24th Oct 2017, we woke up without a sign of previous day’s tiredness. We wanted to drive just 2 hours today till Vik visiting 2 waterfalls on the way, the Seljalandsfoss and Skogafoss. I was not satisfied with the time we got to spend at those waterfalls during our previous trip to Iceland, when we had taken “Southcoast and Jokulsarlon” day package tour. So, we wanted to visit both these waterfalls again as well explore some new places nearby. Even though I had done some planning ahead, I still kept on reading about other interesting places to visit nearby and came across another waterfalls “Gljúfrabúi Waterfall” which is just at a distance of 5 min walk from Seljalandsfoss.

When we reached Seljalandsfoss, parking lot was full with cars and buses. I had not expected such crowd. October is said to be off season, but from the number of tourists we saw, it did not seem so. We had to pay a parking fee of 700ISK. Though I had seen this waterfalls before, it seemed like seeing it for the first time. In my previous trip, we were given just 10 mins to visit this waterfalls and I had to run with my camera in the slippery area behind the waterfalls to take some quick pics and hardly got any time to feel the beauty of the waterfalls with my eyes.

It was possible to walk behind the waterfalls and we were almost wet when we reached there. It was raining as well and we did not have any umbrella.

After coming out from behind the waterfalls, we started walking further to the other waterfalls which was hidden behind huge rocks. It was still raining and our jackets were almost wet and we had started feeling cold. On the way to Gljúfrabúi waterfalls we passed by many small waterfalls with no names.

Even at Gljúfrabúi waterfalls it was crowded. We just peeked into the falls behind the rocks.

Our next stop was at Skogafoss. Here the parking was free. As we neared the waterfalls, rainbow was appearing across and it was fluctuating depending on the sunshine from behind the clouds. We saw some horses grazing on the other side of the waterfalls and Swasti started asking if she can cross the river to go near the horses. I just gave a stare and said, go try. She got upset and was not ready to pose for photos. So many photographers were standing with their tripods and it was bit uncomfortable to walk in front of them and disturb them. So I decided to go very near from the side and realised that there was a full circle of rainbow. As I kept on clicking pics, some people came and asked to take pics of theirs. One lady with a bit old man asked to take their pics with rainbow and she reciprocated taking my pics with rainbows as well. I don’t like posing for photos in front of people, but somehow when that lady asked me to stand near the rainbow, I went ahead and stood. Meanwhile Swasti came and asked me if they can build something with the stones. I said yes. After sometime I call them both near so that I can take their pics with rainbows, they were not ready to come near. Because they were building their bridge to go to the other side of the waterfalls near to the horses. Both of them were carrying stones and putting them in the river. They were also happy that many photographers were using their bridge for fixing their tripods to take pics. After pleading a little bit, both of them came and posed unwillingly. After couple of tries, realised its not going to work out. So, I had to give up my experiments with photographing them with rainbows.We wanted to walk up the stairs to reach the top of the waterfalls. It was around 426 steps or so. As we did not have proper breakfast, we had already started feeling hungry and were feeling tired. But we did force ourselves to climb up. Sohum was sitting on the stairs every now and then.

After reaching the top, I was taking pics of the water flowing down and Swasti went past the gate to see the other side. As I finished clicking and went near the gate, she was pleading Harish, “don’t let mama come in” and I knew the same moment that there is a trail to walk which she did not want me to see. Of course I entered the gate and started walking ahead. The trail is just beside the river Skogar and one will pass many waterfalls and rock formations in the river. As we did not have any food at hand, I did not dare to ask them to walk further. We just walked around 400 meters and came back.

View of Skogar valley from the view point was beautiful.

By the time we left Skogafoss, it was already 2pm. The drive to Vik village was very Scenic.

We reached our hotel “Katla Hofdabrekka“. We had booked a family room for 3 and we were given the best room in the hotel facing the lake which is in front of the hotel. We had our ready to eat pasta and rushed to visit the famous black beach at Reynisfjara. It was getting dark, but the lady at the hotel reception had told us that there will be daylight till 6:30 pm. As we went near the beach, we realised that it is dangerous to go near the water. Currents were high and every now and then tidal waves were coming far closer.

There were warning signs about sneaker waves. And in spite of the warnings and the information about the number of deaths which happened due to sneaker waves, tourists were going near the water and running away as giant waves hit the shores.We went near the Basalt rock formations to click some pics and as waves started coming near, came away and were just looking at those rock formations from far and admiring.

Cliffs were full of bird life. Birds were looking like white dots from far. Of all the birds around, this couple captured my attention when I zoomed my camera to the max possible.

Meanwhile a man with blue jacket climbed up the rock pillars and went out of sight. After a big wave, 3 men ran towards the other side where the blue jacket man had gone, and the way ran, it seemed as if they are all family members and they ran to help him. We were just thinking what will happen next as many more waves as big as 3-4 meters high came and hit the pillars with full strength. A tourist guide ran near the pillars whenever the current was bit low and was trying to look for those men. A lady police officer was standing nearby and taking pictures. I went near and told her, 3 men went to the other side, is not it dangerous I asked. She said, “Of course yes. did you see them coming back?”. I said no. She did not seem to react. She was still taking pics being detached.I was somehow not ready to come back until I knew what happened to those 3 men. After couple of minutes, 3 men came back as if they have achieved something. They ignored the lady police officer as she was trying to talk to them and just walked away as if nothing happened. I was feeling like slapping all 3 of them as they walked past. But there was also a smile on my face admiring their madness, as my heart was still pounding.

We felt so relieved and wanted to spend bit more time at the beach as the kids were building something with sand and stones. We saw a photographer with a wedding couple come there for evening photoshoot. The lady police officer briefed them something and the photographer was assuring her that he will not go near dangerous places. It was fun to watch the couple run towards the waves and run away from the wave as the photographer kept on clicking. There was another lady with reflector in her hand to help the photographer. Even they came across many unexpected high waves and they were running with full speed to escape. It was very difficult for the Bride to run with the long Bridal costume. Couple were fit to run, but not the photographer. It was funny to look at their circus with the unpredictable waves.

After collecting some memories we drove back to our hotel. Driving through the beautiful South coast was totally different compared to the previous day drive to Snaefellsnes Peninsula. Also we had the freedom to spend as much time as we wanted at each place. Still day did not seem long enough. We had dinner at the restaurant of our hotel. Food was delicious. Staff were friendly as well. By the time we finished dinner, Sohum’s eyes were automatically closing. She said, lets go back to room. As all the 3 started snoring, I started chatting with Sapna narrating our day, while browsing more places to visit the next day.