I am so tired, but very happy because our day on the south shore was filled with incredible natural wonders. Some might consider Iceland to have a stark landscape because so much is covered by ancient lava flows, jagged peaks and ash covered gravelly streams. Today we made nine stops,each unique and breathtaking.
Just outside the city, wild blue lupines covered the scrub lands and as we moved farther south, they grew in great swaths like carpets rolling over the swells of land and up along the mountain sides. Cascading waterfalls sheered down mountainous formations, cutting deep into the rock faces. At the base, the land leveled off and farms sprung up in the flatlands with hundreds of sheep speckling the landscape with black and white dots. Many young lambs ran by their mothers' sides.
In other places, the land rolled gnarly and twisted, barren except for mosses and scrub grasses beginning to take hold. At Reynisfjara black sand beach, the collision of geological forces spread out before us. Black sand, pebbles smooth as glass, basalt steps, caves carved into the basalt by crashing waves, walls of sandstone crushed against igneous rock, gulls and puffins nesting in crevices, freestanding spires in the sea resembling trolls. We could have spent the day there.
Two waterfalls captivated us. At Seljalandsfoss,we scrambled along slippery rocks behind the crashing water and shrieked at the power and beauty of it all. Rainbows encircled us at Skogarfoss and we climbed hundreds of feet up to the top of the falls to peer over its lip and out across the grassy flats and sheep enclosures to the sparkling sea.
Infamous volcano Eyjafjallajokull looked meek from 5 k away, but we viewed a film by the family who lives at the base of the glacier that was melted by the eruption. In the two years since it exploded, they and their neighbors have recovered and rebuilt and shared their remarkable stories.
Later, we walked on the Solheimajokull glacier tong. Each year the glacier recedes the length of a football field. We stood at the base of the ash covered surface and listened to the sound of ice melting into rivers and running to the sea.
We hiked 15 minutes along a broad creek bed with only the trickle of a stream because of a drought to reach a geothermal pool. It was a man made pool, built in the 1920s, but fed by a boiling hot spring. Several local families lounged in the steamy water while we soaked away the grime of the day before heading back to the city.
Tomorrow, we visit the Golden Circle with the same guide. It will be difficult to match the magic of this day.
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