All Good Things Must Come To An End…
All good things must come to an end and this morning we woke to a heavy cloud layer – but no rain, so we will gladly take it.
We did manage to get out the door by 9:45, an hour and a half earlier than any other morning, even including the turn around for Jenny’s charger that she left behind at the hotel, so that was a bonus. Billy would have been very disappointed that we hadn’t pulled all the covers from the bed to make sure we hadn’t missed anything…sorry honey…we won’t let it happen again!
Today we actually enjoyed more time in the outdoors hiking around at the various places we stopped than in previous days. We also made a bunch of unplanned stops and of course, a few more u-turns, and we missed two stops completely. Iceland needs to work on their signage. Some things have no signs, other things like guesthouses have signs posted on the highway.
Our first planned stop was….well…we completely missed it.
The second stop wasn’t planned and wasn’t even made for the highlight it ended up being. I saw a side road so I took a quick turn to stop to take a picture of the glacier that was coming out of the mountains but as I pulled to a stop, Jenny said, “Look there is a caribou!” Another loner hanging out with a huge black rack. It ended up being a cool photo, even with having to zoom in so much. (And BTW, I appreciate the kind feedback I have received on the photos. I am strictly using my iPhone X on this trip, so the camera is not as good as it could be).
The glaciers we were seeing are all part of Vatnajökull ice field, not only the largest in Iceland, but the largest in all of Europe with an average thickness of 1600 feet and with 30 tongue glaciers emanating from its main glacier. One of the most wild things about Vatnajökull is that it actually has eight subterranean volcanoes underneath it; two of which are the most active in all of Iceland frequently causing a phenomena known as jökuhlaup which is similar to a flash flood. While driving the Ring Road, you drive through miles of alluvial plains created from these floods.
But no matter how many stops we made, I could never quite capture the essence of these glaciers as the cloudy skies didn’t lend enough contrast to pick it up.
A stop at Jokulsarlon Lagoon put us close to a glacier but more importantly allowed us to get up close to huge icebergs. We remembered from our glacier walk in Patagonia that the ice is blue because it absorbs all colors of the spectrum but blue.
I loved listening to the icebergs dripping water, cracking, and the thundering sounds they would make as they would roll – apparently more common here then in many other glacial lagoons because the warmer salt water infiltrates the colder lagoon water and unevenly melts the bottoms of the bergs making them top heavy snd thus more prone to calving and rolling. We witnessed three such events while we were there and they were all jaw-dropping.
Jenny asked me if there were seals in the lagoon because she thought she had seen pictures of them online. I told her I wasn’t sure but as we walked along all of a sudden…BAM! Jenny spotted a seal. We ended up watching about a dozen or so seals for a good 20 minutes as they swam around, smacked the water with their tails and even leapt out of the water as they fought the strong currents. Jenny just loves them; she says they are like the labradors of the sea and they all reminded her of our sweet Lily.
From here we made a quick stop at Diamond Beach across the street, named so because the icebergs wash up and look like diamonds on the black sand beach.
Another hour and a half down the road brought us to Mulagljufur Canyon (this is one of the completely unmarked sights in Iceland but perhaps they want it that way). I hadn’t read too much about it but what I did read I thought it sounded like a good stop and a nice hike. It turned out to be both with the hike being a real butt burner as it was straight uphill for a good mile, mile and a half but the views into the canyon were beautiful, and we appreciated the slightest break in the clouds for some sun shining on the greenery and the blue skies just above.
A few more quick unplanned stops for sights that caught my fancy:
And then a stop at Fjadrargljufur Canyon, for another butt burning uphill hike, which has become quite the pilgrimage apparently since Justin Bieber filmed a music video there.
Jenny and I have had a bit of a time adjusting to all of a sudden being with loads of tourists again, and especially tour groups. The first six days were pretty much crowd free, except for the brief time we spent at Myvtan and our stop at Dettifloss Falls, but the further south and west we travel, the more people we are encountering.
Another stop, following yet another u-turn for a waterfall that caught Jenny’s fancy.
Then on to Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach where we encountered the most people yet. We had a quick look; stayed high from the shore away from any sneaker waves (if you don’t know what they are look them up – watch a video- a completely crazy natural phenomena that happens frequently here on this beach).
Last stop of the day was Skogafoss Waterfalls – this was a wow waterfall because we could walk right up to the base of it practically. Of course, we got pretty wet but it was a great experience.
We pulled into our airbnb about 8:00PM. The place is small but completely comfortable with a beautiful view out the front and sheep and its own waterfalls out the back. I managed to whip up some pasta on the single, electric, plug-in burner, and topped it off with some desert I picked up at the cafe back at Reynisfjara. A perfectly enjoyable evening after a very long day.
I had to laugh because Jenny said today she thought this was her favorite drive yet. I reminded her she had told me that for three other days already. She let me know that the only reason the other three days hadn’t also been declared her favorites is that she hates the smell of sulphur, otherwise everyday would have at one point been her favorite!
The green today though, really drew her in. She lamented what a bummer it was that there was no blue sky to go with the intense emerald green but I told her, the green is enough to stand out on its own. If the more drab northern parts had also been cloudy to boot, we might have thought differently of Iceland.
Tomorrow we head inland for two nights where the weather and wifi are, at this point, looking more than questionable, so it may be a day or two before you receive days 8 and 9.
Remember I said Jenny had requested remote, well she is about to really get it!
Wandering Amerrickans 