Day 5: Vik to Hofn- Vantage Points

The theme surrounding our day today was vantage points because we hiked up a LOT of mountains, but was it ever worth it for the views. The day started with a very short but strenuous and steep hike in Kirkjubaejarklaustur, a small town about 45 minutes east of Vik. We weren't expecting much from it (it isn't very well known, but in case you're looking for something quick to do in southern Iceland, the waterfall is Systrafoss and the lake at the top of the mountain

flowing into it is Systravatn) but once we got to the top of the mountain we were blown away. It only took about 15 minutes to get to the summit but we spent over 45 minutes at the top exploring and enjoying the view of the land below.

We decided to get back on the road as the drive alone from Vik to Hofn is around 4 hours and we still had two more stops to make- one being Skaftafell National Park (located in the southern territory of Vatnajokull National Park) and the other being the Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon (also part of Vatnajokull National Park). The Skaftafell hike was incredible- it only took around 3 hours to complete (plus we stopped for a ton of photos/taking in the scenery) but it was a full incline and rough terrain for the majority of the hike. The first viewpoint was Svartifoss ("Black Waterfall"), a waterfall that is a wonder of natural architecture named for its striking formation of black basalt columns. The Sjonarsker viewpoint was next, where we could start to see the glaciers behind the mountains. The last (and our favourite) was Sjonarnipa, where we could see up to the top of a massive glacier on the left that was cutting through a mountain range, a river coming down from the glacier and into a flood plain that eventually led out to the ocean. If you plan on doing this hike

make SURE you do it in this order (at first we had planned to do it in reverse until luckily a local told us otherwise) because the climb up the opposite way (as you'll see on the way down) would be treacherous. The Skaftafell National Park is also an ideal place to set up for the night if you're camping too! Very clean bathrooms, an amazing food truck and a beautiful campground. If I was to do this again I would leave two full days to hike some of the more difficult and long trails within Skaftafell and stay at the campground.

Last on our sightseeing for today was the Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon. I wasn't sure what to expect for this either and was a bit nervous that we hadn't booked a tour of any kind (there are boat tours that fill up very quickly) but once we got there we realized that a tour wasn't necessary at all! The lagoon was just a massive body of water or a "melt zone" where huge pieces of glaciers had broken off and got stuck and then continue to float around until they have completely melted. You can walk almost all the way around one side and see the chunks of glaciers (my camera couldn't capture how blue these were, it was amazing in real life) and watch tons of seals play in the water and on top of the ice!

It was getting pretty late in the day so we decided to get to our hotel and check in. There aren't many options in Hofn for accommodations- (nothing at all on Air BnB when we checked) and EVERYTHING is expensive, so we booked a triple room at Brunnholl from "Icelandic Farm Holidays" which was 20 mins west of Hofn. There was an option to have a buffet style dinner where we were staying but it costed $60 PER person, so we decided to drive the 20 minutes to have dinner in Hofn. We went to Bistro Z and it was phenomenal- 10/10 recommend the pulled pork sandwich and Belgian waffle for dessert (I figured I earned it after a full day of hiking). Our hotel is beautiful and located directly on a farm- they actually have a live stream of their cows on channel 5 of the tv in every room which we thought was hilarious.

Tomorrow we're mostly going to be driving up the east coast, admiring the eastern fjords, hopefully fitting in another hike and stopping in small towns on the way to where we are staying in Faskrudsfjordur at another Air BnB.