We arrived at 6am in Iceland. We were sleepy but energized from our Northern Lights display as we flew over Greenland. We decided to start the day at the Blue Lagoon. SO many people recommended this spot, we just had to. Some locals say Secret Lagoon is more authentic, but we enjoyed our visit here. We had a little time to kill so drove into Keflavic, where your flight to Reykjavik actually lands, and bought some snacks and energy drinks for our day of driving after we visited Blue Lagoon. I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but be advised, again, things are PRICEY here. Our little snack stop translated into a $46 “snack”. We had also read about goodies from Sigurjonsbakari, so we stopped and waited for them to open, it’s 8am on the weekends, not 7am.
Once our bellies were full we went to the Blue Lagoon for our 8am entrance time. We stayed until just after 10am. Around 9am the sky started to lighten, the sun was set to rise just after 11am. It was awesome to experience the lagoon in the dark and as the sky got brighter.
From the Blue Lagoon we set off towards Hofn, our stopping point for the night. We were a little nervous about the weather and driving the south coast, but it worked out perfectly. We chose Lotus for our car rental and it served us well.
Our first stop was Seljalandsfoss Waterfall, it’s hard to even explain the beauty of this waterfall. I was disappointed in my planning when I saw that you couldn’t walk behind the falls in winter. But it was open!! Costco has a large canvas in the photo dept. of the view behind this waterfall and while it looks different in winter rather than summer like Costco’s photo, it’s an experience I don’t think we’ll ever forget.
One of the nice things about Iceland is that most of the nature stops are free! From here, our next stop was Skogafoss Waterfall, not too far down the road. You can walk up some steps to the top of the falls but knowing we still had hours of driving ahead of us, we skipped the walk.
From here our next stop was Dryholaey Lighhouse where we could overlook the black sandy beaches. It was quite windy but our layers kept us warm.
We realized we’d overshot the DC3 crash but because our daughter is a pilot, it was an important one for us. We looked at the weather and saw that the next day, when we’d be driving back through, showed snow. So knowing that the sun had already set, and that we only had a couple hours of light left, we went for it. Now, please, pay attention. If you’re following a GPS coordinate for the DC3. There’s a good chance, like ours. that it will be leading you to the WRONG starting point. Just about a mile further south that you should be. There’s a sign telling you to enter at the cattlegard. But we misunderstood. We’d seen some ATV’s go this way and so we foolishly thought this was it. It was a LONG walk forever and ever it seemed, only to discover that by the time we reached the ocean, there was a small river between us and the DC3, further North from where we were. We debated going back but the walk was so long, it would’ve been dark and our chance at seeing the DC3 would be lost. My husband, being a San Diego surfer as a teenager, timed the waves and ran across the river without a problem. But an article I’d read talking about 10 ways to die in Iceland was looming large in my mind. One of the ways was the dangerous waves. So my daughter and I walked back where the waves were no longer an issue and opted to cross the river there. The water only went to our knees but it felt much safer than crossing not only the river but having to time the crashing waves too. We made it safely across and after about another 30min of walking, made it to the DC3. It was SO worth it. We arrived back at the car in the dark, it was cold and our feet were numb. My hubby had run ahead of us, we stayed to take “just one more photo”, and got the car, saving us the extra 1-1.5 mile walk down the road to the car.
It was after this stop we made a discovery. THE ICELANDIC HOT DOG. I’d read this was a must but I had no idea, we devoured our dinner and would end up enjoying this Icelandic version several more times this trip.
We chose to stay cheap this trip, it was a BUSY trip, staying in a new spot each night. A couple times we splurged, but tonight was a room rental in a home with shared restrooms, Hofn Guesthouse. We chose this spot because it was close to our morning glacier adventure. We loved our stay here, it reminded us of staying with family in Germany. The host offered to wake us if there was a Northern Lights Sighting. We explained that we’d already seen them from the plane so to only wake us if it was “good”. About 20min later he knocked on our door. We bundled up and drove about 15 min north of town to watch the show. It wasn’t quite as glorious as it had been from the plane, but we loved it.
I’d done research before we left, and while this particular photo isn’t the best, even this wouldn’t have been possible without the high ISO capability of my camera. I used to shoot with a Canon 5D. But after some research, bought the Sony a7iii for this trip. All I can say is, WOW. I will probably NEVER go back to Canon. I can get an adaptor to be able to use all my Canon lenses with the Sony body, but I haven’t yet. We bought a fixed 35m 2.8 lens for the trip and it served me well. I couldn’t be happier with this purchase.