The tour went past the Vestmannaeyjar Islands – one of these islands was formed by an eruption in 1963, and half the town of Heimaey was submerged in lava in 1973:
We stopped for a short toilet and coffee break around Selfoss, and dropped off the people we had gone back for.
Our first viewing stop was Skogafoss waterfall:
Then it was onwards past mountains and cliffs on our left, and the sea off somewhere on the right. Alaskan Lupins had been planted at some stage to try to stop the topsoil blowing off to sea and there’s fields of them where the ground is too sandy to support anything else:
Farms were everywhere it was even a little bit green:
Eyjafjallajokull glacier (the one that caused all the drama in 2010) was on our left for a little while:
The mountains were just amazing:
We drove straight past Vik and Dyrholaey on the way to the glacier lagoon (but stopped on the way back) as we were trying to get to the lagoon before the afternoon’s forecast rain beat us to it.
The floodplains and lava fields were pretty:
Our next stop was at Fagrifoss to have a closer look at the lava. The lava field is about 2000 years old and the moss is the only thing that can grow on it initially. The moss is thought to be about 1000 years old:
We continued on past rivers and colourful waterfalls where minerals are being leached out:
And more farms and sheer cliffs:
We started passing into Skaftafell National Park, where the glaciers were getting closer to the road and sea. The big black sandy area is actually Vatnajokull glacier with volcanic ash on it:
We had a quick stop at Oraefajokull for a bite to eat and photos in my case. I shall be turning a few of these into my panorama shots. There’s actually two glaciers or glacier snouts separated by a mountain:
Then it was back on the bus and past some amazing lava-topped mountains with amazing sky-lines and glacier snouts peeking out in between:
And then, there it was! My reason for coming to Iceland: Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon and Breidamerkujokull glacier. It was breathtaking. And oh so cold!:
We were fortunate enough to be able to get on an amphibious bus/boat straight away, to take us onto the lagoon for a closer-up view of some icebergs. The guide on the boat told us that the bluer ones had just flipped – the blue is actually an optical illusion, being a reflection of the sky where the ice is densest. The black bits are, of course, volcanic ash:
The guide then explained that the ice she was holding was about 1000 years old (she’d received it from a fellow on a boat, who’d gone to the glacier edge to retrieve it) and because it was so dense, would take longer to melt than normal ice. She gave us a taste of it – apparently it’s very good for scotch :-). Just tasted like ice made from the very pure water here in Iceland:
After the boat tour, we had a bit of time to walk around and photograph the ice lagoon from a different angle and I got some nice shots:
Then it was back on the bus direction Reykjavik – back the same way we’d come, but stopping for bits we didn’t stop at on the way east, such as at Skeidararsandur - all that's left from the bridge after the flood in 1996:
Then we got up close to some cairns made from lava rock at Laufskalavarda. Cairns were used for direction because they would stand out even in snow:
Next stop was at Vik where we could see the rock formations at Dyrholaey (and have dinner!):
I also got close up to some Alaskan Lupins and Arctic Angelica:
We continued on towards Reykjavik, coming past some dramatic landscape straight out of Lord of the Rings:
Last stop was at Seljalandfoss waterfall:
And then past the steaming valley and its hundreds of power pylons back to Reykjavik:
We finally rocked into town at about 10:45pm, an exhausted group. I was the first off the bus, fortunately, being a little way outside of the city.
Harpa was still up because she had to pick up some guests at the airport for 1am or so, and came and chatted with me for a little bit and then it was off to bed, because I had another tour in the morning!
