Reynisfjara, Iceland: Black Sand Beach a Wonder of the World

“Do not go near the water,” Hawk our tour guide implored, the usual dulcetness of his voice suddenly evicted. Like a herald of woe, he would repeat himself two other times, once after we disembarked from the jeep and again as we made a beeline for our destination.

Stomach-churning precedents lend the black sand beach of Vik, Iceland, its mystique. Ferocious waves, unrelenting and non-discriminatory, have taken the lives of unsuspecting tourists and fathers who ventured too far out. Overhead, spiralling flocks of puffins, fulmars and guillemots lay claim to the sky. I flew my drone at a low altitude so as not to encroach.

Looming before a vast stretch of black sand and pebbles is the majestic Reynisfjall Mountain, columns after columns jutting out of its body. Tuffs of tawny moss crown the basalt rock pillars. Stippling the grey mammoth are gaudy red, green and blue outfits, worn by tourists who gingerly clamber up the stacks to get their rightful I-was-here pictures.  At the base of the mountain yawns the opening of the shallow Hálsanefshellir cave.

Yonder, Reynisdrangar beckons — a trio of basalt sea stacks that folklore would have you believe was the works of trolls. The beasts laboured and dragged a three-masted ship when sunlight rend the cloud and turned them to stone.

Can’t get enough of Icelandic beauty? Read more: Strokkur, Iceland: T Minus 8 Minutes to Splendour; Iceland’s Waterfall of Thieves Þjófafoss Will Steal Your Breath