Sunday came and it was back to rain. This time we weren't as lucky as we had been on Saturday when the rain had cleared as we went over the mountain range between Reykjavik and the interior. It stayed wet the whole day.
If I had thought it challenging to photograph Gullfoss with the water spray clouding my lens, it was even more trickier when there was rain and waterfall spray, as I was about to find out.
We were heading to the southwest of the island and planned to go as far as Vik which is at the southernmost tip of the mainland.
As mentioned in an earlier chapter, most of the tourist attractions are well signposted and within very easy walking distance of the carparks.
Passing through the town of Selfoss with its wide, fast-flowing river, we drove straight to the first waterfall - Seljalandsfoss - which is about 120km from Reykjavik on the main Ring Road 1. By now, we had worked out that "foss" in Icelandic means "waterfall"!
SeljalandsfossWe could see the 60m waterfall long before we got to turning left off the main road and driving a further 800m to the carpark.
Seljalandsfoss is an interesting waterfall because we could walk behind it.
Side-on view showing the back pathway under the overhang on the rightTo get behind the falls, there are short, steep climbs to negotiate on either side. These can be wet due to the spray coming off the falls (as well as any rainfall) and can be quite slippery. I had stupidly left my backpack in the car, so negotiating these climbs was interesting as I did them one-handed, with the other clutching my camera wrapped in a towel!
J and the kids pause to look at the falls before negotiating a slippery slope
This is what they could seeLooking out, I could see the carpark in the center-right, and off to the left, a group of people negotiating the climb to get behind the falls.
We got very wet! I was more concerned about my camera than anything else, but thankfully it kept going.
We climbed out the other side, to look back at people walking behind the waterfall, just as we had done.
We got back to the car and dried ourselves on some towels that I had thought to bring with us (mostly to protect my camera - bugger the humans!), before setting off for the next waterfall.
Next Chapter: Skógafoss, Mýrdalsjökull and Vik
2 comments:
Now I remember that book I told you about, where the lovers hide in an underwater cave: A True Tale of Love in Tonga, told in 23 engravings and 333 words. It was by Robert John Gibbings, who illustrated it with his own wood engravings, and published it in 1935. Lots of rare book refs on line, but no images - shame.
That sounds awesome. Wonder who has got it?
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