Iceland Day 5

Waking in Hellisholar, without a proper kitchen and running low on supplies, particularly butane, we decide to have a simple breakfast, head back into town to the west, then proceed east again to Seljalandsfoss and beyond, towards Vik.

We pack up and snack on some granola bars and a medium sized tub of Creme Brulee Skyr, which is very similar to yogurt, but supposedly higher in protein and lower in fat. The kind we ate had flavour and sweetener added, so ends up being the same, but was delicious none the less.

While we snacked, a truck backed up to the old winnabego parked next to us.

He poked around for a bit, then tried to back up to the front of the vehicle. 

And when he hit the side of the berm blocking the way, he backed up and tried again.

And again.

He took a minute to peek into the front window, standing on the bumper, and the bumper fell.

I was sure he would winch it and pull the whole thing in half, but eventually we left him to work on the vehicle - he had blocked off our entrance, so we circled the park to exit.

We made our way back west to find butane and some decaf so we could drink coffee all day and not blow away the caffeine limit completely. As we drove we ran into this guy two more times, first after a stop for gas, then again a half hour after that.

Seljalandsfoss Falls

Finally heading back in the right direction, we stopped in to one of the larger and more easily accesible waterfalls in the area. 

This one falls from a cliff that juts out quite a ways from the base of the cliff, and so there's a walkway where you can go around behind the falls, which we did as well.

The lot was filled with tourists as all the easily accessible sites were, but because of the spray many didn't wander all the way in, so it was easy enough to find your way around and through with minimal waiting.

Road to the Canyon

Our next few stops were located not far north of the falls, with a few different things spaced closely along the road, including a beautiful network of canyons.

The problem with this plan is that the road in question was an F-road, which meant it wasn't just unpaved, it was in pretty terrible shape, with river crossings, washed out areas, rocks, landslides and a big sign telling you to stay out unless you have 4wd.

I was a little excited at the prospect of using the 4wd in earnest, but once we got on the road proper began to realize that the duster was rather heavily loaded, and while we weren't getting stuck at any point, the suspension didn't like going fast over the dirt. We were passed several times by a guy on a dr650 taking pictures of himself, by tour busses on giant tires, and plenty of legitimate off-road vehicles of every kind.

Still, taking it slow we were able to crawl along at 20-30kph and drive to within a few kilometers of the canyon where a few other vehicles of our own duster's caliber had stopped to trek up to the glacier. Sadly, the river from the glacier prevented anyone with normal tires from advancing further.

The road impassible, we turned back to take the southern route around Eyjafjallajökull.

Maggie took the wheel, and I let the drone follow us for a bit.

Ruthshellir Cave

Once back on the road we stopped at Ruthshellir, a cave in a rocky outcropping thought be inhabited by either a troll, or some Vikings as a heathen temple or an evil chieftain, depending on which story you believed. 

The entry to the lower part of the cave is actually a structure built in 1917, which from there leads into the larger lower cave. At the end of that, you find a hole leading to the upper cave.

We left the cave and and found that while the tourists too timid to venture out past the sheep to the actual cave had left, a new pair had shown up, and they needed help with their car.

After a brief investigation uncovered coolant on the ground, and trying to restart the car shot coolant out of the grill from a hole in the radiator, I began to suspect a coolant problem, and told them to call their rental company. I felt bad not just patching it and telling them to just keep it topped up with water and they could make it to the next town, or back, but with trying to fix it I would then be liable for the issue should anything go wrong, and their rental company would blame them for any further problems that arose - probably better for them to wait it out.

We arrived in Vik just as the sun was going down. Before heading into the town itself, we drove up to Dyrholaey, a set of bluffs with an arching hole through it near the black sands beaches of Vik.

To Svinafell

Once the sun had gone down, we decided to try and make up some of the time we had lost backtracking in the morning by driving on in the dark past Vik to a campsite just an hour away, Svinafell. We pulled up well after dark, but were able to find a good spot at the top of the campground's slope.

Looking into the kitchen facility we found it packed with campers, and the stoves all in use, so we went back to our camper, set up our meagre kitchen supplies and began cooking a meal, with one extra we had brought with us - the prosecco we got at the airport, to celebrate Maggie's birthday.