Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Monday, November 07, 2011
Iceland Day 3 - Black sand and blue ice.
We woke to the sound of
dozens of alarms going of on our various mobile phones. Today’s trip was to be
the longest, and we would have driven a total of 800 kms before the day
finished. Consequently, we were to be picked up an hour earlier than normal,
which was why I was pulling on my pants while half asleep.
The brisk chill outside soon
woke us up, and before long we were on the coach retracing our journey from
yesterday. Today’s trip was to culminate in the amazing glacial lagoon Jökulsárlón
and would give us a south coast tour too.
We booked the trip via IcelandExcursions and it cost us 23,655 Icelandic Kroner per person.
We would follow the same path as the day before, but the
glacial lip where we stopped the day before was only about halfway to our final
destination. Predictably, the first stop was Skogarfoss, which we had visited
the day before, but what a difference was there today! The sky was grey, and
the waterfall which was bright and sparkling with rainbows yesterday, was broody
and menacing today. After a few photos, we whizzed on.
Our guide today was not a native Icelander, but a German girl who had come years ago to Iceland to work as a farm hand, and had fallen in love with the land. She told us more of the story of Iceland, including some of the Sagas. As we listened, we watched the landscape go by. Geologically speaking, most of the features in Iceland are brand new, and the twisted cliffs and jutting crags have not been worn smooth by rain and wind.
Around 12, we stopped for lunch in a cafeteria in the mille of nowhere and with a view of the glaciers. It looked pretty bleak from outside, but there was a extensive cold buffet with varieties of fish, along with a hot soup of Icelandic lamb.
Jökulsárlón is a glacial lagoon formed by meltwater off the Vatnajökull glacier. The lake is the deepest in Iceland, and is growing bigger as the glacier lip melts. The most interesting this is that the lip of the glacier slowly breaks off into icebergs which then drift down the lagoon till they eventually reach the sea. This results in a lake full of the most amazing and bizzarely shaped blocks of ice. This is the most unearthly beautiful place I have seen.
And to add to this, there were plenty of seals fishing in the lake. We were to take a cruise around the lake to see it better, and after wandering around the shore, our boat trundled around a nearby hill and stopped near us. I say trundled, as it had four wheels! It was actually an amphibious craft, and once we boarded it, it slowly dove down to the shore and into the lake and we were off.
The icebergs were even more beautiful close up, and were a variety of colours, from briliant white to black. The most beautiful ones glowed with a serene blue light. Our guide, this très cute Icelandic girl, proceeded to fish out this chunk of ice from the lake and gave us a quick talk on the icebergs, after which she broke it up into chunks for us to taste. The ice is pristine 1000 year old, and supposed to be really good in whisky as it is so compressed it melts very slowly. Whisky unfortunately, was not served.
Our guide today was not a native Icelander, but a German girl who had come years ago to Iceland to work as a farm hand, and had fallen in love with the land. She told us more of the story of Iceland, including some of the Sagas. As we listened, we watched the landscape go by. Geologically speaking, most of the features in Iceland are brand new, and the twisted cliffs and jutting crags have not been worn smooth by rain and wind.
 |
| Lava fields and green hills |
Around 12, we stopped for lunch in a cafeteria in the mille of nowhere and with a view of the glaciers. It looked pretty bleak from outside, but there was a extensive cold buffet with varieties of fish, along with a hot soup of Icelandic lamb.
Jökulsárlón is a glacial lagoon formed by meltwater off the Vatnajökull glacier. The lake is the deepest in Iceland, and is growing bigger as the glacier lip melts. The most interesting this is that the lip of the glacier slowly breaks off into icebergs which then drift down the lagoon till they eventually reach the sea. This results in a lake full of the most amazing and bizzarely shaped blocks of ice. This is the most unearthly beautiful place I have seen.
 |
| Iceberg ahoy |
 |
| Cubism |
And to add to this, there were plenty of seals fishing in the lake. We were to take a cruise around the lake to see it better, and after wandering around the shore, our boat trundled around a nearby hill and stopped near us. I say trundled, as it had four wheels! It was actually an amphibious craft, and once we boarded it, it slowly dove down to the shore and into the lake and we were off.
 |
A Seal |
 |
| The amphibious craft |
 |
| The Glacial lip in the background |
The icebergs were even more beautiful close up, and were a variety of colours, from briliant white to black. The most beautiful ones glowed with a serene blue light. Our guide, this très cute Icelandic girl, proceeded to fish out this chunk of ice from the lake and gave us a quick talk on the icebergs, after which she broke it up into chunks for us to taste. The ice is pristine 1000 year old, and supposed to be really good in whisky as it is so compressed it melts very slowly. Whisky unfortunately, was not served.
 |
| Our guide cradling some ice |
Check out the video of her talking about the lagoon.
As a treat, have a look at this BBC video likening Jökulsárlón to Saturn's rings.
On the way back, we stopped at the village of Vik to take a stoll along the famous black beach. It was very windy and the waves crashed into the shore making it a desolate yet beautiful scene.
And after a short stop at another waterfall, we were on our way back listening to our guide tell us about Icelandic trolls and elvelore. We finally staggered into bed around 11pm.
As usual, click on the album below to view it full screen (v reccomended).
As a treat, have a look at this BBC video likening Jökulsárlón to Saturn's rings.
On the way back, we stopped at the village of Vik to take a stoll along the famous black beach. It was very windy and the waves crashed into the shore making it a desolate yet beautiful scene.
 |
| A close up of the beach |
 |
| The black beach at Vik |
And after a short stop at another waterfall, we were on our way back listening to our guide tell us about Icelandic trolls and elvelore. We finally staggered into bed around 11pm.
As usual, click on the album below to view it full screen (v reccomended).
Monday, October 17, 2011
Iceland Day 2 - Glaciers and Waterfalls
The next day we were up at the crack of dawn (well 6 am anyway) to light streaming in through our windows. The days were still very long, even though it was September! We were to go for a glacier trek today and Sólheimajökull beckoned. We had booked the tour, Take a Walk on the Ice Side, with Icelandic Mountain Guides and it cost approx. 20900 ISK per person.
The tour bus was due to pick us up at around 8:30, and we were hanging out outside our apartment, when we met this German girl who was on the same tour as us. She complained quite vociferously about all the noise of the previous night (the partying went on till 3 am), and though we smiled sympathetically, we were were quite happy about how lively Reykjavik was. The tour bus picked us up and took us to the main bus stand where we transferred to the larger coach which was to take us to the glacier.
This part of the tour was conducted by Reykjavik Excursions, and it overlapped with their South Coast tour till we reached the lip of the Sólheimajökull glacier, where we would separate from the main group and go on the glacier trek, while they would continue onwards to the black beaches of Vik, and pick us up on their way back.
The tour guide (who's name I forget) was a native Icelander, who was passionate about his country and had a wealth of knowledge and lore at his fingertips. Unfortunately, he was not a natural storyteller, but for people who made the effort to listen, he was captivating. As we drove through Reykjavik, we learned how three fourths of the country's meager 300,000 odd people lived here, and how it was one of the cleanest greenest cities in the world. We also learnt about how Iceland was settled, and how Irish monks were coming there way before the Vikings. Iceland seems to have a lot of Ireland in it, with the Vikings often bringing back Irish women as concubines and slaves. the people of Iceland are thus as Irish as they are Viking, though they tend to pay down their Irish ancestry. As one person put it, the Icelanders are Viking when they're sober and Irish when they're drunk.
Just outside Reykjavik, we were driving thorough the fields of boulders covered by moss so characteristic to Iceland. There were lava fields which were fresh enough that no plants were able to settle but the moss. In the middle of this, a few miles outside Reykjavik, we saw a number of places billowing steam which marked the Hellisheiði geothermal power station, which utilised these natural hot steam vents to both generate power as well as supply Reykjavik with cheap hot water. I can attest to the fact that I was bathing in genuine geothermically heated hot water, as there is a distinct smell of sulphur as you turn on the shower.
We passed the small town of Selfoss and stopped about mid day for a quick bite and use of the facilities at a roadside cafe. After enjoying an Icelandic hot dog and some Skyr ( an Icelandic dessert of thickened yoghurt) we were soon off. Geologically speaking, Iceland is a fascinating place, and we could see a variety of landscapes, ranging for huge fields of black volcanic dust, mountains and cliffs twisted into a variety of bizarre shapes to lush green meadows.
On the way back, we stopped at a farm that had been devastated by the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, and our guide explained how he was part of the huge effort to rescue the farm and clear it of vocanic ash. It was hard to believe how different it looked now.
More pictures below. Click to take you to a bigger version -
The tour bus was due to pick us up at around 8:30, and we were hanging out outside our apartment, when we met this German girl who was on the same tour as us. She complained quite vociferously about all the noise of the previous night (the partying went on till 3 am), and though we smiled sympathetically, we were were quite happy about how lively Reykjavik was. The tour bus picked us up and took us to the main bus stand where we transferred to the larger coach which was to take us to the glacier.
This part of the tour was conducted by Reykjavik Excursions, and it overlapped with their South Coast tour till we reached the lip of the Sólheimajökull glacier, where we would separate from the main group and go on the glacier trek, while they would continue onwards to the black beaches of Vik, and pick us up on their way back.
 |
| The lip of the Sólheimajökull |
The tour guide (who's name I forget) was a native Icelander, who was passionate about his country and had a wealth of knowledge and lore at his fingertips. Unfortunately, he was not a natural storyteller, but for people who made the effort to listen, he was captivating. As we drove through Reykjavik, we learned how three fourths of the country's meager 300,000 odd people lived here, and how it was one of the cleanest greenest cities in the world. We also learnt about how Iceland was settled, and how Irish monks were coming there way before the Vikings. Iceland seems to have a lot of Ireland in it, with the Vikings often bringing back Irish women as concubines and slaves. the people of Iceland are thus as Irish as they are Viking, though they tend to pay down their Irish ancestry. As one person put it, the Icelanders are Viking when they're sober and Irish when they're drunk.
Just outside Reykjavik, we were driving thorough the fields of boulders covered by moss so characteristic to Iceland. There were lava fields which were fresh enough that no plants were able to settle but the moss. In the middle of this, a few miles outside Reykjavik, we saw a number of places billowing steam which marked the Hellisheiði geothermal power station, which utilised these natural hot steam vents to both generate power as well as supply Reykjavik with cheap hot water. I can attest to the fact that I was bathing in genuine geothermically heated hot water, as there is a distinct smell of sulphur as you turn on the shower.
We passed the small town of Selfoss and stopped about mid day for a quick bite and use of the facilities at a roadside cafe. After enjoying an Icelandic hot dog and some Skyr ( an Icelandic dessert of thickened yoghurt) we were soon off. Geologically speaking, Iceland is a fascinating place, and we could see a variety of landscapes, ranging for huge fields of black volcanic dust, mountains and cliffs twisted into a variety of bizarre shapes to lush green meadows.
 |
| Skyr with blueberries |
However, behind
this amazing landscape is the constant threat of geological catastrophe;
earthquakes, volcanoes, and volcano induced flash-floods. As we drove through
the various newly restored portions of the road, this was brought home to us.
Finally, we
turned off the road onto a dirt path, which took us to about a kilometre from
the lip of the glacier. We got off the bus leaving behind the people who would
continue on a south coast tour.
Here we met our
guides from Icelandic Mountain Guides, who started providing us with ice picks
and crampons to fit on our hiking boots. As usual, it took Trigby (our guide)
about 15 minutes to find crampons to fit my size 12 boots (and I thought these
Vikings had big feet).
 |
| The Crampons |
The crampons
were nasty pieces of work, and we had to be careful we didn't trip over our own
feet and impale ourselves. All kitted up, we walked the remaining portion of
the moraine
till we reached a small stream. A quick skip over it, and we were on the ice!
 |
| Ice Picks |
Navigating on
ice was not as tricky as I thought (it helped that the incline was gradual),
but definitely needed some care as the ice was extremely slick. We were
grateful for our crampons, driving them into the ice at each step.
As we went
higher, the terrain became more difficult, and Trigby had to cut out rough
steps for us in the ice. Climbing a narrow channel with deep crevasses on
either side took some nerve, but worse was to come on our way back.
After visiting
some spectacular ice caves we started our descent. Trigby took us on a circular
route, so we were going down a new path. Walking down was more difficult than
going up, but we were up to the challenge. Or at least we were until we came to
the edge of a cliff. Well, I promptly turned around to walk back the way we
came, but looked back to see Trigby climbing down this narrow ridge with deep
crevasses on either side. It was around this point that our group collectively
shat it's pants.
 |
| A beautiful ice cave |
My camera, which
till this point was slinging nonchalantly around my neck, was stowed in my
backpack, leaving both hands free to, as I imagined, wave goodbye as i fell
into the bowels of the earth. This was a shame, as the scenery at this point
was stupendous. Of course, I would have preferred said scenery on a wallpaper
on my laptop, as I couldn't appreciate it and control my bladder at the same
time.
Well, I inched
my way down this 70 degree slope, slipped the last few feet, and jammed my
crampon into my foot ripping the leg of my pants. I think I got off
lightly.
After giving my
small toe a kings burial, we continued down where our bus was waiting to take
us home.
On the way back,
we stopped a two beautiful waterfalls. Skógafoss,
a huge waterfall with an amazingly pretty double rainbow around it, and Seljalandsfoss
a smaller waterfall, but one where you could actually walk behind
the falls.
 |
| Skógafoss |
 |
| In the mist |
 |
| Seljalandsfoss |
 |
| Behind the waterfall |
On the way back, we stopped at a farm that had been devastated by the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, and our guide explained how he was part of the huge effort to rescue the farm and clear it of vocanic ash. It was hard to believe how different it looked now.
 |
| Eyjafjallajökull in the background of the farm. |
 |
| A picture of the eruption |
And then it was
back to our apartment, for a well deserved snooze.
More pictures below. Click to take you to a bigger version -
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
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