We leave Jökulsárlón with a Icelandic choral group singing any hymn.
A few tiny patches of icebergs pass by. They glide, following the current generated by the lagoon draining into the Atlantic.
With the counterbalance of powerful waves, some end up stranded on the dark, hardened sand of the offshore coast.
Especially in the morning, when the sun starts to shine, they fragment. They generate a population of large crystals that inspired local guides and visitors to treat the beach as Diamond Beach.
At the time we investigated it, with the sun hostage to a dense blanket of clouds, diamonds were scarce. Those who remained lacked the exuberance that had brightened the beach.
Freshly released ice patches from the Vatnajökull glacier in the Jökursarlón lagoon.
Instead of looking for them, we admired a group of ice blocks, recently demolished from icebergs, held above the lagoon's flow line, as if waiting for an imminent oceanic adventure.
It's cold, which the damp and salty wind makes worse. It urges us to withdraw. We continue to have Hringvegur, Road 1 that goes around Iceland in view, crowned by the bridge that crosses the mouth of the Jökulsárlón lagoon.
Back to the Ring Road that goes around Iceland
We give in to your plea. We returned to the bypass we had been traveling on for days, heading west and aimed at the capital Reykjavik.
The Ring Road, winding along the south coast of Iceland
We travel through the alluvial plains left by the retreat of the Vatnajökull glacier. With Spring yet to fully arrive, the ground remains covered by a meadow parched by the cold.
Not all.
Sequence of electrical poles on a plain on the south coast
Areas of slopes closest to the island's highest mountain, Hvannadalsnúkur, glow a green soaked by melting ice, rain and snow.
Skaftafell, the Eccentric Svartifoss and Kirkubaejarklaustur
We detoured there, towards the interior of Skaftafell, looking for one of the Iceland's unmissable waterfalls.
The Svartifoss “black waterfall” is not emblematic for the volume of its flow, its 20 meters in height or its drama.
This is due to the lithic geometry of the cliff from which it falls, decorated with basalt columns in different layers, generated by the sudden cooling of incandescent lava.
We find Svartifoss on our own. We are seduced by the echo of its cascading water over the snow-covered basalt.
The Svartifoss waterfall with its peculiar basalt columns.
We resume the tour.
The panorama becomes black, lugubrious without appeal. A new arm of Vatnajökull, as long as the one that floods Jökulsárlón, stands out from the largest ice field in Europe, in the same direction as the ocean.
Unlike its neighbor to the East, it is further away from the sea.
Its melting and that of the ice field above release incredible amounts of water that fill an immense alluvium.
Unsurprisingly, like almost all of Iceland, this alluvium is also lava, made of natural gravel that, as we pass by, veins of water cover and wash away.
Houses along a slope on the island's south coast
The following village is Kirkubaejarklaustur, which has an intimidating name, but which, in practice, is limited to defining the cloister church farm, with cloisters, or something like that.
The Eldhraum Lava Field, Formed by the Laki Volcano
From the meadow-lined plain, we enter a contrasting scenery, especially from the previous dark alluvium.
In reality, it is even a lava field that forms it, that of Eldhraum, generated by the massive eruption from June 1783 to February 1784, of craters of the nearby Laki volcano, called Lakagígar.
Snowy and volcanic mountain in the vicinity of Eldhraum.
It was a massive eruption, one of the largest recorded in Iceland, measuring more than 560 km.2 filled with incandescent lava.
And such a quantity of ash and toxic gases were released into the atmosphere that they killed around 10.000 Icelanders, a fifth of the island's population.
Several other countries suffered. Especially in Great Britain and France, the ash stained the skies and the ground. In Great Britain, the early summer was called the Summer of Sand.
He described the absence of sunlight caused by the hovering dust and debris that destroyed the crops as curse clouds.
This coverage of volcanic matter is estimated to have triggered significant climate change, at least in the Northern Hemisphere.
Certain historians have even postulated that the hardships unleashed by the Laki volcano triggered the violent events of the French Revolution of 1789.
The Lush Moss that Covers the Lava Field
Eldhraum translates as Fire Lava. And yet, in its terrifying and devastating genesis, the widespread lava made possible one of Iceland's most memorable plant landscapes.
The local microclimate, the type of soil, among other factors, dictated that a special moss, the racomitrium lanuginosum better known as “woolly fringed” covered this same lava.
Over time, it formed a thick carpet that sunlight dyes a resplendent yellowish-green.
Shadow over the lava and moss field of Eldhraum
The tones that change with the light are joined by the shapes, based on the bumps and lava hills, in their protuberances and gaps.
If the surface of Eldhraum is enchanting, we must also take into account that its immense lava field hides one of the largest volcanic tunnel systems in Europe, with over two hundred tunnels, several of them interconnected.
We walked through Eldhraum along the road.
Ring Road at the threshold of the Eldhraum lava field
We went down to feel the softness of its quilted greenery.
At a certain point, at the foot of a cliff front with an apocalyptic look, we realized where the Laki lava and the moss that lined it had stopped.
We were amazed to see how the woolly fringed moss depended on the lava base to establish itself.
As only that lava served him, in such a way that, around the lava, we only saw, again, the vast meadow, yellowed by the Predominant winter in other parts of the island.
Herd of horses, near Eldhraum
Horses with Boreal Coats and Manes
A fence delimits land on a farm. It contains a few horses interacting with others on the opposite side who graze and drink water from a stream.
When we get closer, they gather together like an equine band.
They look at us, suspiciously, from the top of their sub-Arctic exuberance and manes that remind us of those of so many Hard-Rock bands from the 80s.
Boreal horse, with the mane elongated and combed to the left.
In that hiatus, we had remained between the glaciers Vatnajökull and Myrdal. To the south of this and the Heidar lagoon, we saw the first houses in a long time.
Vik and the Inhabited Threshold of South Iceland
We were at the entrance to Vik í Myrdal, the southernmost village in Iceland.
Vik Church, with clouds in the background
A white church with a red roof stands out on top of a desert ridge. We move forward, we climb a little higher.
From the updated perspective, Reyniskirkja is crowned with an immense front of clouds, purple near the base, white towards the top.
Vik is home to only around 750 residents. Even so, it spreads along an alluvial plain nestled between cliffs.
The houses of Vik, the southernmost village in Iceland
Reynisfjara, a Stunning but Deadly Volcanic Beach
The barrier to the west hides one of the main natural and visual attributes of the Ice Island, its volcanic beach of Reynisfjara, the target of successive incursions by outsiders.
Unfortunately, it is the site of too many fatalities caused by the powerful and unpredictable waves that make it the most dangerous beach in Iceland.
One of the most lethal in the world.
Friends take a walk along the Reynisfjara beach
At its entrance, at the bottom of the Reynis ravine, we find a natural monument of basalt columns, accompanied, offshore, by a set of lava cliffs that project from the raging Atlantic.
To the west, there is a stretch of sand as far as the eye can see. Volcanic and black, like the cliffs and the oppressive panorama of boreal darkness that only the elongated foam of the waves seems to lighten.
There is also a tidal lagoon that we see at the bottom of the beach, with greenish water.
Lagoon held back by the immense sand of Reynisfjara
Exposed to the ocean, Reynisfjara receives enormous amounts of rain and snow.
And it is when covered by heavy clouds that its atmospheric blackness is most impressive. A few unconscious and contrary visitors do not even allow themselves to be intimidated.
Despite the history of victims it has and the warnings at the entrance, we are photographing the basalt columns when a group of teenage friends appears.
Immediately, they begin to challenge the beach, running towards the surf, climbing the columns and sitting on their heights.
Visitor risks his life atop the basalt columns of Reynisfjara.
They find themselves distressed in three moments, when, as is usual in Reynisfjara, the strength of the waves increases without warning and almost drags them into the ocean.
In your case, things are scary.
Since 2013, the dark beach has killed at least five unsuspecting visitors.
Visitor challenges the powerful and unpredictable waves of Reynisfjara beach
Already accustomed to the danger of the heavy waves so common in Portugal, we left Reynisfjara without any surprises, with photos that honor its rawness.
Saudhúsvöllur and its Stone and Grass Shelter
We continue west.
We stopped at the majestic Skogafoss waterfall, which we admired and photographed from every possible perspective, and then at the Saudhúsvöllur farm, one of many others on the south Icelandic coast.
The Saudhusvollur farm shelter.
In 1948, Sigurdur Gudjónsson built a stone and peat shelter there that protected milk jugs and people while they waited for the milk truck to arrive.
Doll decorates a milk collection station on one of the farms in southern Iceland
Over time, these multifunctional shelters multiplied on the island.
The one in Saudhúsvöllur also started to be used to wait for other transport, such as school buses between Vik and Reykjavik.
Today, most similar shelters are in disrepair.
Situated on Iceland's most popular tourist route, Saudhúsvöllur farm preserves its heritage as the valuable heritage it is.
Christian portico with the setting sun behind.
We close the south of Iceland with a new waterfall, Seljalandsfoss, almost the same 60 meters high as Skogafoss, more elegant than voluminous and offering an unusual observation point, from a cave right behind the waterfall. and lagoon.
After 254km, we finally point towards urbanized Iceland, contrasting with the capital Reykjavik.
How to go
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