Half-Term Holiday: Iceland Day 3

13^th February 2018

Well, it’s true what they say about the weather in Iceland – if you don’t like it, wait 5 minutes! Slept so badly last night due to a storm with howling winds and blowing rain and sleet. I woke up so many times, it sounded windy enough to blow over the hire car!! It meant that in the morning it was very wet. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, though, because by the time we got to Skaftafell NP the wind had calmed, the sleet had turned to snow, and unlike yesterday you wouldn’t need crampons to do the hike! So we put on our raincoats and hiked the 1.2km each way to Svartifoss (‘black waterfall’). It was pretty magical really, with the falling snow all around as we walked. Just lovely, and not a tricky or overly long walk. It was even quite warm once we got going – I even took off layers!

After that we went back on to the highway, stopping at Dverghamrar, the dwarf cliffs. They’re on the side of a hill and were very cool, being so close to the highway! Only downside is, it was much colder and windy once we got there. We could even see Fodd a Sidu from the road on the other side!

We stopped at Klauster again, looking for Kirkjugolf, an old farm, but we couldn’t even see it underneath all the snow, which was a shame. Our little detour meant we could see Stkornafodd waterfall from the road. Unfortunately we couldn’t get any closer than the road.

Finally, we drove the rest of the way to Vik for lunch. It was 3pm by then at that point, but we took a few photos beforehand of the beach at Vik. The driving was the worst of the trip – windy and snowy and not much visibility!

After lunch we went to check out the DC-3 plane wreck at Solheimasandur. We weren’t sure if we would have time to walk all the way (one article we read said 2 hours one way!), but we did it in just under 45min each way. It was flat, but rough going after other hiking, and my body was screaming by the time we got back to the car. I did enjoy the walk though, and the plane was very cool. We took lots of photos.

Then back to the same hotel as 2 nights ago, another amazing dinner in the hotel (best lobster soup!), then diary, TV and bed. I shall sleep very well tonight!