Iceland - Day 9 - Vik, waterfalls and northern lights
Fjaðrárgljúfur Gorge was the first stop on this windy and cold day. Walked about half a mile from the parking lot to viewpoint number 2. This is an interesting canyon steep and long with nice vegetation. But the weather didn’t let us enjoy it. We didn’t even think about continuing the walk to the end to view the waterfall.
Yoda cave - In the Viking National Park where there are some ancient burial grounds on a long beach, there is also a cave and its entrance resembles the shape of Yoda. The road going there from the ring road is short but unpaved and in bad condition. The wind was especially fierce and kicked up a lot of sand and pebbles that went into my shoes and jacket pockets. We quickly went around the area, took some photos, and got back to the safety of our car.
Black sand beach - This beach is very close to Vik. There are striking features in the mountain close to it. Many basalt columns and caves. It is interesting to see how these columns go in all directions. The next big landmass south of this beach is Antarctica across the whole North and South Atlantic Ocean. The beach also gets these sneaker waves every few minutes that are very strong and dangerous if one isn’t paying attention to them. We walked around a bit and tried unsuccessfully to find out if there were any puffins.
Dyrhólaey peninsula - Another place along the shore near Vik. It is a hill with some cliffs that birds call home. The second place where we searched for puffins with no luck. There is a lighthouse on the top and there are some great expansive views with two huge black sand beaches on both sides.
Black crust pizza - This place specializes in putting some activated charcoal in the dough to make black crust pizza. The taste was nothing special. Gave me a heartburn later. Could have skipped this. Missed out on going to Mia’s country food truck for fish and chips.
Skogafoss is a spectacular waterfall. It makes a nice wide curtain of water. It can be seen from the ring road. No hike involved.
Seljalandsfoss is another waterfall close by about 25 km away. There is a trail that goes behind the waterfall. Because of the wind the water was flying everywhere and going behind would have meant getting soaked completely. Didn’t want to do that. Took some nice photos and walked to another waterfall that is half a km away. It was interesting to see these waterfalls from their bottom as the viewing areas for other big falls we visited were at the top.
Hôtel Vos turned out to be an interesting place. It is run by a Chinese couple and there were many Chinese guests from tour groups. The dinner was lacking. But all the deficiencies were made up by its remote location in an area with no light pollution. We saw some brilliant northern light displays with the naked eyes. It is going to take a lot of time to process hundreds of photos I have taken.