The black beach and the sneaker waves

Just outside of Vik is Reynisfjara (Rey-niss-fyara), a black sand beach with sneaker waves that have apparently taken many unsuspecting tourists. It is odd to see such dark sand near the beach when I have grown up near some of the best white sandy beaches on the planet. The sand is slightly courser than the sand at home in Western Australia. I little bit back from where the waves crash the beach is made up of beautiful smooth pebbles no more than 3cm by 1.5cm.

In the side of the rocky cliff face is a cave known as Hálsanefshellir. This one I've no idea how to pronounce and I tried looking it up for ages! I think it may be howl-soun-evs-hettl-ir, but this is based only on what I could make out from pronunciation guides! The roof of the cave was a perfect dome shape and the most interesting hexagon shaped tubes formed on the outside. Nearer the beach they were more hexagon stacks, similar to those in Northern Ireland at the Giants Causeway.

Out from the coast is Reynisdrangar (ray-niss-drang-gar), basalt sea stacks how to nesting sea birds including puffins. Unfortunately for us we are a little to early to see them. Icelandic folk lore has two tales for how the stacks came to be, both involve trolls. The first is two trolls went out one night to play mischief by dragging ships from the ocean but didn't make it back before sunrise and were turned to stone. The other is the story of two trolls that murdered a woman. The woman's husband sought justice by tricking the two trolls out at night. The trolls couldn't make it bake before sunrise and were turned to stone. GoT enthusiasts may recognise the sea stacks from Season 7 Eastwatch by the Sea.

Also visible from the beach and to the west is Dyrhólaey (dir-oh-lay) a sea arch which litteraly translates to door hole island. Makes sense really :) Given the long drive ahead and not wanting to jdrive in the dark we admired the view from the beach rather than walking along the beach toward it.

- the caveRead more