Welshot Do Iceland Again – 2015 – Day 5

The Final day of our trip. In the last four days we had travelled all the way from our landing point in Keflavik to the very end of the Southern coast in Stokksnes. Our hotel near Jökulsárlón was the beginning of our slow (-ish) ride back to the bright lights of Reykjavik.

First stop was labelled as a "beautiful canyon" by Aron. I think he undersold it, it was really beautiful. Kind of similar to the Fairy Glen in Wales, but a little wider but just as picturesque. It's a shame the sky was so flat as I can imagine some great lighting can hit this place.

Everybody seemed to start wandering up the hill to the top of the canyon. Erian and myself stayed at the bottom and found a great little pathway which led us down into the canyon, where the viewpoint was just spectacular.

We walked a little further up the hill and found another viewpoint where we could look down and along into the canyon.

 

I decided to carry on up the hill to get to the top. Several heart attacks later and after shedding my body weight in sweat I reached the top, where no less than three waterfalls converged forming the stream that flowed through the canyon.

 

As I had already stayed on top for too long, I made my way back down the hill at the side of the canyon. If I haven't lost weight on this trip someone is really going to suffer!!

We left the canyon and started to make our way over to the picturesque town of Vik.

This is a place we visited last year. So I only took a few shots. Mainly a view of the church and a new artistic installation commemorating the bond of sea trading between Iceland and the UK. A similar installation was created and placed in Kingston upon Hull.

It's very Gormley-esque, but it's been created by sculptress Steinnun Thorarinsdottir. It was commissioned thirty years after the ending of the last cod wars and to those whose lives have been lost to the hostile waters of the North Atlantic.

Apparently within a year, the version in Hull was ripped down and stolen!! Welcome to Great Britain, Icelanders!! I hope the people responsible have been caught and suitably punished.

From here we ventured just around the corner for some lunch at a beach restaurant at Reynisfjara.

Here a basalt outcrop shows off all it's splendour. Pity about the bloody American "glee" club that seemed to think the whole world wanted to take pictures of them sat on the basalt columns. I wished author had sent a bolt of lightening just at the right time when they started singing in the cave!!

 

Next stop was back to another old haunt, Dyrholaey.

Again we went to a slightly different area than to where we went the previous year. We went a little higher on the cliffs to the lighthouse.

Here you could get a great viewpoint of the sea arches beneath the cliffs.

Boy it was windy up there. Our cameras got battered as did we!! Even the birds struggled to reach their nesting grounds...

Just on leaving Dyrholaey, we passed a lake on the left of the road, Aron slammed on the breaks and pointed to a very rare sight indeed. A pair of Black swans were just going about their daily routine. Robert (an avid ornithologist) was so excited. We thought the spotting of a Sea Bunting at Jökulsárlón beach made his trip, but this was just the icing on the cake!!

I actually took my last photograph (with my DSLR) at Dyrholaey. I knew the next stops I'd been to, so I planned on just using my iPhone.

Final stop before Reykjavik was Skógafoss, the iconic waterfall. Whilst the rest of the togs went off to shoot images, we got the vodka out. Erian took this lovely pic whilst I tried my best at walking on water!!

We managed to grab a nice shot of the waterfall reflection though.....

It was a little too busy for me, hence the reason for the vodka and just the iPhone shots. I don't really think I could have beaten the shots I got from the last trips....

So on to Reykjavik we went. It was great being back in the capital.

I was photo'd out so on to the bar we went which led on to dinner and then back to the bar and eventually bed.