Campervan Adventures in Iceland: Day 7 - Reynisfjara Beach, Dyrhólaey Lighthouse, Loftsalahellir Cave, Seljavallalaug, Westman Ferry

Day 7 we woke up to a sunny absolutely beautiful day! We had originally planned to come here the day prior, but the wind was too strong to drive here, but this day there was barely any wind at all! It was perfect!

I had read all about Iceland before coming and one thing that was repeated everywhere was be particularly careful of the water on this beach. There are sneaker waves that come in way past where most waves break and can wash you away. People literally die here because they don't pay attention to the signs. Someone just died a week or two ago being swept out to sea by a sneaker wave, so I was very diligent the entire time we were there, though not everyone that we saw was. 

Lots of columnar basalt here.

When we got back home I saw something about a cave here and how that can be dangerous to go to if the water is not farther out and was like cave? Where even was that? Well it was around this corner and yeah we did not go near there as the tide was coming in and the water was way too close to the rocks already.

Reyniskirkja on the way to the next stop

After enjoying the beach we headed towards Dyrhólaey Lighthouse with a quick stop to hike to Loftsalahellir Cave. This was a short, quick climb to the cave with beautiful views!

The cave itself had so many ferns growing on the walls

The "trail" to the cave was just straight up the hill

Then on to Dyrhólaey Lighthouse which that area was gorgeous!! I had read in my research that you have to park at the bottom of the hill and hike to the top if you don't have a 4x4 as the road to the top is really sketchy, but sometime since then they paved the road so anyone can drive up

It was so nice! I was glad we waiting until today to do this section as it was sunny and just gorgeous!

It was hard trying to get a good photo of the rocks here though because of all the sun

We were over on the far end of the beach earlier

So much fun watching the waves splash up on the rocks all over the place

After leaving the lighthouse we stopped at this area that had all these weird black sandstone formations. At first we thought it was lava until we got out and spied and it is definitely a sandstone or something like that

It was just on the side of the road between the cave and the lighthouse so why not stop? 

After that we headed off to spy on Seljavallalaug pool and man our timing was perfect here! When we arrived at the parking lot it was raining with lots of clouds, but also lunchtime so we decided to eat lunch in the van and then see what we could see. Well in the time it took to eat lunch it cleared up! No more rain, all the sun, it was perfect! 

Still a few clouds, but you could actually see the mountains for the most past!

These rocks were so cool! Giant cliffs on the one side of the valley that you walk along the bottom of

So many cool rocks!

The pool...I stuck my hand in and it was not warm! I was like there is no way I could swim here as the water is not warm and the air temp was cold! The guy near the land on the right side of the photo above said the water coming out right there was hot, but the rest of the pool? Not so much

This really was gorgeous! Even if you don't swim in the pool if it is nice out it is definitely worth the hike!

Relaxing by the water

Fancy black and white duck making his way upstream by flying rock to rock...until he gave up I guess and went back downstream

When we started walking back the clouds started to roll in again

By the time we left the clouds were covering most of the mountains! And it started raining as we were driving away! Perfect timing! We got to see everything and walk around in the sun without rain!

We decided to take the afternoon ferry to Heimaey, Westman Islands to have more time to explore the next day. 

Stormy clouds coming in

This ferry was quick and easy. If you take a car you drive in and then drive off the other side (coming back the front of the boat docks facing the shore and the front lifts up so you can drive off!)

The islands from the boat

Looking back at the mainland and so stormy!! We left from right in the middle of the giant dark cloud!

You pass some smaller islands on the way to the main one and they all had one building on, but no clue how you would get to it as it is all cliffs!

Once we got to the island we ran some errands and then went to look for the puffins, though we didn't find any. We were in early evening so knew that wasn't prime puffin time and still early in the season. Most of the garbage cans on the island were painted fun!

But the views from the puffin area were pretty nice!

Then went to find the campground which was surrounded by mountains!

With some replica grass-roofed houses

Our campsite!

After dinner we decided to walk into town and wander around (the island is not that big and town was not that far away)

Another puffin friend

A bit of sunset at the campsite! 

This was a really nice day and the first of many sunny, beautiful days! We walked 15.3km