Horses, waterfalls, glaciers, and a surprise

Saturday, 28.08.2021

We start the day with light clouds after a rather cold night and go for a hike on the neighboring mountain. From here, we have a good view of the large lava field in the valley and the huge almost empty riverbed. The hills exhibit beautiful color gradients from clay-red to black to bright green. Many multi-day hiking tours start from here, which would be a lot of fun in this exciting area, but unfortunately, we don't have the time or equipment for it.

After the hike, we warm up in the hot pool, this time with 30-40 more people. We continue southeast to the coast, just before the large Vatnajökull glacier, and sleep near the glacier river, slightly off the main road.

Sunday, 29.08.2021

We are awakened by the warm sunshine, have breakfast, and set off to meet the Glacier Horses at 10 o'clock. Sophia and three horses welcome us. I have been looking forward to this day for the whole vacation, and we have perfect weather.

After a short introduction and riding practice in the arena, we start riding. Ben has never been on a horse before, and I used to ride for a year as a teenager. I thought maybe we would be in a group, but we get a private tour just for the two of us and ride comfortably across beautiful meadows, through a small river, always with a view of the glacier. It is beautiful, and of course, we also try out the special gait of the Icelandic horses - the tölt.

In the afternoon, the weather gets worse again, but we still have to see another waterfall where you can walk behind it. After that, we visit Skógafoss, one of the largest waterfalls in Iceland, which completely soaks me with spray while taking photos. I might develop a fossphobia (also known as waterfall phobia) after this trip.

For sunset, we take a walk up to a lighthouse, where the weather clears up just in time and gives us a beautiful view of a black sand beach.

We camp in the town of Vík, but we are disappointed by the campsite. Two sinks are simply not enough for so many people (at least 40 cars), and this sparse equipment is consistent.

Monday, 30.08.2021

In the morning, we work at the campsite, then we take a short trip to a rocky beach with beautiful rock formations that are great for climbing.

I continue working in a parking lot while Ben takes a look at the wreckage of a crashed airplane. He comes back completely soaked from his two-hour hike and needs to dry off in the car.

To fulfill Ben's overlanding dreams, we drive on a gravel road through the country with several river crossings. The last one is right above a waterfall.

At the end of the day, we visit the (what we call) Justin Bieber Canyon (Fjaðrárgljúfur). In retrospect, Ben informed me that Justin Bieber apparently shot a music video here, and since then, this beautiful path has become so crowded that most viewpoints had to be closed off.

We find a nice sleeping spot on a partially old road that was partially washed away by a glacial outburst flood a few years ago.

Tuesday, 31.08.2021

One day before departure, we finally have amazing weather - pure sunshine. We do some skateboarding on a broken wooden bridge next to the main road, more for photos, but it was really fun.

We work outside for the first time in the fresh air at the parking lot in Skaftafell National Park until late afternoon. The sun is shining down on my face, so I have to apply sunscreen. After that, we take a short hike with a view of one of the glacial tongues.

For sunset, we drive to Jökúlsarlón, where icebergs break off from the glacier, gather in a lagoon, and slowly drift out to sea. Some of them are washed back onto the beach - the Diamond Beach - and gleam like diamonds on black sand. There are also a few seals there (I have to correct myself, I used to write "seals" previously). It is magical to watch the ice sculptures drift, and the perfect ending to the beautiful day.

We sleep again in an empty riverbed near the glacier, where it is cool but still beautiful. Shortly before midnight, to our surprise, the northern lights appear in the form of glowing green dancing sticks and swirls. They are clearly visible to the naked eye and move around in the sky. I didn't expect to see them anymore, but it seems that Iceland wants to give us a beautiful farewell.

Wednesday, 01.09.2021

Today is our last day in Iceland, and the weather is sunny with almost 20 degrees. In the morning, we take a steep hike to a high-lying glacial tongue with waterfalls cascading into a deep gorge. On the way, I snack on many wild blueberries and black crowberries that grow everywhere here.

Then we have a long drive to Seyðisfjörður, where we board the ferry in the evening after three weeks of camping in Iceland. We didn't spend two nights in the same place, experienced various weather conditions, and the nature here is really different from other places on Earth.

For this trip with an overnight stay, we treated ourselves to a luxury cabin, which has a huge panoramic window and lots of space. We enjoy a drink with live music in the bar, then Frank stops by for a chat in our room before we tiredly fall into the spacious, cozy bed.

Thursday, 02.09.2021

In the afternoon, we arrive on the Faroe Islands and take a short walk through the city after buying SIM cards at the shopping center. Here, we can only use our mobile data from the German phone contracts at very high fees. Since we are quite exhausted, we take a nap in the bus.

At 9:00 PM, we spontaneously decide to take the ferry to the island of Suðuroy. After two hours of calm sailing, we sleep somewhere in a bunk. It's raining.

Friday, 03.09.2021

The night ends with rain, just like the next day begins. After a short drive, we are in the north of the island, but we can't see anything due to thick fog. At least it's dry now. We hike a few steps up a mountain, and suddenly it clears up, and the sun starts beating down on us. We have a beautiful view of a steep gorge that has been carved into the land by the cliffs.

The island is quite lonely, there are hardly any people here, but there are plenty of sheep. We noticed that the sheep on the Faroe Islands are much friendlier, more curious, and more beautiful than on Iceland. They make eye contact and sniff around our car, we can almost pet them.

To see everything, we make a detour to the south of the island. In the afternoon, we take the ferry back again. Ben is brave and drives this time without his motion sickness medicine. Fortunately, it goes well because the sea is very calm.

Back on the main island, we go shopping and go to a cute campsite where we make burgers and do laundry in the warm communal area. On the way, we pass by our accommodation where we stayed with friends in November 2018. It's not that different from back then, just longer daylight and slightly warmer.