Monday, July 26
Although we woke to light rain, the forecast was promising and we planned a full day.
Our first stop was Skogafoss, yet another massive waterfall that tumbles out of the huge cliffs that line the ring road on the south coast.
We hoped to walk the waterfall trail that follows the gorge above Skogafoss, but we decided to wait until the rain let up…we hoped!
Not far down the ring road is a side road toward the snout of an outlet glacier, Solheimajökull, an offshoot of the massive Myrdalsjökull glacier. A gravel trail leads up over a rise, slowly revealing the glacier.
The trail leads to a viewing station a few hundred yards from the ice. This is a guided group heading down for a walk on the glacier.
If you look closely at the right side of the photo below you’ll see another group already walking on the ice.
Although we unaccountably failed to take any pictures of it, a lagoon has formed at the end of the glacier. Several icebergs that had calved off the glacier floated about. Biden should sponsor a field trip here for the abysmally ignorant Republicans who deny climate change: the lagoon is about a third of a mile long and over 200 feet deep…and it was created in 2011. You’ll see two figures in the next few photos, a couple walking ahead of us that provided nice dots of color! The first photo shows them standing on a sand bar in the lagoon.
The path brings you right up against the glacier. We first passed by a narrow defile that marks the very dirty edge of the glacier.
But the glacier itself, for all its dirt, has a remarkable crystalline purity. If you expand the first image below, you’ll see a group ascending the glacier at top right.
Just seeing the glacier was exhilarating; we hope to do a guided walk on the largest glacier in Europe day after tomorrow.
As we walked out from the glacier, we saw the sky brightening in the east. And within a few minutes we were driving in sunshine. Back on the ring road, we ascended through a verdant valley and then down to the little regional capital Vik. With glaciers on the brain, we wanted a look at the enormous glacial moraine that flows down from Myrdalsjökull. As you drive north from Vik, the landscape changes dramatically. This gives some faint idea of the scale and desolation.
And this shows about 2/3 of the edge of the glacier—they’re hard to shoot from a distance!
We’ll have better images from this region tomorrow. We turned back in the mid-afternoon, though, hoping to take advantage of the good weather and hike the waterfall trail above Skogafoss. First, though, we fortified our woolen collection—mittens for Sue, a merino beanie for me—at the huge Icewear factory outlet. Sue also found some great gifts for the grandchildren…but that’s a surprise.
The south coast is famous for its black sand (i.e. volcanic) beaches, and our next stop was the most famous of these, Reynisfjara. This beach stands out not just for the sand or for its beautiful sea stacks but for the astonishing basalt columns that line the shore.
After all these fascinating stops, we didn’t get to our “trailhead” at Skogafoss until late afternoon. The walk starts with the ascent of the cliff alongside the falls: 450-odd steps!
This marks the start of a famous hike, the Fimmvörduhals, that leads from Skogar into the Thorsmörk natural area.
The waterfall section of the trail includes 23 separate cascades and falls, and we got in three of them before the rains came.
What a gloriously beautiful valley this was. Among the many things we‘d like to do when we return is complete this walk and stay overnight in Thorsmörk for some hiking there!
After a restorative glass of wine at our hotel, we headed for dinner at a very casual spot, Gamla Fjósi∂, about ten minutes from our hotel. What a find!
The place was extremely warm and rustic, or as the Vivster would say, „cozy.“ We had a very simple but delicious meal: Sue went for the burger, I did the steak sandwich. Both were excellent, made with beef from their farm. We topped it off with a warm date cake with caramel sauce…and a long conversation with our delightful waitress, Adriana, a law student from Portugal who is jobbing here to earn money to travel further.
This was a pattern throughout our trip. There simply isn’t enough labor for the hospitality industry, making hotels and restaurants rely on young people from Europe, mostly Eastern Europe. Adriana was an exception as a Western European; the labor force is predominantly from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Serbia.
A great day in this incredible country. We have shit eating grins on our faces the whole time—it‘s that remarkable.