Reykjadalur Gardur

Tue 8/11/22

Today we decided to go to a natural hot spring, the nearest being Reykjadalur Hot Spring , 66km from our Borg apartment, not far after Selfoss city. To reach the hot spring, we hiked for about 3km from the parking lot. Parking costs ISK 950 for 3 hours 10mins. The parking rate depends on the duration. 

parking rate

hiking path at Reykjadalur

For the first few km of the hike, it was climbing uphill, but it was worth it as the views were amazing. There were also many mud pits with boiling mud, as this is a natural hot spring area. The boiling mud smelt of Sulphur. When we reached the hot spring, there were a few other people already immersed in water. It is not a deep river, only knee deep. We didn't bring a change of clothes, so we only dipped our legs in the nice warm water. 

climbing uphill

more climbing

views from the hike

stream

notice the vapour, nearing the hotspring

the spot to dip in the natural hotsping

some rock formations

After relaxing our legs in the hot spring, we hiked further a bit where we saw a bigger boiling mud pit, and a viewpoint, but we needed to climb quite steeply to get there, so I decided to forego that and inspected the mud pit a bit closer. We then returned back, mostly going downhill until the parking lot. We logged 9.4 km on this return trip hike with a moving time of 2 hours and elevation gain of 340m. We were really happy that we did this hike today.

our hike today

boiling mud pit

It was then time to return to the hustle and bustle of the city of Reykjavik. From Reykjadalur Hot Spring, it took about 45 mins (50km) to Reykjavik. We visited the Grand Mosque of Iceland and performed our prayers there. We bumped into a group of Malaysian senior citizens. 

Grand Mosque of Iceland

inside the mosque

From the Grand Mosque, we made our way to the central area, near the Hallgrimskirkja church, to buy some souvenirs. The roadside parking costs ISK 400 for 58 mins. 

After the souvenir shopping, we made our way to our last guesthouse in Iceland at Gardur apartment (booked though Booking.com, costs EUR 118 or RM 572 per night with cooking facility), located by the Faxaflói Bay about 60km from Reykjavik, but near to Keflavik airport (13 km away). There is an old lighthouse located nearby, and Gardur is a good spot to catch the aurora. But alas, we were not lucky again, it rained that night so it was not possible to see the northern lights. We only managed to view the aurora on our first 2 nights in Iceland at Helgafell in the Snaefellness peninsular, although not as strong and dancing as we would have hoped for.

sunset at Gardur

Gardur lighthouse

Gardur apartment

Gardur apartment