After a few days in Reykjavik we headed counter clock wise on route 1. Our final destination for that night was Skogafoss, driving approximately 320km this day. We detoured on road 35 to see Gullfoss and Geysir. Both of these sights were VERY busy. Tourists would pile out of the buses and swarm the sites. There are many tours offered from Reykjavik to this area as it can be done by day trips.
Our first stop was Geysir. Geysir is one of the most popular tourist attractions. It is also the original geysers that all other geysers around the world are named. The famous ‘Geysir’ is clogged after tourists clogged it back in the 50’s by throwing rocks into the water hole trying to set it off and the earthquakes in the 2000’s. The other geyser in this area is called Strokkur. It still goes off about every 5-10 minutes. If you stick around long enough to watch it go off a few times it can be quite high. The first time we watched it it was not that impressive, I am glad we stuck around for round 2. It reaches 15-30 meters when it goes off. There are a lot of tourists that crowd around the roped off area with cameras ready to capture the blast. They are not shy either, I enjoy my personal space and in this location ‘personal space’ is not something known to tourists.
Our second stop was Gullfoss, which had a lot more to see. There are great views from the café spot at the top where the parking lot is. If you walk to get a closer look, be prepared for a lot of stairs. We ate at the café and information centre here. Our first experience with the famous ‘lamb soup’ in Iceland. I am not a big fan of lamb, I think it has an odd taste and flavour, but the soup was quite good and the tourist centre was not as busy as we thought it would be with the several bus loads of tourists.
Icelandic Lamb Soup
Our third stop was Seljalandsfoss back on Route 1. The roads from Gullfoss back to route one going through Fludir were terrible, very bumpy and pot holed gravel roads. It was a slow go in our ENORMOUS Suzuki swift (kidding, it was terrible and barely fit the two of us and our suitcases)
When driving around Iceland, if you see a parking lot with tour buses, kuku campers and vehicles… it is probably one of the tourist attractions you are in search of. We pulled up to Seljalandsfoss and hiked up to the right of the waterfall, just south of the tourist information spot into a cool cave while the traffic of tourists died down a little bit.
When you get to walk up to and behind Seljalandsfoss it is quite surreal, actually all of Iceland is surreal.
Our forth and final stop for the day was Skogafoss. Skogafoss waterfall is about 62m high, you can’t miss it. There is a large set of stairs to the right of the waterfall that you can walk up to the top for a view of the falls from a different angle. We had wedding photos taken at Skogafoss at the midway area on the front of the falls, at the top of the falls and when you hike up to the top there is a ladder you can cross to see another, smaller waterfall on the other side that is less busy.
That night we stayed at hotel Skogafoss, if you stay at the hotel requested a room in the 20’s, they face the waterfall and you will wake up to a beautiful view of the falls. Room 21 would have the best view and as the number goes up, you get further away from the falls. Rooms in the 30’s face away from the falls so you will not get the beautiful view from your room throughout the day.
This is the view from our hotel room (27 or 28, I can’t remember). That night we ate at the restaurant in Hotel Edda, there are many Hotel Edda’s throughout Iceland. I made the mistake of ordering a burger here which was quite bland. Everyone else chose lamb or fish which was a much better choice. We ended the night at Hotel Skogafoss with the group who showed up from Calgary and Edmonton for our wedding celebrations.
courtsadventure 