Chasing Waterfalls

29.10.19

Sunny blue skies had all but disappeared. We thanked our lucky stars the weather had been kind to us for so long, and packed the umbrellas, raincoats, gloves, scarves and beanies.

Our plan for the day was to visit the two waterfall biggies Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss. But before we headed down Highway 1, we did a little bit of local exploring around Hvolsvőllur and chanced upon some treasures. The cute little church at Ninulundur led us off the main road. I loved the steeple and how ornate it was, compared with the simplicity of others we had seen.

On the way back to the main road, a farmer was carting his goats out of the farm gate, we think they were headed for that big chevre in the sky.

Sure enough, once we had passed, he continued down the road to where a truck lay waiting…..

But, he had a great waterfall right in his back yard and said he was happy for us to go and look at it as long as we were careful of the electric fence.

Ouch!

We have no idea what the waterfall was called, but as it was a totally unexpected find, it was beautiful!

Just up the road we found one that did have a name, Gluggafoss. It was magnificent, and, no tourists!

After climbing the first cascades you reached the upper drop, falling into a deep pool. The frozen icicles around the edges made it look very pretty, and very cold!

Back on Highway 1, Seljalandsfosss soon came into view. This is the waterfall you can ordinarily walk behind, but as the path had iced over, it had been closed. We jostled to try and take a pic of this beauty without thousands of tourists in it. Hard going!

One of us was a bit silly…

We were not so lucky grabbing a pic with no tourists 100m up the road at Gljúfrabúl. The waterfall cascades over the escarpment edge into a very narrow gorge, almost a cave really.

Everyone was slipping and sliding on the ice to get through the crevice to see what it was like inside, and Chris managed to peep through. He said it was very wet!

Another 20kms along the road was my favourite, Skogafoss. Falling over the cliff and plunging into a pool at the bottom, GOT fans should recognise this scene as the one where Jon and Danny have a bit of a pash after riding the dragons together for the first time. With a little help from CGI of course!

Beside the waterfall was a steep climb up to a lookout that allowed you to get up close and personal with the power and spray of water.

We travelled further down the coast to a little village called Vik, famous for its volcanic black sand beaches, powerful waves and dramatic basalt sea stacks called Reynisdranger. These also featured briefly in GOT as Eastwatch by the Sea (for those who are interested)!

The little church at Vik was in a stunning position above the town.

And it might have just happened to have a cache as well! Clue: you will find this cache under the only bush on the hill!

The light was fast fading, so we hightailed it off to our last stop, Dyrhòlaey, a huge stone arch next to a rocky plateau. The sand was the blackest I’d ever seen.

We’d had a huge day, and all agreed it was time for some R&R. John and I went to the local thermal pools for a soak (when in Rome….), then picked up pizza for dinner. A pool challenge was called for.