Iceland: Golden Circle and South Coast

This ice is snow joke.

Visiting Iceland in January was our first proper winter break together and, having thought long and hard about it over the last six months, is quite possibly our favourite destination so far. Everything came together practically perfectly, which hardly ever happens.

Our flight to Iceland's Capital, Reykjavik, from Bristol was not full, which meant we could experience, for the first time, flying with a row to ourselves! Oh the room, and made all the sweeter as we flew as cheaply as we could- carry on luggage only and we'd refused to pay for preferred seating. This flight freedom was money back in our pockets, which was just as well seeing as we were about to travel to one of the most expensive countries we’ve ever been to!

We decided to take the plunge and booked a three day South Coast and Golden Circle tour with Arctic Adventures in an attempt to see as much of Iceland in as little time as possible. After our lacklustre tour experience in Bali, we laid our faith in having a tour guide far more experienced in driving in *proper* winter conditions and the itinerary being pretty jam-packed, possibly even overfilled, from the off. The off was supposed to be at 9-9:30am. However, our pickup had to swap vehicles and was a little delayed. Now, this would have been fine on any usual Icelandic winter day. This day was, however, not usual. Iceland had been experiencing some unseasonably cold temperatures in the weeks leading to our arrival and rather than being a pleasant 5 to -5 degrees C, was more of a -10 to-15 degrees C excluding wind chill, so after an hour of waiting at our bus stop in the dark, the power of Icelandic Skyr and all of our layers of clothing was waring thin! I did say our trip was practically perfect! The reality was this was our only downer of our entire trip so really, I can’t complain much.

Icelandic winters are hard on us Vit D lovers: the hours of sunlight are short and sweet. During our stay, the sun rose at about 10:30am and set by around 4pm. While getting our bodies used to the increased hours of darkness was a little tricky, Artic skies during sunrise and sunset are probably the most magical that I’ve ever experienced. We got to witness the rosey-pink hues of our first sunrise bouncing off of the snowy peaks surrounding us at our first stop, Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park. The park is home to a section of the rift valley between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. It was also the coldest stop of the whole trip, with the mercury dipping to about -19, with it feeling about -20-24 degrees in the breeze. And boy did it feel cold. The moisture from Kjel’s breath was slowly freezing on his eyelashes and eyebrows, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t feel my feet for the entire duration and my camera was showing signs of frostbite (I hadn't factored in how badly the batteries would be affected- a rookie error). We were given 40 minutes to venture around; this seemed a lot to start with but with the icy conditions slowing everyone it quickly flew by and while we hadn’t really gotten far, we had to move on to ensure there was enough daylight for the rest of the days stops.

From Þingvellir, we drove to Gullfoss. Although it stakes no claim in the tallest waterfalls competition, Gullfoss was easily the most dramatic falls we encountered on our trip. The falls were so frozen over, with giant walls of icicles, yet the glacial water still flowed so powerfully through the canyon of Hvítá river. I can only imagine the roar it would make once it had all thawed out.

Our lunch stop was at Geysir Geothermal Area to witness Strokkur in action. Geysir was once so awesome that the English named every pressurised hot spring after it but after many years of being the top dog hot spring, it became dormant and its neighbour Strokkur now continues the family trade. We ended up watching for 3 cycles. The first magnificent eruption of hot steam was a bit of a surprise- we weren’t in tune to its build up rhythm and with many people stood infront, did not get the best view. We had front row seats for the second cycle; we watched for the bubbling, then the rising and falling, the camera was ready, but alas, Strokkur had stage fright and underperformed to the crowds disappointment (the universal sigh). We waited for one last cycle. It had to be the last one as we still needed to fight the queues in the lunch hall and we were on the clock. The third time was the charm, Strokkur pulled out a blinder- a surprise double burst.

Lunch time gave us the opportunity to defrost ourselves on some hearty Icelandic meat soup. Having a strict timetable, it wasn't long before we had to return to our bus, which had of course chilled down over the course of lunch and immediately sapped us of said newly formed heat. On the way to our last few stops of the day, our guide made a brief detour down the road to Hell! The road actually leads to the volcano Hekla, but this volcano was once believed to be the entrance to the underworld, hence the name bestowed to the pass. Explorers have climbed Hekla, despite the harrowing claims, but apparently they found no such entrance to Hell. The detour gave our group a short opportunity to indulge our childish selves in playing in untouched snow. Unfortunately it was just a little too icy to make snow angels, instead leaving butt and back imprints that looked more snowman-like, than angel-like.

As our sun-lit day was drawing to a close, we made our final stops at Seljalandsfoss, a waterfall that in Summer has an accessible track that leads to a cave behind the falls (definitely not passable in winter) and Skógafoss, with its powerful cascade flowing into an ice-clad river. Fortunately for us, much of the power had been softened as so much had frozen over- the falls are known to soak people in its full flow. Feeling somewhat thirsty, somehow, in the tiny Skógafoss carpark cafe, we enjoyed the best hot chocolate we've ever had!

The majority of the drive to our accommodation was in darkness. Before arrival, our guide gave us information on good sites to use to check the Aurora predictions, but warned us that there hadn’t been much solar activity so the likelihood of viewing them would be low. He need not have worried, as literally moments later we pulled up at the hotel and over the speakers he announced “Oh there they are!”

Oh yes they were. From a little after 6 until about midnight, we were treated to a full Borealis light show. It couldn’t get much better, until we realised we didn’t even need to stand in the minus temperatures outside to view them. We turned off the lights, sat on our bed and watched the bouncing lights from our hotel room. Delicious. Also, please forgive the less than crisp photographs- trying to get clear snaps when it was serious negative temps was so hard!

We had an early start for day two. We drove a little over an hour and a half to arrive at Diamond Beach in time to enjoy another glorious sunrise. The lava black sands speckled with large and small fragments of washed up icebergs was a very pretty sight. Some of the ice was so clear, you could see through it like glass. The visit was short and we were soon headed to Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon, where we spotted seals and our first real “glacial blue” coloured icebergs. The lagoon was so still and offered up some awesome mirror reflection shots.

The main meat to the day’s Icelandic sandwich was a hike on Vatnajokull Glacier. We had actually booked a Heli-Hike on Franz Josef glacier in New Zealand but it was cancelled due to bad weather, so being given a second chance to experience walking on a glacier felt a little like redemption. The day was spot on for the hike. Armed with an ice axe that we weren’t to use an as axe and geared up in our harness, crampons and helmet, we spent 2 glorious hours making our way through forged paths between icy walls of the glacier. We found ourselves in icy caves, barely big enough to squeeze a child in and glowing so blue it felt like you were under the sea, and walking across ice plateaus that really should have been metres thicker but over time had receded with warmer temperatures. It took a whole lot of concentration to make sure we didn’t end up on our bums but managed the whole walk without slipping over and all in all, the day was a win.

After the fun of day two, our last tour day was looking a little less adventurous. We stopped to admire the snow covered lava fields, followed by a brief visit to Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon. Somehow, this quiet little geological formation gained stardom as the filming location for one of Justin Bieber’s music videos. I bet it’s thrilled…

The last stop on the itinerary was to Reynisfjara Black Beach. It’s a pretty well known beach, and between this and Diamond beach, is one well documented on Insta. Other than the novelty of the jet black sand, it is pretty well established to be the venue for tourist misadventure. To the left of the visitor entrance, stands a cave, lined with magnificent basalt columns that keen Instaqueens and kings gravitate to, proudly sitting on them like a throne. Unfortunately, the lure of the perfect shot has positioned many tourists in precarious spots: the waves that crash onto this beach are particularly powerful, with signposts fitted with corresponding danger level flashing lights warning visitors of “sneaker waves”, that in the best of the worst outcomes fills your shoes with freezing cold water and leave you looking like a lemon, and in the worst of the worst outcomes have taken lives. Sadly, guide warnings and flashing lights aren’t enough for some: we witnessed at least half a dozen people leave with wet feet and then, like a perfectly choreographed dance, we saw a group of 4 adults attempting to round the corner of the basalt pillars to reach the other side of the rocks. A first wave deterred them, they moved back to the beach slightly, but the water receded and somehow they saw an opportunity and went for it. Well I’m sure you can guess the rest. A forewarned sneaker wave, much stronger than the first arrived and wiped all four out. Fortunately, they managed to stand themselves back up again and made the walk of shame back to their tour van, completely saturated and with expensive camera equipment surely ruined, much to the bemusement to the rest of us.

And so, after a 3 hour drive back to Reykjavik, our tour had come to an end. A perfect 3 days exploring the south coast of Iceland.