June 14
Reynisfjara
Our first stop this morning was the black sand beach in Southern Iceland with beautiful jagged rocks jutting out into the sea. The weather was very windy, and very cold! The waves were mesmerizing – some of the biggest waves we have ever seen. The beach was filled with gorgeous smooth black rocks. The sand and rocks are all a pure black color from the volcanic activity on the island.
The drive
We’ve observed a few interesting things while driving through the Icelandic countryside. First, there are SO many sheep that are just roaming around, often outside of their pasture fence! But they aren’t very smart animals and will cross the street in front of cars at anytime. We were told when we first picked up our camper van that if we hit one we would have to pay 500 Euros to the sheep farmer for each sheep hit. We haven’t hit one yet thankfully, but have come pretty close!
Another thing that is interesting on the roads are their radar speed signs. There are happy and sad faces on them and it will change to a green happy face if you are driving under the speed limit.
There are also a lot of one lane bridges on the island.
In Reykjavik, there were a ton of “no tractor” signs. We thought this was funny since there didn’t seem to be any farms in the downtown area but clearly the city thought it was a problem and they needed to post a reminder on nearly every street.
Velkomin í Freysnes – Trail to a Glacier
We found this trail on All Trails. The trail was a little hard to find as it was tucked behind a hotel and not well advertised. It was our favorite hike so far! There were fields as far as the eye could see of these gorgeous purple flowers. We got to the top of the trail and it looked over the valley onto the very edge of one of the largest glaciers in Iceland. It was so beautiful!
Fjallsárlón Glacier
Our next little hike we went on was about 30 minutes down the road from the first. We were driving on the Ring Road and saw a sign for a glacier. We saw on All Trails again that there was a trail behind a restaurant. It was a short and easy hike to an absolutely stunning view of the glacier! While we were there, it was silent enough that from across the lake we heard the glacier give out a deep rumble. We were both mesmerized and terrified at the same time. It’s enormous!
Jökulsá á Breiðamerkursandi
Just a short drive from the Fjallsárlón Glacier was this amazing view of another side of the glacier. As the ice was breaking off the glacier, a canal was pulling the broken pieces out to sea. Birds were flying all around enjoying what appeared to be a bountiful fish meal under the melting ice. We even saw a seal swimming among the icebergs!
Diamond Beach
Right near the canal that was pulling the icebergs out to sea was this beautiful black sand beach. It is called Diamond Beach because it is filled with broken off pieces of the glacier. Graham was determined to touch a part of a glacier and he finally did here!
Camping Höfn
We stopped for the night around midnight. The campground had a beautiful view of a lake.
