It was another early morning, and after breakfast at the hotel, we began the nearly two hour drive to Arctic Adventures' Skaftafell Base Camp. We had booked their Blue Ice Cave & Glacier Hike on Vatnajökull today. We arrived at the parking lot and headed to their hut where we were fitted with boots and given crampons for our glacier experience. Our guide provided us with helmets and ice axes and we set out on a 4x4 bus to the glacier where we met our guide, Radic.
Fallsjöull is an outlet glacier from the Vatnajokull icecap and the site for our hike today. We had to navigate a series of switchbacks to get to the glacier, which cause Janie some issue with her ankle but Radic kept the pace slow as we made it up to the point where we put on our crampons and began venturing out onto the ice.
After walking across the glacier, Radic explained the various formations on the glacier before leading us into a naturally-formed blue ice cave. Radic explained that we were one of the last groups to go into the cave for the season as the ice had already started thinning and within another week the cave would not be safe to enter. The ice is blue because it reflects blue light, while it absorbs the red and yellow part of the spectrum.
After exiting the cave, Radic led us through a series of ice crevices, each one taller than we were. One had a small "window" of ice that was slowly melting.
We paused for a bit near one of the large holes in the glacier to take photos before making our way back down off the glacier to bus and the ride back to the visitor center.
We returned our equipment and went to the Visitor Center to use the bathrooms and read more about the glacier before going back to the car for the rest of our trip through the south.
We were getting hungry so J. R. found a small restaurant off the side of the road. They were going to be closing up in a half-hour but they still had their buffet line open which had some delicious Icelandic fish and cordon bleu with salad.
When we had planned our original trip to Iceland, we had booked a snowmobile ride on the glacier as well as a boat ride on Jökulsárlón lake. No company was offering the snowmobile ride this year and it was too early in the season for a boat ride on the lake, as we understood when we saw all the glaciers which were not yet receding. Jökulsárlón Lagoon is Iceland's most famous glacier lagoon and one of the country's most iconic natural landmarks. Large icebergs break off from Vatnajokull Glacier and slowly float through the lagoon before drifting out to sea.
We were able to walk from the lake down to Breidamerkursandur, a strip of black sand called Diamond Beach because of the sparkling appearance of ice on the black sand. As we walked back we saw a seal in the lagoon among the ice.
After the beach we drove to the town of Höfn. Apple Maps led us astray again, but eventually we found the Heppa restaurant and Horn brewery, our dinner location for the night. We each enjoyed one of their specialty beers, then had a bacon burger and a langoustine roll.
We checked into the night at the Hotel Höfn, which was one of our less favorite hotels as the room was small with no refrigerator and a tiny bathroom. But at least we were in the main building so we didn't have to walk far to our room.
