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Green hills of Iceland
Vik, Iceland |
Vik, Iceland
This morning the bus took us winding up into Katla Geopark, near the Katla volcano which has been active in recent years. The landscape here is amazingly green–it almost reminds you of Ireland or Wales!
We stopped to use the facilities at a very nice campground in the park. These little cabins look like they would be great places to stay on your visit to Iceland.
We crossed a stream several times on this walk, which shows you how much it rained recently–when Tim and Dan did their planning trip here last year, the walk traversed a dry stream bed!
And of course no walk in Iceland would be complete without a waterfall at the end:
Driving back to the highway, Gummi pointed out the black lava rock that may look familiar to you…this area was used to film the HBO hit show Game of Thrones.
Our next walk was billed as a gentle slope up to a promontory that offers 360 degree views along the coast. We all decided the walks on this trip needed to have their ratings upgraded! That was one of the steepest walks I can ever remember doing. The view was indeed fantastic–and I didn’t even make it all the way to the top!
On the way down we explored some more ruins of stone-walled, sod-roofed farmhouses. Then we strolled along the beach to see more basalt columns, sea stacks, and a view of Dyrholaey Rock, where we will start our day tomorrow.
In the morning we set out for the Dyrholaey Peninsula, a lava rock formation with a huge arch cut in its base. The original plan involved walking out over the arch, but very high winds put a stop to that idea. We did still walk up to the Lighthouse on top of the rock, and to the viewpoint where we would be most likely to see puffins nesting. Legend has it that a Flemish stunt pilot once flew his small plane through the arch.
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Andrea Travels 