I finally made it out to Iceland! Even though it was winter, it was much warmer than I expected. The temperature hovered around 0 °C, so I didn’t need to layer up that much. Too bad, it was cloudy the entire time, I would have liked to see the northern lights.
On my first day of the trip, I headed out along the southern coast of Iceland along the Ring Road. My flight landed early in the morning and because of my poor planning, I would be driving six hours along the Ring Road after 7.5 hour flight. At least the drive was quite scenic during the day!
This was my ride.
Seljalandsfoss
A lot of people come to Iceland to see nature, and waterfalls are among the sights. It reminds me of the kind of waterfalls you’d see in the Pacific Northwest.
Skógafoss
Another waterfall along the Ring Road that’s easily accessible. I’d say it’s even more impressive than the previous one!
There’s also a staircase that takes you to the top of the waterfall, but the view from up there isn’t as interesting.
Solheimasandur Plane Wreck
This place is a bit out of the way. It’s an actual plane wreck of a US navy plane that crashed landed in 1973. It’s on private land and the owners didn’t want to allow vehicle traffic to go there, so it’s a 45 minute walk (one way) from the parking lot alongside the Ring Road. The walk is PRETTY BORING since there is nothing interesting the look at along the way, but it’s pretty worth it when you get to the actual plane wreck. You can even go inside it!
Reynisfjara Beach
This palce is well known for having black sand, and its basalt columns, formed after volcanic activity.
The rest of the drive
It was starting to get dark as I passed the town to Vik, and I ended up spending the night near Diamond Beach, in preparation for the glacier cave tour that I would do the next day. By the time I got there, the roads were pretty much pitch black.
The only place I didn’t get to see that was a part of my plane was Dyrhólaey, which is a small peninsula just off the Ring Road with a view to the ocean with a stone arch on the water, and a lighthouse.
Photos along the Ring Road here