Iceland .. DC Down .. the Sólheimasandur Plane Wreck ..

On our second and partial tour of Iceland, we had completely bypassed this “tourist attraction,” despite staying in Vik for several nights. It was only after listening to a BBC Podcast called “The Cipher,” several years later, that the downed DC became added to our mental map of Iceland.

On the day of our 20th Wedding Anniversary, it was with some humour and a keen sense of irony that we headed out across the bleakest, blackest, and flattest of volcanic landscapes to visit the plane wreck.

The 45min walk into the site, was interspersed with the occasional bird sighting: both dark and pale phase Arctic Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus); cronking Raven (Corvus corax) overhead, Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus), Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus), and Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis); Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus); and the soft plaintive call of Redshank (Tringa totanus), heard but not seen.

Occasionally the tourist bus would pass us in either direction, a high-axled monstrosity of diesel choking fumes, which dwarfed and sand-blasted every walker it passed.

My impressions were as if we were within a dystopian movie set, the light and landscape unchanging, unyielding in its character, an Icelandic monochrome - bruised black and blue, the white and grey of Cumulus cloud, until the final reveal of the plane wreck. And then, only then a splash of bright colour – two small figures in orange and flowing robes, as they moved around the hulk of the broken fuselage – in a dip of the sand dunes, before they met the sea.

The story of the plane wreck can be found here:

Solheimasandur DC Down

Hotel:

Hotel Vík í Mýrdal

Food:

Halldorskaffi

Beer:

Einstokbeer