Iceland's Ice Caves & Glacier Lagoons - Day 3
The glacier in all its glory awaits us. We are up to catch a beautiful sunrise, peaking just behind the clouds and ready on time at 8:15 am to get into our mountain Jeeps and head into / onto the glacier :)
Crossing the beautiful glacier lagoon, twice now, we have 30 mins on a normal road until we turn into the national park and drive on the snow. Our Jeeps stop to reduce the air in their tires and we're off on a road that's been mapped by all the tour guides who go out in the morning to make sure the conditions are good enough for us to head out. In winter there were 3 ice caves the guides found; two off which were no longer open due to an avalanche and flooding and so the one we got to go into is the Crystal cave. Driving on the snow and glacier, with bumps, turns and at moments almost leaning to one side, I'm amazed by how one of our fellow tour companions sitting in the front seat was sleeping! I don't think I even blinked, it was one of the most thrilling experiences!
Anyway making it to the entrance we are told all the guides plan it so each group gets time to themselves, it's a well oiled machine, one group enters while the other leaves. Jumping out and gearing up with our chains on our shoes for a good grip on the ice and our helmets cause we're sure to bump our heads according to Siggi, our guide for the caves, we can't contain ourselves, the excitement of this adventure is becoming real.
The entrance is completely hidden but when it reveals itself it's the perfect blue ice that catches my eye. As we make our way through we are sure enough bumping our heads and crawling on all fours through a narrow, low tunnel making our way into the actual cave. It's blue, blue ice, blue crystal balls that are formed from frost cracks in the ice and its bright, all over and the sunshine seeps through in some bizarre way and you can see why it's called the crystal cave. A small cave but beautiful. We get lucky once again to have the cave just to ourselves as the next group gets delayed and so with ample time we take our photos, sit and relax and enjoy this peaceful unique experience for a good 40 mins.
For the Jeep journey back I managed to get the front seat and boy was it even more special sitting right up front, feeling every bump, seeing the Jeep in front of us manoeuvre it's way, trying to predict our move, sliding sideways, tilting and passing through some deep ditches and over some high bumps, it was simply great. I don't think I'm even doing it justice but it sure was extreme Iceland and adventurous.
A good three hours later we made our way back to the glacier lagoon where we could take a coffee break and have a calm walk along this gorgeous lagoon that leads out to sea and takes icebergs with it. Floating along are some massive pieces and when we walk across to the sea shore we can see icebergs all along the beach. A site quite rare where you have the wide open sea, icebergs and then mountains and glaciers. Winter sure is beautiful and snow and ice a natural beauty I only genuinely appreciated after these three days in Iceland. Having spent all morning in this amazing national park we were on our way back making some different stops along the way.
The first being Skatafell - the outlet glacier of Vatnajökull. We could tell Dora liked this spot cause for the first time she didn't quite give us a time limit to head back at and simply asked us to enjoy it. I may have already said this but, the bluer the ice the older it is. Vatnajökull apparently started forming hundreds of years ago with one of the world's greatest fissures and lava eruptions first recorded in 934, its got a fascinating geography and history that you can read up more on the official site.
Since its March and the snow has melted along the surrounding mountains the blue looks brighter against the brown and green. The cracks that have solidified are absolutely amazing and when we found out we can actually walk on it in summer, it was decided, a trip back to this amazing country in summer would be spectacular as well! Spending a good 45 mins walking up some slippery ice and boulders we enjoy this natural beauty before forming our own snow slide down to avoid slipping and falling, a fun way to go back down, ski pants were the best decision for this journey :)
Our last stop on the way back was along the other side of the black sand beach. We saw some amazing cliffs from a distance and my friend actually wanted to walk there yesterday until she realised how far they actually were. Now I won't go saying this was the best cliff I've seen because Australia has some stunning ones, but the view overall with the black sand, the mountains along the small town of Vik, the fact that there's no landmark until Antarctica and of course the Troll folk tale, makes it special nonetheless.
Yes I've forgotten to mention the folk tales till now! Iceland is full of them. There's even a book on them called Icelandic Tales that my literary friend, ehmm publish friend of The Feltworld was reading during our trip and enlightening us. The one that goes with this spot is that you spot two trolls and their ship cause they didn't manage to make it back before sunrise and hence froze forming the cliffs we see today. And so when you read these and hear the names of places and people on these folk tales, you can clearly see where so many fantasy writers have got their inspiration from - Tolkien, Rowling, Martin etc... The land of elves and trolls does exist! And so with this beautiful view and a few walks along the cliffs, we were homewards bound to Reykjavik. Too exhausted to even be bothered with a sit down meal, we got out near the infamous hot dog stand, Baejarins Beztu Pylsur, (which we only found out later wasn't the best hot dog we had cause Copenhagen was waiting for us) had a lovely dinner and got back to our apartment ready to hit the sack. A good sleep well needed and deserved if I say so myself.
