Iceland's southern coast

 I was in Iceland in June 2024, just before the summer solstice. This meant although the sun supposedly set for an hour or so in northern Iceland, it didn't actually get dark. The sun can be seen for 24 hours a day from late April to late August.

This photo was taken at midnight on 10 June off the west coast of Iceland -

When I was in Reykjavik, I did a south coast tour, "South Iceland Glaciers, Waterfalls and Black Sand Beach". On a previous visit in 2022 I did the Golden Circle tour.

From Reykjavik, we drove southeast over several ancient lava fields. This area is known as Hell's Hill. The road is part of the ring road that circumnavigates Iceland.  There were quite a few steam vents from the geothermal energy -

 We went through Selfoss and saw a very lonely Christmas tree on the Olfusa River -

Our first stop was at Skogafoss waterfall. The drop is about 60 m and about 25 m wide -

There is a path to the top of the fall but we didn't have time to go there -

There are wild lupins all over Iceland, but we were 2-3 weeks too early for the flowers to be in full bloom. They are actually an invasive species, having originated from Alaska. In America they are called lupines. 

Drove alongside Eyjafjallajökull volcano, this is the one that erupted 2010 causing air travel chaos. The volcano is covered by an ice cap. Eyjafjallajökull is one of the smaller ice caps of Iceland, north of Skógar and west of Mýrdalsjökull. The ice cap covers the caldera of a volcano with a summit elevation of 1,651 m. The glacier is Eyjafjallajökull.

Our next stop was Solheimajokull glacier outlet, in Katla Geopark. The outlet is 11 km long. It has retreated over 1 km since 1995, leaving a glacier lagoon and icebergs. The black colour is from the volcanic ash. Icelandic glaciers are temperate, at freezing point, with liquid water under and within the ice. The Solheimajokull glacier originates from the Mýrdalsjökull glacier, which is the 4th largest glacier in Iceland. 

We walked across the moraine which has lots of random rocks. Part of the moraine and glacier lagoon -

This next photo shows the glacier, the glacier lagoon and some random boulders. Note that just a few years ago, the glacier reached the left side of the photo, but has retreated that much, possibly in the last 3-4 years.

From here we went onto Vik, which is the southernmost village on the Icelandic mainland, 186 km from Reykjavik. Vik sits in the shadow of Mýrdalsjökull glacier, which covers the Katla volcano -

Vik black sand beach -

A hazy view of the trolls -

The trolls are the Reynisdrangar sea-stacks, said to be two trolls frozen in the light of the morning sun as they tried to pull a ship into shore. We saw them from Reynisdrangar (below). I sat and ate my lunch amongst the lupins -

From Vik we headed back and went to Reynisfjara black sand beach, which is the most famous and well visited. The beach had many well rounded smooth pebbles, unlike Vik which was much finer sand. In 1991 is was voted as one of the ten most beautiful non-tropical beaches in the world. In 2021 Reynisfjara was rated the 6th best beach in the world!!! I can't really agree with those votes!

The cliffs in the distance on the photo above are the popular birdwatching cliffs of Dyrhólaey, with an enormous rock arch curving out into the ocean. This is one of the best places for birdwatching in Iceland, with thousands of puffins nesting here from May to August.

Our guide hoped we would see some puffins, but there were none at all, except for this dead one -

He then told us he had in fact seen no puffins for weeks. As we were driving away I did see one flying by the road.

Reynisfjall mountain lies within the Katla volcano system and was formed in a sub-glacial and/or sub-marine eruption in the later stages of the Ice Age. Mountains formed in these types of eruptions typically have pillow basalt at their base, followed by volcanic tuff. Lava often forces its way into the tuff during an eruption, and if the tuff prevents water from coming into contact with the lava during this intrusion, the lava often forms basalt columns as it cools and cracks. These basalt columns always stand perpendicular to the cooling surface and are hexagonal in shape. 

Hálsanefshellir cave is a basalt sea cave. It was formed by the pounding of the Atlantic Ocean which eroded the soft volcanic rock over time. 

The Reynisdrangar sea stacks are those I had seen in the haze from Vik beach (above) -

They were once part of the headland. The bases are formed of basalt, the tuff that once surrounded them has eroded away except for a small amount at the very top of the stacks. 

Although the beach looks peaceful, it is notorious for the sneaker waves. Also known as rogue waves, they a huge waves that suddenly appear in the train of smaller waves. The tallest wave recorded was 40 m in height! Because there have been deaths, there is now a warning system - see here. 

From here we headed back towards Reykjavik, stopping to look at the Drangshlio turf houses, which are close to the main road. Turf houses were used for shelter since the days of the first Nordic settlers until the late 20th century. They consist of a basic timber frame, with blocks cut out of turf (grass and the soil up to 1m thick) arranged over a base layer of rock and packed in to form the structure's walls and roofs. 

There is an old turf house and behind it is a (newer?) barn built against the rock -

A gull on the rocks above the houses -

The last stop of the day was at Seljalandfoss waterfall, which as a 60 m drop. You can walk behind the fall but I didn’t want to get wet! 

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Some of the most famous basalt columns in Europe are The Giant's Causeway on the Antrim plateau in Northern Ireland. The Giant's Causeway has about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns. It is an UNESCO World Heritage site. I went there in 1985.