So Many Waterfalls!

July 25, 2023

Today was our major day of sightseeing. Sorry, this one is going to be media heavy as we had so many photos and videos of the waterfalls we wanted to share. If you are reading this in the email click through to the blog so you can watch the videos!

We started our day with our "included" breakfast. It was very diverse and included the most delicious Icelandic bread. There was a note on the wall that said the chef puts the bread in a hole they have dug across the street by the geysers and it stays there for 24 hours and cooks perfectly. I don’t know if that is what made it taste so good… or if it is ingredients you can only get in Iceland, but I am definitely researching this when I get home to see if we can recreate it. If we manage to recreate it, trust me, you’ll want to come over for a taste!

Before we headed out on our trek to see all the waterfalls we walked across the street to the geysers (geysir in Icelandic!). They have one geyser that erupts about every five minutes! The original geyser the area is named after ... Geysir... is no longer active, but there is a geyser called Strokkur that erupts about every 5 - 10 minutes. Strokkur's eruption is usually between 15 - 20 metres high!

Here is a video of the geothermal area:

Here is a video of the Strokkur geysir erupting (is erupting the right word?). We waited and waited trying to figure out how to know when it would erupt. There was a telltale signal... you smelt a gust of sulphur and then it blew!

Next we headed to Gullfoss (Translation: Golden Falls). It was a huge and powerful waterfall. It has two drops. The first drop measures 11 metres and the second 21 metres! The falls cascade down into a canyon. It was truly spectacular! This one was on the main tourist trail so when we arrived there were a few tour buses and when we left there were 13 in the parking lot! I don’t need to tell you much about this one, you can see from the photos how beautiful it was!

Our next stop was at Gluggafoss (Translation: window waterfall ) This waterfall is not on the main tourist trail. There were just a few cars in the parking lot and it was an easy walk over to the waterfall. Here are some photos and videos so you can see how beautiful it was!

Our next stop was Seljalandsfoss (Translation: Seljalands Falls?) This is the waterfall I was most excited about because you can actually walk behind the waterfall. The water drops 60 metres! This one is also more touristy. Lots of cars but only a few buses in the parking lot… and you need to pay about $7 CAD for parking. You could park out on the highway for free, but I think the $7 probably helps pay for things like fences to keep people safe and the public bathrooms. Ha Ha… that reminds me I got locked in the bathroom… luckily Steve was close by and heard me and came over to help me get out 😀

Here are some photos and videos of Seljalandsfoss. This is a view from the front of Seljalandsfoss:

And her is a view from behind Seljalandsfoss:

If you continue down the path from Seljalandsfoss you can see a few more waterfalls. The one at the end is the most exciting for me! It is called Gljufrafoss (40 metres tall!). When I read about it online it said it was a short hike past Seljalandsfoss. I wouldn’t call it a hike, I would call it a short walk down a path. This waterfall is inside a cavern. You do need to walk on some rocks through a little creek to get in. I had my Vessis on so just walked through the water it was only about 2 cm. deep… yay for waterproof shoes!

Here are a couple of photos and videos to show you this beautiful waterfall. I would definitely recommend taking the walk down to the end of the path for this one. Wear your raincoat though… you’re going to get wet!

If you are curious what the landscape looks like in Iceland as you drive through the countryside here is a picture that gives you the general idea. It was very green. We saw lots of sheep, some cows and a lot of Icelandic horses. We were wondering why they had so many horses. It is clear that many tourists come to ride them, but you will also find horse on menus in Icelandic restaurants.

On the way to the next waterfall Steve noticed this house built into the side of a cliff. It had a parking lot, and a small tour bus in the lot, so we figured we’d stop and take a look. The part you see sticking out the front is where they probably kept the livestock, and then in the back there was a cave home where I imagine the people would live. We both found this very interesting and were glad we stopped! 

This is where you go over the fence to get in:

Then we walked up to the house. We thought the part you see on the outside was the whole thing, but we think it is the part that was just for the livestock, and the cave house is behind it.

If you are curious, this is what it looked like inside:

Our next stop was Skogafoss (Translation: Forest waterfall) This is another amazing, tall and powerful waterfall that you can just go and look at for free. There are a lot of steps you can go up to look at the top… Steve did… I did not  😉 He said, you don’t really need to, the view from the bottom was the best. You can also almost walk right up to the falls at the bottom. Steve recognized them from a scene in the TV series Vikings when Floki first arrived in Iceland.

After this we arrived in Vik and checked into Vik cottages. This was a perfect little hotel for a one night stay…but did not include breakfast… cookies and paprika Pringles for breakfast it is! We did bring a bag of protein bars with us from home, and would recommend this for you if you visit Iceland and want to cut down on food costs.

We went out for dinner at the cheapest restaurant I could find called “Wok in Vik” You could order a noodle dish in any style you liked. Steve had Pad Thai and I had a dish with chicken and peanut sauce. After the two dinners and a couple of drinks it was about $65 CAD. Not bad for Iceland!

After dinner we headed to the black sand beach Reynisfjara. This is where you can see the basalt cliffs, black sand… and what I REALLY wanted to see… the puffins! The puffins usually come in around 9:00 to their nests, but come in earlier if it is rainy. It was a bit rainy so we headed over to see if we would get lucky. We did! You can watch the puffins flying in (they look like little footballs with wings) and see them on the grassy cliffs above you. In retrospect we should have brought our binoculars with us. I was very thrilled to see puffins in the wild. It was very VERY difficult to get a photo or video of the puffins in the wind and rain while they were up on the cliff... but we did our very best!

It started to get quite windy and rainy so we headed back to our cottage for the night. This was a VERY full day and I was ready for a good sleep!