Southern Iceland is pretty different from all the rest of the country. It is a bit less wild and therefore more touristic, so be ready for tourist buses everywhere, also higher prices and a bit colder attitude of locals. But it is beautiful nevertheless. The mightiest volcanoes are situated here, and when you drive on the ringroad, you have a vast plain on one side going to the ocean, which is constantely being widened by volcano debris and was not there some hundreds years ago, when the shore was right next to the mountains (so technically Iceland´s area enlarges every year by a few meters). On the other side there are almost vertical slopes of those volcanoes. It is pretty impressive and you really feel huge respect. Let´s go through what is worth seeing in the South. The rest is basically a tourist trap from your guidebook. As we did the whole ringroad, we came to the South from East, and that is the direction in which I will point out the sites.
First place worth stopping is Jökulsárlón. It is on the edge of Vatnajökul glacier, which is the biggest on Iceland and covers about the area of Yorkshire. Jökulsárlón is a lagoon formed by the glacier with very clean water and full of ice floes of different sizes and beautiful shapes. If you come in June or July, the best time to visit is late evening, there is still enough light and far less people.
Skaftafell national park is a hill coming from the Vatnajökul glacier and the adjacent valley. There are two main routes which you can walk – up the hill or down in the valley. We wanted to do the first one, but it was still closed, so had to do the second. It goes along the glacier river to the glacier itself and then back the same route. It was much longer than they said in the Visitor center, took us almost the whole day, and is kind of boring as the countryside changes just very little. But here is a good advice – for anywhere South – carry plenty of water. If you think you will get some along the way, be sure you wont. the rivers here are either sulphuric or dirty, or both. Glaciers are dirty from the volcano debris and that makes the glacier rivers dirty as well. Very dirty.
Now this one is a must do for adventurous people who don´t mind walking. On one spot on this vast plain between the volcanoes and the ocean there is a wreck of a crashed DC-3 Dakota plane. The US used to have a military base on Iceland and this Dakota crashed here in the 70s while returning to the base. Everyone survived, only the plane stayed where it crashed and is there till this day. It´s not marked, but in Google Maps it is under Solheimasandur Plane Wreck. You need to leave the car on the ringroad and walk the last 4 km on the vast plain to the wreck, as the landowners closed the road to public.
Skógafoss is a beautiful waterfall which can show a double rainbow ometimes and is about 60 m high. It can be admired from a watchpoint up at its top and it is also the starting point fo the trek to Þórsmörk valley. It vines upstream along the river which feeds the Skógafoss waterfall, with a lot of other beautiful waterfalls. the green plains turn slowly into brown and then snowfields until you find yourself in a place where there is only snow and some rocks.
The up most point is the Fimmvörðuháls hut, almost 1120 meters above the sea level and very windy. The hut can provide some shelter and also an overnight stay. There is no warden, though, so one must figure out how to start the heating with the oil pump first. From the hut, it is an hour walk through the quite open pass, right next to the Eyjafjallajökull craters which were formed 6 years ago during the eruption which stopped the air traffic over Europe.
After that it´s a few hours down through the green landscape again to the Þórsmörk valley, where there are 3 huts offering accommodation either inside or on the adjacent campsite. Both are better to book in advance, places inside are gone quite early, while a place on the campsite would probably be available at any time.
A bus will take you from here back to the ringroad. The bus needs to overcome a few rivers on the way and so is higher and specially equipped. On the crossroad of the Þórsmörk road and the ringroad is the prettiest waterfall of them all – the Seljalandsfoss. It can be seen from all side, all 360°.
A little interesting fact – south from here is the island of Heimaey with very nice houses and even more south is an island called Surtsey. It was formed in 1963 in a volcanic eruption and is thus the youngest land on Earth. As such it is a subject of scientific research and thus it is closed to public.
The last place worth mentioning is situated more inland in the lands of the Sagas (and if you are interested in history, the Saga lands offer a lot). The place I am talking about can be found in the village named Flúðir and it is the Secret Lagoon. it is lagoon of hot water, entirely natural, the most hidden and relaxed of them and offering a great resting time. that is, if you come in the morning or late afternoon. Otherwise there can be quite a lot of people. There is even a small geysir next to it erupting every 5 minutes or so.
