Rangárþing Ytra

We got up at 8am & got ready in our very basic, but so far most expensive room. We went to breakfast 45 minutes later timing it just right to avoid the Adventures including our American chum who was just leaving. We did our best to get our money’s worth of the buffet breakfast which was adequate, but not exceptional.

Our 1st stop of the day was just up the road, Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon, described as a darkly picturesque canyon, carved out by the Fjaðrá river. It is particularly popular, thanks to it being the location for Justin Bieber’s video for his song, ‘I’ll Show You’. It was a kilometre walk along a trail on the southern side of the 100 metre deep canyon & then a kilometre back with plenty of excellent viewpoints. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far.

Our next stop was a viewpoint in a Moss Heath. Basically Route 1 had taken us through the middle of a massive rock field that was covered in green moss that gave it a strange furry look & feel.

We continued to Vik, the most southerly & rainiest town in Iceland. It lived up to it’s reputation & the wind was quite frankly violent. It took all our might to hang on to Duster’s doors when we got out. We found an Ice Wear Superstore & went for a browse. Jackie took fancy to a black puffa jacket, that looked too similar to her blue Rab & walking boots, costing over £200. I fancied an Icelandic wool jumper, but the cost of £154 eventually persuaded me not to get it. We left with nothing other than a couple of postcards.

Before leaving Vik, we had a coffee, then located the Voyagers Friendship Statue, a monument wishing safe return of the people who work at sea. It is situated on the black sand beach & looks out at the jagged dramatic rock formations of Reynisdrangar.

The Voyagers Friendship Statue apparently had a sister monument in Hull, UK, but it was stolen for scrap metal. You couldn’t make it up!

We drove a further 6 miles down the road & to Reynisfjara Beach, notorious for it’s ‘Sneaker Waves’ making it the most deadliest beach in Iceland. Waves regularly drag people into the water often with fatal consequences, the last being the drowning of a Chinese woman in November 2021. Despite being battered by the wind, we braved it on to the dangerous black beach to examine close up the basalt column rock formations.

Thinking we had done our exercise for the day, we continued west along Route 1 until we came to Sólheimasandur, where we saw 30 plus cars parked up. It was the car park for the walk to US Navy Douglas DC-3 that crash landed on the beach. We had dismissed visiting it, because guidebooks estimated it to be a 3-4 hour round trip to the plane wreck.

Due to large number of cars we stopped to investigate & read that it was only just over 4 miles to walk there and back. We uhmmed & aahed, before I made the decision we would walk it. We set off on our wind swept glacial outwash plain to the fuselage carcass. It did look like something out of a sci-fi movie. After the obligatory photos, we route marched back, into the battering side & now slight head wind, with Jackie drafting behind me. We returned to the car having completed the 4.52 mile round trip in just 85 minutes!

Further along the Ring Road, we found Skógafoss waterfall, which is 62 metres high & 32 metres wide. The beauty of Skógafoss was that you could walk up the valley to the base of the falls or as close as you wanted before you were saturated. Jackie chose to admire the falls from afar, while I took the walk for a few obligatory photos. There was an opportunity to climb up a path to look down on the falls, but I just couldn’t face it.

Next stop was Seljalandsfoss waterfall, which was probably the most impressive to date, helped by the fact that the sun had come out for the day & temperatures had risen to a positively balmy 17 degrees. Seljalandsfoss is also 62 metres high, but has the added advantage of you being able to walk behind it. I courageously did, whilst Jackie watched in awe!

After another memorable day, we headed for our night’s accommodation, but with a detour to pick up some provisions. We stopped at Hella, where we found a Vínbúðin, the state controlled liquor store, which are the only places to buy takeout booze in Iceland. We picked up a bottle of Captain Morgan’s Rum & discovered it was £54 a bottle. Instead we settled on 6 cans of Icelandic beer at just £2-3 per can. We also bought a microwaveable lasagna & Spag Bol together with garlic bread for our evening dinner.

We arrived at South Central Guesthouse just after 6pm & discovered that we were the sole guests in the 8 bedroomed chalet. We are very pleased because for the 1st time on this trip, we had a shared bathroom. This was quite a surprise, because the closer we have got to the southwest corner of Iceland it has got noticeably busier with damn tourists.

Song of the Day: I’ll Show You by Justin Bieber.
(Contrary to my better judgment).Read more