Reykjavík Grapevine - mar. 2021, Blaðsíða 30
We had a great plan for this month’s
travel feature: a road trip along the
south coast of Iceland, a journey to
Nauthúsagil waterfall and telling the
fascinating yet haunting history of the
ravine. Unfortunately, things don’t al-
ways go as planned here, for what we
didn’t count on was that bitch Mother
Nature.
Rain rain, go away
The Grapevine’s photographer Art Bic-
nick and I set off for our adventure
at 9:00 sharp on a grim, grisly, grey
Friday. At first, it was a breathtaking
drive along the coast; an ethereal fog
lay low over the mountains, giving the
entire area a mysterious kind of vibe
as the sharp, black, jagged cliff faces
peered through the mist as if they were
watching our little car the entire time.
It’s an exceptional drive that cuts
through flat wetlands. I didn’t expect
to find such a landscape in Iceland,
so I did a quick Google search to see
what was up with that. Apparently, the
mountains you see standing tall above
the flat farmlands used to make up
the coast of the country. This was the
case until the end of the Ice Age, when
everything melted and made way for
more land. Everyday is a lesson, huh?
Suddenly, it began to rain. Hard. The
raindrops crashed down on the wind-
screen and the wind picked up too. At
first, I was still confident about our
chances, thinking “Ho-hum, a bit of
rain never hurt anyone, right? It won’t
stop us from exploring.” How naive I
was.
After powering through a small
river that had flooded across the road,
we arrived at Nauthúsagil. An empty
car park awaited us, which should have
been a warning, but still we pulled up,
hopped out the car and headed towards
the canyon.
Only two minutes later, we encoun-
tered the first problem of the day. The
rain was so heavy that the river had
actually engulfed the path we needed
to take. Great— our two minutes in the
downpour had been for nothing.
So we discussed our options. Art,
in his wisdom, decided we should ven-
ture a little further and visit another
waterfall further along the coast. This
one was a bit more well known than
Nauthúsagil, he explained. Its name?
Seljalandsfoss.
Yeah, we know you’ve seen
this waterfall before
So after a short and uneventful drive
down the road, we made it to the equal-
ly empty car park next to Seljalands-
foss. As in Nauthúsagil, the intense
rain had a huge effect on the waterfall.
It was more powerful than I’ve ever
seen; so powerful that trying to walk
behind the waterfall soaked me in a
similar fashion to being sprayed by a
hundred Super-Soakers. Nonetheless,
it was a sight to behold. The water was
flowing fast, crashing down hard and
creating a spray so powerful, it felt like
I was being slapped across the face by
a wet flannel. Lovely.
The water at Seljalandsfoss comes
from the Eyjafjallajökull glacier and
splits off into three different falls
along the cliff face. Seljalandsfoss is
by far the most popular of the three
due to the fact that it can be fully en-
circled—something that is quite rare
for a waterfall. Art once again had the
great idea to go slightly further along
the cliff to see the third waterfall that
flows through a canyon, similar to
Nauthúsagil. This waterfall is known
as Gljúfrabúi and, like Nauthúsagil,
you can walk inside the canyon to get a
closer look. But, in what was becoming
the theme for the day, the downpour
made the river too strong for us to walk
through.
At this point, we were both sick of
everything going wrong on our little
adventure so we decided to sack it all
off and grab coffee.
To Skool for cool
When you think of quality coffee, you
probably don’t think of coffee made
in the back of an old American school
bus. But I love to be proven wrong and
in this case, boy was I wrong. Skool
Beans opened last summer and is run
solely by Holly Keyser; a bubbly gal who
moved to Iceland a few years back. She
bought the bus from an expedition
group for only 100,000 ISK and drove
it to Vík where it now sits underneath
the tall cliff faces that line the coast.
Holly opened the place in Vík be-
cause she felt as if the Icelandic people
often get overlooked when new busi-
nesses come to the country. “In my four
years of being here, I have seen lots of
new and exciting things popping up,
which is great but sadly, it’s all for tour-
ists. I wanted to give something back
to the locals and they’ve really helped
me out by coming here for coffee,” she
explained.
Holly was very keen to stress the
purpose of the bus as it was something
very important to her; the bus wasn’t
just going to be like any other food
truck. “The focus of the bus is ethical
products at ethical prices,” she says. “I
wanted to create a cozy environment
away from the stresses of the world,
where you can get warm and enjoy
quality coffee.”
Holly roasts her own coffee and im-
ports another from a fairtrade source.
Also, her variety of tea was just ex-
ceptional—over 30 different types! To
cap things off, she even had Yorkshire
Tea for Britainers like myself on offer.
Score!
So while the day may have gotten off
to a bad start—what with all the rain
and flooding— climbing aboard the
old US school bus and being greeted
with a selection of fresh delicious cof-
fee and snacks made it all worth it. So
we at the Grapevine cannot recom-
mend this cozy cafe enough after a long
day adventuring. A+ for Skool Beans!
And a big fat F for nature.
Travel distance
from Reykjavík:
187 km
Car provided by:
gocarrental.is
A Rainy Day Out
Iceland doesn’t care about your travel plans, you simply
bend to its will
Words: Owen Tyrie Photos: Art Bicnick
Travel
Owen for scale Holly Keyser with her second favourite newspaper 'The Happy News'
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