Skaftafell in october
When we woke up that morning, it was very cold, and looking through the bay window, we could see that it had snowed the previous night; the ground was carpeted white, a beautiful visual effect. We decided to go hiking in Skaftafell and rediscover the park with these fall colors.
So we set off early on Road number 1, and our Suzuki had no trouble facing the thin layer of snow with its winter equipment. The landscape we had seen the day before looked magnificent covered in this beautiful white coat.
Arriving in the Skaftafell region, the weather was cloudy and colder (0° C) but there was no snow here. The wind was blowing hard, which had a huge wind chill factor, probably several degrees below 0.
Skaftafell offers several hikes. We had planned to go to Sjonarnipa before seeing Svartifoss. So we started the ascent to Svartifoss from the car park. The start of the hike was very well laid out, and the fall colors of Skaftafell were superb.
It was after reaching the plateau overlooking Svartifoss that things got complicated. When heading towards Sjonarnipa, the wind picked up and we really had to cover our faces to avoid freezing the tips of our noses! Literally...
After a few kilometers in the beautiful ecosystems of Skaftafell, we arrived at the Sjonarnipa viewpoint, which offered an incredible panorama of the glacier.
On the way back, we went down to the foot of Svartifoss to admire it more closely. The basalt organs that surrounded it made it truly magnificent. We still wanted to hike in the park, so we decided to continue on the other side towards Sjonarsker and its viewpoint.
It was only a 30-minute walk but the elevation was intense! At the top, the panorama was breathtaking, with a magnificent view of the Morsardalur valley.
Motivated, we decided to end the loop in the direction of Sel before going back down to the car park. A farm had been built in Sel where, previously, there was only a sheepfold. This farm was no longer inhabited, but it was possible to visit it. The place was very pretty and overlooked an impressive sandur, the Skeiðarársandur.
After no less than 3H15 of hiking and feeling tired from the strong wind, we returned to the car. After eating, and before heading west, we quickly stopped at Svinafell, one of the many glaciers in the South that you could actually approach. In only 30 minutes, we reached a very nice viewpoint on the glacier.
Here, several signs warn of the danger of the place, explaining in particular that a few years ago, two German tourists disappeared while presumably wanting to explore the glacier.
The clouds were clearing out, blown away by the wind and it was turning out to be a beautiful day so we hurried to get to Dyrholaey.
Arriving in Dyrholaey, there were finally two parking lots: one that led to the lighthouse with the famous view of the arch, and the other a little further away, which offered very beautiful views of Reynisfjara beach.
We stayed no less than 1.5 hours in the area to take pictures of the site's absolutely incredible views.
Returning to our accommodation, we decided to go to the beach to enjoy the sunset. We arrived at 5PM on site and the sky was simply magnificent, the twilight over the rough sea was probably the most beautiful sunset we had ever seen.
Many photographers were also on the beach with tripods just snapping away because it truly was a spectacle.
Despite the few tourists, the place was peaceful and we could have stayed there for hours! But it got pretty dark shortly after 6PM and we gladly returned to our accommodation.
That evening, the My Aurora Forecast application did not predict high activity (Kp 2), so we decided to stay warm and save our energy as they were forecasting very high activity for the following days (Kp of 5 and 6!).
