This was by far our most exhausting trip. We started early at 8am though, we should have started even earlier. Well, afterwards you’re wiser than before.
The weather was perfect and we had amazing plans for the day: Driving along the Ring Road south and east to Jökulsárlón and back.
After passing Vík í Mýrdal, there are far and wide no places to have lunch. So if you’re going to make a similar trip, bring food with you. There is a nice gas station with restaurant just before Jökulsárlón, though.
The trip from Selfoss to Jökulsárlón takes 3:45 hours, according to your GPS, but you can forget that. You will make lots of photo stops on the way. It took us seven hours to Jökulsárlón and six hours back.
On our way, we also made a few stops to see some waterfalls.
Vík í Mýrdal and Reynisdrangar
The ‚Bay at the swampy valley’ is Iceland’s most southern village and famous for a lot. For example, that every day it will be raining and nasty at least once. Exactly this was the case when we arrived. Luckily, it was still worth standing out there as it had something mystical.
The village itself is unspectacular, yet has a very photogenic little church.
It’s more famous for its long black lava beach and Reynisdrangar. Some magazines listed this beach to be one of the most beautiful in the world.
‚Skessudrangur‘, ‚Landdrangur‘ and ‚Langsamur‘ – that’s the name of three interestingly formed rocks near the beach. The legend says they were once trolls trying to land a boat. And then they became stones.
In general, you shouldn’t make fun of Icelandic sagas. Instead, just shut up and enjoy the view.
Despite of the mystical, dark weather it was insanely beautiful. We got almost swept away by the waves, though. This beach is known for being a dangerous spot, so be careful.
Skaftafell National Park
We haven’t been to Skaftafell itself. We didn’t have the time for this. We wanted to reach Jökulsárlón. But as we passed the impressive glacier tongues, we at least had to stop.
They’re part of the Vatnajökull, Europe’s largest glacier. We made several stops in this region.
Jökulsárlón
To begin with: If you don’t have proper shoes, forget coming here in winter. We had good shoes but even those weren’t enough. Almost. The intelligent people wore spikes on their shoes. It was slippery and we were lucky there was some snow covering the ice. There’s no one clearing the ice or the snow.
Jökulsárlón, also called Glacier Lagoon, is one of the most famous and largest glacier lakes of Iceland. It’s located bewetween Skaftafell National Park and Höfn.
The Galcier Lagoon is famous for its floating icebergs, which can be high as 15 meters. As we had 5°C and sunshine that day, it was probably too warm for the ice.
It’s Iceland’s deepest sea and sometims you see seals here. Furthermore a lot of famous movies were shot here in Jökulsárlón. Like ‘James Bond – Die another day’ or ‘Tomb Raider’.