US Visitors – Seljalandsfoss Waterfall and Sólheimajökull Glacier
[Written 29 July 2014. C’est la vie!]
We decided to play tourists again and drive to see a fun waterfall one can walk behind, and see how much further we could make it along the southern coast before it got too late. (69 images total)

Getting ready to set out. Our first destination was Selfoss, where we planned to eat lunch before continuing on.

Eating lunch at Menam in Selfoss.
Seljalandsfoss Waterfall

At the waterfall after about an hour long drive from Selfoss. Finnur and Anna took off to the side to fly the quad-copter.

There are large stairs on both sides of the waterfall, leading to a path that goes behind it. I figured I needed both hands to feel safe with Emma on my back, so I handed the camera to Anna. Most of the following pictures were taken by her.

The path is far from being easily traversed. At the top of the stairs on both sides are rocks that one must clamber over.

The rocks on the other side are very difficult to navigate if you’re not fully able-bodied, so Stella and Walter headed back the same way they came, while the others went climbing.

At the top we found Fancy Finnur taking a photosphere (not publicly available yet, see the one he took in May here)

The car park off in the distance. We seemed to arrive shortly before a few buses did, so there weren’t too many people there.

Inland is the magical place of Thorsmork (Þórsmörk). I will return there someday! (You need a jeep/bus capable of crossing angry rivers to go.)
Sólheimajökull Glacier
We kept on driving eastwards along the southern coast, looking for something else to visit. I remembered Finnur’s parents telling us they’d gone to see where the glacier comes down off the mountain. So there we went.

We decided to stop by the Sólheimajökull glacier next. (Sól = Sun, heima = world, jökull = glacier). Finnur and I had never been there before, so we had no idea what were were getting into. Here we are setting off from the car park.

The others catching up with us. At this point a tour guide came up to us and let us know that the police had just sent out a warning on the tetra communications system because there was increased levels of sulfur coming from the glacier, indicating there might be a flash flood on the way. We promised to be careful and kept going.

Water in the distance. According to news sources, there was already some water from geothermal areas high on up in the river when we were there.

Walter and Sarah ran down to touch the glacier bit that was closest to us. They indeed reported smelling sulfur.

This little glacier we looked at is a small offshoot of the big one. (CLICK on image for larger version).

Oh. My. Goodness. We. Are. Totally. Screwed. See how much the glacier has receded (gotten smaller) since 1997?!!? That’s the image on the far left bottom, 2006 is in the middle, and 2010 is on the far right. Damn. (Click for bigger version.)
Once we were back at the parking lot, it was almost dinner time, so we decided we’d had enough of nature, and drove back west. On the way, we made a quick stop to photograph Seljalandsfoss from a distance.

Finnur taking a photo of Seljalandsfoss from afar with his drone. My phone camera was apparently somewhat gunky.