Today started out with lots of excitement for our adventure across the southern part of Iceland all the way over to Jokulsarlon Lagoon and the Ice Caves, bordering Vatnajokull National Park. However, after only 20 minutes on our journey we realized that the heater wasn't working. After all the mess of getting a working van the day before it turned out that this van also had similar problems. We stopped at the nearest gas station to fill the radiator fluid compartment with a little bit of water. Hoping that would be a temporary solution we continued on our journey since we had a reservation for the Ice Caves at 1:00pm. However, that did not solve the problem, so we stopped again at another gas station and got radiator fluid this time. Well, that seemed to do it. It seemed that the radiator compartment had a small crack and was leaking fluid. As long as we continued to top it off we would be ok. So that is what we did the remainder of the day. The rest of the drive, with heat, was a pretty great drive. Most everything was still covered in snow. Both the mountains on one side and the land heading out to sea on the other side were just breathtaking. We really lucked out with the weather again today as it was sunny and not too windy.
We made it to the lagoon an hour before our tour so we ate lunch and then headed down to the water's edge to see the spectacular icebergs that had broken off from the nearby Breidamerkurjokull Glacier (part of the larger Vatnajokull Glacier) floating in the lagoon. It was quite a site to behold and nothing like any of us had ever seen. The Jokulsarlon Lagoon flows through a short waterway into the Atlantic Ocean, leaving chunks of ice on a black sand beach. We stayed in the lagoon area and had fun exploring. As we walked closer to the Glacier we saw a wedding couple getting photographed. Brrrr but also so very cool. Time flew by so fast that hour and before we knew it the big kids and I were grabbing our crampons and heading into the giant glacier truck to head onto the glacier for our ice caving tour. It was really sweet of Mike to stay behind with Madeline during our tour.
We made it to the lagoon an hour before our tour so we ate lunch and then headed down to the water's edge to see the spectacular icebergs that had broken off from the nearby Breidamerkurjokull Glacier (part of the larger Vatnajokull Glacier) floating in the lagoon. It was quite a site to behold and nothing like any of us had ever seen. The Jokulsarlon Lagoon flows through a short waterway into the Atlantic Ocean, leaving chunks of ice on a black sand beach. We stayed in the lagoon area and had fun exploring. As we walked closer to the Glacier we saw a wedding couple getting photographed. Brrrr but also so very cool. Time flew by so fast that hour and before we knew it the big kids and I were grabbing our crampons and heading into the giant glacier truck to head onto the glacier for our ice caving tour. It was really sweet of Mike to stay behind with Madeline during our tour.
It was about a 30 minute drive through extremely off road terrain before making it onto the glacier. It felt like we were driving on Mars. Our tour guide and driver was hilarious and reminded us of the guy from the boat in the movie "Secret Life of Walter Mitty." His demeanor was super chill but he also took the time to tell us cool facts about what we were seeing along the way. Once on the glacier we made our first stop at an above ground ice cave. We all got out, climbed up a small hill with the help of ropes, and explored in and around the sheets of ice left over from an above ground crevasse. The kids LOVED this part of the tour. We could have played there for hours. I gave Andrew the GoPro and let him go off and explore at the top to get a great video of the panoramic view we saw. Then it was back in the truck for one more stop before the caves. Since there wasn't too much wind on the glacier today we got to do a small glacier hike down to another open crevasse. The walk along the various glacier sections was SO COOL. It reminded me of hiking Mt. Rainier. We had to be careful to follow our tour guide exactly so we wouldn't fall through any weak sections of the glacier. It wasn't surprising to me that my kids were the first ones right behind the guide. I love that my kids are so adventurous. It is the one thing that gives life so much flavor. I hope they never lose their love for adventure. After walking for about 15-20 minutes on the glacier we came to a roped section and had to take turns heading downhill to the bottom where we were able to walk right up to an above ground open crevasse. The crevasse was roped off inside so you could only go in so far to see the amazing blue colors reflecting off the sheets of ice. It was spectacular. We didn't spend too long here, only long enough for everyone to have a turn peeking into the crevasse before heading back to the truck. Our last stop was at the actual ice cave open to the public through this tour. It was a wet trek through the cave and it was fairly dark so we took advantage of the lights on our helmets. There were only a few sections where you could see the spectacular blue sheets of ice by looking up. The amazing blue color can only be seen when the layer between the ice and the sky isn't so thick. I had researched how to take pictures of the ice but it was way more difficult than I had expected. Trying to set up a tripod in a river of flowing water and trying to take a photo when everyone didn't have their lights on was almost impossible. I took only a few photos down a small cavern before heading back to the group. The main area of the cave was much better for photo taking. All the pictures I had seen online had clearly been on photography only tours on the eastern side of the Island in caves that were much larger than this one. Someday I will go on one of those tours. Still, we were in awe of the sheets of ice that permeated most of the cave. It's a good thing it was a pretty short cave because after walking in the frozen water, even with our good waterproof boots, we were all getting a bit cold. We climbed out of the cave and were back in the truck heading back to the lagoon. By the time we got back we were starving and were super happy that Mike had fish and chips waiting for us to eat. You would have thought we hadn't eaten in days the way we stuffed our faces.
Before making our long 4 1/2 hour drive back to the cabin we drove across the street and parked near the sandy beach to see the icebergs that had washed up on the black sandy beach. This is where Mike and Madeline had spent some of the time while the rest of us were exploring on the glacier. Lucky for us the sun was out, glistening on each iceberg that rested on the shore. It truly was amazing to see. The kids loved racing against the waves by running out and touching various icebergs before the waves came back in. It was fun watching them try to pick up the smaller icebergs and move them to different parts of the beach. We spent about an hour just playing and being mesmerized as the afternoon sun just warmed us to our core before heading back to our cabin. The drive home was fairly uneventful, thank goodness, and we only ran into a snowstorm the last 45 minutes of our drive. The last 20 minutes of driving on the country road leading to our cabin was a bit treacherous but we made it safely back to our home away from home.
itinerary
