Reynisfjara
A black sand beach is something that cannot be found in many places on Earth. Reynisfjara’s black sand was formed during one of volcano Katla’s major eruptions. When molten lava enters the water, a violent interaction occurs between the hot lava and the sea water. The lava cools down so rapidly that it breaks into sand instantly. A huge amount of lava flowing into cold sea produce enough fragments to create a new black sand beach in just hours! The perfectly shaped rock columns in the next photo were formed when lava cools down so quickly that as the effect of the sudden cooling, the rock starts to contract from the edges in symmetric, geometrical shapes. PS: Reynisfjara is another Game of Thrones location, see season 7 / Eastwatch-by-the-sea. According to local icelandic folklore these were once trolls trying to pull ships from the ocean to the shore...
The waves at Reynisfjara can knock people over and pull them out to sea, where they are helpless in the extremely strong undertow. Three tourists have drowned in the last few years at the beach.
Glacier Lagoon-Jökulsárlón
Glacier Lagoon-Jökulsárlón is the most peaceful place I know. I spent a complete day there, below in the video you can have a feeling about how peaceful that amazing place is. Glacial ice is the largest reservoir of freshwater on earth but how quickly will Earth’s glaciers melt ? Did you know in the last hundred years average global sea level has been raising 10-20 cms due to melting glaciers ?
The Magical World of Ice: Ice Caves at Myrdalsjökull:
Katla volcano is currently under ice and has been dormant for nearly one hundred years. Glacier Myrdalsjökull sits over the volcano Katla in south Iceland. Ice cave excursion with our guide @sigvaldiemilsson from #katlatrack to Glacier Myrdalsjökull was an amazing experience. We met early in the morning at a gas station and made our way offroad with a huge 4*4.
MY TIP:
Is it possible to drive yourself if you rent a 4*4? Well you should have an idea about the location of ice caves. The guides know it. Plus road is problematic, you can easily got stuck. But in a nice sunny day, you might try. However you have to be extremely careful, you can not enter each ice cave formed. There is always a risk of collapse when you are inside.
Ice caves are formed by running meltwater carving channels through the glacier. New caves are formed every year.
The combination of the colors of the ice inside the cave together with black ash was spectacular.
The black sand beach extending at the south coast was formed when the Katla volcano was still active—the lava floated across the beach, cooled down when it came into contact with the icy seawater and broke apart. Below you see a view of the black sand beach from a cave at the coast.
Fjaðrárgljúfur
Fjaðrárgljúfur is a canyon in south east Iceland which is up to 100 m (330 ft) deep and about 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) long, with the Fjaðrá river flowing through it. Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon was created by progressive erosion by flowing water from glaciers through the rocks over a long period of time,
It is very easy to get there, just a few kms inside the south ring main road. Definitely worth a visit.
Seljalandsfoss
Seljalandsfoss waterfall along Iceland’s southern coast is fed by melting water from the famed glacier-capped Eyjafjallajokull volcano. The path that runs behind the curtain of water is the main attraction. There you can enjoy a truly unique viewpoint of the waterfall. Also very easily accessible, less than a km from the main southern road.
Húsavík
My closest to the largest...Did you know the blue whale is the largest animal known have lived, even bigger than the largest dinosaurs? Húsavij in north Iceland is globally recognised as one of the best locations to watch whales; a sunny morning with a rib boat after about 30-40 mins we came across with the first whale. Whales travel to cold waters for feeding and to warmer waters to give birth, they were quite busy with feeding and had been on the water surface shortly just to breath, and went deep down again for 15-20 minutes.
MY TIP:
There are two kinds of whale watching tours, one with big boats and the other with smaller rib boats. Tickets for rib boats are more expensive however it worths since they get much closer to the whales.
Kirkjufell
Kirkjufell is on the north coast of Iceland. It is the most photograped mountain in Iceland and one of the filming locations for Game of Thrones; it appears in season 6 episode 5 & season 7 episode 6...