Robert's Travels

We awoke to the sound of howling winds and heavy rains. When we checked in at the guesthouse, we had been warned that the weather wasn’t going to be great, and the warnings were definitely correct. The cabin was built well, however the winds were strong enough to cause the walls of the cabin to move slightly. We quickly packed our things up, then very carefully opened the door of the cabin. It took some body weight to get the door to start to open - the wind was pushing it shut. Once we got the door open a crack, however, the winds picked the door and almost blew it right open. Luckily I had a firm grip on the door handle; even with that advantage I could barely control the door. The rain was coming down heavily, so we threw the suitcases into the car as quickly as we could. We very carefully opened the car doors to prevent the wind from taking a hold of them. We had been warned when we picked up the rental car that the winds could get strong enough to break the car doors, and today was definitely a day where carelessness could have led to a bad ending. We drove from the cabin to the main guesthouse, and had a quick breakfast.

After breakfast was complete the rain hadn’t let up, and in fact we were told that the storm would continue to worsen through the morning and reach maximum force around noon. We carefully got back into the car and started back driving along the ring road.

Our first stop was not far from the guesthouse, however the heavy winds slowed down our progress. We drove up to the Dyrhólaey lighthouse, which involved carefully navigating a windy single car-width road in the rain and blowing wind. Once we parked, we struggled to open the doors due to the strength of the winds. I parked the car facing into the wind to help avoid damage to the door, however that made opening the doors a very challenging exercise. After leaving the vehicle, we quickly made our way towards the lighthouse since the rain was coming down very hard. We got some really cool views of the beach down the coast, however the wind made it pretty difficult to stand upright so we didn’t walk all the way to the lighthouse. We turned around and made our way back to the car, and got in giggling from the adrenaline rush that came associated with being high up during heavy winds. In total we were perhaps out of the car for 4 minutes, however we were completely drenched (even while wearing waterproof clothing). We cranked the defrost in the car and started driving down the hill to get back to the ring road.

The trip continued east along the ring road. Progress was slow as the car was getting blown all around, however after about an hour we reached the Laufskálavarða lava ridge. The rain was still pouring at this point, so I parked the car allowing the driver’s side to be sheltered, we rolled down a window and snapped a few photos before continuing on our journey.

Shortly after leaving the lava ridge we stopped at the Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon. We had mostly dried out by this point, however Kate and Dave did not want to get soaked again so only Susan, Chris and I ventured out to see the canyon. We walked for about 20 minutes along the path, stopping in at a few of the lookout points on the trail, before deciding we were wet enough and turned around. Unfortunately we didn’t make it to the waterfall at the end, but we did manage to get a very good look at the canyon.

The drive continued for another hour, before we pulled into the parking lot of the Vatnajökull national park. Here we had a quick lunch in the cafeteria, and quickly exchanged some of our clothes for drier options. I changed my wool socks, as they had become drenched. My boots were doing a fine job keeping water out, however my socks absorbed the water dripping off my pants while I drove. I decided not to change into dry pants since I knew they were only going to get wet again. Once in slightly drier clothing, we began a hike to the Svartifoss waterfall. The hike was about 2.5 km in each direction, but with the rain slowing progress it ended up taking us just over an hour to complete the hike. Svartifoss was impressive to see up close; the rock surrounding the waterfall is a series of columnar basalt columns which give it a very distinct look. Apparently this structure was one of the inspirations for the Hallgrímskirkja church we previously saw in Reykjavík. By the time we finished the hike we were all dripping wet; and most decided to change once again into dry clothes. I wasn’t cold, just uncomfortable, so I chose to keep the clothes I had on and push onwards.

We continued driving, and passed the Hofskirkja turf church. We took a few photos, however it was still raining so we chose not to get out. It was neat to see, but hardly a destination to visit.

The next major stop of the day was the Fjallsárlón glacial lake, about an hour from the national park. Here we had a short, 5 minute walk from the parking lot to the lake, where we encountered a number of small icebergs floating in the water. The rain had stopped by this point, however it was still very misty and the icebergs were initially obscured by the mist. Luckily the weather started cooperating with us and the fog lifted after a brief period and we were able to get a much better view of them. We took in the view, took a few photos, then walked back to the car.

We took a short drive along the ring road to our next and final site of the day, the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon. We parked right at the edge of the lake and were able to see a number of icebergs floating in the lake. Most of the icebergs were white and glistening, however several of them were covered with dirt and looked solid black. We took a few photos then continued on to the diamond beach, which was just on the other side of the river linking the lake to the ocean. Here we saw a number of small icebergs that had washed up onto a black sand beach. It was very cool to see the icebergs that had barely made it to the ocean before their lives were cut short and ended on the beach. I actually got to hold an iceberg in my hands, which was neat. We only stayed here a short time before getting back into the car and driving to Höfn, the location of our AirBnB for the night.

The drive took an hour, and the rain continued to hold off so it wasn’t a difficult drive. We stopped in at a grocery store in Höfn where we picked up dinner ingredients before getting to the AirBnB. There we finally got out of our wet clothes and into some dry ones. It felt fantastic to finally be dry. We made a pasta dinner, then relaxed for a short while before heading to bed. Everyone was exhausted after the cold and wet day.