We had a lot of miles to cover yesterday and we knew we wouldn’t have time to stop everywhere that looked good en route, so our plan for today was to backtrack slightly to see more of what the south had to offer before our final push to Reykjavík tomorrow. This meant that for once, we had some semblance of a proper plan: a five-stop strategy, if you will.
🏎 Pitstop 1: The turf houses of Drangshlíð
We’d seen these old houses built into a rocky outcrop on the previous day and I was desperate to take a closer look, but it turned out there wasn’t much more to see – they weren’t structurally sound enough to go inside. Still, they looked like they would have been pretty cosy and a good place to see out Iceland’s harsh winters. In an effort to liven up this stop, we drove away with Alex’s bottle of milk perched on the windscreen. It’s hard to explain why.
🏎 Pitstop 2: The Sólheimasandur plane wreck
In 1973, a US Navy DC-3 suffered engine failure and crash-landed on the bleak expanse of volcanic ash at Sólheimasandur. Although any salvageable plane parts have long since been removed, the fuselage still remains and has become a tourist attraction. I had mixed feelings about making this stop, but we’d read that the whole crew survived the incident, which did ease some of my misgivings. To get to the crash site, we had the choice between a 7 km round trip on foot or a five-minute shuttle that would set us back 3200 ISK (approx. 18 GBP per person). I think you can guess which option we took!
Having seen this plane in several YouTube videos, I wasn’t surprised to have the opportunity to introduce Oli to the concept of @influencersinthewild. There were an awful lot of disrespectful photoshoots in progress! Despite this, seeing the fuselage resting in the arid landscape was a cool, if slightly eerie, experience.
The outbound walk was a bit monotonous, but on the way back to the car, we had a great view of the distant mountains but also a pretty extreme sidewind. It’s the most tired I’ve ever been after a short walk! Alex slept through the whole thing, cosily tucked into Oli’s coat.
🏎 Pitstop 3: Reynisfjara beach
Now firmly on the Instagram trail, we braved busy Reynisfjara beach. Although we’d already visited several black sand beaches, we were here to see the basalt columns at one end – remember Hallgrimskirkja? These are the ‘organ pipe’ formations that inspired its design. Although there were a healthy number of people on the beach, it was still easy to appreciate the beauty of the rock formations against the blue sky – we really couldn’t believe our luck with the weather. Even better, the payment machines were broken so parking was free for the day! 💰💰💰
🏎 Pitstop 4: Kvernufoss
In search of the path less travelled and with limited time before we needed to head back for Alex’s bedtime, we opted to skip popular Skógafoss and instead headed to neighbouring Kvernufoss.
This turned out to be a great decision – the waterfall may have been smaller (in both height and volume), but it was still absolutely stunning and there were very few other people there, save for a couple getting married up on a grassy ledge! We walked through a canyon formed by the river before reaching the base of the falls, and were then even able to walk behind the waterfall, which was both soggy and exhilarating. Alex once again proved difficult to impress, and observed nonchalantly from his spot inside Oli’s coat.
🎆 Brief interlude to watch the Northern Lights
The Aurora forecast was again looking promising and the skies were clear, so we spent the evening peeking out of the curtains and were so lucky to see another beautiful display. It felt a little ironic that we’d stayed in quite a few very rural and very dark places on this trip and then saw the Northern Lights when we were staying in an actual town with streetlights, but it was still magical!
🏎 Pitstop 5: Seljalandsfoss & Gljufrabui
The next morning, we couldn’t resist one last visit to some waterfalls. Like Kvernufoss (above), Seljalandsfoss is fed from meltwater from the glacial peak of Eyjafjallajökull. If that name sounds vaguely familiar, cast your mind back to 2010 and the volcanic ash chaos across European airspace – this is the very volcano that erupted! Alex was mid-nap so we had to take it in turns to walk from the car to the falls and the whole place was so crowded that I nearly didn’t bother. In the end, Oli convinced me on the basis that there were so many inappropriately-dressed people slipping around and getting soaked that I just had to go and see them, and this worked!
Once Alex was awake, we walked together to Gljufrabui, a rival waterfall less than a kilometer away. This was way more impressive, but also much scarier – with hindsight, probably not the best spot for Alex, although he didn’t seem to mind. The waterfall flows into an incredibly narrow canyon, and to get to its base involved a balancing act along a set of wobbly stepping stones through the fast-flowing (but mercifully shallow) river.
Once inside the cavern, the noise and spray from the falls in the confined space were a real assault on the senses. I didn’t capture it well at all (I was actually quite scared!) but the photos at the start of this post sell it much better.
This marked the end of our time exploring the south of Iceland, and next we concluded our road trip by heading back to the capital to eat many baked goods and search for the cats of Reykjavík.