Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
somewhere to take shelter over a coffee in bad weather.
Their roadhouse-style menu of burgers, soup, buns and
chips won't win any prizes, but the lunchtime special of
pork schnitzel, soup and coffee costs a reasonable 2500kr.
Daily 7am-9pm.
Hótel Edda
T
444 4830,
W
hoteledda.is.
Just off to the
right at the far end of the access road, en route to the
museum, this well-managed budget hotel has plain and
functional doubles; the walk-in rate for a mattress on the
floor in a common room is good value (available after 5pm
only; 4000kr), and includes breakfast. Otherwise, breakfast
is 1500kr. All facilities are shared.
11,800kr
Hótel Skógar
T
487 8988,
W
hotelskogar.is.
Small
hotel on the falls road with smart Nordic-style rooms
featuring pine flooring; there's also an outdoor sauna
and hot
tubs, and the restaurant features a real fire.
21,000kr
IYHA hostel
T
487 8801,
W
hostel.is.
Drab, dated,
crowded but friendly enough hostel on the falls road with
the usual run of bunk-bed dorms, kitchen, bathrooms and
dining area, though n
o atmo
sphere to encourage more
than an overnight stay.
3800kr
2
Mýrdalsjökull
The country's fourth-largest ice cap,
Mýrdalsjökull
weighs down the inland plateau
between Skógar and Vík. Like neighbouring Eyjafjallajökull, Mýrdalsjökull harbours a
powerful volcano, 1300m
Katla
, whose
jökulhlaups
(volcanically induced flash floods;
see p.301) have devastated the area's farms a dozen or more times since Settlement,
washing out the fine black sand which forms the
beaches
hereabouts. Katla last
erupted in 1918 and is worryingly overdue for another blast; they occur once every
seventy years on average, and a recent spate of
earthquakes
in the region - not to
mention the 2010 eruption under Eyjafjallajökull - might be heralding future activity.
Sólheimajökull
Not far east of Skógar, the Ringroad crosses the shallow Jökulsá Fulilækur, a glacial
river with origins beneath the ice surrounding Katla. Look upstream from the roadside
and you'll see the apparently insignificant, narrow ice tongue of
Sólheimajökull
, one of
Mýrdalsjökull's outrunners; gravel Route 221 heads 4km up the broad river valley to a
parking area, a fifteen-minute walk from the glacier front. Close up, Sólheimajökull is
steep-faced, blackened with melted-out grit, heavily streaked in crevasses and well
worth a look, especially if you haven't seen this sort of thing before.
Dyrhólaey
Closed or with restricted access May-June 25 for the nesting season • Free
West down the Ringroad from the Sólheimajökull turn-off, Route 218 slides 6km
coastwards past a handful of farms and then over a causeway to where the country
reaches its southernmost extremes at
Dyrhólaey
. A set of basalt cliffs rising over a long
expanse of black sand, Dyrhólaey is a beautiful place just to watch the sea on a sunny
day, though it's also a noted
sea-bird
reserve
. Beyond the car park you'll find yourself
on a rocky shelf above the sea with the swell hammering into the low cliffs at your feet;
there's a surprisingly sheltered bay around to one side, though, where a dense matting
of tussocky grass holding the clifftop together is riddled with
pu
n burrows
- sit still
for long enough and you can get some good photos.
MÝRDALSJÖKULL ACTIVITIES
Both Mountain Guides (
W
mountainguides.is) and Arcanum (
W
arcanum.is) run 1-3hr
ice-walking
and climbing excursions (6000-11,000kr) through the summer at Sólheimajökull;
contact them in advance for details. You don't need prior experience and they supply
crampons and ice axes. Arcanum also offers
snowmobile trips
across the upper heights of
Mýrdalsjökull from
Sólheimskáli
, a mountain hut 10km inland off the Ringroad along the
rough gravel Route 222 (18,900kr for one hour). Call ahead if you need a pickup from anywhere
between Reykjavík and Vík, though this will add up to 11,000kr to the price.
