Iceland Pt 2

This is a long post! Even though it's only been a few days since the last one, we have seen some pretty speccy things and the number of photos we've taken is crazy. After the 'Golden Circle' we've been working our way eastward, across the southern coast of Iceland. We haven't made it too far - only a short distance across the south coast from Skogar to Hofn (tonight), but there were plenty of sights to see. The most notable characteristics are the huge number of glaciers (we must have past a dozen in the last two days), the green grass instead of trees (as in NO trees thanks to the Vikings cutting them all down), black beaches and the stupendous mountains looming over the plains to the coast. Oh, and the prices are hilarious (as in high) - we could have had fish and chips from the local chippy tonight for $50 each so we're making our own! And it is still cold and windy!  Here are some pics....

[Don't forget if you are on a computer or iPad you can click on one photo for a larger image, then from there, flick through all the pictures as larger images - without text] 

Skogarfoss ('foss' means waterfall) was lovely and you could walk above it. The wind creates a major mist which causes rainbows when the sun shines through. You can see how small the people are at the bottom of the rainbow for scale. 

There is a famous walk above Skogafoss that follows its river for 22km up into the high country to Posmork, with the first 8km having 20 additional waterfalls (which was our intention). But the weather was just too bad - the wind was 'Shackleton' strength again - so we went up another 3 or so waterfalls and turned back!....

The purple flowers (we think lupins) in the foreground are everywhere and very picturesque - in this case contrasted against the amazing desert-like landscape of moss-covered lava flows which cover many square kilometres of the south coast in this area....

Fjaolrargljutur Canyon was awesome...

Our accommodation for the next 2 nights was a guesthouse near Skaftafell National Park. There were 3 Icelandic horses in the adjacent field and the sun approximately 'set' at about 11pm (but it doesn't get very dark afterwards).....

Our guesthouse....

View from dining room....

We did a fantastic tour to see puffins on Ingolfshofoi. You stand on a tray drawn by a tractor for 30 minutes, then climb black sand up to a promontory (really an island that long ago became part of the mainland across a 6km wide sand beach). The 'island' otherwise has sea-cliffs all around with puffin burrows along the tops. We weren't there at the best time (after 6pm) but there were still puffins close up, and the views were fantastic too....

More Icelandic horse photos back at the guesthouse....

The afternoon activity was going for a 3hr walk at Skaftafell National Park. Note the different glaciers all around, as well as the amazing mountains...

View from Sionarnipa glacier viewpoint toward Skaftafellsjokull (jokull means glacier)....

Basalt columns on Svartifoss...

Earthen roofs on old farm dwellings at Sell, now part of the National Park. Note lava flows behind...

Driving back to our guesthouse we dropped into Svinafellsjokull, another glacier very close by (we were staying at Svinafell). Awesome...

Next to our guesthouse was this view toward the top of the glaciers with the Lupins in the foreground. We scared off a 20-something doing a TikTok dance when we pulled up!...

It suddenly decided to rain, when the sun was shining, creating a fetching rainbow and interrupting wine-o'clock....

Today we have travelled to Hofn from Svinafell, visiting two more glacier lagoons, the second of which is a major tourist attraction for very good reason - spectacular icebergs in the lagoon from the massive glacier falling into it. The first two photos are of Fjalisarlon, the smaller of the two. The remainder are of Jokulsarion, the larger one (with much larger and more blue icebergs)....

Common eider ducks...

Jokulsarion opens to the sea via a short river under the Ring Road, where the icebergs break up and create amazing 'diamond' like ice pieces on the black sand...