After a good night's sleep and a reasonable wake-up time (8am in the end) I had breakfast in the guesthouse, a quick chat with the lovely owner, before packing up and heading off. First stop was obviously Jökulsárlón - couldn't stay nearby without another visit before heading east for a couple of days. I hadn't visited the lagoon the previous day, so headed there first, and was surprised to see the car-park area had been increased massively. There had been no more snow since the previous evening - the quick storm I was randomly caught in was obviously the extent of it, but everything was covered in snow, the icebergs were white as a result. The sun came in and out, brightening up the snow when it did. There were a couple of enormous bergs, and many smaller ones between us. It amazes me how different it can be - sometimes I've seen the lagoon almost free of icebergs, with only small chunks floating away in the distance near the foot of the glacier, other times it's crammed with them! Ravens flew around, occasionally landing on the icebergs.
I spent about an hour there before heading across to the beach; again on the west side of the bridge where all the big bergs had been sitting the previous afternoon. There was a fair amount of cloud, but as I wandered down to the shore the sun was still poking through from time to time - a pretty usual Icelandic weather day.
The beach was already busy when I arrived, just before 10am, but I wasn't too bothered as you can always wander a bit along it and get away from the others. It was certainly very colourful.
The icebergs were similar to the previous night - with stacks of smaller ones at the edge of the water, and a few large, turquoise ones sitting on the sandbank, with the waves crashing against them, flinging water high into the air.
My plan for the morning was to get some close-up shots of the icebergs, as I just love the different patterns and textures and colours of the ice, sitting starkly on the dark sand. It was challenging, as they were stacked close to each other, and few were isolated (and I hate cutting off icebergs - like feet or legs!). The colours weren't great and the light was pretty flat, but I still enjoyed capturing the surf receding over the icebergs. Here's a few abstract shots.
I always love the view of the road there too, leading back towards the mountains behind Hali. It was particularly stark today with a little slush left on the black tarmac, and the black mountains covered with snow.
I continued on, past the turn-off to the Kalfafellsstaður guesthouse - easily visible now with the cute church next door - and on towards my favourite tree. I don't know what it is about these things - perhaps the nostalgia of discovering them before, but I just love them. I particularly love the way this tree slopes in a parallel line to the mountain behind. Looking on Google streetview it's just visible but doesn't look remotely interesting with leaves and vegetation around. I could barely make out the glaciers and mountains behind, but it still looked special to me. The nearby pond was frozen, so no nice reflections of the bare trees behind it were possible.
A little further on I pulled in again, as the church at Brunnholl looked very cute with its red roof. I quite liked the farm building next to it to with its red doors matching the roof of the church next door.
There's a lovely stretch of road just after that, where the road bends inland again, soon passing a derelict house, before reaching another bend and the other derelict house that is covered in graffiti (where I also usually stop). The hills behind looked striking with the snowfall on the steep scree slopes.
I continued on, stopping to fill up with diesel, before pulling in at the picnic area near the Dynjandi Guesthouse, just after taking the left-hand turn that takes the route 1 further east. I became a little obsessed with the almost monochrome hillsides.
Obviously I had to stop on the other side of the long winding tunnel to photograph the view of the road to it. It didn't look particularly amazing, but I still find the curving sweep of the road just beautiful. There were also more monochrome hills and mountains, and the sun even came out on some pointy peaks for a moment.
A photographer I knew from Flickr/Instagram/Twitter had recently visited the area, and had found an off-the-beaten track waterfall in the area, so my aim was to find this, have a little hike and see what the fuss was all about. Skutafoss sits a little round the corner from the road below the tunnel, and I'd noticed a track up on the eastern side of a small river with a weir a little way up, but never stopped before. This time I did, driving the 4WD up the track a little way. Eventually I parked and continued on foot. There was a small waterfall first, and I took a few silly selfies with me standing in the river in front of the falls, before it began to rain a little. The light was particularly flat and dull, but sometimes that's better for photographing waterfalls. I noticed even here that the water below the falls was a strange deep green.
I carried on uphill a little, passing many rocks covered with colourful lichen. I should have got the macro lens out, but given the slight rain I decided it was safer for my sensor not to change lenses unless I was in a sheltered spot. I didn't get a sharp image, which was disappointing.
Soon I reached the main falls, which were split between a narrow one on the left and a larger one on the right that plunged down onto a rounded platform, next to a large sheltered cave. Beneath the falls was another lovely emerald green pool.
The light rain wasn't going anywhere, so under the shelter of the cave seemed the best option, otherwise I had to wipe my filter after each shot. I even decided to change lenses, given that it was dry, so tried a couple with the wide-angle, which I rarely seem to get the opportunity to use while in Iceland. I loved the place too, although the sky was horribly washed out. I was alone, taking photos; what more could I want?!
I stopped briefly on the way to photograph Brunnhorn, the pointed mountain behind Vestrahorn, with the layers of sandbanks beneath it, before continuing straight to Stafafell.
The owner, Sigurður, greeted me warmly and we chatted in the doorway briefly. He had wanted to get a print of a photo I'd taken on a previous trip of the cottage with star trails above it, but he hadn't done so yet (not so easy in the middle of nowhere), so I promised to help get it done on my next trip, bringing it from Reykjavik if necessary. I was staying in the yellow cottage again - perhaps I'll never get to see inside the green one - and it was lovely to be back there again, with its pretty flowery sofas and fantastic views to the south-west. I put on the kettle, had a nice cup of tea and sat looking out of the window for a while. It began to snow and the skies remained dark, but I was happy to stay there, having taken quite enough photos for one day.
Later on I cooked myself the usual tuna pesto pasta (actually pretty delicious!), had one of my Garún beers and downloaded the day's photos and spent the evening going through them. I was exhausted again, so decided against an early start, with cloud forecast for the morning. The wind got up and I went to sleep listening to the wind howling and sleet falling on the roof. Perfect :)
