Up and at them, early bird gets the worm, all that jazz. Although, I will admit that there can be some good reasons to sleep in just a tad. I did on my second day and was about 45 minutes late getting to the Skógafoss waterfall, which played out well with where the sun was. The way the sun rises, in the winter, does not hit the waterfall head on. Had I arrived earlier at sunrise, there would not have been any lighting to shoot decent photos. I got some good photos with my camera before moving closer, which I highly recommend! Word of warning though, put your electronics away and prepare to get wet! Nothing like getting drenched by a waterfall in 35 degree Fahrenheit weather to wake you up in the morning! Like an espresso without the jitters, replaced with a small amount of shivering! Luckily my clothes held up just fine and were dry by the time I reached the top of nature’s stair stepper. The views at the top are great, however it is the hike along the Skóga river that was the best part with the best views. You can hike for several miles along the river, I only ended up going about three miles out. The ground is relatively flat so it is not an overly difficult hike. So let’s just say it is well worth it! As always, just be prepared – water, food, and layers.
By the time I finished up there, I headed out to go hike to the abandoned aircraft on Iceland’s black beach. However I couldn’t find the exact spot I was allowed to pull off at… I will try again later in the trip so hopefully I can have more about that in a few posts. However, once I finally gave up on that angle, I headed to Vik to go hike and rest on the famous black sand beach.
Quick call out – I do not why but I am obsessed with these black beaches! I guess it’s just the color black but it makes the contrast between the water and vegetation really pop.
The coast is pretty much like every other coast you expect, with the different color sand. However, I love the coast so I was thrilled to be by the water, write my name in the black sand and just listen to the waves. I honestly forget sometimes how much I miss the coast, however I will keep the mountains always on display in Colorado! I would say an hour later I left the coast to go fill my car and head to my hotel.
IMPORTANT NOTE! I had to fill up, as I try not to be below a half tank out here as you go long periods without seeing…well anything. I went to fill up and I quickly figured out three things. 1) if you do not have a pin on your credit card, which I don’t, you will have to use your debit card. 2) you select how much you want to put in not by choosing the amount of liters, but the number of ISK you want to spend. This can make it difficult to know how much to put in without overfilling the tank. My recommendation – if you are at half a tank, put in 3000 ISK to start, start your car and see how much the gauge increased. You can use this as a point of reference for future fills.
3) MOST IMPORTANT – DO NOT EVER select the full tank option! If you are like me, this makes the most sense to fill by tank to full and remove all the guess work from the equation. HOWEVER, your card will be charged twice, once for the amount you actually spent to fill your tank and a second that will add up to the total of 250,000 ISK. From what I have read and experienced, you will get the second charge back a few days later (took me four days) when the company has confirmed you didn’t spend the full amount, but imagine my utter confusion and anxiety seeing my bank account drop by ~240 dollars for half a tank of gas.
Navigation
Quick tips:
1) Check sunrise times so you arrive at a location with the best lighting, temperature and number of tourists. Aim for two out of three depending on your preference.
2) Be flexible with your time!
3) DO NOT EVER select the full tank option when filling up for gas.
More information in the article.
After this it was a two and half hour drive to the Fosshotel Glacier Lagoon. Something I am quickly finding out, you do a TON of driving to get places here. I am so use to public transport and I hate to drive to begin with that this is starting to push my buttons. Also the fact that the speed limit is 90 kph, roughly 60 mph…Why? However, the autonomy is worth it for the pictures I walk away with. The drive is beautiful, and it can be hard to stay focused on the road at times. Take every chance you can to pull over, stretch your legs and break up the long hours!
Every trip I take I let myself splurge once, as that is the point of vacation and I am not doing long-term budget traveling yet. My hotel was amazing, beautiful views, helpful staff and awesome rooms. For ~160 dollars you get to stay in the middle of nowhere with minimal light pollution, a night photographers dream. I checked in, went to my room, unpacked everything (could not find my SIM card so had to go looking for it) and got ready for dinner. I decided to eat at the restaurant as I had not had anything to eat all day and I did not want PB&J again. (Yes my go to food while traveling is PB&J, judge away! In all honesty it is the simplest food to take for a snack on a hike).
Let me start this by saying I am not at all a foodie, I see food more as a way to survive then something that needs to be enjoyed. I also do not like going to “fancy” places. Not sure what that says about me but there it is. So when I sat down at the table I was trying to look at the food for what it was, a fancier meal. And, let me tell you, it was amazing! Starting off with house made bread, a cucumber apple appetizer, paired with an Icelandic Toasted Porter – from Einstok Olgerd. All of it was amazing, I won’t try to describe the taste, use your imagination with pictures below. After that came the primary dish, Icelandic beef tenderloin with mashed potatoes, carrots, chickpeas and a lobster sauce cooked medium. Yeah, I might have drooled a little bit. After that I finished it all out with a brownie, ice cream and strawberries, everything which went with my porter. And, at the end of the night, it was a ~80 dollar meal that was amazing. As I have said before, expect these kind of food and beverage prices, it is what it is.
Once I was able to focus after being done digesting my meal, I set to work editing photos, writings blog posts and tracking the northern lights. I am quickly figuring out the amount of time this takes, so I am running on less and less sleep every day. At one point, around 11 p.m., the chance of seeing the lights was at 26% so I bundled up, grabbed my camera bag and took off into the night. Unfortunately, while I was able to work on my night and star photography (did not turn out well but working on it!) it quickly became too cloudy for the lights to appear if they were around. So I headed back, fell asleep around 1 in the mornings with thoughts of the next days adventures and, unfortunately, the next days drive…