When researching different tours to do in Iceland, one that really caught my eye was the trip to the south coast. With pictures of impressive waterfalls and a black sand beach I was sold. As with all other tours, they have a list of various pick up locations around town. This time around the guide was Icelandic, who in addition to more local stories introduced us to several awesome Icelandic bands.

Quaint Icelandic farm

Local Icelandic kjötsupa or lamb stew
The first stop on our tour was Skogafoss waterfall. This massive waterfall is 16 meters tall and really impressive! As I was walking towards the waterfall to take a photo it started properly raining, which in addition to the water mist blowing off the waterfall soaked me pretty fast – Luckily both my camera and my phone survived. There was also a pathway up to the top of the waterfall which I decided to walk up, an exhausting set of stairs that followed an enclosure with sheep up the hill. At the top there were really good views of the valley beneath as well as the river the waterfall came from.

Impressive Skogafoss

A slightly wet but happy tourist

The view from atop Skogafoss
Next up was the stop I was looking forward to the most, the black sand beach! While it was raining for the bigger part of the stop, it was not that bad. The beach mainly consists of tiny pebbles of black rock. There are also quite a lot of bigger pebbles that are perfectly round and so pretty. At the entrance to the beach there are two caves and the surrounding rocks are hexagonal shaped basalt columns, which look really cool. Inside the caves the rock formations are pretty impressive as well.

Inuksuks on the black sand beach

Impressive rock formations

A cave surrounded buy the famous basalt rock formations
The most famous part of the beach are the two rock formations out in the water. Local folklore say that there two rocks are two trolls that went outside in the sunlight. As any Nordic child learns, trolls that go in the sunlight are instantly turned into rock – which is why Norway has so many mountains.

Stupid trolls!

A local resident
Back in the bus we headed to the Solheimajökull glacier, an arm of the much larger Myrdalsjökull glacier. Just as I had walked 10 meters away the worst rain of my trip started. As I really do love glaciers I decided to try my best to ignore the rain and continue on. Below the glacier there was a lake with meltwater and a few large pieces of ice floating around. There were also quite a lot of people doing hikes on the glacier, with professional guides of course.

Intense rain

A tiny part of the glacier

Hikers
In order to warm myself up, and dry a little bit, I headed to the coffee shop to get some yummy hot chocolate with Baileys. Back on the bus I was handed a plastic cup and told to sit back down. As soon as everyone were back onboard the plastic cups were filled up with Malt Extract, a non-alcoholic drink that tastes like a very sweet beer. We also got flatbread with smoked sheep meat, smoked in the traditional way by burning horse dung. It was a nice and delicious treat.

Local treats

Eyafjallajokull hidden in the could
We were then treated to a surprise stop at the elf rock. Back in the day people believed that a local man had been tricked into the rock by an elf, and that he still lives there with her and their elf children. There are also several very old and impressive traditional rock houses at the bottom of the elf rock.

Old houses at the bottom of elf rock

Maybe an elf lives here?
The last stop on the tour was the Seljalandsfoss, aka the waterfall that always comes up when you type in Iceland in instagram or pintrest. While this waterfall is really pretty to look at from afar, it is most impressive when you go into the cave behind it and look out. While most people only go to one side, I made it through the masses of people and continued along the entire cave. Except for the constant splashing of water, the views are so pretty and ever-changing.

Slejalandsfoss

A view from behind Selgalandsfoss

It is impossible to stay dry when going behind the waterfall
Again it was back to the bus to warm up, and relax on the hourlong journey back to Reykjavik.
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