Skeiðarársandur sunrise

(for whatever reason, blogger is clipping my photo. click on it for full frame)


This is Skeiðarársandur and a small piece of Vatnajökull above.

Skeiðarársandur is a vast sand plain (sandur) in southeast Iceland that has been flattened over the ages by jökulhlaup and high winds. This area is the sight of the most difficult to build roadway in all of Iceland's ring road because of jökulhlaups -- the last bridge over the glacial runoff was smashed in the mid-90's like toothpicks. The wind & sand combination has been known to strip the paint off cars and knock bicyclists flat over.

We spent the evening before in a country hostel, and were up nice and early heading east. This was one of the best views of the trip. To the left of where I was standing was also much more of Vatnajökull. Svínafellsjökull is seen at the very left.