Road Trip To Hofn - Part I

We set off from Reykjavik and were headed for Hofn with our worldly possessions and a couple of pizzas in our ridiculously large 4WD. We were attempting the "southern shore" tour of Iceland, travelling from the west of the country to the east going along the south coast. Adventure was in the air!

Firstly we had to leave our Reykjavik home...

This was our accommodation for the first leg of our Iceland journey. It served us well and our Airbnb hosts Jon and Olaf were extremely friendly locals with two cute as boys and some great suggestions on what to do in their homeland. They were the perfect example of the friendly hospitality afforded us by many of the locals through out Iceland.

Seljalandsfoss waterfall was the first stop on our way to Hofn. We had seen many photos of this waterfall, though they were all in the summer. What we saw was far from this beauty in her golden hour. The majority was frozen over and the scenery was brown in place of the summer time green. To make things worse it was raining...

You get the picture of how much was frozen over... Nearly everything!

Seljalandsfoss was impressive nonetheless, it was daunting with the water dropping 60 metres over the cliff face into the mostly frozen river. It is possible to go behind the waterfall, alas it was impossible to walk that way on this day without ice-skates if you catch my drift.

Adam even managed to go for a slide down the footpath. He forgot his skates.


(Watch in HD once the video starts!)

This is what would of been our passage to the waterfall's behind. It was pure ice.

And that was Seljalandfoss waterfall.... Want to see what this place looks like in the warmer months? Click this link here - AMAZING!

The next stop was Skogafoss waterfall.

It was a cold and rainy day with wind blowing the rain horizontally, which put a damper on things, however it was still rather enjoyable to wander around Skogafoss.

Like Seljalandfoss, Skogafoss falls 60 metres down the cliff. Iceland does its imposing and beautiful waterfalls well. So hats off to you Iceland. Skogafoss is a whopping 25 metres wide and sprays water like 100 elephants.

It was amazing how close you could get to the face of the waterfall, though the consequence was to be soaking for the rest of the ride to Hofn as Sophie discovered.

 Though Lloyd couldn't risk getting too close with his camera. By this point of the trip he was using a spare t-shirt as a shield for the camera and lens. Not ideal but he got by.

(Watch in HD!)
You can see the amount of water spraying onto the lens in this video. Poor camera.

Between the rain, ice and waterfall, Sophie was a goner. Relying on the sketchy car heating to dry out her soaking clothes.

Luckily Lloyd has his storm proof bag lady outfit. It has served him well thus far. (Thank you to Lloyd's work mates at Charlie Gairdener back home in Perth, Lloyd loves his rain coat).

And that was Skogafoss waterfall! If you'd like to read more about this waterfall visit the Wikipedia page.
After the waterfalls we drove on through to the town of Vik. Unfortunately there was a scary storm in this area so we only stopped to finish the now cold pizza atop a cliff, by a church before quickly leaving to out-drive the storm. There were moments when I didn't think the car would stay on top that cliff for long, perhaps a stupid choice of stops in hind sight. No photos exist from this stop unfortunately. Visibility was close to zero by this point.

This was the weird moon face like surface that went on for sometime.

It was like we were driving through space. It felt very surreal.

Though it's amazing how quickly the scenery changes in this country, because all of a sudden we were on Mars.

And before we knew it we were here and the sun was setting fast, the rain had subsided, the sun was peeking through the clouds. We stopped here close to Fjaðrárgljúfur, which is the beginning of the path to a 100 metre deep canyon. Unfortunately we didn't get here quite in time to make the trek down to see it. Also according to the handy Iceland road conditions map the street needed to access this canyon was snowed in. You shall not pass! It will however remain on our things to do when we return to Iceland. The photos of this place look incredible. Perhaps a summer trip is in order.

This was one of many tiny villages at the foot of a mountain. It truly is a picturesque country side.

We reached our accommodation just 20km out of Hofn to learn that our hosts had just caught sight of the northern lights. We were informed that it would be unlikely for us to see them again as the conditions were worsening for Borealis spotting. We were advised to take a trip into Hofn and try the pictured restaurant, Kaffi Hornid.

It was a warm little house with a Twin Peaks feel about it and the menu was in its entirety either locally farmed, caught or made, with perhaps the exception of the burger buns.

 When this was delivered to the table we were instantly pleased that we heeded our host's advice. Lloyd and Adam both got lamb and langoustine and I got the langoustine and vegetable sandwich thing. Lloyd and Adam were both in heaven, saying it was one of the best meals they'd ever eaten (Sorry Mum!). Still to this day it is talked about as the Holy Grail of food.

Lloyd is thrilled, Adam is on the inside.

It was amazing! It was filled with juicy little lobster like creatures and packed a punch to the palette. From time to time I still crave this dish. In fact any langoustine.

We got some ice cream which was made locally at a nearby farm. It was creamy and delicious, but Adam's tart was hands down the dessert winner oozing warm and soft caramel. We recommend that anyone who finds themselves in Hofn make there way to Kaffi Hornid and sit down to some of the best priced, locally caught langoustine. You will be most delighted.

After this meal we headed back to our farmhouse accommodation and grabbed a glass of vodka orange and took our chances on seeing the lights which was our original reasoning for heading to Hofn in the first place. Unfortunately it wasn't to be...but our time to see the northern lights would come another day.

And here are the maps to the places we visited on this day - 

Seljalandfoss waterfall can be found here:

Skogafoss waterfall can be found here:

Kaffi Hornid can be found here: