Our first stop was at Seljalandsfoss where we could walk behind a waterfall.
Then we stopped at a museum created by a farming family whose farm is located at the base of Eyjafjallajökull, a mountain whose name you probably heard mis-pronounced in the news after it erupted in 2010 and interfered with air travel.
The farmers had been working with a journalist on a documentary about the sustainability and self-sufficiency of their dairy farm shortly before the eruption began. Suddenly their farm was right in the middle of a disaster for southern Iceland, so the journalist kept following their story as they worked to save their cattle and repair their farm, infrastructure, and fields. The museum came about because so many people were curious about their situation and efforts. It’s a good short documentary. If you thought lots of airplane flights being cancelled was inconvenient, imagine living just below the glacier atop an erupting volcano!
Just a few kilometers further east we stopped at Skógafoss, another lovely waterfall.
Then we stopped at Dyrhólaey, the southernmost tip of mainland Iceland. Puffins and terns nest there on cliffs above the black beaches. We spotted a few puffins and marveled at the arched tunnels through the cliff below the lighthouse. Looking inland gave a view of the Myrdalsjökull glacier. Beautiful scenery in lovely weather!
We stopped for lunch at the Volcano Hotel and then went a short distance further to Vík, where we boarded a “super truck” (actually a lifted four-wheel drive Sprinter van) for a tour with Mountain Excursions. The driver took us across a black desert consisting of ash and gravel from eruptions of Katla, the volcano that lies underneath Myrdalsjökull glacier. This other-worldly landscape has been used as a location for several movies (recently Rogue One), TV shows, and commercials. It stretches for kilometers from the tongue of the glacier out to the sea. The only other people around were a group of trucks in the distance that the guide thought might be setting up for a film or photo shoot.
We drove up close to the glacier tongue, which is surprisingly dark, and walked carefully up to the melting ice. Some areas of the black gravel underfoot gave way like quicksand owing to buried ice chunks having melted. Then we walked right into the glacier where an ice cave had formed. Light from the sky glowed to various degrees where the transparent but ash- and gravel-impregnated walls of the cave were thin. Water poured from holes in the ceiling and ran down the floor. A cool experience!
We returned to Vík and perused the gas station souvenir store before boarding our trusty bus to return to the hotel at Selfoss. JoEllen’s sense of humor and fashion guided her to the perfect accessory.
We ate dinner from the hotdog stand at a picnic table on the river. I got the hotdog with Doritos and sauce, a combination that worked surprisingly well.