Day 2: The adventure begins

Not yet having completely adjusted to the Icelandic time, we wake up around 5:30AM as the first daylight touches Reykjavik. Or maybe it's because we're so excited to start this day and see our first waterfalls?

At around 6AM we decide to get out of bed and no longer wait for the treasures ahead of us. As with all the hotels our travel agency booked, we have breakfast included. So after a stop at the buffet, we grab our bags and head out of Reykjavik.

Today has a long drive in store for us and there's plenty of things to see. So many in fact, we had to discard a few from our list before arriving in Iceland. It doesn't take long before the urban city landscape makes place for typical Icelandic landscapes: vast green mountains and black lava rocks. Every now and then you can spot a waterfall from a mountainside. Not long into the drive we make halt at a viewpoint just before the town of Hveragerði. In hindsight this wasn't such a spectacular view, but for us at that time... we were more than impressed. Big mountains on our left with steam coming out of the ground. In front of us a wide view over the road ahead and the town of Hveragerði. To our right and at the horizon the sea. Such an unrealistic sighting.

After a couple of pictures, we drive down to the village to see the geyser 'Grýla'. Although we've read in the guidebooks that the geyser is dormant, we also read that it could still be activated by soap. Not too convinced about the latter and the impact on nature, we still wanted to stop by and see. Maybe other tourists didn't have issues with the soap trick...

When arriving at the approximate location we didn't see any sign or indication of the geyser. By this time, it started raining heavily and Ann decided to jump out of the car and take a short walk (or run) over a hill to see if it was maybe at the other side. Meanwhile I kept searching on my mobile to find the exact location. By the time Ann returned we found out that the geyser was actually right next to us. A subtle circle of stones gave the hole in the ground away. No other tourists and no activity, just a hole in the ground. Not a huge success for our first stop.

We continued down the ring road and stopped at a waterfall called Urriðafoss. As we walked down to the waterfall from the parking lot nearby, we were in luck: a short burst of sunlight broke through the clouds and allowed us to see our first waterfall in the golden sun rays. You have to enjoy these (sometimes short) moments while they last, because a couple of minutes later all was cloudy again. 

Originally, we planned a visit to the LAVA Museum in Hvolsvöllur, but because of the many points of interest this day we had to discard this as well. Despite this, the museum seems interesting and even has some modern features like trembling ground built in. In the town we stopped for fuel and a short sanitary stop. We swap the main ring road for road 261 to drive to Gluggafoss, another waterfall. You'll quickly notice that -foss means waterfall in Icelandic. This one has the main fall coming down in a small rock valley, but later forms another wider waterfall at the bottom before turning into a creek. 

To get back to the main road we have to travel a short bit on a gravel road that connects the 261 with the ring road. Cautious we advance down the road, carefully looking for potholes or bigger stones. About halfway down the road we spot another vehicle on this road behind. Not too much later the car caught up with us and was right behind. We moved a bit to the side of the road so he could overtake us. Despite all our great care, one of the loose gravel stones from the car hit our windscreen when re-joining the road and marks a small star. Slightly worried about the insurance on the car, and windscreens in particular, we continue to our next big stop: Seljalandsfoss.

This maybe is the opportune time to give a bit of advice when travelling in Iceland with a rental car. Make sure you have proper insurance on the vehicle! In our case the car was extremely well covered through some additional insurance via the touring operator. Especially when travelling the highland roads: small scratches or possible damage from loose rocks to the underside of the vehicle are inevitable. Take care reading what is covered in your insurance and what not. Also keep in mind that river crossings are never ever covered by any insurance.  

Having arrived at Seljalandsfoss without further damage we look for a parking spot on a rather crowded parking lot. This is our first parking where we have to pay for parking. Normally parking in Iceland is almost everywhere free, apart from Reykjavik. Some of the touristic spots in Iceland now require you to pay a parking fee in order to keep the parking lot in "good" shape and maintain toilets and facilities.

After some issues with the ticket machine, we find one that is willing to accept our payment and head to the waterfall nearby. The cool thing about this waterfall is that you can walk around it. Getting this close to the immense force of water crashing down is impressive... and wet. 

From the same parking you can make a small hike (less than 2km) to another waterfall: Gljúfrafoss. This one is located in a small canyon and at first we're not completely sure which path leads to the waterfall. As none of the paths is very long, we follow the tourists in front. As the path gets smaller it turns out that... no, dead end. We head back and take the next path that follows a creek coming out of a canyon. By this time we can hear the waterfall. This must be the right way! Staying close to the canyon wall not to step into the creek we arrive at waterfall. In front is a huge stone that makes the perfect photo spot. Because little light reaches the waterfall through the canyon, taking pictures is a challenge.

To finish our daily amount of waterfalls, we make a final stop at Skógafoss. The impressive "beast" is clearly visible from the ring road. This is one of Iceland's most photographed waterfalls. The wide curtain of water falling from a height of 80 meters is nothing less than spectacular. After playing around a bit on the tripod, we follow the path on the right of the fall that brings us to the top. From there you can follow a trail that brings you along various other smaller waterfalls. After about 500m we decide to head back to the car. We don't have the time to do the full 7km trail as many other highlights await us on this first day.

As a true aviation enthusiast, I didn't want to miss the famous DC3 plane wreck. I'm sure everyone has seen the picture of the almost aluminium looking plane on the black sand beach. It's such a photogenic sight! Because the wreck is only reachable via a 3,5km rather dull trail (one way), and we didn't read much about parking lots nearby, I expected this to be a less touristic spot. When arriving at the parking (which was clearly marked) it turned out I was completely wrong. There were a lot of people walking down this seemingly endless black road to the sea.

The fun thing about this area is the fact that you don't see the plane until you're almost there. Although you constantly have the feeling that you can look into the far distance, there is a depression and turn at the end of the trail where the plane lies. The wreck meets all our expectations! Again a very surreal sight to have this suddenly on these vast black beaches. We wonder how this was ever discovered and what other undiscovered treasures this land maybe still holds.

The only downside: everyone wants to take a picture on or next to the plane so getting these beautiful shots of the wreck in its beautiful surrounding requires some patience and luck. Maybe we're the only ones that prefer this type of composition...

On our walk back to the car we have a lovely view on the mountains ahead and some glaciers. It's a shame we don't have the luxury to visit all these places at sunset or sunrise.

It's almost 6PM when we arrive at our last stop of the day near Vík. Dyrhólaey is a rock formation in the sea with a hole in it. From the lighthouse on the hill nearby we get a nice view. There is also a walk up to the lighthouse that starts down at the beach, but again, we didn't have the time to do this. As the sun sets in the west, we soak in the last golden rays touching the ocean and the white wave heads crashing into the black sand beach. We could stay here for much longer!

A very short drive later we check-in at our hotel just outside Vík, the most southern part of Iceland. After having tried one of the countries specialties for dinner, lamb, we go to bed. Still baffled by the amazing things we've seen today.