May 31 – Black Sand Beach, Seljalandsfos, Skogarfoss and Glacier Walkd

After a beautiful sunny day yesterday we are all a bit bummed that today is overcast and dreary…but fortunately not rainy.  We started today back at the Reynisfjara Black Sands Beach which is down the coast a ways from where we were yesterday, only today we are ON the beach rather than viewing it from above.  That put is much closer to the Reynisdrangur sea stacks.

We did have pretty good views of the beach down to the Dyrholaey Sea Arch.

The base of one of the hills was the Gardar Cliffs.  These basalt columns also form a small cave.

Then we drove back up the coast where we saw the Vestmannaeyjar Islands in the distance, with stop at Skogafoss…

We also saw a number of unnamed waterfalls along the drive.

We had a long stop at magical Seljalandsfoss.  Besides being just a very beautiful waterfall…

it was particularly interesting because you can walk behind it.  So we all did (and only got a little wet).

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Video from behind the waterfall
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Nearby were a couple of waterfalls...

as well as a running off of one of the falls that had lots of bright yellow flowers in bloom.

As usual, the drives through the countryside yielded wonderful views.

We then headed to Solheimajӧkull Glacier to take a hike on the glacier.  We were outfitted with crampons, ice axes and a harness (in case we fell into a crevasse and needed to be rescued).

It was quite a hike to the glacier...

and walking with crampons was a bit of a challenge.  Mary about backed out but the guide promised to help her (and he did)…so she made the entire hike.

One of the first places we hiked had been named Mordor (from the Lord of the Rings).  And the place looked like Mordor.  In the early part of the hike much of the ice had melted leaving behind a heavy layer of volcanic ash…so it looked very black. 

As we got higher onto the glacier it began to look more white…like a glacier should.

After eventually getting back to the base (Mary basically had to drag herself back) we headed down to catch a bus to visit the Solheimajӧkull Plane Crash site.  In 1973 a US Navy plane ran out of fuel and ditched on the beach near the Solheimajӧkull l Glacier.  Heart throb Justin Bieber used the plane in one of his music videos…so now it is a major pilgrimage site.  You can no longer drive down to the site…you walk or take a bus.  We took a bus.

The other major excitement today was that Paul got to the hotel room and discovered that his bag with his glasses and cell phone was missing.  It was decided that it was probably left on the bus.  Magnus went down first thing the next morning and retrieved it.  Crisis averted.