This morning Mike picked us up a little earlier to take a trip to the South Shore. Our first stop was Seljalandsfoss waterfall. It was a little wet and windy but we had the chance to walk behind the waterfall. Despite our best efforts to cover up we got covered with water from the falls' spray.
It was then back into the car with a quick stop at a service station to buy some lunch supplies to eat later in our journey. Our next stop was the Skogafoss waterfall. It was beautiful with multiple rainbows taking turns to dance in front of the falls.
While we were admiring the falls the boys had fun skipping rocks across the stream and Ryan was looking for "asteroids" - lava rocks. I think Ryan could have happily played at the edge of the stream all day.
David and Connor braved the 419 steps to climb to the very top of the falls while Ryan and I stayed below with Mike.
After driving a little further we passed a farm which had been right in the firing line of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano. We stopped briefly and looked at the final photo that the owner took looking back at his property as the ash rained down, not knowing if it would be there when he returned. He has now created a museum which provides information about the eruption.
When a volcano erupts in Iceland it has a domino effect. There is the devastation caused by the ash, lava bombs, and lava. However the volcanos also cause more devastation because the glaciers melt and flood the landscape. As we drove through nearby areas it was incredible to see how much ash had been deposited from the volcano. Thousands of tons of ash had to be dredged out of the rivers and have now been used to create flood levies.
We were planning to eat lunch on a volcanic beach but instead given the weather decided to stop for our lunch at the Solheimajokull glacial tongue of the Myradalsjokull glacier. The wind force was unbelievable. We struggled to even open the car doors. Poor Connor dropped one of his gloves and had to take off at great speed to try to fetch it; every time he got close to it the wind would take off with it again. Eventually he was able to capture it.
We walked out into the wind towards the tongue of the glacier. The whole time we were being pelted with ash and fine grit. Just before the glacier we found a mound of ash and lava to use as a wind break and sat down to eat our picnic lunch using this as our shelter from the elements.
After lunch we walked up and onto the base of the glacier tongue. The boys liked touching the glacier. We found an ice bridge which was really beautiful and we could see it beginning to melt due to the start of spring. It was also really interesting that you could see the history of the glacier and its relationship to the volcanos. The ice is layered and every so often you can see a line of black throughout the glacier then more ice, another line of black etc. Each of these black lines are ash deposits from previous eruptions.
After lunch we pushed on to a black volcanic beach at Reynishverfi. Again we struggled to get out of the car due to the wind. As we made our way towards the fierce waves of the foreshore we were again pelted with grit and ash. On the plus side think of how soft our skin will be and how much money we'll save on microdermabrasion!!!
Here we were able to see where the lava from previous eruptions had met the sea and solidified. We were also able to see the Reynisdranga rock spires and caves that had been formed in the lava rock.
As we were nearing the end of the day and the weather had turned for the worst it was time to head back to Reykjevik. Although it's worth noting that Icelanders say there is no such thing as bad weather, there is only weather - dress appropriately.
On the way back as usual Mike shared many more interesting facts and stories about Iceland. We also made an unscheduled stop at another waterfall which was lovely.
Once Mike had returned us to the hotel we went out for dinner. We found a small pizza place which was great. After pizza we ordered a taxi and went to a local outdoor geothermal heated swimming centre. It was a fascinating experience learning the etiquette of using the swim centre.
It was absolutely freezing outside; it was raining and the wind chill factor can hardly be explained. Once we were ready to enter the pool we made a mad dash to get out of the freezing air and into the first pool we could find. Thankfully the pool was amazingly warm.
David and the boys were a little braver and took off to find another pool which had slides and balls etc but was not quite as warm. I happily stayed put relaxing in the warmth and listening to all these conversations I could not understand.
Apparently most Icelanders use these outdoor pools several times a week; they have health benefits and are a real social meeting place. Once we had turned into wrinkled up prunes and the weather got even colder (and wetter) we dragged the children reluctantly out of the pool, got changed and caught a taxi back to the hotel. Interestingly the driver only drives on weekends so asked us to give directions back to the hotel. As you can imagine that went well - after a phone call we did get back. We were exhausted but very relaxed when we flopped into bed.
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