Last days in Iceland

On Friday Tryggve took us and a couple of other folks for a walk on the glacier. As it is a bit icy to walk on we got all geared up (utrustade med) with crampons (broddar) and an ice ace.

It was lots of fun and we both want to do more of this. We got to see at least a 50 meter deep hole, a couple of crevasses and glacier mice.

A glacier mouse is moss that has grown around a rock laying ontop of a glacier. As the ice melts, the mouse rolls over so that the moss can grow on all sides. They can apparently become pretty big.




Proud collector of volcanic rocks by Vatnajökull. I'm not telling you how many rocks i'm bringing home...but we did have a bit of overweight...


After playing on the glacier we went for a 7 km hike to get to a good view point over the glacier. Along the way we encountered this cool waterfall. Well, it was the basalt columns next to the waterfall that was really cool.


Saturday was puffins day! We got on the tractor tour to Ingolfshofdi. There we got to see lots of puffins. They are so cute and look slightly hopeless as they try to take off from the water. Managed to get a couple of good photos :-) including one when hubby was attacked by a big skua (a chicken-sized bird)


After the puffins it was time to say good-bye to Vatnajökull. We had another 450 km to drive before we reached the airport. At least we got a day and a half to cover the distance, so no rush.

Eyjefjallasjökull - the volcano!


There it is. The volcano that caused so much havoc. It was still only steaming as we went past it.

The whole area was covered by a steam/ash haze making it hard to see anything above a couple of hundred meters. But just as we went past it, there was a slight clearing in the haze and we could just make out the steam plume. It's very much in the centre of the photo.


There was a thin layer of ash covering the ground. And as you walked a small dust cloud arose underneath your feet.

As we countinued our drive we could see the damages made. The road had turned to gravel at a couple of places. The road barriers lay all twisted next to the road. And the flood plain was filled with water.

The Icelanders were busy rebuilding it all. Lots of diggers, trucks etc all around. Signs said it was all expectad to be back to normal in July this year. That is quick work!



Our final night was spent in a cabin in Hella. We decided that it's more fun out here in the wilderness than in a fancy hotel in Reykjavik.



By the time we hit the airport we had all in all driven 1497 km. Not bad! So we treated ourselves with a relaxing swim in the Blue Lagoon before our flight back to UK.

The end of a very nice birthday holiday!

Jökull day

So today has been glacier day. We started off at the glacier museum in Höfn. Learning all about glacier, how they are formed, what they can do and so on. Most of all we learnt that jökull means glacier in Icelandic and is a rather popular name.

Brimmed with all our new knowledge we set off to visit Vatnajökull. The worlds largest glacier outside the arctic region! Which accidently has the amount of water that would equal 40 cm deep water covering the whole of Iceland. And during its fastest rush, it can move four meters in an hour. But generally it is pretty still. See I have learnt something today.



Our main target was the lagoon with icebergs, Jökulsárlón. Got to see plenty of them as we took a boat ride in the lagoon. And saw a seal too.

After that we had a small adventure on the beach. The hired car wasn't to keen on black volcanic beach sand. So we got a bit stuck. As I wandered off to get some help, hubby found some passing Germans to give the car a good push. Hurray, and we were off again.




Tomorrow is getting up close and personal with the glacier.

On the road

Wednesday was driving day. It was time to go all the way from Myvatn to Höfn (top left-hand corner, out towards the top right-hand corner and down to the right-hand corner on the map, the red road).



We played it safe and followed the main road that circles around Iceland. It might be seen as a bit boring to follow the main road, but not in Iceland.

Here the main road is only one lane (körfil) in each direction and when crossing a bridge it goes down to one shared single lane. Mostly it is surfaced with asphalt, but there are also several stretches with gravel (grus). The longest being about 50 km!

You also meet the odd sheep on the road. Mainly they are good and stay next to rather than on the road. The baby lambs are so cute you just want to stop and give them a cuddle.



It did take us through some amazing landscape though. This little hut we found in Breiddalsheidi. It had two beds, some water and a bottle of vodka.


The 420 km took us through very varied landscape. We drove through:
- lunar landscape of black gravel
- yellow grass plains
- heather (ljung) fields
- moss covered pebble plains
- unearthly broken lava ridges
- bizarre lava sculptures
- deep green valleys
- mountain passes
- gravel mountains
- black beaches
- etc etc


Obviously we had to make pit-stops. Here we are enjoying waffles in Djupivogur.


As you can see we had by now we reached the sea.



Once we reached Höfn it was time to find a place for the night. Thursday will see us exploring Vatnajökull, the larges glacier in the world!

To Mars and back

So everybody thinks that we are in Iceland, but in fact we have actually gone to Mars!

I'll let the photos speak for themselves today. They are all taken in Hevir (hot spring close to boiling) below Namarskard.














We kind off spent the whole day around this area. We had too much fun photographing. And the weather was slightly poorly.

When the rain rolled in we took cover in the local hot spring spa for an hour or two. All in all a very nice day!