Lonely plant (the ubiquitous bible of a guidebook you can usually find by the nose of the tourist attached to the pages as they tromp blindly down streets) labeled Vik as one of their favorite towns in Iceland. I've used lonely planet for years, and their advice is usually pretty sound, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt in this one.
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| View from the campsite |
A small coastal town of roughly 300 or so inhabitants, we saw little but grey mist, dark, low hanging clouds, and the inside of an unheated shack-like structure where we gathered seeking a warmth and dryness that never materialized.
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| Vik |
We did little but set up camp the first evening, making the first use of our camping card, so camping was free! (That is, if you don't count the card we paid $100+ for...) the next day was grey and rainy, so we explored between breaks in the weather.
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| Vik's beach path |
There are 2 beaches near Vik. One is a famous beach just a few kilometers west over the 'mountain' alongside Vik, called Renisfjara. It has basalt column caves and rock formations and is known for its black sand (which turned out to actually be little black rocks). The other beach is on Vik's side of the massive cliff face / Mesa that divides the two beaches. It actually ended up being more memorable for its fine black sand, brief stunning views of craggy cliffs all around, and the requisite strange, leaning Icelandic statue. (We've seen quite a few of these now: statues set at an odd angle, usually thin bodied individuals who look almost on the cusp of toppling over). Predictably we have no photos of these.
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| Black sand |
We explored the tiny town, and eventually took refuge in the small pool that is a standard of most Icelandic towns - a combination gym and community center, nearly every town has a heated pool- usually a swimming pool around 27 Celsius, and a pair of hot tubs at 36 and 40, +/- a few degrees. This was the best decision of the trip so far! Free hot showers and warm outdoor hot tub soaking in the rain, nothing could have made the evening better. We met a lovely German girl who was working away for the summer on a farm - mostly dealing with sheep. As in, helping said sheep give birth. One of her first activities was to aid a birthing ewe -'just stick your hand up there and feel around if she needs help!' Her host family helpfully suggested. Hmmm.
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| Up up up over the 'mountain' |
The next day, we hiked one hour over the mountain Reynisfjall separating Vik from the black sand beach and encompassing caves. (Wife thought this place was ridiculously rad). Legend has it that a local was checking his fishing nets one night when he heard people singing and dancing in the cave, with a ton of seal skins outside. He took one and locked it in his chest. When he came back the next day, he found a beautiful woman, naked, crying near the cave. He took her home to care for her, and eventually they got married and had children. Little did he know she was actually a seal, who had come ashore in the annual anthropomorphism seal dance party. While their marriage was a happy one, the wife often looked longingly at the sea. One day, she opened her husbands chest when he was away and found the seal skin. When he returned home, she was gone, leaving only a note that read: alas, I have seven children at sea and seven at land. After that, whenever the family was near the shore, a seal would show up and splash around, and the husband was always granted prolific bounties in the form of fish in his outings.
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| And down the other side... |
Also, all this happened near the wreck of a three masted ship a couple of Giants we're trying to tow to shore, but they drank too much schnapps and we're still out when the sun rose, turning them and their forlorn ship to stone. Wary of this tale, I examined the monument - after all, we all know it's trolls that turn to stone in sunlight (ask Dr. Baggins, et. al.) Turns out, I'd buy it. Giants stuck towing in a ship, turned to stone. This is the sea stacks called Reynisdrangar. (Wife says 'what on earth are you talking about, let's get to posting way too many cool rock photos already!'). Okay okay.
But first the requisite road sheep photo:
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| Road to the black sand beach of Renisfjara |
And now some really cool rock photos! |
| Basalt cave |
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| Basalt formations |
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| Lookin' gooooood |
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| The ship with melted Giants on the side |
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| The black sand is really rocks |
Turns out the weather at the beach was somewhat gray and turbulent and fairly unpleasant (i.e. Wife was pretty dang cold).
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| That's some craaaazy wind |
Whooped after fighting a wind fierce enough to threaten to whisk Chris away, we boarded our bus at the beach and took off for Skaftafell national park- right on the edge of the second largest (after Greenland) glacier in the world, encompassing something like 12% of Iceland. And of course as we pulled away from Vik the sun appeared and lit the whole coastline up. Damn you Vik! (fists shaking in the air).
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| A sunny farewell to Vik |
Let the adventure continue...
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