On the road - Arnés to Berunes

3rd August 2003

We made an early start and headed anti-clockwise around Route 1 - the road that loops all the way around the outside of Iceland. The final destination for the day was Berunes hostel, in the south-east of the country.

The first place we came across on our journey was Seljalandsfoss, a beautiful waterfall tumbling off the edge of a cliff.

Seljalandsfoss from Route 1

Seljalandsfoss from Route 1

Seljanlandsfoss - close up - 1

Seljanlandsfoss - close up - 1

Seljanlandsfoss - close up - 2

Seljanlandsfoss - close up - 2

Seljanlandsfoss - close up - 3

Seljanlandsfoss - close up - 3

We continued on along our way, heading towards the Vatnajökull glacier.

Sights along Route 1

Sights along Route 1

Sights along Route 1

Sights along Route 1

We then came to Vatnajökull itself, which took a long time to drive around due to its immense size. Here are some of the views of it we had from the road - we would return to this area later to do the area properly, for now we were just passing through.

Views of Vatnajökull from Route 1

Views of Vatnajökull from Route 1

Views of Vatnajökull from Route 1

Views of Vatnajökull from Route 1

Views of Vatnajökull from Route 1

Views of Vatnajökull from Route 1

While we were driving around Vatnajökull we came across Jökulsárlón - not at the time knowing that it was a major tourist attraction in the area. Jökulsárlón is a glacial melt pool, where one of the tongues of Vatnajökull melts into the sea. There was an amazing quietness and tranquility to the place, the air was super crisp and clear, with a wonderful fresh breeze gently rolling off the glacier.

Jökulsárlón

Jökulsárlón

The icebergs created as the edge of the glacier broke up were gentley lolling across the pool, the water in the pool itself being perfectly still and calm.

Icebergs floating away at Jökulsárlón

Icebergs floating away at Jökulsárlón

More pictures of Jökulsárlón

More pictures of Jökulsárlón

More pictures of Jökulsárlón

More pictures of Jökulsárlón

More pictures of Jökulsárlón

More pictures of Jökulsárlón

An excellently shaped rock, with a divot in it the exact same shape and size as the back of our trusty Fujifilm FinePix 1400 digital camera, provided us with an excellent photo opportunity - so here we are at the edge of Jökulsárlón.

At the edge of Jökulsárlón

At the edge of Jökulsárlón

From here we headed into the fjords of south-east Iceland, where Berunes was situated.

Berunes was a very small settlement - it seemed to consist of one farm, a church, and the hostel.

Berunes Hostel

Berunes Hostel

The settlement and hostel were situated deep into one of the fjords, with steep, cloud-shrowded landscape behind.

View out of the back of Berunes Hostel

View out of the back of Berunes Hostel

View out of the front of Berunes Hostel

View out of the front of Berunes Hostel

Our room in the hostel was once again full of insects of a variety of types. Audrey spent quite some time trying to capture and liberate (or otherwise deal with) the inhabitants of our room...

Audrey catching insects

Audrey catching insects

Despite this, it was a very nice room - possibly the nicest we had - in a lovely, if out-of-the-way place. The next day we would head on to Lake Myvatn in the north of the country, then our first night of camping.

page created: 16th August 2003 | updated: 7th November 2005