Day 7: An icy golden circle

 We woke up to snow/sleet falling and alerts on our phone saying that roads may be slippery. We had planned on an early start, but decided to hunker down and drink hot coffee for a couple hours instead. There's a website (road.is) that is mandatory viewing every morning, it shows the condition of each road and lets you know when it's safe to travel. I don't know what you do if they close all the roads around you, but luckily that didn't happen. Once the roads turned from "slippery" to "spots of ice" we headed out toward Reykjadalur Hot Spring thermal river. The roads were wet but not icy, the biggest problem was the insane wind. It was a bit crazy on some of the mountain passes but we made it to the parking lot without incident. It's a 3 mile hike to the river where we were planning to swim. The river gets hotter the further you go so you just walk until you feel like taking a dip. The hike started like this:

The sun was just starting to peak through, but the wind kept getting stronger. As we went higher the hike quickly turned to this:

A lot of people kept going, but with the wind and slippery slopes we decided it wasn't worth taking a dip in this weather. We headed back down with bright red faces from the crazy wind.  

The Golden Circle is a really touristy route that the majority of people visit when going to Iceland. The rest of the country is at least as pretty and has better hikes to do, but I think they just try to funnel all tourists to the Golden Circle to keep them out of the harder to reach places. We changed our plans a bit due to the wind/ice and just found a couple waterfalls that were easily accessible. Bruarfoss was first.

The bright blue waters and distant mountain views were spectacular. About 20km away is Gullfoss. There's a huge restaurant and gift shop there so it was a good place to grab a pizza and souvenirs.

Gullfoss is huge and there's a constant stream of water droplets spraying upwards so every time the sun came out there was a rainbow.

We found a nice corner away from people and just enjoyed our last hour in this beautiful country. 

The landscape in Iceland is like nothing we've ever seen. There are huge flat patches of former lava flow as far as the eyes can see, dramatic cliffs forming out of nowhere, snow capped plateaus, birch forests, a bajillion waterfalls, glaciers dropping chunks of snow into fast-flowing rivers, and something new to look at around ever corner. 

Put Iceland on your bucket list, you won't regret a Ring Road road trip. 

Iceland Day 6: Grab Grettir by the Grabrok and Glanni

 We've found that by day 6 of every vacation we get a bit road-weary and need a little break. Iceland has quite a few natural hot springs but many of them are very expensive and full of people (looking at you Blue Lagoon). We found a lovely place called Grettir's Pool which is only $15 each and there was nobody else there in the morning. 

The pool is at the end of a gravel road in a sheep farm way at the end of a peninsula, so it's private and has incredible views. The other direction from this pic is the sea but there is a rock wall there to block the wind (surprise, it was windy!). There's two pools, one 98 degrees and the other 104, so we jumped back and forth between them. We had the place to ourselves for the first hour and then just 3 more people joined.

Once we were relaxed and cooked through we headed off to the south. We got to Grabrok volcano and again had the place to ourselves. 

This volcano hasn't erupted in over 3000 years so the surrounding land has had time to recover with mosses and small plants clinging to the lava rock. It was crazy windy and a bit rainy so we bundled up and walked around the rim of the crater. There were great views of the neighboring volcano as well. As the locals say "When it get's wjindy, grabrok!"

There was also a 100 year old sheep corral built out the lava rocks. Apparently it was poorly built and the slope made it so that the sheep trampled each other, so they let it go to ruin and built a new corral nearby. 

Just down the street was Glanni waterfall. 

There's a waterfall around every corner in Iceland, we saw a few dozen just driving through the north. We ended the day at Mosskogar campground with an asian noodle TV dinner type thing that was surprisingly good. The campground is the last stop for many tourists so there's a table with all sorts of leftovers like gas tanks, coffee, soy sauce, spices, and everything you need to make dinner. Oh, and good views and hot showers.

The weather is supposed to take a turn for the worse, so we're evaluating our plans for tomorrow. 

Iceland Day 5: Northern Lights and Northern North

Yay! We did it! We saw the Northern Lights in Iceland! The main reason we went to Iceland in the fall season was to see the northern lights. October is both a great month to see them but also the most rainy/cloudy month of the year for Iceland. So all we could do is hope for one clear night. And we got it!

Night 4 was clear and COLD and around midnight, everyone left the warmth of their campervans to see the northern lights. It was so beautiful. We stayed up to watch the ever-changing beauty of the northern lights until we were both shaking from the cold. We're super happy to cross that off the bucket list! What a wonderful memory to cherish. 

Day Five was a day mainly full of driving. This was okay for us, since we've been doing some long hikes these past four days and our calves were pretty sore. This was closer to arctic climate, so it was more barren tundra-type landscape. It was still pretty, but we were glad to get back to the pretty mountains and fields by that evening.

Along the drive, we took small breaks to see some more beautiful things. There were waterfalls everywhere, so we stopped occasionally to take pictures. Like the above one, which was a lovely waterfall with the snow-capped mountains in the background.

There were other random bits where we pulled over to enjoy the pretty views, like this (above) picture of a mountain range on the other side of the river. Paul was drooling over every wild river-stream because he wanted to go fishing in them all. 

We also stopped at Rjúkandi Waterfalls, which were also very pretty. 

Our final stop was Stuðlagil Canyon. There was an optional hike to the bottom of the canyon, but we were pressed on time today, so we chose to just walk to the viewing point. This was another cool gorge/canyon where there were rapids and waterfalls and cool hexagon stones at the bottom.

The water at the bottom was glacier-blue and greens, and the rock formations were stunning. We really enjoyed looking at all the different rocks at the bottom.

After enjoying this canyon, we continued on the campground. Our campervan beeped at us at one point to tell us that we were low on 'adblue'. We had no idea what that was, so there was a brief frantic internet search to figure out what to do. Sometimes trips in foreign countries have little unknown challenges, which can be stressful, but Paul and I are good at staying calm.

We filled up on adblue and finished the night setting up camp for the night at Hamrar, another beautiful campground.

Iceland Day 4: Bumpy roads and icy flows

 After a wonderfully hot shower we made an early start (8AM, which is early for us). The bathrooms and showers here are great. They're all super hot, probably due to geothermal, and the stalls are always totally private. I don't know why the US can't figure out how to properly enclose a shower/toilet but it makes way more sense this way. 

We headed to Mulagljufur Canyon. We were forewarned that the road would be gravel and very bumpy with one small stream crossing. It was basically all dodging potholes for 2km, but there was another car to follow and it wasn't dangerous so we continued. It was extremely worth it.

The sun was out and there were only a few other people in the parking lot so it made for a great hike. It was about 3 miles of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. All the plants were colorful and there were great mountain and glacier views in the distance. Then we crested a hill and the view of the gorge opened up.

The further up we went the more jawdropping the scenery.

I've been on a lot of hikes in pretty places but none of them took my breath away like this. There was a bit of scrambling up gravel hills and across narrow rock bridges but overall it was an easy 3 mile hike that ended in a 360 degree view of the gorge and multiple waterfalls. 

By the time we drove back down the gravel road to leave we were getting a bit nauseous. Luckily, the next stop was just a quick stop at a glacier lagoon. So we'll just stop there a minute, right? After another mile on an even bumpier road we made it to the lagoon. Our lunch for the day was smoked arctic char and pickled herring so we smartly waited until after all the gravel roads to eat all that goodness. Otherwise, I would have arctic charfed my pickled hurling all over the place. 

The lagoon was full of chunks of ice that had fallen off the glacier. Occasionally we'd see a slice of an iceberg crack off and fall into the lake below, crashing below in a cacophony of shattering ice. There was also louder rumbling in the distance a few times, presumably from bigger iceslides up on the glacier. It was crazy cool. 

I waited patiently for my iceshroom friend (below) to tip over, but he never complied.

Next up was Diamond Beach which is a black sand beach with chunks of glaciers that wash up, people call the ice chunks 'diamonds' but the one I took home in my pocket seems worthless now. 

It was really fun, the river was flowing at walking speed so I'd spot a good iceberg and follow it as the river swept it out to sea. Then the waves would start trying to push it to shore while the current kept pushing it out. It was a battle, but the waves won and pushed my glacier chunk friend to shore.

Another bumpy gravel road up the side of a mountain took us to our campsite for the night at Fossardalur. 

Tonight is clear and might be the last chance to see the northern lights. Monday the weather is supposed to get a bit sleety. Tomorrow is a longer day of driving but we'll still have a couple cool things to do. 

Iceland Day 3: Beautiful Hikes Galore

The goal today was less driving, so we stayed two nights at Skaftafell Campground (a place, by the way, that I highly recommend).

We drove one hour from the campground to do the Fjadrargljufur Hike. No, I didn't just press random things on the keyboard there. This was a 2-ish mile hike along a gorge that had been carved by a glacier once upon a time.

It is stunning. The entire canyon is covered in greens, reds, and yellows during the fall and the sound of the rapids and a few waterfalls echoed throughout in the most majestic and beautiful of ways.

To make the hike even more delightful, it started snowing! I (Cris) was in absolute heaven. The temps here are my favorite, being in the 30s and low 40s. The snow was very slight; one of those first snows where you have to squint just so to see that it's actually snow. I miss those snows, since they are almost nonexistent in South Carolina.

The entire hike was absolutely beautiful, and we just kept saying that that was probably 'the best thing we've seen in Iceland'....a sentence that we've repeated ad-nauseum ever since. 

Everything we have seen is just too stunning and beautiful for words to describe. You should come and visit and let your eyeballs soak in this beauty yourself. And make sure you check out this hike when you're here.

After that, we got more groceries and then headed back to the campground. There was a 4.5-ish mile hike at the campground that we wanted to do for the rest of the day.

The hike started out next to the campground. It was seriously the most picturesque autumnal day. I absolutely LOVE birch trees and they are perfection right now. Paul took this picture of me near the pretty trees, the road into the campground, and the mountains and glacier in the backdrop. 

The hike went pretty much straight up a mountain, and along the way, we drank in the views of a river and a series of waterfalls and the most intense of perfect autumn colors.

At about the 2 mile mark, we came across the midpoint where a bunch of hikes split off in different directions. This was also right next to another stunning waterfall. This one was super cool because it was surrounded by hexagon basalt stones due to science-y reasons that I've already forgotten. (Paul's note: lava cools, hexagons tesselate and make an efficient way for heat to release)

At this point, Paul got his typical energetic curiosity about one of the paths we were NOT planning on taking, so he went off to explore and I sat and admired the waterfall for a good 30 minutes. And then it started snowing again, so I was grinning from ear to ear. By the time Paul came back, I was actually cold since I was sitting so long with the snow. I love being cold, so that made me super happy.

We took about a bajillion ridiculously beautiful photos on this next stretch of the hike, but I'll spare you the photo-bombing and share just a few. The hike went to the top ridge of a mountain and then turned along a glacier. The combo of autumn colors and glaciers was...crazy-beautiful. I can't think of more words than 'beautiful' right now for describing everything in Iceland.

After gaping at the beauty all around us, we headed along a narrow trail back towards the campground and it went through the most stunning and gorgeous birch forest that I've ever seen. I told Paul that I was going to move to this forest and live here forever and ever. It was very magical.

By the time we finished the hike, we were exhausted and very happy. Paul made toasted pizza pockets for dinner and then we crashed into a blissful sleep. 

Iceland Day 2: Superfluous j's and lots of wjind

We started day 2 after a good 11 hours of sleep and some mediocre instant coffee, so we were feeling alright. Unfortunately, the sleep and coffee got in the way of an early start so we didn't beat the tour busses to the first stop like we had planned. Seljalandsfoss was busy (note: foss means waterfall).

Stereotypically, British folks are very good at queuing, but these ones seems to have missed that day at uni. We dodged, ducked, and dodged as groups of British teens snapped photos and cracked wise. "Bob's your uncle, pip pip" they said as they stood blocking our path. The cool thing about this waterfall is that there's a path behind it with some really cool views. Despite the brits we made it around, slightly damper and sicker of teens.

There was a little walk away from people where we saw a few smaller waterfalls. Then we headed to Seljavallalaugundraugerflaugerkjarn (the last 21 letters are added for effect). I'm concerned that when we get back I won't be able to name a single thing we saw. There are random hot springs everywhere in this volcano-laden land. In this case a farmer made a swimming pool that's heated by a spring. 

The 2 mile hike was along a gorgeous river and was away from the big crowds, so it was lovely. The water in the pool wasn't super warm and I forgot my swimsuit so we just creepily dipped our hands in the water and ogled the swimmers. 

This is when the wjind started picking up. By the time we got to Solheimajokull glacier it was blowing 20 metric knots. There are a lot of tours that put on crampons to hike the glacier, but this was supposed to be a cheap trip so we forwent the $300 guided tour. Cris bailed halfway due to blowing gravel, but I made it to the bottom. Luckily, I arrived just as several tours left so I had the place to myself. The glacier was awesome and there were some black sand dunes to scamper so I had a grand time. 

At this point we were tired and windblown but had one more stop to make. But first, petrol.

Pet peeve of the day: Pre-pay gas stations. I'm in a rental van with no idea how big my tank is, how much gas costs, what the exchange rate is, or what the heck a litre is. So, let's make me prepay using a debit card with a pin: would you like to pay 2000ISK, 4000ISK, or more??? Make sure there's a line of people behind you that also don't know what's going on. I chose "pick a random number and pray it's a full tank". It was not a full tank.

Next on to Reynisfjara Beach. It was extremely windy so walking to the beach was quick, but we had to walk backwards on the way back to avoid being sandblasted. There were cool basalt formations, big waves, and black sand. 

By that time we were desperate for chocolate with nougat inside (according to Cris) so we stopped to shop and then headed to the campsite. On the way were dozens of miles of land that had been overrun with lava at some point. There was just lava rock for as far as the eye could see in every direction, all covered in moss. 

It's humbling to think that nature is powerful enough to just wipe out an entire square 50 miles of land in one eruption. We finally made it to our camp, sipped some beer, ate lamb stew and crashed. 

Future days will be a bit less busy (and hopefully fewer bloody brits). We're planning on doing some longer hikes to get away from the crowds and to really experience Iceland, weather permitting. Tonight is a bit clearer so possibly some northern lights if all goes well. This place is amazing, y'all should stop by a minute.

Iceland Day One: The Daining's Went to Iceland!

We didn't do an announcement post like usual for this Iceland trip, partly because we're only here for one week and partly because we decided to go kinda at the last minute.

Anyway, we're in Iceland!!!

We started Day 0 by driving 10 hours to the Baltimore airport (travel tip: airplane tickets to Iceland are both cheaper and a direct flight if you leave via the Baltimore airport). After our long drive, we got to spend 6 hours on an airplane, so it was a longgggg day. 

We slept as much as you can on an uncomfortable airplane to prevent too much jet lag.

When the plane landed, it was 5am Iceland time, and by the time we figured out SIM cards, ATM stuff, drank an excess amount of coffee, and got our campervan rental, we were hitting the road at about 9am.

We started by driving through lava flow fields and stopping to get groceries and a total 3-ish hour drive to Skogafoss, a hike with a series of waterfalls. By the time we got to the parking lot for the waterfalls, we had been desperately trying to stay awake through a series of: slapping ourselves, having open windows, and listening to bad music as loudly as possible. The great thing about a campervan is that when we got to the parking lot for Skogafoss, we pretty much just crawled into the back and passed out for an hour long nap.

After our nap, we felt a bit more normal and started checking out the waterfalls. The first waterfall was the most popular one. Tour buses stop here, so the crowds were annoying, but thankfully, people are lazy, so if you climbed the stairs and hiked for a few miles, you could see more waterfalls and the farther you went, the less people there were, which was wonderful.

This picture is us at the first waterfall. We were bundled up mainly because of acclimating to the weather and also it was pretty cold as we slept in the back of the campervan.

This first waterfall was absolutely beautiful and very HUGE. You could get pretty darn close to it, so there was mist-spray everywhere. I love waterfalls and this one was absolutely lovely for our first venture into Iceland.

After this one, we climbed a bunch of stairs and kept on walking and were delighted to spot the next waterfall. We were surrounded by green hills, sheep, glacier-covered mountains, and this river full of waterfalls. I love how this one had such lovely autumn colors. 

I'm not sure how many miles or kilometers we ended up going on this lovely hike, but by the end, we were pretty much all alone and warm enough to take off our winter garb. Here's another lovely picture of us by one of the later waterfalls.

We eventually turned around and walked back to our car, mainly because of the time and the fact that we had another waterfall hike to do and also checking into our campsite, and we wanted to do this all before the sun set at around 7pm. 

Next up, we headed to Kvernufoss, a waterfall that isn't as much of a tourist destination. It was a 20 minute walk and it was absolutely beautiful. We basically walked through a green-hilled canyon to a hidden waterfall.

It was another majestic waterfall, and you could get really darn close to it. We hung out by it for a good amount of time before heading back to our campervan to try and race the sunset. We wanted to set up our first campsite with some sunlight left so we could figure it all out.

We ate some delicious burgers at a local restaurant and then headed for our campground. Figuring out our campsite (at Hellisholar Campground) did take some time, so I'm glad we went with enough sunlight to wrangle things.

We ended up having almost the entire campground to ourselves with an absolutely beautiful view of the mountains. We passed out at 9pm and didn't wake up until 8:30am the next day, so yeah, we were jet-lagged and exhausted, but I'm glad we got to squeeze in so much hiking and beauty on our first day, despite the exhaustion. 

So far, the weather has been nice to us. Today was not very windy or cold and only very very light, occasional drizzling of rain.

Here's hoping this week is as amazing as our first day!