Day 17 of 3 week Iceland trip to Eyjafjallajökull and a Tire problem to solve

Follow my wife and me on a 3-week trip of Iceland.

Day 17 in Iceland: From Vík í Mýrdal to Árnes (208km)

We set off in the hope to see puffins at Dyrhólaey, this area of Iceland is busy with tourists. There was a wire and warning shield not to go too close to the rock edge and to give the birds some peace. A pity that some young Americans could not read English. 

In Iceland, there are no guards to protect sensitive nature; it is left up to common sense. This is why some Icelandic people fear that the amount of tourists could destroy the nature. The size of Iceland compared with the number of population, makes it impossible. It is great that there are no fences, just warning signs.

The puffins were fantastic as was the view from the rocks.

We continued on road 1 to Seljalandsfoss, a small but high waterfall. 500m further there is a hidden waterfall called Gljúfrabúi. You have to enter a narrow crack in the rocks and then you see a stunning waterfall. It is a bit of a wet experience and most visitors stayed out in the open field, where there is not much to see.

We continued on F249 to the Jökullón, a glacier lake at the base of the  Gígjökull, at least that was the intention. We came to the base of the Gígjökull and there was no lake.

In 2010 during the Eyjafjallajökull eruption there had been a Jökulhlaup. Water flowing from Gígjökull enters the Markarfljót River and eruptions in the area have caused great glacier bursts.

My wife discovered a tear in one of the tyres. It had not burst yet so I decided to change tyre and keep the damaged tyre as our spare.

At least this meant that I could do the work in a safe place.

Our plan was to continue to Þórsmörk, but we met 2 French 4x4 trucks that warned us about the depth of the river crossing and we decided to head back to road no 1.

We drove to Árnes and called it a day.