Thorsmork

Before I get into our trek into Thorsmork, I wanted to share what our day was like after that last glorious sunny day I posted about. We woke up to dark cloudy skies and a flat tire (Steve is going to fill you in on all the interesting details later). We did get it fixed that morning, but our planned long hiking excursion was put off for another day. Since it was raining, we tried heading down the south coast, hoping the weather might improve, and allow us to see some of the sights on my long list. No such luck.

We drove about an hour, and sat reading in the car for 2 hours, hoping to see the Black Sand Beach (Reynisfjara). Instead of the “usual” 100 - 250 pictures I can take in a day, I took 15!

That picture summed up our mood that day.

So, anyway… the next day we had a “Super Jeep” tour of Thorsmork booked, and luckily, the weather was pretty decent. This is a wilderness area tucked between two glaciers and a mountain range, that has rather challenging “roads” within it. Everything I read said you should not drive in there, even with a 4 x 4, but rather take a tour in a special vehicle adapted for river crossings. This was our trusty steed -

Our first stop was a beautiful canyon with a waterfall, that we had to cross a river (without getting our feet wet, while our guide stood in the water and gave us a hand across) and climb up to find -

It was quite beautiful close up…

… and Steve got this picture from behind it -

Waaayyyy down into the valley -

Next stop was near a glacier edge, and the sun peeked out!

After a quick lunch at the end of the valley, we turned back to explore a huge canyon…

… that was beautifully lush and green (remember, this is Iceland!).

This is why we booked a tour -

(reminder…there is a video here, so you need to open this post in your browser)

Several of us were standing on this bridge to document the crossing (note the wheels, when not flat, could be used to move it where it was needed to cross rivers) -

An “elf” church (where couples have actually come to get married):

Our final treat was this magical lush valley that I couldn’t capture in just one picture -

That one had Steve for scale, while the one below has another tour member -

Peek-a-boo!