the sun, it gets white;
- there is water running through and underneath the glacier;
- it takes 12 cubic meters of snow to make 1 cubic inch of glacier ice—it’s way more compact than ice in your freezer!
Seljalandsfoss
Our final stop was Iceland’s most famous waterfall. It’s 20 meters high, but the coolest part is that you can walk behind it! We got pretty wet from all of the mist (we probably needed showers anyway!) and the path was a little slippery, but very manageable.
The tour concluded by dropping us off again in Reykjavik near the top of the main promenade or touring street. We wanted to eat some local cuisine, so we hunted for a decently-priced menu that included lamb soup and seafood. We found one!
I'll post more about the food itself on a food-focused post (my true talents as a food critic have been entirely wasted on the traditional education system, I think...) but it was all really good. We also got ice cream from one of the more popular ice cream shops on the way back to the Airbnb.
By the time we got back, cleaned up, and made sure we were fully prepped for the next day, it was nearly 11PM and we were exhausted. We didn't realize how late it was getting because of the sunlight!
Step tracker: 43,513 steps
Besos,
Tina the ExploraDora
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