South Coast through Vik

Unfortunately no sightings of the Aurora last night. I set hourly alarms through the night to check outside but all night was a crazy wind and snow storm.

The weather forecast for today was for the worst weather of our 5 days - rain and wind. We had a fairly simple itinerary set for today with only a few highlights to stop by and check out. The road along the South Coast consists of big long stretches across extensive lava fields from a major volcanic eruption that happened in the 1700’s. The Laki eruption that happened in 1783 destroyed most of the early settlement villages and farmlands along the South Coast. An estimated 25% of Iceland’s population and over 50% of livestock died as a result. Even now, over 200 years later, the plains are covered in hundreds of kilometres of rugged lava that only moss has been able to grow on.

Our first stop was Skógafoss, a striking 60m waterfall over a sheer, rocky cliff. Despite the size, we could walk right up the creekbed to the base of the falls and experience the sheer power of it through the spray coming off the bottom. Braving the ice rain and wind, we took some stairs to the top and were able to see it from above.

Our next stop was the black sand beach of Reynisfjara. We arrived and treated ourselves to some 2-minute noodles in the car before braving the weather once again to walk out to the beach. The waves were wild so we could only look from afar at the large basalt hexagonal columns that make up the sea cliffs.

The town of Vik was kinda a non-event. We dropped by the supermarket to load up on some groceries and continued the drive east to our hotel for the evening. Once we arrived after an hour's drive Jessie realised she’d lost her phone. Thankfully we found out it was back at the supermarket so drove back to pick it up. By now it was dinner time so we took the opportunity to try a “Black crust” pizza. Worth the 2 hour loop back to get the phone I’d say 😎Read more