My last day in Iceland and I had to get from Vik back to Reykjavik, taking my time and seeing some things along the way. This section of the coast, probably like most of the Iceland coast, has lots to see. Slept in until about 8:00 and decided to go for a rike... it wasn’t quite a run, but a bit more than a hike. The more you are not being active, the easier it is to continue that trend, especially when traveling. But it was a beautiful sunny morning. So I went up the plateau that separated Vik from Dyrholaey, a large rock formation jutting into the sea with natural archways. It was a tough start... eight or nine switchbacks to get to the top. I planned on heading down the other side to run the length of the black sand beach, but as i discovered, getting up to the top was long enough.

The views at the top were amazing. The coastline in both directions was spectacular. So I circumnavigated the plateau following the edge, peering over the steep cliff faces. At the end of the plateau coming up out of the water were a cluster of sea stacks called the Reynisfjall. I tooled around for a while and headed back down the switchbacks into the village...

After the run I went over to the black sand beach at Reinsomething (was just at Oktoberfest and trying to update) that offered great views over to the stone arch at Dyrholaey. I had looked down over the beach from my run that morning, and looked forward to strolling down to the base of the arches. With the run, I got a later start than I anticipated... on top of that, the stretch of beach was a lot longer than than it appeared from the plateau above, and before I knew it, it was 2:00 and I was only halfway down the beach. So I turned around, wanting to give myself a little more time at Skogar, a series of renovated 19th century traditional earthen farmhouses native to Iceland. At some point I was going to need to start drawing on this trip.