Andre and Wendy: South Coast: Crater, Waterfall and Puffins

A decent night of sleep but we are both awake at 5:30AM, so lets get moving, we have a full day ahead. We plan to finish up touring the Golden Circle and move on to the Ring Road.

After packing up we head to Kerið Crater where we are supposed to pay an entry fee. We are there around 6:30AM, so no one is at the kiosk, so one place we don't need to pay. To get to the top of this crater is a very simple walk up a few stairs, and then you can walk around the top of the crater.

Next stop is Gluggafoss, where again we have to use the parka app, this will be the first of many waterfalls today. This is called the window waterfall. A little waterfall is right next to this that we don't pay for that was really pretty, plus Andre found our first Elves house at the bottom of the waterfall. Lots and lots of folklore here.

Next off the waterfall list is Seljalandsfossm, and yes we had to pay again, this time via a website. This was a really fun stop as you actually get to walk behind the waterfall. I only fell once, so that was good. This is one of the times we wore our rain pants with our rain jackets. You would get pretty wet if you were not dressed properly. On the same property is the Gljúfrabúi hidden waterfall. You needed to walk through a little opening with running water from a small river, I chose to pass on this as one fall a day is enough. Andre went back and took some nice pictures. This is a really pretty place, lots of flowers about. It is also very busy, I assume it is always busy, very unique to get to walk behind the falls.

Next stop is Skógafoss. These are beautiful falls that you can climb 500 stairs to the upper viewing, which of course we did. These falls you often see with rainbows, but no sun for us today, so no rainbows. There is a legend connected to Skógafoss waterfall; it is believed that behind it you can find a chest filled with gold and treasures. We didn't find either of these unfortunately.

We had planned to finish our adventures here for today, but with such and early start we had some more time before we needed to head to camp.

We next went to Dyrhólaey, an amazing bird watching spot. We were surprised and thrilled to see so many puffins here. The cliffs were full of puffins coming and going. The views to the sandy beach below were fantastic. Andre was trying to get a picture of a puffin with fish, but no luck. We spent quite a long time here, with not too many people around was a bonus. Here you had to look down at the cliffs to see the puffins, hoping for better viewing at our next puffin stop.

Our last stop for the day was at Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach. This is the beach with the basalt columns that you often see in pictures. As much as the columns were impressive, the cave around the corner from the columns was equally impressive. Many many people here. We were lucky it was low tide so we could get to the cave easily and not worry much about the sneaker waves that seem to take out a tourist now and then, called sleeper waves. Paid parking again, and depending how close you park you pay extra. This pay for parking is getting old already.

Next we drove Vik, a little bit of a bigger town that has a church that is one of the highlights to take picture of. There is also a nice black sand beach that seemed it be mostly used by locals, it is a nice warm day so quite a few people on the beach. We lucked out and a whale was very close to the shore looking for fish. We could walk back and forth along the shore watching the whale, fun when we saw it coming out of the water mouth first we guess trapping the fish.

Our last stop of the day was the Eldhraun Lava Field. There is a short roped off area that you walk on a marked path between the beautiful mossy lava which takes decades to grow. There is a nice viewpoint along this path, but most impressive was the moss on the lava. This is one of the largest lava fields in the world, 565 square KMs. Interesting tidbit that in 1969, the Apollo 11 crew practiced for their moonwalk at here for its similarity to the surface of the moon.

Now it is time to find a camp ground. We make it to the town of Kirkjubæjarklaustur and camp at Tjaldstæðið Kirkjubær II, cottages and camping. This is a great site, with an indoor kitchen, so no need to start up our little one burner stove. Quickly learn that no 2 camp sites are alike. This camp ground was approx. $50 Cdn

Day summary:

6:30AM leaving Campground

9 Sightseeing spots

6:30PM at Campground

300 KMS of driving

16 KMS walking

Early departure

Our campground last night

Whooper Swans

some of Iceland 400,000 sheep, one for every resident.

Kerid Crater

Most lupine are this colour, only saw a few all white ones

One of the 350 churches in Iceland, most of them are this size

Gluggafoss called the window waterfall

The flies love this plant

Oyster catcher

Thorstein's Grove

A hidden gem on the south coast of Iceland. A place that not many people know about where you can enjoy the peaceful atmosphere of this place. The waterfall is hidden in a rare Icelandic forest. Maybe 1 acre in size. Only a 3 minutes away from Gluggafoss. We were the only one there.

We found the Elves houses

Views of the Glacier

We had to take a the route 250 which was a 12 kms gravel road from Gluggafoss which was on highway 261 to get back on highway 1. Very scenic and pretty good road.

tried to convince Wendy to hike the mountain but she said we had no time, lots of lupines along this road

We saw a few of these while driving the gravel road. Possibly some type of snipe?

Wendy loves puffins. At the intersection of #1 and #254 which was only 3 kms once we got back on #1. They advertised washrooms but you needed to pay (maybe 300 ISK but not sure), so we moved on to the next stop, Seljalandsfoss which was only 5 minutes away

Now at Seljalandsfoss

The prices at the food truck. Basically divide by 100 and you get Canadian dollar. to be precise add about 10% more. For example coffee 500 divide by 100 = $5 then 10% equals $5.50