Iceland day 2!

Day 2 started with a beautiful sunrise.

The b&b we were staying at had horses that we could pet.  Many people have these stocky, shaggy horses.  They are mostly uses for "hobby and tourists" but the also have various horseman competitions and the are sometimes used for farm work to get around or help heard sheep or cattle.  The agriculture is pretty much grass to feed the sheep and cows in the winter.  It seems like they bring the sheep and cows into barns durring the worst of the weather in winter.  In summer the sheep are left to roam free all over Iceland and "everything it covered in sheep".  The sheep outnumber the people by quite a bit.  At the end of summer everyone helps gather up all the sheep and then they are sorted and returned to their owners based on their ear tags.  

After saying hello to the horses we set off to see waterfalls.

Waterfalls in Iceland end in "foss".  This is Urridafoss.

Here is a closeup of the gigantic hole that the water was being sucked into.  Looks like a river rafting nightmare.

This is Seljalandsfoss.  In summer you can walk behind it.  In winter, the area around it is extremly slippery.

This one was Skogaflos.  The parkinglot was a sheet of ice and it was insanely windy.  We left Wren in the car and took turns looking at the falls.  As i was waiting for Jeff i saw a tour bus pull up.  About 50% of the people fell while getting out of the bus.  The other 50% fell trying to get to the falls.  It was so windy and icy you could stand in place and the wind would push you so hard that you started skating across the ice.  I saw so many people fall while waiting.  I was super when walking careful since I didnt want to break my camera.

Next stop was some black sand beaches.  The black sand and the white foam from the waves was really stunning.  The wind was really crazy here as well so Wren sat this one out too.

Waves on the black sand with cliffs in the back.

The wind was blowing seaward so strongly it is whipping the tops of the waves back.

Cliffs the other direction.

Jeff loved the contrast of the black sand and white seafoam.  It was really lovely to watch.

Big waves crashing on the rocks.

I like the way the snow on the left mimics the sea on the right.

The driving was difficult all day for Jeff due to the wind.  It blew all the loose snow across the road making it hard to see and crazy to watch.  There was a wind advisory for the last part of the drive.  The wind was blowing 35 m/s which is roughly 78 mph!  This was a steady crazy crosswind.  We were always very careful about opening the doors of the car since it is frighteningly common for car doors to be ripped off of their hinges by the wind.  We were very careful.  Jeff said it was the most difficult day of driving he's ever done and that his arms were tired at the end of the day from fighting the wind.

The sun starting to go down colors the mountains.  This is a tiny peace of the Vatnajokull glacier.  It is the largest glacier in Europe, 8,300 km^2 of ice and covers 8% of the country.  In the center it is over a half mile thick.

Sunset on day two in iceland.

Finally we made it!  The lights are the town.  Town here means about 15 buildings, lol.  Fortunately, that meant we didnt have far to go to get to dinner!