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July 3rd, 2021

Day 8: Horses, Waterfalls, and Highlands On Our Last Full Day of Nature

Over the last two days of driving, an idea came to me of how I could finally give Cynthia her overdue birthday gift while here in Iceland. With so much commuting time to ponder it, I slowly thought about the possibilities and finally came up with the idea of an impromptu Icelandic horseback riding experience! Cynthia loves horses and riding on an Icelandic horse would be both a unique and fun experience to have while here in Iceland! So after I threw that idea out, Cynthia called some places to figure out what last minute options we had for booking. Eventually, we settled on Vik Horse Adventures, a horse-riding tour company in Vik, that had open time slots that were most convenient for our already-packed itinerary.

This morning, we woke up early (despite really wanting to sleep in) and ate a quick breakfast Cynthia made for us while enjoying our tall-windowed morning views of the plains leading down to the black sand beach and ocean water. Once we finished breakfast, Minh drove us out to Vik and dropped us off at Vik Horse Adventures. After an orientation to riding techniques and our horses, we quickly climbed on top of our designated horses and made our way out of the barn and toward the black sand beach located a little ways behind the barn.

My horse’s name was Atgeir, one of the younger horses I believe. He was a funny horse. From what the company folks had to say about him, he was puppy-like in nature, curious, loved to snack along the way, and enjoyed getting into people’s businesses! Also, he was always a little itchy and needed a scratch. I feel ya, Atgeir. As for Cynthia, she got old, reliable, “been through this a few times” Hektor. Anyhow, we rode our horses in a line down to the black sand beach, with me and Atgeir walking somewhere in the middle of the line. We trotted slowly down to the beach, where we rode over the black sand before stopping for some photos. After our photos, we rode back toward the barn along a different path, where we got to do some fast-paced trotting/galloping as well as ride through a stream of water. Eventually, after some more fast-paced jogging, we arrived back at the barn and bid farewell to our horses and the workers. The last minute birthday gift experience was fun, and Cynthia definitely enjoyed her time with Hektor!

While waiting for Minh to pick us up, we spent some extra time with the horses as they were cooling down behind the barn before walking over to a grocery store and a cafe to buy some snacks and croissant sandwiches for the last long drive of the trip. Once we finally got picked up, we made a brief stop to see Vik Church, the iconic church located on the hilltop overlooking the town of Vik. Unfortunately, given how heavy the clouds and fog were blanketing the area by the time we got to the church, the photo opportunity was poor so we didn’t spend too much time there before driving off to pick up our parents from Black Beach Suites.

Back at the suite, we packed the rest of our stuff. Before long, we had the car packed and were ready to hit the road once more. Because of the impromptu horse riding experience this morning, we were a little behind schedule. With a ton left to still see and do, it was time to play some catch up.

Our first stop after getting gas this morning was Seljalandsfoss, the beautiful waterfall in south Iceland that you can walk right behind as it flows down from the cliff above. This was my third time visiting Seljalandsfoss, and luckily for me, it was definitely not as busy as I thought it’d be given its popularity amongst international tourists. We did a brief walkthrough of the waterfall, took some photos with midges flying all around, and then jumped back in the car to continue on. Oh, and we were nice and gave our parking ticket to some other random family driving in to save them some money before driving off (later than expected) to see one of the expected highlights of the trip: The Icelandic Highlands.

The Icelandic Highlands are some of the coolest and most scenic places in Iceland. Before this trip, I had never had the opportunity to see them because of how difficult they are to get to. But I made it a goal to see the highlands with my whole family this trip. And with Cynthia working most weekdays, today was the only day that we could put aside to see them together. And because we didn’t have nearly enough time to see all the cool, accessible places in the highlands, I only chose a couple of places that were close to one another and easily accessible from where we were, hoping that those sites would at least give us a small taste of the amazingness of the highlands.

Our first stop in the highlands was Haifoss, a beautiful waterfall that flowed over a beautifully colored canyon. When I planned our trip through the highlands, I was worried that whatever car we got wouldn’t be able to handle the gravely-and-rocky F roads. Luckily, for this first part of the trip to Haifoss, the drive wasn’t actually too bad. For a large chunk of the trip, the drive was primarily on paved roads before it transitioned to gravel roads that weren’t nearly as rough as I thought they’d be but rough enough that I was glad that we rented a 4x4.

Once we arrived at Haifoss, there were only 4-5 cars in the parking lot, a relatively small crowd for how easily accessible this beautiful area was (though it did get much busier shortly after). And it was quite spectacular! The deep canyon over which the waterfall flowed was beautifully striped with vivid earthly colors. And the two huge waterfalls flowing there were gorgeous as well, though both waterfalls were beautiful in their own different ways. By this point in the day, the afternoon sunlight was hitting the waterfalls straight on, providing even lighting for some attempts at decent landscape photography… So I took out my camera and tripod to take some photos. At the end of it all, the photos were OK because the sky was subpar. And canyons and waterfalls are never that easy to capture on camera. They’re much prettier when seen in person with your own eyes. Anyhow, my family and I stayed at Haifoss and cycled through multiple viewpoints until we were satisfied with the views and left for our next location: Sigöldugljúfur.

Sigöldugljúfur, also known as the Valley of Tears, is a well-Instagrammed canyon with tons of small waterfalls flowing into the canyon and filling up its floor with very turquoise blue water. A magnificent and tranquil scene. To get there, we had to endure a much longer and rougher drive than the drive we had just taken to Haifoss. But again, we were lucky that there were some paved parts to drive on to escape the rocky, unpaved parts. Once we finally got to the parking lot for Sigöldugljúfur, my dad and Minh walked out ahead of me and Cynthia to check out the scenery and scout the location. But before long, they waved to us and turned back, saying that they didn’t see anything worth visiting and that we should turn around and start heading back toward Reykjavik to get home early.

After all of that driving, there was no way I was going to turn back and not see what I was looking forward to seeing. And so I decided that, with Minh and Cynthia, I would go back out there and look for Sigöldugljúfur despite my parents’ protests that we should head back. I was a bit upset at the situation but whatever. I looked online and confirmed we were in the right spot to see the canyon. And I spoke with a drone-flyer and confirmed with him that we were in the right location as well. So, I left my parents in the car and left Cynthia and Minh behind as I started my search for the canyon. I hiked all the way past the point where my dad and brother had previously turned back, determined to find the canyon and determined to take decent photos of it before returning to the car within a reasonable amount of time (because sometimes I spend too much time taking photos at different locations, thus delaying the trip and making everyone wait, and I didn’t want to do that again if I could avoid it).

Eventually, I found what I was looking for: Sigöldugljúfur. Though I found it located much further out from the parking lot than I expected. The canyon of waterfalls was gorgeous to finally see in person after seeing it on Instagram over the years. As Cynthia and Minh trailed behind me, I started to take my photos so that we could head back sooner rather than later. After taking some shots from one vantage point, I tried another until Cynthia and Minh made it over. We took a couple of group photos and then headed back to the car after around 30-45 minutes at the canyon so that we could continue on with the trip.

By this time, it was starting to get late into the afternoon and the sun wasn’t so high in the sky anymore. And we were running out of time to see everything we wanted to see AND get back in time to eat dinner and possibly go out to the volcano site again. So, because we were still far from Reykjavik and because the drive out to Landmannalaugar, a gem in the area, was way too far and way too difficult to race to on gravel roads, we decided to scrap that plan (and unfortunately miss out on seeing it… again) and instead, started our drive back toward Reykjavik with a pit stop at Geysir and Strokkur, the geysers located in the Golden Circle.

It took a longer-than-expected drive to get to Geysir and Strokkur. But given the beautiful evening weather, it wasn’t such a bad drive. Once we were at the geysers, we looked around the geothermal area and braved the annoying midges to watch Strokkur erupt a few times before starting our trip back to the capital. At this point, because we were essentially in the middle of the Golden Circle, we had to drive through half of the Golden Circle route to get back to Reykjavik. And fortunately for everyone, they got to sort of see, from the outside of the park and while driving by, the landscape of Þingvellir and its rift valley, where two tectonic plates are slowly drifting apart. After the brief stops near Þingvellir, we finally started our long drive back to Reykjavik.

As we approached downtown Reykjavik, nostalgia hit me. All these familiar sights and scenes that I have seen over and over again during my last couple of trips. Man, it was nice to see Reykjavik again. Though, this time, there was a lot more construction throughout downtown than what I remembered seeing in 2017. We had to navigate through all of the construction to grab our dinner for the evening from good ol’ Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, the Icelandic hotdog stand located in downtown Reykjavik, because most other places were closed by the time we arrived in Reykjavik. I dropped my family off so they could walk around and order the hotdogs while I drove up and down some streets to look for parking. Eventually, after 10-15 minutes of driving, I found a spot right next to the hotdog stand where I could park. I then joined up with my family at the hotdog stand, where I enjoyed two delicious hotdogs before climbing back into the car to drive to our nearby AirBnB.

Once at the AirBnB, which was located right on the outskirts of downtown and close to Landspitali, the hospital I briefly worked at in 2017, we met our hosts, a very nice and welcoming couple who live just below the AirBnB they were renting out to us. We were briefly shown around the unit and then left to ourselves, during which time we got settled and comfortable in our home for the next two nights.

But us kiddos didn’t stay settled for very long. With the evening skies looking clear and weather conditions looking promising, I decided pretty late that it would be a waste not to attempt another hike to check out the Geldingadalir/Fagradalsfjall volcano. Even though it was late and even though I was extremely exhausted from the day’s and trip’s cumulative activities. But I thought to myself… “When will I get another good chance like this to see an active volcano in person?” and “I can just rest when I get back home to the States.” So, I committed myself to a very tiring and late night and roped both Minh AND Cynthia into coming along for the late night-early morning adventure as well. We all quickly packed our belongings for the hike and bundled up before finally leaving the house for the volcano around 11:15pm. Because I was so tired, I asked Minh to drive, which provided me with a brief opportunity to rest my eyes and recharge in the back seat before we arrived at the parking lot for the volcano around midnight or so. What happens next… will not happen today! So stay tuned for Part 2 of the volcano adventure!

5 Things I Learned/Observed Today:

1. Typically, all horse breeds have three natural gaits: the walk, the trot, and the gallop. However, due to the unique body structures of Icelandic horses, not only do they have the three typical gaits mentioned above, they also have two unique gaits called the tölt and the flying pace that other horse breeds do not have. Don’t ask me what that actually entails because I wouldn’t really understand… but it’s pretty cool and super unique!

2. According to our horse tour guides, there are approximately 19,000 horses (give or take) in Iceland and most of them are used for tourism, shows and competitions, farming, and for private use. And tradition here is that all horses in Iceland are Icelandic purebreds. With these purebred horses, there are very strict rules by which they and their owners must abide. One is that they must be purebred in Iceland. And two is that if any Icelandic horse leaves the country, it can never come back into the country. Additionally, no horses that are from outside of Iceland can be introduced into Iceland, resulting in the purebred horse population in Iceland being very isolated and exclusive to Iceland, something that has been going on for about a thousand years. These rules make Icelandic horses one of the most purely bred horses in the world. And one benefit from this isolation: they are pretty healthy and don’t die of horse influenza even though they are not vaccinated against it. .

3. There have been a ton of movies and shows that have been filmed all over Iceland throughout the years. Interestingly enough, there have been a ton filmed near Vik, like Star Wars: Rogue One, Game of Thrones, and the new Netflix original series Katla. Supposedly, Iceland was a very popular location to film movies and shows last year during the pandemic because there were so little restrictions that the movie industry had to abide by, making it easy for movie folks to come over and work on their projects.

4. Not all F roads are super rocky, gravel-y roads. Some parts are paved like regular roads. Others are less rocky and easily passable by simple sedans and passenger cars (though not recommended). But I’m sure there are a TON of roads that are almost impassable in a smaller 4x4 due to how rough they are.

5. Strokkur, the geyser that is still alive in the Golden Circle, seems to erupt, on average, every 2-6 minutes plus or minus a few minutes, based on my 30 minute observation and timing of its eruptions. Geysir, on the other hand, is dead and no longer erupting.

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