Fifty By 50: Exploring Iceland's Southern Coast (Aug.23, 2022)

Our plan for today was to head to Black Sands Beach on the south side of the ring road.

We looked it up and it's a couple hours drive so we wanted to get an early start.

We hoped to be on the road by 8 am but is was closer to 9 when we left.

It wasn't busy on the roads at all.

The sun was out and shining - shaping up to be a nice day.

The scenery is so beautiful here.

It's just unusual terrain compared to what we are used to seeing at home.

Like all these bumpy, mossy rocks.

Just so interesting.

And then the mountains in the background.

Looks like some steam coming from the ground.

Lots of thermal activity here.

Driving along the ring road in Iceland.

The terrain just kept changing as we were driving.

We'd go from the mossy, bumpy rocks to views of the ocean.

Then grassy green cliffs.

To pasture land for animals.

We hit our first town and I was ready for another coffeel

We found a little bakery to stop at.

They had some cute little marzipan animals on display.

Some really delicious smelling bread.

I got an oatcake and a coffee then we were back on the road.

You can see snow capped mountains off in the distance.

We could see this amazing waterfall off on the side of the road

So we decided to make it our first stop and check it out.

Seljalandsfoss.

Looks far away but it wasn't that far of a walk.

We took a selfie with it before walking over to get a closer look.

It was huge.

As you got closer to it, you could feel the mist coming off of it.

Good thing I brought my jacket with me today.

Jason with the falls.

And me with the falls.

Getting closer, glad we had rain gear with us.

So pretty.

Everything around it is so green and lush, no wonder.

You are able to walk in behind these falls.

It is super wet back there to you really need to watch your footing.

Behind the falls.

The ground was pretty slick, kind of treacherous in behind the falls.

It's like another world back in here.

Behind the falls selfie.

Looking back on the path we walked to get here.

There were bathrooms, a little cafe and a sweater store at the falls and they had these cute little rock people outside of the store.

So cute, I think I might try to make a couple when I get back home.

Then we were back on the road.

More of the scenery on the drive.

More falls along the way.

What a place to live - they have a stunning view.

There was this cave house so we decided to stop there next to get a closer look.

Just some historical notes about the caves.

There was a cool ladder there to help you get over the fence.

How nice of these folks to let people onto their property to have a closer look at the cave.

There it is, right into the side of the hill/mountain.

Little path way leading over to it.

As you get closer it looks an actual building/structure.

Short little doorway.

There were a bunch of little trolls/gnomes in there.

I can't believe people actually lived in these.

It was roomier inside than expected but still dirt floors, walls and ceilings and very dark.

It must have been cold too.

Not my cup of tea for sure.

Leave your offerings.

We felt so bad because we had no cash and were going to try to get some then stop on our way back but we ended up going back a different way.

Selfie.

Then it was back on the road - next stop, Reynisfjara or Black Sands Beach.

Getting closer, can see some black rocks jutting out of the ocean there.

Made it.

It was a bit windy but thankfully the sun was out.

We found a spot to park, used the washrooms (which you had to pay for) then made our way over to the beach.

It really was black sand.

When you walked around the corner, the view was amazing.

There are all the basalt columns that I was wanting to see.

And the rocky 'sea stacks' out in the ocean.

It was just as amazing as I was hoping it would be.

Of course we had to take the obligatory pictures at the basalt columns.

Zoomed in a bit.

I would have liked to climb up on them but I just couldn't do it with my sore legs.

They were feeling better but not quite up to climbing.

Jason had no problem though, he climbed right up there.

A wider view.

They really are so cool to see in person.

Around the corner from the basalt columns was this cool looking cave.

Cool cave at Black Sands Beach.

I got Jason to stand in there so I could take his picture.

Waves sparkling on the water - so pretty.

Then we decided to walk down the beach so we could get a bit closer to the seastacks.

We decided to go for a walk down the beach to check out the seastacks a bit closer.

Looking back at the cave.

That's Jason standing there - looks like he's so far away.

The water was a pretty icy blue color.

Getting closer.

I just had to put my feet in the sand.

Wanted to feel the water too - it was COLD!

Some of the beach was quite rocky - hard to walk on so I sat for a bit.

What an amazing place to be!

Watching the waves come in at Black Sands Beach.

When we got home I was reading up about this beach and they highly recommend staying out of the water because it is very unpredictable and can come up suddenly and wash you out, even if you up on the beach.

Thankfully that didn't happen.

What a pretty view.

This looks like a scene right out of a epic movie, like Lord of the Rings or something.

Another of the seastacks - it is cool and creepy looking at the same time.

I was trying to get a picture of the waves crashing against the rocks but kept missing it.

So I got a video of it instead.

Jason exploring.

Caught some spray there.

Watching waves crashing against the rocks and the beach is kind of mesmerizing, I could sit and watch it all day.

Just another view - wanted to catch a shot of that bird sitting there.

Got em!

Someone had built a little inukshuk.

There were what seemed like hundreds of puffins flying back and forth from the cliffs to the water and so we sat and watched them for quite some time.

They were fun to watch.

We probably could have spent more time there but we had more we wanted to see today so we decided to head out.

Some sheep grazing on the hills.

Just some homes right along the road out - they get to see this beautiful view every single day.

Next up, we saw a sign for The Plane Wreck, so we decided to check it out.

You could park in the parking lot and the wreck was down at the beach and we were just going to walk because it didn't look very far away but looks can be deceiving.

The sign said that it was actually a hours walk away.

If we had more time we likely would have just walked but we were trying to cram a lot of stuff into today so instead we paid to take the shuttle down.

It wasn't that expensive.

What a bumpy ride - it was kind of fun.

It wasn't that far up from the Black Sands beach and so this beach was all black as well.

There it is.

It crashed her back in 1973 and has just been here ever since.

I made Jason climb up on it so I could take his picture.

There wasn't much left to it.

Just the bare bones or skeleton of the plane.

Lots of people there checking it out.

Selfie time.

The Plane Wreck

It kind of felt like being on another planet or something - just black and rocky for miles.

If you looked the other way you could see the mountains off in the distance.

There were some dips and valleys.

A close up of the terrain, very baren, not much there at all.

Not sure if someone was trying to save this plant or if they were just bored?

Always taking pictures.

There wasn't really a whole lot to see there really so when the shuttle came back, we were ready to go back to the car.

Another bumpy ride.

At this point in the day, we were both hungry and ready for something to eat.

We tried to google places to go but in the end decided to just go back to a place we'd driven by a bit earlier that wasn't too far away.

Gamla Fjosid

This is the view across the road from the restaurant.

Love the cow sign.

You had to go around the corner to get in there and once you did, it was way bigger than it looked on the front.

It was huge inside and not busy at all.

They had some of those cute little rock people.

I tried the volcano soup.

It was kind of pricey, $26.00 for a bowl but it came with bread and free refills at least.

It was good too, reminded me of goulash soup.

Jason had a burger and it was really good too.

WE also decided to have some dessert.

We had date cake which is basically just like sticky toffee pudding and it was delicious.

We also tried skyr cake.

I was expecting actual cake but that wasn't what it was.

It had a cookie crumble bottom (it had a strong clove flavor which I liked) then it had the skyr mix on top which reminded me of cheesecake then it was topped with a jam.

It was super good.

After we ate, we were back on the road and we decided to head to Geysir to check it out.

It was a bit out of the way but we had time so we figured why not.

Just some of the pretty scenery along the way.

Such a beautiful country.

Made it to Geysir.

Warning sign.

As soon as you walked in you could see the steam rising from the ground.

Hot stuff.

Waiting for the geysir to blow.

The main geysir here is dormant and rarely erupts any more but this one erupts every 10 minutes or so.

Waiting for the geysir to blow.

There she blows again.

A quick view of the geysir area.

After we watched the geysir, Strokkur erupt a couple of time, we decided to go do a bit more exploring.

We did come across the main geysir called Geysir but this is the one that is mainly dormant now.

There's a picture of it.

It would have been really cool to see it go off but we did get to see Strokkur go off several times so we were not disappointed.

I had to pop into the gift shop to use the washroom before we hit the road again and they had this awesome display.

This sign was on each of the bathroom stalls.

Like really? Who doesn't know this?

Cool mirror next to the washrooms.

We looked around the gift shop a bit and they had some nice things, like these cute little stuffed animals, but everything was very pricey and we didn't end up buying anything.

Still fun to look though.

The Google Maps took us back to Reykjavik a different way than the way we'd come and it ended up taking us right through Pingvellir National Park.

It is in a rift valley between two tectonic plates and it was something I had wanted to see so that was fortunate.

It look like there were lava bubbles all over, it was so cool.

Just another shot of them.

This was looking down into kind of a ravine - it was so neat.

I wish we'd had a bit longer to explore but it was getting late by then and we were tired so after we had a bit of a look and took a few pictures (my phone was dead so Jason took the pics), we got back on the road.