A Travel, Photography and Points Blog
In my previous blog post I mentioned the infamous volcano Eyjafjallajokull. We actually drove past it on our way to the next waterfall, Skogafoss. There was even a spot for cars to turn into and park, and a sign describing the volcano. You can see the giant volcano completedly capped with ice. The 2010 volcano eruption stopped the world.
Seljalandsfoss is one of the most iconic and frequently visited waterfalls in Iceland. The waterfall is fed from the infamous glacier capped Eyjafjallajokull volcano. I say infamous because its the volcano that erupted several years ago, stalled flights across the world and put Iceland on the map! One of the unique experiences at Seljalandsfoss is being able to walk behind the giant waterfall. And be completely drenched from the waterfall spray since you’re so close to the falls. The walk behind the falls can be challenging and slippery so you just have to make sure you’re well covered and have good hiking shoes. The falls is around 2 hours drive from Reykjavik so it’s an easy drive out. There are a load of very iconic photos of this waterfall taken by a heap of famous photographers. This is my take and experience of the falls, tourists and all.
Þingvellir National Park is a UNESCO world heritage site that is easily accessible from Reykjavik. It’s also known to be part of the “Golden Circle”. A very popular tourist area in Iceland. This national park was the first stop on our first full day in Iceland. We headed out early from our accommodation for our 9am Silfra snorkeling tour.
Silfra is one of the few, if not only, place in the world when you get to swim/snorkel between two tectonic plates. It’s the clearest water in the world, where you visibility is easily 100m deep. Floating/snorkelling between the American and Eurasian continentals plates definitely an experience. Be warned though, the water is absolutely freezing at 2 degrees Celsius. Even the thick dry suit provided by the tour company can’t stop you from feeling cold to the bone. By the time the snorkeling tour ends at the 30 to 40 minute mark, I couldn’t wait to get our of the cold. Getting out of your dry suit with frozen fingers was also quite the feat! The hot chocolate to warm us up at the end of our snorkel was a nice touch though.
We flew into Iceland from London Heathrow. By the time we got out of the Keflavak airport with our 4WD hire car it was mid afternoon and pouring rain. It took us around 1 hour to get to the capital. The first stop we made was to the iconic Icelandic church. Hallgrímskirkja is a Lutheran church located in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland.Thankfully the rain had stopped when we got into the city.