Black Sand Beach and Vik - Iceland

After our airplane excursion, we had just enough time to stop at Reynisfjara Beach before the sun set. Basalt stack rocks, caves, and weird rock fingers rising out of the water. The tide was too far in so we couldn't explore as much of the caves as we would have liked. It's a real gem in the area.

We stayed one more night in Vík before heading east along the coast toward Höfn. 

Coming up... icebergs!

- Julia

Crashed Plane Site - Iceland

Yuriy had a swell idea to hike out to a crashed plane in the middle of nowhere, Iceland.  I didn't think much of it and followed his lead, not knowing this would turn into a painful all-day adventure.

There's not much information about it online, but according to this guy, a Douglas C-117 US Navy plane crash landed on the coast after running out of fuel during bad weather in 1973. When a helicopter tried to recover the remains, it too crashed and killed several people. The US decided to give up on it and abandoned the plane where it had landed.

According to a few people's reviews online, we knew it was about an hour walk from the road, headed straight toward the ocean. We determined where to pull over based on a small river that runs near the plane. Problem is, there are many streams that run from the mountains to the ocean, and we pulled over at the wrong spot. It was very flat, barren, cold, and with the lack of trees and hills, extremely windy. The entire time, we strained our eyes to see if there was a plane in the distance, and many plane shapes turned out to be only boulders. Once we reached the ocean and no plane, Yuriy pulled up the map on his phone and only then realized we were probably in the wrong area. Walking back to our car was much harder as we were now heading into the strong wind. I almost gave up on the plane, but Yuriy talked me into trying again with, "if we don't see it in 20 minutes we'll turn back" (like he always does).

Another hour later, we could see the plane but were on the wrong side of a small river. We kept thinking it would get narrower so we could jump over, but it only got wider and wider and was actually pretty deep and swift where it met the ocean. So we walked back to a calmer area, took our shoes off, and walked through the icy water barefoot. We had gone too far to let it stop us.

Alas, after 3 or 4 hours of searching, we approached the lonely plane skeleton with triumph and smiles, feeling like successful explorers. The battered plane looked ghostly against the black volcanic sand. As we approached it, it started to hail and we climbed inside to warm up. Taking my gloves off even for a few minutes to snap photos resulted in painfully numb fingers. We climbed on top of the plane and looked out at the nothingness, and felt like we understood what drives explorers and how Columbus found America.

- Julia

P.S. See the plane via satellite here and here (this one's better quality). (courtesy of Ian Grant)

Iceland Road Trip

I experienced the strongest wind I've ever felt when we visited Dyrhólaey, a peninsula on the south coast of Iceland that rises high above the water. We had to drive on a long narrow road surrounded by water on both sides to get there, and this is where the wind blew the hardest, unobstructed by land. I was afraid we'd be swept off the road like a leaf in our tiny car. Once we came to a stop on top of the cliff, the car rocked back and forth as if a giant was jogging with our car in his palm. We stepped outside and leaned into the wind to avoid being knocked over (literally), and walked to the coast to watch incredible waves crash onto a black volcanic sand beach. The contrast of the frothy white water against the black sand is so intense. At times it felt like I was looking through black and white glasses because there was no color in sight.

Just on our first day from Reykjavik to Vik, we saw Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss waterfalls (and many more from the road... and many more in the days to come).

We arrived in a small village called Vík around sunset, and we knew we reached our final destination (for the day) because of the houses and churches dotting the hills. Less than 300 people live in Vík, but it is the biggest settlement for some 70km (43 mi). We found only 1 hostel and 1 hotel that was open, and went with the hotel because it had a restaurant (our only hope for dinner that night). The special on the menu that night was horse steak and the waiter did a fine job of convincing Yuriy, who had never tried horse meat, that it was marvelous.

In one short day, I experienced so many sights and places for the first time. It's hard to fall asleep after a day like this, because it feels like you're already dreaming.

- Julia

Iceland Road Trip Continued

We didn't spend too much time in Reykjavík and headed for the wilderness as soon as we could.

There's no better way to get to know a country than to rent a car and drive through it. And that's exactly what we did in Iceland. Having your own car gives you the freedom to pull over every 10 minutes for a photo, to pet horses, to climb lava rocks and touch the fuzzy moss, to see an incredible waterfall, to see another incredible waterfall, and to spend the night where ever you feel like taking a break.

- Julia