Day 3After a good night's sleep on the beach in Vik, we were up bright and early to head towards Jokulsarlon. Except that it wasn't that bright, as the weather was still quite cloudy and rainy. Luckily for us, the further east we drove the better the weather became, and so by the time we arrived the weather was a lot nicer, with some actual blue sky poking through the clouds.
As we wanted to spend a lot of time at Jokulsarlon, we hadn't stopped anywhere along the route; we would save everything for the return trip. Our drive, therefore, was completely uneventful save for
@lfas25 commiting murder:
Photo by @lfas25Instead of describing Jokulsarlon again, I'll just quote from my first
Icelandic trip report (hey - these trip reports pay by the word, not by the hour
):
As it did the first time, Jokulsarlon took my breath away. The only real difference between July and the depths of winter were that now the beaches were clear of snow (also the fact that is was just a tiny bit less cold in July...). Overall though, the scene still looked the same - the snow-covered mountains, the gigantic glaciers, and the masses of icebergs in the lagoon:
Some drone shots give a better overview of the lagoon. This one is looking back towards the mountains and glaciers feeding it:
And here you can see the other side: the narrow outlet through which all icebergs must pass on their way to the sea, and the bridge carrying the Ring Road across it:
Icebergs in the lagoon:
The first iceberg that caught my eye was one dominating all the others - easily the size of a house, carved into intricate shapes by meltwater, and an almost impossible shade of blue. The perfect reflection didn't hurt either:
A couple of close-ups of the ice; we simply couldn't get enough of it:
Some common eiders:
Shooting the ducks:
Photo by @lfas25More icebergs... this one reminded me of the Old Man of the Mountain:
This one looked like a wave frozen in time:
Barnacle goose:
Batchy found an
iceberg ice cube to shoot:
Photo by @lfas25 Batchy and me:
Photo by @lfas25 My first-ever attempt at an over/under shot:
(
I may have gotten a tiny bit better at it since .)
For some strange reason, we had been having trouble finding ice for our cooler in groceries and gas stations so far, and so it was time for drastic measures: using a tripod, we fished out a couple of little icebergs from the lagoon and dumped those in the cooler. Problem solved.
After shooting the lagoon to our heart's content, we moved on to our next stop: Fjallsárlón.
A quick cellphone picture on the way out - the quality is terrible, but I really like how that iceberg looks like a giant bunny:
Fjallsárlón is essentially Jokulsarlon's little brother: a massive glacier calving into a deep lagoon. Unlike Jokulsarlon, there is no iceberg-studded beach here. And unlike Jokulsarlon, Fjallsárlón is relatively unknown and has absolutely no crowds, despite being only 10 minutes apart.
Or so it used to be. When I was there in 2015, there was nothing but a small dirt parking lot and one other person. It was an empty, wild place:
When we pulled up this time - only 18 months later - it had all changed. And not for the better:
Ugh.
The place was being turned into Jokulsarlon 2.0. Buildings going up all around, massive construction noise, and gobs of people. Not that this took away anything from the beauty and grandeur of the place or anything, but the days of having a quiet alternative to Jokulsarlon are seemingly gone.
What are the odds that we would park right behind the camper I had here last time?
We had booked a zodiac tour of the lagoon, so we met up with the operator to get fitted for jackets and life vests.
The weather had turned once again (Iceland!) and was alternating between low, threatening clouds and solid downpours. I got way wetter during this one-hour zodiac cruise than I got in Antarctica, even though I spent at least ten times that amount of time in a zodiac there.
Once we were suited up and had gotten our safety briefing, we had a short but steep hike down to the lagoon itself:
The lagoon here is significantly smaller that Jokulsarlon's, and the glacier is way closer - which is mainly why we chose this option.
Getting up close and personal with massive icebergs:
You could see the Fjallsjökull glacier which feeds the lagoon:
Closer to the glacier, the water was packed with brash ice:
The weather, as I mentioned, was positively horrible. But the nice thing about stormy weather is that sometimes it makes for the best pictures.
All of a sudden the clouds parted, and the glacier was lit up by heavenly beams of light. It lasted for just a couple of seconds, but that was all I needed:
...And then it was right back to this:
Yummy:
And of course, the highlight of every Icelandic trip: learning how to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull:
If anyone is headed to Fjallsárlón in the near future,
@Moishebatchy would appreciate if you can bring back some of his missing teeth for him.
Heading back to shore:
View of the lagoon from shore:
After a few minutes of warming up and drying off inside one of the temporary buildings, we headed back to Jokulsarlon to watch the sunset from the iceberg beaches. But first we stopped on the other side of the lagoon to see if there was anything we missed earlier today - and once more the clouds parted for a moment. Instead of shafts of light, this time the mountains and glaciers were suddenly bathed in glorious orange sunset light for just a couple of seconds, while the icebergs remained in cool cloud shadow:
The Jokulsarlon beaches are an amazing sight: masses of icebergs are spit out from the ocean and settle on the black sand beach, looking like something from a different planet. The beach looked significantly different than it did in the winter though; instead of gigantic chunks of ice high on the beach (due to the violent winter seas), most of the icebergs now were trapped in the surf, rocking gently along with the waves. On the beach itself, the only icebergs were small affairs. Different, but absolutely stunning nonetheless.
The sky towards the ocean was clear, so we were able to enjoy a sunset that lasted for hours. The sunset itself wasn't that incredible, but the whole scene was just something else:
A cute seal came to check us out:
We spent a couple of hours enjoying the beach, and then set out for our spot for the night: Fjađrárgljúfur Canyon.
Crazy sign on the way:
I had tried going to Fjađrárgljúfur in the winter, but the road had been impassible. Now the only hazard we faced was the occasional erratic sheep, and so we arrived around 1am.
Grilling up some amazing steaks:
A quick drone flight to see the canyon in the 2am light:
Pretty nasty video, but it was 2 in the morning and we didn't really care.
...And then off to bed it was.
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