We left Vik this morning and drove out into the ever changing, ever spectacular Icelandic landscape. Due to the rain, we only made a few stops to look at the scenery and quickly made it to Skaftafell national park.


  • Yini dancing in the rain during a short stop to look at the scenery

  • Yini jumping, in the background fields of volcanic sand.
  • Us and the volcanic sand fields, with our car in the background
  • Not sure why this thing is sticking up from the ground here

Skaftafell is an outlier of Vatnajökull, one of the worlds biggest glaciers. Due to safety concerns, you cannot go onto the glacier without guide and special equipment, so we booked a tour for tomorrow, had some lunch sitting in the car then drove on. Eventually we found a place where we could get close enough to at least see the glacier even if we couldn’t walk on it today.

  • Glacial lake

  • Flowers can even grow this close to a massive field of ice

  • Happy couple in front of the glacier

We didn’t want to get too close without proper equipment, so we got back in the car and drove on. After a while I started seeing other cars stop in a fairly unremarkable place (who am I kidding, all of Iceland is spectacular), so I pulled over to just to see what the fuss was about. Walking up a small hill to the top of a ridge, we were completely stunned by the view that we met on the crest, and we both let out some words of amazement. On the other side of that ridge was a giant lagoon filled with icebergs, the glacier that they came from in the background. It was awesome!

Happy couple at the top of the ridge

Icebergs!


  • Lava rock and glacier lagoon

  • Renegade Wife in front of the lagoon

Feeling satisfied with the lagoon we drove on, making one or two stops along the way until we reached our goal for today, Höfn.

Random stop along the way makes Renegade Tourist happy

In Höfn, we checked in to our hotel, had an excellent dinner, then drove out again to make use of the long day, and see some more of the area. We went down to the a nearby cape where stupendous mountains come rolling down to the sea, depositing black sand dunes along the way.

  • Road and mountains
  • Volcanic sand dunes and mountains in the background

  • Road among the dunes towards the mountains

Though we’ve seen some of natures finest today and stopped by at some truly amazing places (I’m starting to run out of adjectives by now), I really think the best part has just been driving. No other cars on the road, a comfortable seat, enough curves and bends to keep you concentrated and the shifting landscape in all it’s wild splendor right outside the window.