We
endured another egg shower before we headed out for day 3, which was set to
begin with the Solheimasandur Plane Crash. However, we made a few short detours for ice cream and photos of awesome old houses built into the side of a cliff before beginning the 45-minute walk to the plane.
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| Our daily caravan, PC: Sam W |
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| Those windshield views, PC: Landry J |
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| Icelandic vanilla ice cream tastes like marshmallow fluff...YUM, PC: Hayley P |
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| Our future home, haha, PC: Emily M |
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| Cliff houses, PC: Sam W |
The
plane itself – a US Navy DC3 – made an emergency landing on the beach in 1973
when the plane experienced severe icing. Miraculously, all of the crew survived,
and sometime in the years after the crash, the plane became a traditional Icelandic photo
op. Earlier this year, the farmers who own the land shut down the access road
to the plane, meaning it's now only reachable by a deceptively long 3.5 km
walk. It’s debatable whether you should take the time to see the plane or see
something truly Icelandic (the plane has absolutely nothing to do with Icelandic
culture), but it was something fun to mark off the bucket list, and our plane
group photos became some of my favorite from the trip!
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| Don't expect gorgeous views on the 45-minute walk. What you see is what you get. PC: Sam W |
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| Solheimasandur Plane Crash, PC: Jane B |
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| Solheimasandur Plane Crash, PC: Brian T |
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| Candids are my favorite, PC: Sam W |
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| Love these people, PC: Sam W |
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| Love these people, PC: Emily M |
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| PC: Emily M |
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| It IS an American plane after all, so it's basically ours. PC: Sam W |
Our
next stop exceeded our wildest expectations, and it’s one place in the world
you absolutely must go. In fact, feel free to hop on a plane right this moment
and get yourself to Fjadrargljufur. God truly outdid Himself when He created this place!
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| Fjadrarglijufur Canyon, PC: Brian T |
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| The guys climbing out onto the "arms" of Fjadrarglijufur Canyon, PC: Brian T |
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| It will forever be hard to beat the beauty of Fjadrarglijufur Canyon, PC: Sam W |
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| Just a man and his drone, PC: Sam W |
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| Gosh, Fjadrarglijufur, you amaze me, PC: Max R |
Not
ready to go "home" to Laugarvatn, 9 of the 18 of us stayed back to
creek up the bottom of the canyon, which I discovered was much more in my
comfort zone than the top. I wish I could show you what we saw and let you feel
what I felt in these four hours, but all I can feebly say is that creeking up
Fjadrargljufur was easily one of the best experiences of my entire life. The
Lord-of-the-Rings-esque cliffs, the freezing glacial water that sloshed continuously in my Hunter boots, the people who kept
me laughing, and the human chains we used to get us to the waterfalls at the
end refreshed my soul and left me with one of those rare feelings that I just
caught a tiny glimpse of heaven. For fear that I'll start sounding
melodramatic, I'll leave it at that. But both Brian and I spent extra time
thanking God for that evening and those people as we sleepily climbed into our
cozy little bed next to our open window later that night.
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| Hiking the base of the Fjadrarglijufur Canyon, PC: Jordan J |
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| Human chains to cross the rapids, PC: Brian T |
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| Swimming at the convergence of 3 waterfalls, PC: Randy T |
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| Seriously one of the best moments of my life, PC: Brian T |
(For
fear of leaving anything out, I'll backtrack just long enough to note that we
also made a super-fast detour to see Skogafoss in the dark. It was as wet and
cold as we were after all getting SOAKED in Fjadrarglijufur Canyon! We couldn’t
really get a picture in the dark, so enjoy this picture from Sam instead.)
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| Skogafoss, PC: Sam W |
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