Seljalandsfoss on the South Coast of Iceland – Day 2

Greg meets me at the airport terminal with an avocado on pumpernickel toast sandwich from Joe & The Juice. Within minutes we have our car and are cruising the Ring Road on the southern shore. “Tell me everything,” I command, and hang on every word of his last 24 hours, drinking in the lush green of shoreline and moody grays of skyline. A slight sense of panic that I will always be one day behind in the adventure stalks me. I shake it off and simply savor the gift of being here. Our first stop is a grocery store along Hringvegur for bottled water. I leave Greg at the checkout and walk around back to a small store with a large hand-written sign for Icelandic souvenirs. A cinnamon colored, shaggy goatskin and a thermal shirt with an artist print of glacier sandar are my first purchases. Greg hands me a cup of skyr and a spoon as we properly toast our first day of joint Icelandic adventures. The guidebook leads us to our first of hundreds of spectacular waterfalls. Seljalandsfoss in Rangarping eystra crests over the mountainside in a series of pristine falls increasing in size to the main falls nearest the road. We walk around the riverbank and surrounding meadows for over an hour. Greg hikes down beneath the spray at the base of the highest falls as I chase a pair of redshanks calling to each other along the meadow fence-line. The expanse of sky framing mountains fills with a perpetual explosion of clouds, changing on the hour, as the arctic winds scour the countryside. In every direction, each view continues to thrill.