Iceland. Vik and Black Beach

 The settlement of Vik, in my opinion, is one of the most interesting places in Iceland... It seems surrounded by mountains, and from the settlement stretches a small but very interesting mountain route along the rocky cliffs of the ocean coastline, where the location of puffins - Papey - is located... Also, from the settlement extends a whole line of black volcanic beaches, and columnar cliffs are visible, which are situated in the middle of the ocean waters...

  Route map...

  In the morning, the next day after our trip to the glacial lake, we left the Vik camping site and embarked on a picturesque route that passes Mount Reynisfjall along the rocky cliff and descends on the other side of the settlement... Gaining altitude and ascending Mount Reynisfjall, we opened up beautiful views of the black beaches from the trail...

 One of the main landmarks of the area are the basalt stacks Reynisdrangar, or translated from Icelandic - "troll fingers," which are clearly visible from the mountain... Stacks are columnar, conical rocks in water bodies; basalt - the most common mountain rock and the main rock of the ocean floor. Reynisdrangar stacks not only appear on many postcards and photographs, but legends are also composed about them... The oldest of them speaks of trolls who once lived here and once tried to steal a ship with sheep on board... The trolls tried to pull the boat out of the sea onto the shore, and they almost succeeded, but then the sun came up... And, as is known, trolls turn to stone immediately in the sun... So they all jumped into the ocean, but one of them didn't manage to hide from the sunlight... The fingers of his hand turned into stone and remained towering over the water...

  Countless birds circled around all the time...

  Walking along the cliff, we noticed more and more nesting places of puffins...

  Atlantic puffins (Fratercula arctica) - iconic birds of Iceland... Numerous soft toys and tourist products with their image are sold here... The birds build their nests by digging burrows on steep rocky cliffs of the ocean coastline... They feed on fish, squid, and crustaceans... Some tourists come here specifically to see these colorful birds...

  

  Descending on the other side of Mount Reynisfjall, we reached a church located near the road, two kilometers from the black beach...

  Upon reaching the black beach, we settled in a large cave to have breakfast and wait for the weather to improve and the rain to stop...

Black beach Reynisfjara...

  Basalt stacks Reynisdrangar from the side of the beach...

  

  Basalt columns of Reynisfjara... 

 The columns formed due to volcanic activity - during the cooling of lava... Upon cooling, the volume of lava decreases slightly, causing the solid piece to crack into separate fragments, most often hexagonal in shape...

  We spent almost two hours on the beach, and then, hitching a ride, we reached the main road where a young couple from India gave us a lift... From the main road, we hitchhiked towards Seljalandsfoss waterfall - our next desired destination of the day... This time we were picked up by girls from Poland, who work at a hotel complex near the Vik settlement and had a day off that day... They dropped us off at the turn to the waterfall, and we had about a kilometer to walk to reach it...   

  Seljalandsfoss waterfall is interesting with a path that runs along the cliff behind it... That is, you can walk behind the waterfall from the inside...

 Also nearby is a hidden waterfall in a canyon, which is very interesting and not everyone reaches it... 

  After exploring the waterfalls, we returned to Iceland's main ring road and within 15 minutes hitchhiked a ride that took us to the town of Selfoss... This time we were given a lift by a family from Poland... The husband works at Keflavik Airport, and his wife and child came to visit him, so they decided to explore the island together on his day off... Thus, among the interesting places, we also filled up with different stories of people we met along the way...