Fjaðrárgljúfur - thank you Justin Bieber

A few years ago Justin Bieber filmed a music video on the south coast of Iceland, including a sequence where he was romping around in his Calvin Klein undies at the bottom of a canyon. It was previously a rarely visited canyon but Justin’s endorsement meant tourists started to flock there - a health and safety nightmare, and also bad for the local flora. So now there’s a car park with a fee, a limited path that can be followed and a couple of viewing platforms. Plus a gazillion selfies taken annually.

It wasn’t expecting much but it was absolutely stunning, I’m so glad we made the effort.

The drive to Vik was absolutely beautiful, other worldly in many places and just out of this world beautiful the whole way. At Vik we had a few minutes of rain so we stopped for delicious soup and the obligatory church photo.

Then we did the 2 waterfalls - see extras for Skógafoss (the tall one) and Seljalandsfoss (the one you can walk behind). Both were pretty quiet today, and as I climbed the steps to the top of Skógafoss (47 flights according to my watch) I remembered that it’s a bit of an anti-climax, so if I ever come back for a 6th trip here I won’t bother.

Then on to Reykjavik, where our apartment is right in the middle of town and is enormous; it’s very Icelandic with lots of repurposed mid-century furniture and tasteful but vaguely pornographic art.

Oh and last night there were some faint auroras - much excitement at the hotel as we all stood in the car park hoping the clouds would clear. They didn’t come to much but I’ll put one in extras anyway.