Good morning! Early skies ahead of us on our way to Iceland's South Coast. This would be our longest tour of Iceland's beautiful winter landscapes (11-12 hours). The tour today includes the Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss waterfalls, Reynisfjara's coastal scenery, Eyjafjallajökull volcano, and the Sólheimajökull glacier.
Unbeknownst to us....you can watch Justin Beiber dance around Iceland's South Coast in one of his new music videos. Of course, all his video clips are shot during the summer when the landscape is green. Just imagine a white landscape to get a sense of what we're seeing today.....and ignore Justin Beiber!
First stop was one of the best known waterfalls in Iceland -Seljalandsfoss. It drops 60m (180ft) and produces a mesmerizing mist all around the base of the waterfall. During the summer months you are able to actually walk behind the waterfall along the mountain pathway. Unfortunately, the path is closed during winter due to icy conditions.
The troll stories all follow the same basic plot — night trolls (who can only be out in darkness) are too busy stalking prey to notice the sunrise (or simply stray too far from their caves to get back before sunrise), and are turned to stone in the first rays of daylight. If you look at the photo below you'll see 2 trolls that did not return to their caves before sunrise at Reynisfjara beach.
The story of the elves or "hidden people" dates back to the days of Adam and Eve. Yes, that Adam and Eve. In this version of the story, God would come visit Adam and Eve every once in a while to check up on them and their many children. Before one particular visit, however, Eve wasn’t able to find enough time to tidy up all of her children — a couple of them were still dirty and unpresentable when God arrived. So Eve told the children to hide, figuring God wouldn’t notice their absence among so many other children. But, of course, God did take notice and asked Eve multiple times “Are these all your children?” She told him yes each time, but her lies did not fool God. God got very angry with Eve and told her, “What you have hidden from me, I shall now keep hidden from you.” And so the "hidden people" were born. God gave them the ability to show themselves occasionally — but only to those who they chose. Which explains why many Icelanders tell stories of seeing elves and other hidden folk all over Iceland.
After leaving the beach we visited the town of Vik and then headed up higher on the Cape to view the amazing pillars and caves down below. During the summer months this is the ideal spot to view the puffins which nest in the seaside cliffs. Unfortunately, during the winter the puffins are nowhere to be found. Anyone want to come back to Iceland with us over the summer to see the puffins?
On the return to Reykjavik, we stopped off to visit the Sólheimajökull glacier. This glacier is located just past the Eyjafjallajökull volcano which caused major problems for air travel between the North America and Europe in 2010 when it erupted and spewed 500 tons of ash into the air per day. Our tour bus guided us out to the glacier to enjoy an hour of photography and breath-taking surroundings. Check out the last pic of the blue ice cave.
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