Bouncing Around Southern Iceland (Part 2)

Destination: Vik
After the two waterfall locations (see Part 1), we continued South on the main highway. Along the way we turned off the main road at the suggestion of our guide and drove a bit inland to a place which we all thought looked like a mini version of the badlands. I climbed one of the rocky pillars and took this shot looking inland.
Our final destination was Vik located on the Southern tip of the country. Although the town itself is very small, it is supposed to have amazing beaches. They even occasionally make the "World's Top Ten" list. Unfortunately we made it there fairly late and it was very windy. But you can't tell that from the pictures, of course.

Since Iceland exists only because it sits on Europe's and America's tech-tonic plates, there are volcanoes (both active and dormant) everywhere. As a result almost all the beaches have black sand coming from their volcanic ash. It still feels the same as normal sand.
The experience was cool because we were the only ones there. Here is one looking more inland; notice how high the sun still is...it's around 8:30pm.
We split into two parties...lets call them Alpha and Bravo because it might make for a more risque sounding story. Alpha team took it upon themselves to hike the largest nearby cliff, which was at least a couple hundred meters (~600 feet) tall. If you click on the larger version you can see Alpha team.
Bravo team, which included myself, decided that looked strenuous and opted to continue walking along the beach. We quickly reached the same large rock formation, which coupled with the incoming tide was blocking our path. Perhaps feeling inspired by Alpha team's sense of adventure, we decided to wait for the waves to go out and "make a run for it". Not knowing what might be around the corner (or even if it was a corner at all), we ran. Fortune smiled upon us as we found a cave just around the bend. This was taken at its back looking outwards.
One of our group slipped off the rocks and fell into the water on our return sprint. I still feel the calamity was well worth the photo, but maybe that's because it wasn't me. The water is as cold as you might imagine, considering it's Iceland and all.

Additional pictures can be found here.