In the last part of our trip we visited two sites which we were so close to just driving past and forgetting about and we were so glad we didn't! The Svartifoss trail was one of them, pictured above.
The beginning of the Svartifoss trail.
When we got to Skaftafell National Park it looked closed for winter but luckily the main tourist centre was open. The staff inside gave us both good and bad news. The good news was the Svartifoss waterfall was still accessible despite the heavy snow. The bad news was the must see fluorescent blue ice caves were too risky to even search for. Once again this will be another thing added to our ever-growing 'things to do next time in Iceland' list.
After much deliberation over whether or not we wanted to take the hour and a half round trip to the Svartifoss waterfall we decided to go, leaving Adam in the car to defrost.
Skaftafell National Park has many walking trails you can follow. Some of these are a good 3-4 hour investment. If you have the time I'd definitely recommend walking around this area. Such a pretty area. Today however we were on a tight schedule, after all the daylight hours are limited, so we stuck to walking the smallest trail.
We were told finding the Svartifoss waterfall would be easy. A 30-45 minute stroll with a lot of sign posts to lead you in the right direction...
It was uphill for a good part of the journey there, so with all our layers we started to sweat.
Still find this scenery bizarre. It's hard to imagine it ever snowing in Perth. Can you imagine Murray st knee deep in snow? Weird.
It looks like our footprints got a bit confused here. Haha.
...in truth we got lost. Multiple times. Were the signs that were meant to lead us in the right direction hiding in the snow? Probably. Though on the way there we saw two signs and one mentioned nothing of Svartifoss, making us believe we'd missed it. At one point Sophie went completely off road, convinced that we had to hop snow covered rocks across a lake. Wrong! Perhaps we were just bad navigators. Either way it was both fun and scary getting lost. It really did feel like we were alone in a forest in the middle of nowhere. "Are there polar bears in Iceland?" was said a few times... Sophie researched this later, reading that the occasional polar bear finds his/her way from Greenland onto Icelandic shores, though all four that have made the 1200km journey by way of ice flow/drifting ice were killed on arrival. Talk about rough.
YIPPEEEE! As mentioned before, snow is still a novelty.
Watch your step! It's hard to tell from the photo but we're standing at the top of a massive waterfall. A few steps to the left and you fall. We weren't even sure what waterfall this was. We knew it wasn't Svartifoss. We also didn't know if we were meant to walk along the top of this river bed to the right... It was about here that we got creative with our directions, including Sophie's rock hop.
Was this area out of bounds? We were unsure. There was a path that looked like you were meant to walk through but it looked very unsafe. In the end we turned around and took a different path. Much to the relief of our parents I'm sure.
Cabin in the woods...
One of the few signs we found. Halfway! Hooray!
Svartifoss in the distance!
You can roughly make out the top of the waterfall.
(Watch in HD once the video starts)
We are so close!
We are so close!
We made it!
We made it, we're alive. It's amazing.
(Watch in HD!)
The snow here was so delicious. So pure.
(Watch in HD!)
We then preceded to make a snowman! If you watch it in full screen you kind of feel like you're there watching the water flow over the pebbles. That sound is so peaceful.
This is both of our versions of the ol' snow angel.
Beautiful.
We finally reached the beginning! This hike was one of the highlights of the trip. Walking up the snowy mountain and finally reaching the hidden breathtaking waterfall was exhilarating. This waterfall, of all the ones we saw this whole trip was by far the most enjoyable too. It just felt like the waterfall was hiding in the mountains forever and you were the first person in the world to discover it.
Oh and if you were planning on doing this hike around winter make sure you are at least slightly fit. The snow was hard to walk through and the air up there was thick. Coming back down was fun though. We ran most of it back! Taking us 40 minutes to get there and only 15 back. Running back was like this. Any child with windows 95 remembers this.
(Watch in HD!)
We're getting better at this switching camera while filming skill. And like that we are back to the start.
Refuelled
And on the road again. The icy slippery road.
Reynisfjara beach.
We were used to Iceland giving us lemons when it came to the things we were really looking forward to and this was no exception. We took the turn off and drove through a tiny village just outside of Vik until we came to a dead end at Reynisfjara beach. We could feel the car shaking in the wind, it was that strong. No one wanted to leave the car for fear of being blown into the water, or worse, the cliff face. We had seen photos of this amazing place and we'd seen it on a sunnier day in Bon Iver's 'Holocene' film clip which had been shot all around the Vik area, including Jökulsárlón. Watch it here. It really is beautiful and shows this place in a much nicer light.
Where's Sophie? Oop there she is! At this point I was being whipped in the face with small rocks, sand, ice and rain. It was one of the most awful things I have ever felt. Yes, I know how lucky I am.
Here I am making a run for the cliff face. I thought I was alone at this point. Lloyd decided to brave the stormy conditions and join me.
This was about the only place it was safe from the wind, rocks, sand and rain.
The where's Sophie? game again. Camouflaged.
Close up on the columns of the cliff face. Another example of Basalt columns as explained in our Svartifoss post.
Lloyd isn't being camera shy, he is covering his face from the sand storm. It was about this point that Adam braved the conditions and joined us. All three of us being kicked in the teeth by wind. It was beautiful.
We struggled to see the holey lava rock face of Dyrhólaey due to the mist, fog and rain. If you care to read about it or see it for that matter have a peek here.
You can see part of Reynisdrangar. Basalt/ lava sea stacks. As legend goes two trolls were dragging a three masted ship ashore when the sun rose, turning them and the ship to stone.
The volcanic black sands of Reynisfjara beach sit at the foot of Mýrdalsjökull, the country's 4th largest glacier covering 590 squared kilometres and resting on a volcanically active mountain. The volcano is called Katla.
I later read that Reynisfjara beach is said to be frequently lashed by Atlantic storms. I think we may have witnessed/ been in the midsts of one of these storms.
This video is terrible. It was the best I could do in these extreme conditions. The best part about it is the last few seconds. They are of Adam and Sophie trying to walk back to where our car was parked. It was slow and painful! Listen to that wind. We drove away fast!
Hverageroi. Green houses on right, the really bright light. These are another thing on our to visit list for next time. Only a 45 minute drive from Reykjavik.
If you'd like to visit Svartifoss waterfall you will find it here:
And Reynisfjara Beach can be found here:
Posts
2 comments:
Hi!
I will be traveling to Iceland this weekend, and I was really hoping to see Svaritfoss. I was wondering when exactly did you do this hike, and if you knew how often they would close the trail due to weather. I just didn't want to drive all the way there to find out it was closed.
Cheers,
Laura
We were there in November! I'm not sure they close the Svartifoss trail unless it's really really heavy snow but the one thing that was closed during this time was the possibility of seeing the ice blue caves in the area. We were told it was too dangerous to go out searching for them.
Have fun!
Post a Comment