Day 5: Glaciers at the End of Our Road

After a particularly cold and damp night in the camper and falling asleep to the sounds of sheep bleating, we went out for what ended up being yet another surprising and rewarding jog.  The gravel road through the soft pastures of Svínafell led behind a hill and quickly became very scrubby. 

Old, sunken hay stacks hint at what used to be here.

The road disintegrated to moss and rubble so we pointed ourselves in the direction of an unexpected glacier tongue. The glacial river showed signs of a washed-away bridge.  I wonder when was the last time someone came out here?  It seemed totally abandoned!

Heading back to the Svínafell campsite.

We took our cold showers, had breakfast, and continued west along the Ring Road toward the glacier lagoon, Jökulsárlón.  It wasn't necessary to go all the way to the visitor center since several other lakes gave just as amazing views.   

Fjallsárlón, the glacier lake south of Jökulsárlón.  These lakes are formed by the melting glacier.

We could hear the icebergs creak and groan.

I couldn't resist sampling some 1000 year old glacier ice that had washed ashore.

A trail led from the lake Breiðárlón to Jökulsárlón.  Jökulsárlón did not exist 75 years ago, when the glacier reached all the way to the sea. 

It was strange and depressing to see the smaller icebergs that had broken off the glacier Breiðamerkurjökull and were now floating away into the sea.

Ice boulders that had washed onto the black sand beach.

Here we had lunch--in the camper, of course, with the company of Albert the Greak Auk.

After lunch by the quickly melting glacier we turned around to head back southwest along the Ring Road.  It was a bit too much to drive around the entire Ring Road so we just went about a third of the way and did it out-and-back.  The nice thing about this was that we could stop at the places we missed!

Skaftafellsjökull

Skaftafellsjökull

The glacier runoff

Núpsstaður, a peaceful farm with some old turf buildings, including a church from 1650.  Unfortunately the road to it was closed :o( 

A turf building along the road, built into the hill.  It appeared to be sheltering the remains of an old boat.

More basalt columns at Dverghamrar (Dwarf Rocks)

Heading back west we stayed at our trusty hostel in Vík.  It was pricey to stay the first night but the nice fellow working let us pay just for breakfast and we could also camp and use the facilities (loyal customer discount!).

Emailing Mom from the warm, dry comfort of the indoors!