Hofn - The Cave of Ice

The breakfast buffets here in Iceland are a bit different, as you would expect. They have porridges, mueslis and cereals, but then they have sliced tomato, boiled eggs, cucumber, a large selection of pate, meats, fish stuff and Swiss cheese. No scrambled eggs or bacon or anything like that. And they do have coffee, thank goodness.

I hold back from getting onto the bus so someone else can sit in the front seat if they want, but when I get on, everyone is pretty much sitting where they were yesterday so I'm back in the prime seat! Happy with that.

We drive along the largest lava field in the world. It varies between flat, black plains and then there's miles of moss-covered rocks in unusual formations. Iceland is definitely the land of ice and snow - the volcanoes erupt and lava flows for miles. And it can melt the glaciers, which then cause massive floods. It's an unstable land but so beautiful! These lava fields were caused by an eruption hundreds of years ago. 

Photos taken from the bus... 

There are waterfalls all along the way. We stop briefly at one - Fossasipu.

The weather is so changeable - it goes from sunny to cloudy to a kind of rain/snow within minutes. And the lava fields continue...

Johan gives lots of information about the lava fields, with his accent and some of the names, we get the picture but not the specifics. Lots of volcanoes exploding and lots of glaciers flooding. He tells of the farmers and the northern folk and how they don't like people from Reykjavik let a.one foreigners!  There was a reporter who was sent north for a story. He was harassed by the police and left his camera running. The police chief can be heard on the walkie talkie asking the policeman if the reporter was from the south. When hearing the affirmative answer, he replied, "arrest him."

Volcanoes are generally named after females and glaciers are named after anything. Johan told us his grandfather said females and volcanoes are the same - you never know when they're going to erupt.

A rest stop at Skatafall where we watch a video about the area and then it's off to lunch at a stop in Freysnes.

 A bit more about the group - they are all younger than me - which is not hard. Most of them stayed in a hostel in Reykjavik, in communal rooms - those days are long past me! There is a honeymooning couple from Florida, both very nice. He constantly cracks his knuckles though. A young Japanese couple who spend a lot of the bus time on their gadgets.

 A group of six Americans - they're the ones we're always waiting for. Last night at the beach, our time was nearly up and we're all on the bus. We can see two of them in the cafe ordering hot drinks. Then they proceeded to sit down to drink them. Johan had to go and get them. A know-it-all Brazilian who will just talk louder to finish his point if people try to change the subject. And an Asian girl who hands you her camera and indicates to take her picture for her and then bows and says, "Hie".

After lunch it's off to one of the places that helped me choose this tour as a destination - Jokulsarlon - the glacial lagoon. And here's why...

Just stunning - I'm not sure these pictures show just how impressive it is. Massive icebergs from the Breidamerkursandi glacier in the Jokulsa river... (Think that's right!)

It's reall cold here and the gloves recommended by the lady at Kathmandu are useless! My hands are freezing. So I pop into the shop and buy a combination fingerless glove/mittens that are toasty warm. You can wear them as fingerless when you want to use the camera, and then flip the mitten over when you're done. There's nothing quite like feeling the warmth return to freezing fingers in cosy wool mittens.

The other reason I wanted this tour was for the ice cave. A couple of days ago we got an email saying the caves were too dangerous and they would have to organise something else for us. So disappointing but what can you do. Johan confirmed this yesterday. He wasn't sure what we'd be doing but was sure it would be 'good.'

Then last night at dinner he got a call saying we can go and everyone is very excited about that. I had been thinking yesterday was pretty spectacular so if it was similar, that would be fine, but it was a shame. So this news was great!

So now we head to the cave. We have to get in super jeeps to drive us half an hour down as they aren't real roads, just old tracks from farmers...

Our driver, Piedir, tells us that this super jeep was the one used by Pierce Brosnan while filming the Bond movie set out here.

We have a bit of a hike to where the caves are...

Up to the cave that shows us why we can't go inside this one - it collapsed two days ago!

Amazingly blue. That ice is less than 2%-3% air which is why it's blue. And it is so very dense and thick - denser than glass. It takes forever to melt. The glaciers move quite a bit, and this one cracked and fell as it's not cold enough to keep it frozen.

Gummir is our ice cave expert and he gives us all sorts of information. He cracks off a loose bit and shows the very hard layer underneath but you can see bubbling within it. Also shows the layers of ash in the ice and the white and clear lines, which indicate summer and winter and help date the glacier. Every time we move to a new spot to look at, he says, "Come this way. This is going to be amazing!!"

We walk down to the one open cave and he examines it to check it's okay for us to go in. Then he takes in the first group of four. They come out and we can hear ice cracking - living nature, as he says. He throws a couple of rocks at the ice, has a listen and then says, "okay, next group." Which I'm in! Bit daunting! We have to follow in his exact path, and keep our heads down, so if something falls, it will hit our helmet and hit our face.

Bit scary but once we're inside, past the danger zone, it's pretty awesome!

Here's Gummir and Piedir - quite the characters!

Fantastic experience! We then hike out, back in the jeeps, back into our bus and head for the hotel - Country Hotel Heli. We have a 7:00 dinner and I try the traditional Icelandic dessert, skyr, which is sort of like a yoghurt and is delicious.

Then we head out to try and find the northern lights. Out to Jokulsarlon, coz it's dark out there. Once there, you can see every single star in the sky - amazing! But no lights yet. The indications are that they will be there but probably later. So we go back to the hotel to organise shifts for night sky watching, my time is 2am!