Day Four - Exploring Iceland's Southeast

Where we make our way from Skaftafell to the Stokksnes campsite by Vestrahorn, near Hofn.

Exploring trails at Skaftafell:

A popular trail in the park is the Svartifoss - Sjónarsker - Sel loop, an easy but slightly longer trail that takes hikers from Svartifoss, a popular waterfalls, up to Sjnarsker which gives you a great view of the mountain peaks and glaciers in the area, and then back down past the turf houses of Sel.

The first and most popular stop here is Svartifoss, aka 'Black Falls', a waterfall that is fed by a glacier and made popular due to being stunningly framed by layers of basaltic columns. Basalt columns are formed when hot lava settles and then cools, contracting to create column-shaped breakages in the ground.

As you can see, due to the ice, the volume of water itself was low; however, this allows you to see the basalt columns that much more clearly.

As we kept going on the hike, the volume of hikers after Svartifoss dwindled considerably so that we were eventually the only ones.

A compass (which you can see in the picture below) points out the names of the peaks / glaciers surrounding you.

As the trail continues down from this peak, you can see the turf houses emerging.

Turf houses are a reminder of the ways in which humans used to live in alignment with nature. In Iceland, turf houses were built to allow its dwellers to withstand the harsh weather without needing much wood or other building material.

After having lunch at the Park in our van, we headed back on the road.

Hofskirkja: We stopped to admire this lovely turf church painted green.

Fjallsarlon (Glacier Lagoon): By the time we were on our way, it was getting windy and cold. Our faces were being pelted by ice as we stopped at Fjallsarlon. Fjallsarlon is the less popular of the glacier lagoons in the area (the other one is Jokulsarlon). Due to the weather, we didn't end up stopping at Jokulsarlon, which is known to have more impressive views of icebergs, and is further down the road from Fjallsarlon.

Jokulsarlon has paid parking, but Fjallsarlon does not. However, don't let that stop you!

Jon Eirikkson's Plaque: Jon was born in Iceland near Skaftafell, and loved learning. becoming an early leader of the Enlightenment which brought Europe out of the Dark Ages. A plaque in his honour has been erected by the Ring Road and is easy to drive to.

Dinner at Hafnarbudin: We stopped here in this cute diner spot for dinner. As it is small, it can get a bit busy, particularly with tourists in the area. As the portions were smaller, it may have been better as a lunch spot for us - we were, again, starving (cold weather tends to keep our appetites up, it seems!).

Hofn: We drove around in the waterfront of Hofn - during nice weather, this would be a lovely town to explore and would highly recommend. Unfortunately, our short stay there was stormy and windy, so we decided not to linger.

Stokksnes: This was our campsite and our last stop of the day. It was pretty late, around 8PM by the time we drove in. There is a relatively long, and spectacular, drive from the turn off the ring road into Stokksnes. The mountains are on your left, and the inlet to the ocean to your right as you drive in. Take it slow, and don't forget to enjoy the view!

Due to the weather, we were debating whether to stay at the Hofn campsite but eventually stuck to our plan and drove on to Viking Campsite for the night. We were worried, based on some terrible reviews online, that it’d be a tourist trap. I wouldn’t say it was as nice as Skaftafell campsite, which we had just left, but facilities were clean, and we had a nice hot shower. It was windy but luckily not as bad as others had experienced in previous nights, particularly the family we had met in Skaftafell who had had to turn back around without completing their road trip.

For more on our Iceland Road Trip:

• An Overview of our Iceland Ring Road Drive with costs and a general itinerary
• Day 1 of our Ring Road Drive in Iceland
• Day 2 of our Ring Road Drive in Iceland
• Day 3 of our Ring Road Drive in Iceland