Highway 1 is the ring road that goes around Iceland. We more or less followed that going east of the Golden Circle. The first stop on our 4th day was the Lava Centre which is very worthwhile. It shows animations of all the different types of volcano eruptions. Amongst the most dangerous are those that erupt from below a glacier such as the Eyjafjallajökull volcano that disrupted air traffic in 2010. There is a description of what happened HERE.
Our first waterfall of that day was Seljalandsfoss which is the only waterfall in Iceland that you can walk behind.
Another beautiful waterfall is the Skógafoss waterfall.
Close by is the Sólheimajökull Glacier.
Most of the beaches are black from the lava. In the picture below you also see basalt columns that you will find throughout the island.
An interesting monument to the power of glaciers is what is left of a bridge that used to be part of the Icelandic ring road. A description of how the bridge was destroyed can be found HERE with a photo of the monument below.
Next to the bridge is the new road which is no longer elevated on a bridge. If something similar happens it is a lot cheaper and easier to replace.
On to the largest glacier in Iceland – Vatnajökull – 80,000 square kilometres in area, 1000 meters thick at its thickest point.
In some places the glacier goes down close to the sea with several lagoons filled with Icebergs that make their way out. A picture of our travellers next to one of the lagoons. As you can see – you have to be dressed for the weather in Iceland (rain, cold and wind – often all at the same time).
The pictures from this leg of the trip can be found at: SOUTH ICELAND.
I’ll take a pause in the blog to head off for another short trip and continue in a couple of weeks.
WR Foster 