Iceland Day 3 - Seljalandsfoss

Today has been a day of waterfalls. First up was Urrigafoss, which means Trout Falls in Icelandic. This is the largest waterfall in Europe based on throughput of water. They were smaller than Gullfoss in terms of drop, but they were wide and very full. Below the falls I saw two men fishing with nets strung across the river, presumably catching trout. Next we headed to Seljalandsfoss, which was a tall waterfall with an alcove behind, which you can walk though. It was surprising how much water and force there was in the fall, as initially on approach along the road it looks a tall thin waterfall falling over a cliff towards the coastal flood plain, but it still dwarfs anything that I have seen in the UK. We had some fun in the alcove behind the fall trying to keep our equipment dry, which we mainly succeeded to do, but we got very wet though. Next we moved along the escarpment to past another smaller fall to reach a fissure in the rock. John took us into the fissure along
the stream bed to see a wonderful waterfall at the back of the fissure, in an almost cave like setting, to me it had a feel of Gaping Ghyll about it.

After lunch the weather started to close in, so we headed towards Vik and the beaches at Dyrholaey, where there were sea stacks, an arch, and black sands, and alot of rain, so we braved it for a while before admitting defeat and heading for our overnight accomodation in a lodge in the middle of the lava fields.

Todays blip is of the base of Seljalandsfoss, go Large to see the small people behind the falls to get a sense of scale.