So when you're driving the ring road, you can take the tunnel that will bypass Hvalfjordur and save tons of time. It costs about $9 per car.... DO NOT DO THIS. Look how beautiful this drive is! Plus even if you're not hiking Glymur, Hvalfjordur is beautiful and worth the drive.
This is the first time I've ever tried to embed a video! I hope it works. So I was video-ing driving into the fjord and Andy almost hit a sheep. If you put the sound on, you can hear him kind of freak out.
Glymur dis way!
So happy at the beginning of the hike
Off we go! We're laughing at how the trail doesn't seem to be that well marked. In some sections you're not sure where to turn and you're wondering if the rock by you has a dot on it because a bird pooped on it or because that means it's the trail.... This becomes a bigger deal later...
The trail leads you right through a cave!
Further away view of the other side of the cave
Excellent! Found the river! Who's thirsty? Must drink every waterfall
Wait... what the heck is that... do we cross that? So this shouldn't have been so alarming because I read all about this hike and it's ... uh... challenges. Everywhere said there's a log where you cross the river and there's a fixed rope to hold onto. No one said that the log doesn't even come close to spanning the entire width of the river... oh and that rocks are slippery and water is flippin' freezing.
Well we aren't turning back now, we've only barely begun. So here we go.
Okay so here's what it looks like. We have no pictures of us doing it for obvious reasons, lol. You balance on the rocks holding onto the "rope" which is just a thick cable. There's happens to be a lady sitting on the cable to help reduce the slack for the people crossing... I can only hope that she doesn't suddenly get tired of sitting on it while we're crossing and send us tumbling into this river. After you're done balancing on the rocks, you get on the log which is the easy part. After the log you carefully walk on the slippery wet rock while your feet turn blue.
Made it! Beautiful day today too :)
Some fixed railings with a rope to help you during this section. It's steep and muddy.
We're still happy! Who am I kidding, we were happy the whole time.
Our first glimpse of Glymur!
Some more shots of what this trail was like. It's pretty steep and narrow! There are a lot of pictures of me because Andy snaps way more pictures than I do :P I was concentrating I guess.
I'm pretty sure I was a little freaked out by this point. And for sure, we're starting to think that going down sounds like a terrible idea.
Who's thirsty??
Huffing and puffing
Someone doesn't like the sun in their eyes... someone shouldn't have left their sunglasses in Illinois :P
Just chillin on a cliff
Views are getting spectacular though!
There she is! Iceland's tallest waterfall.
This view. Photos don't do it justice of course
Here you go honey. Let me block the sun with the phone ;)
I'll never forget this hike.
This is my favorite shot! I took this one :) it's my desktop wallpaper at work now and it makes me happy. I love how we're above the waterfall and it's in the frame with the fjord. Ugh, Iceland, why are you so perfect.
Tired :P
Okay this is where things get funny. See, as I've been alluding to, this trail has been steep and narrow... and not every section has that fixed rope to help you with balancing. Andy wanted nothing to do with going down the way we came up. Because "look how nice it looks on the other side of the waterfall" ... okay sure. No problem.... we'll just cross the river?? Again?? Pretty far upstream from you know... the massive waterfall, the water is shallow, reasonably calm and slow moving. We would not have attempted this if we thought it would mean sudden death at the first misstep.
Look, these fine people are doing it, no problem. What you don't see is how this lady gives up and comes back after a few minutes. And the couple that's further out - they picked the better route, take about 15 entire minutes to get to the other side. But they made it right.... so we can too.
HOLY MOTHER OF GOD WHAT DID I GET MYSELF INTO
So here we are at the point of no return. I'm pretty sure I'm crying, lol. Andy decides to risk his phone and all his beautiful pictures to capture this moment (I had everything safely tucked away of course). I can't even tell you how cold this water is and how slippery and sharp these rocks are.... it was some of the worst minutes I've ever put myself through willingly. The only reason I allowed these photos and videos to happen was because we were on a little rock island and the water wasn't flowing over our feet this whole time.
I really hope these videos play properly! Because this video is just the best. We did upload it to facebook that same evening, so you may have seen it already. Sorry for the profanity :P
Thank goodness!!! We made it!
Watching the next poor fools behind us give it a go
This guy was over confident. He got super wet :P The deepest the water got was actually close to my knees. It was VERY cold.
The success selfie!
Where the waterfall begins from the other side! New side, new views
Feeties are warm again, I'm happy :)
"See, look how nice this trail is, aren't you glad we did this"
UHHHHHHH
So I'm a little peeved by this point, lol. We had lost the trail a couple times because there are zero markings over here. I didn't like climbing down that rock trail shown above and I'm actually starting to worry about time at this point. We had been on the trail almost 3 hours and I still had to put myself together for these pictures.
Omg wth is happening. The trail became narrow, muddy and forested. I was freaked out because we lost all perception of what direction we were headed.
What went down at this point was when we finally emerged from the brushes, Andy found the trail and got us back to where we crossed the river the first time. Hey, at least we didn't have to do the log again? Silver lining :P I was very relieved to reach the cave again... only to get lost 2 or 3 more times because of the poorly marked trail in the beginning that I told you about. Nearing a panic attack, Andy did manage to find the trail again. One lesson that we shouldn't have needed to learn is to never let me lead, lol, I had a pretty terrible sense of direction and I'm the one who led us astray and then proceeded to panic.
I've never put on make up so fast in my life. We were supposed to have like 45min to an hour... we had 10 minutes. Our photographer arrived while I was scrubbing mud out of my leggings and putting deodorant on. So classy! Our photo session was so fun! Our photographer, Ester, is still a student, but she did a fantastic job! I know most people have seen these, but here are some of the pictures from our session!
We clean up pretty nice... I bet you're even more impressed now that you've heard the entire story of this day :P
Always making me laugh
Bahaha, I just love this horse.
Awww the vacation is over :( Or is it?
Omg FINALLY AFTER LONG LAST! The most perfect way to end this trip. We almost feel like we've experienced a lifetime of experiences in just 8 days.
So I'm not going to go into how dumpy our hostel was this night or about how returning the car was stressful even though it went perfectly fine, I was worried about insurance claims on scratches and such after those gravel roads! But that's not how I really want to end my 2017 blog posts. Iceland was like a dream... a dream that cost us a lot of money and physically drained us. But looking back on it, so much of it was absolutely priceless. Every beautiful waterfall we hiked to (or drank), the glacier we traversed, the glacier water we drank... the horses we pet, the electric fence that shocked Andy, the beautiful food we ate, it all contributed to the trip of the a lifetime and it just peaked at Glymur and seeing the Northern Lights. I felt like I had experienced the entire spectrum of emotions in these 8 days!
I think everyone needs to visit Iceland to appreciate of the pureness of untouched land and to also appreciate what tourism and large crowds do to diminish the magic and why it's our responsibility to be respectful to the nature. I'm so glad to be wrapping up this blog on New Years Eve! Seems like a fitting way for me to end 2017 and move straight forward into a new year with new adventures and experiences. Until next time!
