And on to our fourth accommodation of the trip.
The drive today was down the coast from Hofn to Vik, I say down the coast but as most towns in Iceland are on the coast the chance is rare that you would be heading inland.
Our first stop of the day would mirror where we spent a few hours yesterday, Jokulsarlon ice lagoon and Diamond Beach. Today however we didn't have the thick mists of yesterday, but managed a few glimpses of the sun throughout or time there. There was still not a great deal of ice on Diamond Beach, certainly not like the last time we were here a few years ago, but enough to make the black beach sparkle. We did this time however see lots of seals swimming around the icebergs, far more than we have seen before so that was a bonus.
Our next main stop, and a planned one, was Svínafellsjökull glacier. As you drive along the coast in this part of Iceland you see glacier tongues every few miles, but this one is reported to be a glacier where you can park relatively close so a good choice for a touristic stop off.
There were only a few cars when we got there, and the walk to the lagoon at the face of the glacier was only around 15 minutes. And it was definitely worth the short walk, lots of ice as far as you can see, with icebergs floating around in the pale brown coloured lagoon sat at the foot of the tongue of ice. It was so peaceful meandering around the lagoon edge, listening for the creaking of the ice in the silence.
Our next stop was not one we had planned, but as we passed by we saw the sign for Stjornafoss, a waterfall we had seen in various vlogs on YouTube, a relatively small waterfall by Icelandic standards but a graceful one by anyone's standards.
On this drive you have a section of around an hour which is just flat land, a few agricultural fields but mainly green moss covered lava fields from eruptions in the past. We stopped off at the viewing platform near to the road to enjoy the vista, just a pity now that the light was fading a little so we didn't get the deep green that we might have had earlier in the day.
We arrived in our little rental house in the centre of Vik, and after doing a little unpacking and putting some washing in we togged up and went for a short walk in Vik and sought out Halldórskaffi where I had a burger, and Donna enjoyed a lamb sandwich. A nice way to end the day.
After all the driving we had done, today we would stay fairly local. We hadn't planned a particularly early start but as we were up and ready we were out of the house at 8:30am; why waste it as the weather forecast for today was wall to wall sun.
We started the morning with an hour or so at the famous Reynisfara black sand beach, which, even though we were there fairly early, it was still starting to get quite busy. We then took the 15 minute drive up into Dyrolaey to take in the views from up there, out to the sea arch and over the wide expanse of beach each side of the headland.
Early afternoon we took a walk to Strondin Bistro and Bar where Donna had a burger, I had the fish stew and also a side order (and just how big was it) of dirty fries. In truth I wish I had just had the fries, there were so many of them and so much cheese and bacon bits. After a couple of hours chilling out in the house we took advantage of the lovely sunset with a drive back up onto Dyrolaey, where, Donna took full use of our first-aid kit when an American lady fell and hit her head. Nurse Donna to the rescue.
An unexpected end to a lovely day.
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