Crampons on Svínafellsjökull

Not going to lie... day 4 started out terribly. A combination of weird jet lag effects and minor stressing about the weather for our glacier tour and hour early we needed to get up caused me to not sleep at all that night. I was up all night tossing and turning, listening to the rain and worrying about how I wasn't sleeping... The alarm eventually went off at 5:45 and we hustled out the door to start on our two-hour drive to Skaftafell National Park for our glacier tour.

It rained the entire drive... we were so nervous that this glacier walk was going to be such a bust if the rain kept up like this. I dozed off for a bit in the car at least! We arrived at the national park visitor's center and quickly found the the Mountain Guides' building to meet with our guide. There were so many tour companies to choose from when booking this tour! I didn't research them too extensively, but we ended up picking Icelandic Mountain Guides 4-hour guided glacier walk because the pictures online looked amazing! This was our only guided tour of the entire trip and I wanted it to be awesome :) In their building, they have an extensive collection of gear to loan you for the excursion. Everything from waterproof pants and jackets to boots and gloves. We borrowed some boots because ours did not have ankle support, got fitted for our crampons, put on our harnesses, grabbed a helmet and an ice axe!

Our guide was from Czech Republic! His name was Michal (I may have spelled that wrong, he pronounced it like Mee-Kyle). Apparently he spends his summers giving glacier tours in Iceland and his winters teaching skiing in Japan and Switzerland! There were only 10 people in our group which was really nice! We saw other groups go by that had probably double the number of people in them so I'm definitely happy we payed slightly more money and went with Mountain Guides! After spending a decent amount of time learning how to tie on our crampons and then how to properly walk up and down glacier inclines and traverse the top of the glacier, we were ready to go! Crampons are essentially very large (like an inch and a half or so long) spikes that tie to the bottom of your boots. So with each step you take, you have to take care to lift all your spikes out of the ice and then step forcefully enough to sink them back in. It was quite the leg work out! It had finally stopped raining by this point and we all learned very quickly that we were over dressed... we had planned for heavy rain while walking on ice... but with all this crampon-ing, all ten of us were shedding hats and other layers!

It was still raining at this point! All bundled up and ready to go! 

Our playground for the morning!

Struggling with my crampons :P

Andy is unsure about his new accessory, the ice axe

Glacier selfies! We have mud on our face because Michal convinced us it was great for our skin ;)

These ropes are installed and maintained by the guides! They have to be monitored daily because the glacier moves and changes so quickly! Our particular glacier walk is already different from the ones last week! Because the ice changes so often, the crevasses get wider and new paths form all the time. 

I had actually tripped on my spikes here and was a little nervous! The drop offs on the both sides were really deep and I didn't feel like testing the weight limitations of these ropes and ice screws :P I assume Andy snapped this picture after asking me if I was OK? ;)

So many of these, I can't believe Andy risked losing his phone forever for these pictures but they turned out great! 

More glacier selfies! LOL

Trying to be tough like the Vikings :P

This crevasse was so cool!! 

Four hours later and we were beat. This was quite the work out! Our guide was so knowledgeable and entertaining the entire time, we wanted to leave him a tip but only had US dollars! Typical tourist problems :P we hadn't bothered exchanging for any local currency because literally everywhere in Iceland takes credit card, so with no foreign transaction fees, it's a bit cheaper to use our credit card than it is to exchange for cash and eat all those fees. Luckily, Michal told us he was taking a trip to New York soon! First drinks on us, I guess :)

Skaftafell national park is gorgeous and I had originally planned on a hike here to Svartifoss waterfall, which is known for those unique trap rock formations like we saw at Reynisfjara. This is a 3-hour hike, though, and when I was reviewing out itinerary, I knew we had to cut it out because there was still so much to see! I could make a whole new vacation out of things we didn't have time to see on this trip by this point :P

So after a quick lunch, we drove about 40 minutes to Jökulsárlón or Glacier Lagoon! The rain was still on and off and it was quite chilly! Lots of people take either boat or kayaking tours here which would be really cool! But after 4-hours on a glacier and the temperature dropping, I actually pitied the people getting on the water, lol!

We saw some seals here!! They swam away before we could get a picture!

I loved how blue the water and ice were here! 

Right across the street from the glacier lagoon is Diamond Beach! Another black sand beach where pieces of the glacier wash up on the shore.

Ice on the beach! 

Boots, black sand and sea foam. This place is so cool. 

I love the ocean! I was ready for my bikini and a margarita ;)

After Andy pried me away from the beautiful crashing waves, we had another hour and a half or so drive to our hotel just outside Hofn. When we were driving up to the hotel, we noticed some waterfalls across the street and wondered if we'd be able to go up to them. After checking in, we asked the lady at the front desk if the property across the street was accessible - she said that it was! So much for the nap I was hoping to take... we can always sleep later right? We dropped off our bags and got right back in the car and headed just across the street to see how close to these waterfalls we could get...

So the adventures of Becca and Andy trespassing (but actually not, because 70% of Iceland is public land and private property is always very clearly marked... but this felt weird!)

Andy made a horsie friend! But then Andy got shocked by this electric fence.... OOPS! 

We encountered this fence on the way to the waterfall... is it electric? It sure looks like it could be.... Andy takes one for the team (and for the sake of our adventure) but luckily, this one wasn't turned on! We then hopped this fence :P

On our way up! 

Andy took a different route than I did! I decided to go up the center! 

I lost Andy for a bit and got a little freaked out! This picture shows how far apart we wound up (can you find me??)! He was actually able to make his way over to me but he had to make a "sketchy jump" that I'm glad I didn't witness :P

This was about as high as we could safely go! 

I'm not pleased about this hop. lol

Once we climbed back down, it really started raining and we were getting soaked! We hurried back to the car only to have me get back out again in the pouring rain and deal with the gate... can't let the sheepies out!

After showering, we went down for happy hour at the bar (hurray for $12 cocktails!!) and then had dinner in the hotel restaurant. We had originally thought we'd go into town for dinner, but the hotel restaurant looked really good and we were tired! Another really expensive dinner, but the food was amazing and I'm 100% sure we would have paid the same price for any restaurant in town. By 8:30, I was almost falling asleep in my dinner! That bad night's sleep was finally catching up to me! We called it an early night and I slept like a rock after what was definitely one of my most favorite days in Iceland!

The Secret Waterfall

It's day three in Iceland and we're finally on the ring road! This trip was planned as constantly on the move - we didn't have more than one night in any place we stayed. Check out the map of our entire journey!

On this day we were starting at Selfoss and ending at Vik

This morning we were in Selfoss enjoying our guesthouse that was just an offshoot of someone else's house (kind of in their backyard). It was another chilly, misty morning and I decided to give the hot tub a go... because we not? We are on vacation after all. Andy was still sleeping, so I made my coffee and went for a short soak. We had made kind of a mess of the place, on accident, because our hiking clothes had brought in a lot of gravel and whatnot from the Reykjadalur trail last night. After putting ourselves together, repacking the suitcase and cleaning up the guest house, we set off breakfast (and more coffee) :)

Smoked salmon, pancakes and bread. Came with juice and coffee... $20, lol :)

Today was a waterfall day for sure! I had three waterfalls planned, plus the black sand beach and cliffs of Vik (Reynisfjara and Dyrhólaey). The first stop was about an hour away, but right off the ring road... Seljalandsfoss! Seljalandsfoss is a famous waterfall that you're supposed to be able to walk all the way behind, but unfortunately that path was closed. I read later it was because some rocks had fallen. There's a path here that you can follow to two more waterfalls! The third one is not exactly accessible from the path... you either had to walk through a very narrow rock gorge area (and then get absolutely soaked because that put you right next to the waterfall) or climb up a super muddy and steep hill to get to the top of it. I opted to do neither of these but we got some hilarious pictures of people putting themselves in precarious positions.

Our first glimpse of Seljalandsfoss!

This is where people were going into that small gorge and coming out soaking wet! You can see how close the waterfall is through there. People were also climbing that steep, muddy hill to the right to get on top of the waterfall... With all these crazies putting themselves and the nature at risk at places like this, it's just a matter of time before everything is blocked off with safety chains. 

Andy loved this hobbit hole :P

More Seljalandsfoss - the people at the bottom show the scale!

Our next stop was Skógafoss!! You can also see this one from the highway! It's so exciting driving up to these massive waterfalls... but then you see the hundreds of cars and tour buses in the parking lots and feel a little like cattle. Regardless of the number of tourists present, Skógafoss is impressive. It is just massive, and you can get so close that the mist will soak through your waterproof clothing :P This is also where I drank my first waterfall water! I filled up my water bottle at the base of Skógafoss and had my first taste of delicious Icelandic water straight from the source. No wonder their beer is tasty here!

This waterfall is AMAZING

From the top!!

We climbed all those stairs...

Another mini falls all the top! Worth the climb :)

Now, I knew that there was a "secret" waterfall in this very same area (Kvernufoss). I had read on a blog that if you park your car by the Skógafoss museum, you could walk behind it, climb a fence (there will be a lot of fence hopping during this trip, just wait), and follow a path through a wide open field (with sheep) and along a river. We actually paid for a ticket to the Skógafoss museum because we needed to use the bathroom... not recommended, this tiny museum is more expensive than the Louvre by like double :P But we considered it a donation to the area, and it did give us access to the cute little turf houses that Icelanders used to live in!

The doorway is too small for even a Becca!

These little turf houses still exist all over the country! 

After poking around the museum, we headed out back to find this waterfall. We walked past some warehouses, and around back we saw a barbed wire fence that has a short ladder that is meant to allow you pass over it safely (but the animals cannot). I think Andy was a little skeptical of me by this point... We climbed over that and pranced through a field looking for the river (watch out for sheep poop). Once at the river, you follow a narrow path that does get rocky and steep in some areas, until possible the most beautiful waterfall you've ever seen comes into view. Remember the hundreds, maybe thousands, of tourists I was talking about?? There were maybe 10-15 people at this waterfall. It was so peaceful! We were able to walk behind this waterfall and just full enjoy the beauty of the entire area. It was the most lush, green area I had seen in Iceland so far. The ground is soft and spongey with moss and you can't really hear anything except the rushing water.

Climbing the fence! Why would this be here if this wasn't allowed :P

Come on Andy, stop messing around! ;)

Where does this field lead...

To the most beautiful river!

In complete awe and wonder

Amazing. No words. The beautiful Kvernufoss

Getting wet!

Don't fall, Andy! Lol. Such shenanigans

I'm in love with this picture (and the guy in it ;) )

It was hard to leave this area... but we knew we had more to see! Unfortunately the weather was turning and the fog was rolling in while we were heading to Vik (see the stop on the map!). The plan was to overshoot Vik by about 50 min and visit Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon which was one of my must-sees for this trip... unfortunately, with the time and the weather, I was worried we'd add almost two hours of driving time and not even see the canyon with such a dense fog :( Once we arrived in Vik, we agreed to just go to the black sand beach, check into the guesthouse and then head out again to Dyrhólaey, skipping the canyon. We had read a bunch of warnings about this black sand beach (Reynisfjara). Apparently a tourist or two gets swept away every year by not paying attention (having their back towards the waves, taking pictures, etc). The waves here are huge!! Also another part of what makes this area so cool are the cliffs with the trap rock formations and the random cave areas around the beach. We had a lot of fun exploring it, even though the fog was definitely a drag.

Rock formations at Reynisfjara!

Waves crashing on the rocks at Reynisfjara

An Andy for scale of these massive cliffs...

Beautiful, foggy, black beach (not a black and white photo!)

One side of Dyrhólaey (seaside cliffs)

Rude fog!!! Andy is grumpy because we can't see the arched cliff!! I was so sad! This is the location, where if you come in in June and July, you'll see all the nesting Puffins!!

Here's what our view should have been!! From google images! Next time I guess...

So Vik is a tiny town (population about about 350 people) that is just overrun with tourists. It has more tourists than it can handle by far! All the restaurants are completely slammed and all the hotels and guest houses are fully booked... in fact... I had a hard time booking this night back in June. Accommodations are so limited here, that in June, I couldn't find us anything even though we were booking for September! But there wasn't really another suitable place to stop for the night with the amount of sight seeing we had planned.... we were lucky enough to get a guest house room on Airbnb due to a cancellation, but we paid a fortune for it. It was our most expensive lodging by far at $280. Wooeee, Iceland... you expensive. The room itself was fine, but it was honestly not any nicer than our room in Selfoss which was about $160 cheaper. So that kind of tells you the tourist market in the Vik area - if you have plans to stay here (almost everyone does), book fast and early! Besides the guest house, our other option would have been a $310 hotel room... and in June, booking.com said there were only a few rooms of those left.

We had a modest dinner of some slightly mediocre schnitzel before tucking in for the night. The restaurant that was more highly recommended was totally slammed. We didn't even bother asking what the wait time was, lol.

Back at the house, Andy thought we should have our wine on our porch... why not... it had stopped raining for a minute, so we bundled up and had a glass of wine outside (we didn't last past the first glass, so chilly!) The next morning, we had to be up quite early (about 6am) to leave for our glacier hiking tour!!!! The thing I've been most excited about!!

Cheers!