Iceland - Day 3: Ice, Ice Baby!

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On Day 3, we woke up fairly early and packed up before heading to the breakfast provided by the cabin staff. There were plenty of things to choose from, though it was not a huge meal; I had toast with different butter flavors and skyr - the Icelandic yogurt. After breakfast, we headed further east to the Glacier Lagoon in Jökulsárlón. The whole way was just a beautiful drive, with us stopping a couple of times to admire the small waterfalls, glaciers and lava fields along the way. We decided to go all the way to the end and then make our way back to break up the drive a bit. We crossed a couple of huge bridges over river plains, with what looked like old lava but was really sands, black sands. Incredible.

Jökulsárlón

Coming around a bend, you could see giant blue ice stick up over the small hills. You cross a one lane bridge and there is the lagoon on the left! There are huge glaciers in the background and a giant lagoon with floating ice of various colors: bright blue, white, and black (probably from one of the many volcanic eruptions or the dirty ground below them). It was a bit eerie to be there because, while it was fairly busy with people, it was still and quiet. You could hear the ice moving and occasionally breaking off or coming to the surface of the water. It was seriously amazing. There was a pretty constant rain, so we decided not to take the boat tour; Dad and I figured that we would not see much more as it was anyway. So we just watched for about half an hour.

Afterwards, we drove across the bridge and to the other side of the road to the beach. Honestly, I found this even more amazing. The waves were pretty rough today, and this is where the glacial ice enters the water. The beach was full of broken ice blocks up and down. Waves were crashing among huge blue ice blocks. Seals were swimming. But my absolute favorite was the clean, black sand. There were no fine grains - it was pure sand and it was fantastic! The sand was also intermixed with large, rounded cobbles, so it looked like a floor of a fancy home or professional landscaping. I'm still at a loss for words. I only wish I had had a plastic bag so I could have saved some of it. Dad and I loved this part.

Svartifoss

The next stop was Svartifoss, heading back to the west. This was supposed to be a waterfall among basalt columns. Jamie assured us it was just a short climb and then a flat walk to the falls. Unfortunately, it was still raining and the usual path was blocked as it was under construction. Instead, we walked up, splitting onto an alternative hiking trail. At about 800 ft, when there was no end in sight and it was pretty obvious we would have to go all the way around the valley, Dad decided to head back to the visitor center. Jamie and I continued on - it was almost entirely up!!! But I do agree with her in that it was one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever done. To our left: waterfalls. To our right: mountains and glaciers. Behind us: the black sand/lava river plain. Un-be-lievable. We finally got to the end and pushed a bit more to get some good photos of the falls where the basalt columns were the most obvious. You could see the basalt, some of which was even in columns, throughout the hike, but here it was striking. Then we made our way back. Coming down the end of the main trail was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen; it had stopped raining soon after Dad left us, but coming down the sun was shining in certain places and it was beautiful.

We saw some ptarmigans along the way; I didn't know what they were and when we asked Addi later, he said he did not know the English word, just that a lot of English people ate them for christmas dinner. Ha! We took a break and i had a Skyr with Jamie and a beer with dad before we moved on.

Svinafellsjökull

This time, we went back a little to the east. Here, Jamie turned down a dirt road full of pot holes. I mean, it reminded me of the drive to work in Qatar. But when we got to the end… wow. We were so close to the tongue of a huge glacier!!! It was so still and quiet and simply amazing. You really can't put it into words, and even the photos don't do it justice - you just have to experience it. And I'm so glad I did! I know Dad loved it as well; it was amazing to experience this whole trip with him.

Car trouble

Soon after we left this last place on to the next one, Jamie commented that the car sounded funny. I did not hear anything right away, but soon did. It turned out to be a flat tire, on the back driver's side. So we pulled off and started to change it. Not one of us had ever changed a tire before - Dad in his 50 years of driving, me having drove in Qatar, and Jamie with her infamous luck with cars - not one of us! How does that happen? So, we all knew the basics and attempted to get the lug nuts off. The little buggers refused to budge. We took turns putting all of our weight on the ridiculously small lever. Finally, we jacked it up a little to help loosen them completely until they were off! It took us about an hour just to do that part. Next, we tried to lift the car all the way up to replace the tire. The wussy little lever on the gravel just refused to lift it high enough. We were freaking out a bit until Dad started to dig under the tire and we were able to get it on. Yay! Getting the lug nuts back on was only slightly easier.

The most depressing part of all this? Not one single person stopped. Not one! And we were there for almost two hours!

Then we drove west and were close to running out of gas. We got to the gas station and when Jamie started the car, a warning came on the dash. The front headlight was out. Great… We tried to change it but the car was too difficult to do so easily, so we decided to just head back to Reykjavik. It was amazing how many cars we saw along the way who were also missing lights!

Needless to say, we did not get to see two of our final destinations for the road trip, including the black sand beach. However, it was overall a great success. As we said, at least it didn't rain while we had to change the tire!!!

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Photos

Flat tire!
we were successful!

Svartifoss
the sun comes out!

Svinafellsjokull
glaciers!

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

A geologic wonder
Iceland has so much to offer. We loved our time there.