Monday 4 July 2016

a trio of waterfalls


The joy of windless biking, three different waterfalls, Selfoss museum

We drive to Seljandsfoss waterfall which comprises two waterfalls, at the second one could walk behind the water and the combination of sunlight, spray and rocks made a beautiful view. We then had the pleasure of windless biking and sun on the fields. And rocks. We biked along the coast road with a large strip of farmland between us and the cliffs. The farms are small and some were protected from rock fall by stone breaks above them. Our guide Kjartan had lived in one if these farms in the 90s and his mother-in-law now lives there. The farms had already bailed up their hay.

We had our lunch stop at the massive Skogafoss waterfall which cascades over a cliff into a deep chasm. The sunlight created rainbows across the falls and there were many people photographing nature there. We then biked across beautiful fields of blue lupins.

We biked up to the edge of the Solheimojokul glacier. It was fabulous walking across the glacier, past a glacial lake and then seeing the edge of the glacier. This was covered with black soot from the volcanic eruption and was a beautiful black colour.

After a delicious supper of sea bass fillet we had an evening walk to a third waterfall. We approached this waterfall through a rocky chasm that looked like the Yorkshire Dales. At the end the water fell down onto rocks with a huge, constant destructive force. I went behind the waterfall and felt the primal force. We then walked around a museum of Icelandic rural buildings at 22.30, a farmhouse with a byre for animals, a schoolroom and a church.

Best things: the pleasure of biking in a windless Iceland, the waterfalls especially the last small tourist-free one
Bad things: none
Surprising: the beauty and elemental power of the waterfalls, seeing the small scale of Icelandic farms.

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