Monday, May 18 continued… At first, it looked like there was no way to get close to this fall, either. As the path wound around, we saw the waterfall through a crack in the cliff face.

We noticed people were walking into the crack, despite the fact that the ground was covered in water. So we followed. While there were deeper spots where one would get their ankles wet, most of the water was so shallow that it barely covered the ground — but we did have to watch where we stepped. Sadly, Christi did make one misstep and one of her feet was drenched. Here was a shot looking back at the path from inside.

We found ourselves in a little cave, of sorts. A hawng was actually a more accurate description. We were surprised to see that the waterfall dropped into a gap in the top of the rock at the back of the cave.

One of the things that baffled us was where the water went. Tons of water came over the edge of the gap, yet only a small trickle of water was running along the group.

Here was a short video with the full panorama.

Back outside, we noticed a sign. This waterfall was named Gljufrabui. The cliff was 40 meters high and the water went into a deep chasm. There were several other signs, as well. One said that this property used to be a farm, but that it was gifted to the Forestry Society in 1962. While walking down the path, we’d noticed some buildings in the distance that had looked farm-like.

Anther sign pointed out a small cave. According to oral tradition, a female farm worker lived in the cave during the summers to get away from the rest of the crew. It apparently had a wooden wall and a door.

Another sign pointed out what looked like a small gap in the rock face.

The trail to the right was the path the farmer used to take his sheep up to the heath on top of the cliffs (we looked it up the word “heath” later and found out that meant 1. an extensive tract of uncultivated open land covered with herbage and low shrubs and 2. It was type of plant in the Erica family). To the left was an entrance to what appeared to be another hawng, though this one had no water. The hawng had several little caves embedded in the rock. A sign said the farmer used to keep his sheep in this hawng. He used to have pens set up separate the rams, ewes, and lambs, and a concrete bathing station was still there.

We followed a different path back to the car, the one that went by the farm house. We’d hoped there was a public restroom there, but it looked like the buildings were not being utilized. Here were a couple shots taken on the way back to the car. Needless to say, with so many waterfalls, there were several streams.

The next site on our itinerary was the Skogafoss waterfall. Apple Maps indicated that it was only a few miles away but it would be a 2.5 hour drive. We figured that the app was probably glitching, but since it was possible there was an issue with the road, we decided to skip the waterfall to ensure we had enough time to make it to our last stop, Dyrhólaey. The scenery along the way was mostly relatively flat farmland framed by dramatic rocks and cliffs.

If you look closely, you can see a random giant rock in the middle of the field. The house to the right and barn to the left help give perspective to just how tall that rock was!

At one point, we passed a huge waterfall. We figured that was probably Skogafoss and made a note to try to see it on the way back to Reykjavík.

It took about 45 minutes to get to the base of the hill, which was directly ahead in this photo.

We followed the road towards the parking lot at the top of the hill. Traffic came to a complete stop near the top. We noticed that people were pulling out of the driving lane and parking illegally on the side of the road. Eventually, we figured out that the reason traffic wasn’t moving was because the parking lot was full. We also parked illegally, hoping we wouldn’t be there long enough to get cited.

We walked down the path towards the ocean. The view was stunning in every direction. To be continued…