The Following photos were Submitted by @Lammer
Today, Sigrun had the day off so she came with us to the southern part of Iceland, the more touristy part that was a part of the golden circle. The first part of the drive was incredibly boring passing through many towns, that were similar to the one’s in Ontario.
Our goal, rather a stop on Colleen’s bucket list was a crashed, abandoned plane from the 1970’s. Along the way we stopped at one of the famous waterfalls, Skogofoss where one could walk underneath them. I’m glad I brought my rain paints and had a water proof jacket with me. It was so refreshing to have the spray of the water on you.
Edda recommended going to Reynir along the coast and part of the black sand beaches. From what I’ve heard of “The Black Sand Beach”, it sounded as if there was only one beach, or one section of beach with black sands. That’s not the case. The girl at the car rental place told us all the beaches had black sands because of the volcano’s. Perhaps this was so much a tourist attraction because there were three sea stacks that rose from water. Lining the beach were cliffs lined with caves, once of which you could actually walk into a ways. But I was too chicken to go in too far without a companion or a light for that matter. On one side of the beach was a flock of nesting puffins. This wasn’t too special to me because we have puffins in Cape Breton, but to be reminded how they flew was quite amusing. Their little wings beating so fast, making circles from the rocks over the ocean and back again to their perches. Always they seemed to fly in pairs. Just as I decided to take my 4×5 out again to take a picture of the turning of the river around the cliff inland with a sea stack in the middle, a couple had walked out on the beach. Shit! It would have taken them forever to move. You could tell by their attitude of casualness and selfie-taking. Next time.
For supper we went to a restaurant that was more of a café called the Black Sands Restaurant. It reminded me of the place on the Grand Canyon by the skywalk, very modern with no character. That being said, I gave to admit the food was really good. Not at all cafeteria food. Lucky for us, since we were customers of the restaurant, we were able to use the washrooms for free. Since you don’t have to pay to get into a national park in Iceland, you do have to pay for the washrooms. I think Edda said it was 1200, ($12.00). WHAT!
What a day it’s been so far! We say so many beautiful wonders that I completely forgot about the plane and decaled that It was enough seeing what I saw and could call it a day. Me and my big mouth. I gave the wrong impression I’m afraid. My companions thought I wanted to go home and not see the plane. Heavens! Not the case at all.
It was a magnificent site to see, no doubt. A crashed plane with it’s tale completely cut off its nose torn away in places, it’s engines hanging from her sides and her wings clipped. A glorious history, everyone survived. But it wasn’t my thing. What? When I’ve gone to Mc Lean’s Auto Wreakers, with so many lovely rusted cars from all decades, this was not my thing? Sorry, I didn’t think it was worthy enough to use a sheet of film. Instead I took photos with my phone of Colleen doing her red dress shoot. She looked lovely posing against the plane and a sea of black sand. We were blessed with great light and another awesome sunset which we followed all the back to Reykjavik.
Had I brought my DSLR and actually able to use the 24mm lens, I would have concentrated on the Glacier behind us, Myrdalsjokull at an impressive 1362 meters. At the intersection of one and 221 is a spot where you can see one of the arms of the glacier reach down to the lowlands. Below this is a delta curving into the arm around a hillside. I should have stopped on the way to the plane to get a picture of this while the light was good. It wasn’t just good, it was perfect. But I didn’t and I regret it now. The sun was completely gone behind the glacier now. There was no contrast. I swear, next time I go I am going to stop to take that image. There’s nothing worse when regretting a missed photo opportunity.
The compensation was, again, the sunset. It was a deep reddish pink with dramatic clouds racing through it. We stopped many times to take photos. Because it was even more spectacular around the next set of mountains than the last.
Again, Returned late, rather early in the morning, 1:30 this time. So it wasn’t so bad. Tomorrow the Blue Lagoon and then to return the car.
Sarahndipity 