Southeast Excursion

We left Snæfellsnes and began drive to Hof in the Southeast - a journey of a little over six hours if uninterrupted.

Dyrhólaey 

One stop we made on the way, a little past the halfway point, near Vik, was at Dyrhólaey. Dyrhólaey is a small promontory from which there are some interesting views available - of the glacier Mýrdalsjökull to the north, and of several black lava columns jutting far out of the sea, in the East.

On this day, the weather alternated between mist and dense fog, largely obscuring the available views, but we were still able to grab pictures of the scene near where we parked.

We resolved to stop at Dyrhólaey again on our return trip, in hopes that the weather would afford a better look.

Glacier Hike and Ice Cave

Pictured below are two glaciers, Falljökull (on the right) and Virkisjökull (on the left). Both are outlet glaciers of the Vatnajökull glacier - the largest ice cap in Iceland by area and by volume, and by volume the largest in Europe.

We would be hiking on Falljökull, and exploring an ice cave formed at the intersection of the two glaciers. Note the icefall at the top of Falljökull, from which the glacier derives its name.

We went with Glacier Guides as our tourgide. They did a good job, and I would recommend them to anyone who is interested in one of their excursions, although there are also other reputable groups in the area.

We were issued crampons, which strapped onto our hiking boots, as well as helmets and ice axes. The need for helmets was immediately apparent and understandable. I wondered if the ice axes were a regulatory requirement. I suppose having some of them around would be useful in an emergency, though we received little instruction for their use beyond which way to direct the pointy end while walking, and never made use of them during the hike.

The crampons were adjustable, and reminded me of old-style strap on roller skates, but they got the job done.

We had a short bus ride to the starting point for the excursion, and then a roughly 1 km hike to the ice.

Brief pause to strap on the crampons for the hike on the ice

We continued on up the ice for a distance, at times making use of stair steps that the tour guides had hacked into the ice using heavy picks. Leaving our ice axes behind, we descended into the opening of the ice cave.

Falljökull glacier begins with a spectacular icefall, before flattening out below as it continues on. Once the ice reaches the bottom of the icefall, however, it does not move very fast. In fact, our guide said that the portion nearest the bottom does not move at all under it's own weight - it melts away instead.

Virkisjökull, on the other hand, moves significantly faster than Falljökull, and as a result, where they meet, Virkisjökull actually flows over the top of  Falljökull. One of the artifacts of this dynamic is the ice cave we were inside of.

You can see below where the two glaciers meet. The ice at the bottom, which appears darker in the photo, is Falljökull. The ice at the top which has a bluer appearance is Virkisjökull. For the super nerdy, there is a place in the cave where you can stand with one foot on each glacier. I was all over that.

After exploring the cave, we continued on up the glacier for a ways, and got as close to the icefall as we safely could. In the photo below, you can see one of the ice axes being put to good use, safely pinning down the glacier while the tour member adjusts his glove.

Svartifoss

A short 1.6 km hike from the visitor's center/meeting location for our glacier cave tour is the waterfall Svartifoss. We decided to risk getting caught in a downpour and make the hike in order to see an Icelandic Sight. The trail was well constructed and maintained, and we didn't get rained on - not heavily, at least. Also, I had fun referring to the waterfall as Slartibartfoss a couple of times, because immaturity.

Of particular note are the rock formations surrounding the waterfall - consisting of columnar jointed basalt. These formations are formed when lava or magma cools and contraction causes the new rock to split into six-sided columns. Trippy cool.

Jökulsárlón

High on our list of sites to visit was the glacier lagoon at Jökulsárlón.

The lagoon plays host to a number of icebergs, calved from the  Breiðamerkurjökull glacier - the name of which you probably don't care about or need to know, but there it is because I'm totally into diacriticals at this point.

The lagoon is quite large, and owing to the weather we didn't hike around nearly as much of it as we originally thought we might. However, we did come across an area where upwards of twelve seals were frolicking about.

Loch Ness Monster impersonation

The lagoon has an outlet to the Atlantic, through which individual chunks of ice can migrate when tidal conditions are right. When the tide drops, motating icebergs run aground where they are and wait for the next high tide.

Atlantic Shore

The length of the passage from the lagoon to the Atlantic is only a few hundred yards. We spent a fair amount of time on the Atlantic shore as well as at the lagoon itself.

The beach is black sand (as were most of the beaches we saw), and the contrast between the sand and whatever was on or near the beach was strikingly beautiful.

Chunks of ice both large and small exit the lagoon and often wash up on the beach.

Julia's favourite piece of beach ice

Here is a view from when we first arrived at the beach, when the tide was high enough that large pieces of ice were travelling out of the lagoon into the ocean, and were then being washed up onto the shore.

And a bit of video that captures the dynamic pretty well.

Pieces may travel down the beach being washed up repeatedly, melting down all the while, or may finally wash out to sea.

We left and returned a couple of hours later, and the tide had receded considerably. These are the pieces of ice in the previous picture and video, now stranded up on shore.