Travel far enough, you meet yourself – Iceland’s South Coast
It’s now Day Three in Iceland. Unlike our Day Two, when we woke up late and missed our bus tour pick-up, well, we made sure that didn’t happen again.
We all set our alarms, and our phone alarms started to wake us up around 6am. We had an 8:30am pick-up. You better believe that we got up and got ready. We were at the plaza by 8:30am. Our tour bus today was operated by GeoIceland, and our guide Simon arrived promptly.
What made the difference was our very intelligent and animated driver/tour guide, Simon. He spent close to 11 hours with us. He was excellent!
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Our morning started out with very light drizzle, but during our stops at Skogafoss and the glacier Sólheimajökull, it didn’t even rain at all, so we were quite thankful for that. Skogafoss was enormous. It was like staring at a giant, not that I’ve ever seen a giant in real life. The wind was blowing, and the power of the waterfalls was no doubt the reason why we were so drenched. It was a sight to see.
After leaving Skogafoss, we drove towards the glacier Sólheimajökull….this one took a bit of hike, I want to say about 20-25 minutes from the parking lot. It was larger than life to actually see this glacier and to be able touch the glacier. When we started to head back to the mini-bus, that’s when the wind started to pick-up. I actually didn’t mind. It was a hike up in some cases, and the wind’s strength pushed me forward which made the hike bearable.
By 1 or 2 pm, we made it to a beautiful black sand beach called Reynisfjara. At this time, despite the steady rain showers, it was still undeniably beautiful to be at this beach. We were warned to stay clear of the water, though. I’ve watched videos where unassuming tourists , who were taking selfies near the water, suddenly caught themselves swept by the waves. Thankfully, the crowd who was with us knew better. Shortly after visiting this beach, this was where we also spent our lunch break at the cafe.
We also stopped at Vik and took pictures with this iconic church behind us, and then we visited a wool factory, as well.
By 4:30pm, we started to make our way back, but we had one more major stop at the magnificent waterfalls Seljalandsfoss. Another waterfalls? Well, this was the one I’ve seen in pictures. It’s the waterfalls where you can actually approach it from the side and go right behind it. It was jaw-dropping to be enveloped by the sheer power of this waterfalls. It was only at this waterfalls when I actually felt extremely cold. I was drenched, my gloves were soaking wet, it was all so worth it, though.
And that was our 11-hour South Coast Tour.We made it back to Reykjavik around 7:30pm just in time for dinner and some late night happy hour at a tapas bar. What a day!