South Iceland - Vik

Hello again!

Leaving the Hofn area we had a long drive to our first stop at Fjadrargljufur. Neither of us would even attempt to pronounce that one! 

We are finding the South to be pretty busy for several reasons: 1. It is the most famous part of Iceland 2. It is not far from Reykjavik and 3. European schools are out and vacations have begun!

This Fjadrargljufur had quite some people. With a little patience it was still possible to see the beautiful canyon and waterfall.

This place, like so many we have seen, looks almost fake.

Next stop is Hjorleifshofdi. This is a hike up to the top of an inselberg. An inselberg or "island mountain" is a rock that rises up from a plain, like Uluru in Australia. It was quite steep with a quick 667 ft elevation gain in one mile.

At the start:

The Lupine were lining the trail.

The view from the top!

We made some friends along the way. These are the guys that "maintain" the trail.

This was physically challenging but wonderful! One of the best hikes in Iceland, top ten maybe of any hike I have ever done. 

Next a quick stop at the Yoda Cave. This is somewhat misnamed because it is where they filmed Rogue One. Near the beginning when the scientist Dad tells his daughter (the eventual hero) to go hide until Forest Whitaker comes to rescue her. Anyway. Cool cave.

Thursday we had a little Icelandic Horse Ride. The Icelandic horses are a specialized breed only here in Iceland. 

The breed is long-lived and hardy, owing to the ruggedness of its home country. In their native Iceland they have few afflictions or diseases, thus national laws are in place preventing foreign-born horses from being imported into the country, while exported animals are not permitted to return. In addition to the gaits of walk, trot, and canter/gallop, typical of other horse breeds, many Icelandic horses can also do the tölt (ambling gait) and the flying pace.

We got to try the tölt as we rode along the Black Sand Beach.

It was fun and I'm glad we got to do it but one hour was plenty. 😂 

Friday we woke to rain but here in Iceland if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes. We have a plan for the day so we head out!

First stop gives us a look at the Sólheimajökull Glacier. Since 1930 the glacier arm has retreated 1794 meters through 2019. Of that, 977 meters happened before 1969. That means that almost half of the melting has happened in the last 7 years as compared to almost 100 years of recorded data. 

It was an easy hike to get really close. 

The glacier lake formed in 2011 and it is already 60 meters deep!

The glacier guides actually label large rocks at the foot of the glacier to see how far it retreats each year. Scientists of course use GPS but it is very plain to see the effects of climate change when you see two boulders mere meters apart with dates on them that are days apart.  The picture below shows Sheri and AJ standing at marked boulders 10 days apart.

The afternoon cleared up for a little while. Long enough for us to see Skógafoss.

From the bottom:

From the top (of 460 steps):

Here is the same waterfall in winter (when we were here in Jan 2025.

Since we made the climb we decided to continue up river. We saw more beautiful waterfalls and a gorgeous canyon!

Hestavadsfoss:

Steinbogafoss:

Looking back down the canyon:

After 10,000 steps and a bit of rain we decided to have lunch in our apartment and rest. We may head back out in the afternoon, we shall see!

The skies cleared up and so we headed out to Dyrholaey and the lighthouse. Dyrholaey means "hole-in-the-door" for obvious reasons:

Local puffin (black sand beach in background):

The long black sand beach coastline:

This looks like it could fall at any moment!:

We had a great burger at a brewery and called it a day. 

Saturday morning once again the clouds were on the ground. Ugh. We took our time getting going, cooking sausage and eggs and generally trying to use up all the food we had purchased.

We headed for Seljalandsfoss and Gljufrabúi, a couple of unique waterfalls.

At Seljalandsfoss you can go behind the waterfall, if you don't mind getting wet! (We don't mind!)

Gljufrabúi is a hidden waterfall. It is not hard to find if you follow the crowds. LOL 

You have to walk in the water into a small slit canyon. It is very pretty!

Outside:

Inside:

Next up is Irarfoss. This one is not frequented by the buses which is super nice. The instructions were kind of vague as to how long the trail into the canyon to see the waterfall. Carsten asked me if it was on my AllTrails app. Nope. Hmmmm.

When we got there it was obvious. Walk in the direction of the water ... It is just not difficult to figure out.

The skies were clearer when we got away from the Vik area. Strange but good.

That's all for the Vik area. Tomorrow we head to Reykjavik to begin to make our way home.

See you soon Houston!

Sheri and Carsten 

PS. Remember the paper towel roll we bought for almost $8.00? Well, we didn't even manage to make a dent in that sucker.

(Props to Carsten for his little "still life" presentation.)