Thursday was probably the day of the trip I (Lynn) was looking to the most. Iceberg day! We got up really early since there was so much to see. The weather on the drive to the iceberg lagoon was as it had been for the last couple days - cold, windy and really rainy, but luckily it was clear by the time we got there. Some unlucky souls the day before were unable to go on the lagoon because of the waves. Phew that wasn't us!
We had a zodiac boat tour booked later in the morning, so until that started we just stared at the lagoon and marvelled. Then we headed to the boat site and suited up into some survival suit type things and lifejackets. Once we were on the boat we headed top speed to the other end (around 7km) to the base of the glacier where the icebergs are born. We floated there for a bit, enough time to hear the loud cracks of ice starting to calve, but 10 seconds too short to witness a chunk of ice crashing into the water. Oh well. Though I didn't witness an ice calving, I was present at the birth of Matt's new favourite joke - "what do you call ice in a bun? An iceberger!" The trip back to the launch site was slower, partly so the tourists could gawk at the icebergs as we drifted pass, and partly because a guy in an empty zodiac had to plow through the icy mush in the water (plus do some donuts) to clear a path for us. The whole trip took an hour and was amazing!
After the boat tour, we still weren't done with icebergs, since from the lagoon a short river carries them out to sea. Along that beach, a lot of the icebergs are smashed up by the waves and scattered all down the shore. So, with that and my camera I had quite a good time exploring up and down. Matt was a good sport taking photos with me and bits of ice, and had to deal with major soakers.
Our second stop of the day was at Skaftafell, where Matt was hoping we could join a glacier walk. However at this point we have entered what seems like a tourist zone, places people can get to from Reykjavik on a day trip. So, all tours were full. That's ok though, since there were lots of hiking trails to explore, including a short hike to a famous waterfall. After reaching that, we carried on to the top of that mountain to get a view of the glacier from above. The whole trip was around 3 hours and definitely worth it, even with the 4 blisters on my feet from earlier in the week.
After a dinner of hot dogs we arrived at our stop for the night, and our favourite of the week. Another farm, near Vik. The mountains in that area are big and very green, and the farm was tucked into a valley. It was also the nicest house we've been to - walls of windows and a deck around the house gave a great view. Though we were really tired, we headed out again for another hour to a famous beach down the road, where Matt caught his first sight of puffins (more later). It's also the beach with basalt columns you can climb and 3 big black columns of rock sticking out of the sea offshore (petrified trolls).
Back to Reykjavik tomorrow!
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