People were up and banging around super early in the morning, and I had been up late waiting for some mythical hot water, so I was tired. We just got up and ate, and left by 8:30 AM.
We had a long drive around the south side of Vatnajökull, the massive glacier. We got out a few times to run around and explore. Once we got closer, we tried to hike over to it since it seemed so close. But again, looks can be very deceiving. Although it looked like a 30 minute walk away, but once we had walked 45 minutes, I realized it was probably closer to a 2 or 3 hour walk.
It was pretty uneventful, but beautiful and peaceful, morning with a freezing coastline on the right and a glacier on the left. Eventually we came to Fjallsárlón, a lake on the South end of Vatnajökull where icebergs break off and float out to the ocean. It's a pretty well known and striking place, where several movies have been shot (most notably Tomb Raider?)
We stopped at a more secluded section first and ran around looking at the ice and seal poop. We even took a chance to climb out onto a rock near the coast, which was scary because we would have had some iceblocks for feet if we would have slipped. Luckily, we didn't.
We moved further down the lake to a point where the lake empties into a river that carried the icebergs to the ocean. The icebergs here were were much bigger, and plentiful. There were a lot more people here, and they had boat rides through the icebergs, which seemed like a bad idea.
Eventually we took the bridge across the river and continued on our way.
There wasn't much around that part of the country, so when we saw a small farmhouse/guesthouse that seemed to have a restaurant, we jumped at the chance for some food. And it was amazing.
From there we continued around the South East coast of Iceland just taking in the sights. There wasn't any major stops, so we just got out and looked around where we saw fit.
It was pretty empty out there, and despite the graffiti, there wasn't any gas stations, restaurants or businesses to speak of. Every once in a while you'd see a farm house far off the main road, but for hours there wasn't much else.
Eventually we came to one of the few options from deviating from Ring Road. There was a scenic shortcut through a mountain pass, and although it warned of steep inclines, twisty roads and 4WD only roads, we decided to take it.
Right away, we came to an amazing valley with a sweet waterfall. It was getting a little later in the day, but we had to see if we could get close.
There was an amazing blue, deep pool under the waterfall, and I wanted to jump in so bad, although I knew it was probably sub-freezing temperatures.
You can also see that there was a dense fog hanging directly above our heads, and once we climbed back to our car, we headed up and straight into it.
The next hour was one of the most intense, frightening experiences in my life. We were driving into a fog you could literally not see 20 feet past your windshield, up a steep, windy, one-car-width gravel road with a sheer drop-off to one side and a rocky wall on the other. There were lots of blind driving and if another car did come, one person would have to find a place to squeeze over to let the other pass. We didn't see more than 2 or 3 cars the whole time, luckily, but there were some bikers I felt terrible for.
That's an example of what we were usually seeing out of the window. It got worse, but eventually it was less funny and more scary so we put the camera down and focused on the road.
It ended as abruptly as it started, and we continued quickly to the town of Egilsstaðir. When we got checked into our surprisingly fancy hotel, we made a rush to the nearest, cutest restaurant we could find.
Café Nielsen was a cute, tiny place very close to where we were staying, although we had a hard time finding it thanks to crazy roads and no signage. Lindsay got a terriakyi chicken salad, and I got a veggie burger. I was surprised by the presentation, but it was totally amazing.
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