Cloudy with sun breaks. Not bad.

It was time to drive back across the country. Destination: the Northern Light Inn, next to the famous Blue Lagoon and just north of Grindavík on the Reykjanes Peninsula. It was only about 230 miles, but we had places to stop and photos to recreate. We got a move on, but didn’t get more than a kilometer down the road before this happened.

It was October 1, so we called it our anniversary rainbow. Thank you for this gift, Iceland. It was lovely of you to think of us.

The previously misty mountains were now revealing their tops, making for a lot of photo ops. However, as nice and calm as this photos looks, every time we got out of the car we had to struggle to make sure the door was not blown off. Literally. The wind was intense.

We made it back to Kirkjubæjarklaustur and I got to retake my Systrafoss photos. I loved this waterfall and this little town (pop. 160) at the roundabout in the road.

Coming from the opposite way this time, we noticed another waterfall right before the roundabout at Kirkjubæjarklaustur. After I got my shots of Systrafoss, we drove over there.

This is Stjórnarfoss and that’s Eric in front of the falls. This waterfall was big and wide and low, much different than anything else we’d seen.

While we were there, a local pulled up in his truck, pulled out his fishing gear and got to angling.

I think I want to live in Kirkjubæjarklaustur.

Our next stop was the Dyrhólaey peninsula, just to the west of Vík. I reasoned that Eric had great pictures of Reynisdrangar from before, so we decided to explore a new view. It was another incredible experience at the end of a black gravel road.

The view to the east…

The view to the west. I don’t think I could ever get tired of the contrast between the white surf and the black beach.

I still managed to get a shot of Reynisdrangar from the cliff we were on.

The very, very windy cliff. The Anderson-Cooper-reporting-from-the-Gulf-Coast kind of windy. We took refuge down on the beach between two of the rocky cliffs.

Is the North Atlantic always this angry?

The jutting rock columns of the cliff face on the left made a natural wind break, which worked well until the sea decided to rush in.

On the way back to the main road we saw these cool car-height rock formations just as the sun started to poke through the clouds.

The weather started to get a lot better and the mountains continued to reveal what they’d been hiding the first time we passed (here, Sólheimajökull). Next time we’re totally going to walk on a glacier.

We stopped at Skógafoss again because we had better light.

Look at all that black tephra on the river bed. We really should have brought some back with us.

I tried to make friends with these guys at Skogar, but they were not having it.

This was in the bathroom used by the campground next to Skógafoss.

Farther down the road we stopped to take a look at an ancient turf house and a structure built into the side of the rock. Cannot figure out how they did that.

We knew it was back there the first time we passed, but this time we got to see it: Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano that annoyed Europe.

We were really happy to go back to Arhús for a late lunch. Their gourmet pizzas are supposedly the best in Iceland. This pepperoni, blue cheese and pistachio pizza was incredible. We chatted with our waiter for a while (same guy from before) and then got back on the road. In Selfoss we went one road too far around the roundabout and took an accidental detour on 34 which took us over the largest part of the Ölfusá river where it empties into the sea.

The river from the bridge.

Standing in the sun (!!!) looking toward where the river meets the ocean.

Heading up 38 to rejoin the Ring Road, we came across some kind of excavation in the side of the hill with impossibly steep roads on either side. This is the first and only man-made alteration of a hill or mountain we saw the entire trip.

We arrive at the Northern Light Inn just in time for sunset. Its neighbor, the Svartsengi Power Station, uses its water runoff to feed the Blue Lagoon.

After we got settled we headed down to Grindavík for dinner. After scratching the two pizza places in town off our list, we searched for a nice seafood restaurant featured in our guide book which turned out to be closed. That was pretty much it for food in the sleepy harbor town of Grandavík. We finally found Lukku Láki, a bar that served food, so we didn’t have to eat peanut butter crackers for our anniversary.

It’s been such a good five years!