Eastern and southeast Iceland - The Rough Guide to Iceland - page 297

Skeiðarársandur
A bleak, 60km-wide gravel desert west of Skaftafell, Skeiðarársandur is the product of
titanic outflows from Grímsvötn , a volcano buried inland underneath the Vatnajökull
icecap (see box below). Flowing down off the heights is Skeiðarárjökull , Iceland's most
mobile glacier, whose 20km-wide front is so vast that it somehow manages to turn a
1000m drop of the top of Vatnajökull into an apparently gentle descent. The complex
network of turbulent, ever-shifting glacial rivers flowing out from underneath
Skeiðarárjökull was such an obstacle to road building that it was only with the
construction of a series of bridges here in 1975 that the Ringroad around Iceland was
completed - prior to which, anyone living to the east had to travel to Reykjavík via
inland roads or Akureyri.
Skeiðarársandur is also the largest European nesting ground for great skuas - best
watched from a distance, as they take exception to being disturbed while raising their
young. Keep an eye open, too, for arctic foxes , which feed on the birds.

Núpsstaður
Right where the Ringroad meets Skeiðarársandur's western edge, Núpsstaður is a neat
line of turf-covered buildings including an eighteenth-century stone farmhouse and an
even older church. This was once considered the most remote place in all Iceland:
before Höfn existed, the closest ports were at Djúpivogur and Eyrarbakki near Selfoss,
only accessible from here via a packhorse trail inland through the Fjallabak region. The
buildings themselves are fairly unremarkable, but the stark location evokes the
hardships of farm life in Iceland a century ago.

7

Kirkjubæjarklaustur
KIRKJUBÆJARKLAUSTUR - a tongue-twisting name that even locals often abbreviate to
“Klaustur” - is only a single street, Klausturvegur, which stretches 500m west from a
highway roundabout. However, as it's the sole settlement of any size in the 200km
between Höfn and Vík, it's almost inevitable that you'll stop here. There's little to see,
however, and the village is best used as a base from which to launch an assault on
nearby attractions. It sits at the foot of an escarpment on the Skaftá , whose circuitous
path originates on the western side of Vatnajökull, and is flanked by lavafields from
eruptions by Lakagígar in 1783, centred some 75km to the northwest (see p.302).

GRÍMSVÖTN AND JÖKULHLAUPS
Jökulhlaups are massive, volcanically-induced flash floods that regularly burst out from
under Vatnajökull, carrying untold tonnes of boulders, gravel, ice and water before them. One
cause of these floods is Grímsvötn , a smouldering volcano buried 400m under the ice cap
inland from Skeiðarársandur. The volcano's last major eruption was in 2011, but the biggest
event of recent times occurred in October 1996 after a 6km-long vent opened up under the
ice. For ten days the volcano erupted continuously, blowing steam, ash and smoke 6km into
the sky; then, at 8am on November 5, the melted ice suddenly drained out underneath
Skeiðarárjökull, sending three billion litres of water spewing across Skeiðarársandur in a
5m-high wave, sweeping away 7km of road and - despite design precautions - demolishing
or badly damaging several bridges. Fourteen hours later the flood rate was peaking at 45,000
cubic metres per second, and when the waters subsided a day later, the sandur was dotted
with house-sized chunks of ice ripped off the front of Skeiðarárjökull. Aside from the barren
scenery, there's very little evidence for any of this today - the ice has long gone and the
bridges are repaired - though if you're heading to Skaftafell, look out for the twisted remains
of Skeiðarárbrú , one of the Ringroad bridges destroyed by the event, which are on display
by the roadside.