| 9:15am |
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| Our first sight of Vantajökull. See the gigantic tongue extended from the hills
to the lowlands. |
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| A closer look at the glacier. |
Warmly wrapped, we left Höfn for Vantajökull,
the largest ice cap in Europe.
The gigantic glacier (150 km across, up to 1 km thick) dominated the southeast
quadrant of Iceland.
Warm clothings were necessary as we were going to snowmobile over the glacier.
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| These Jeeps took us, and the snowmobiles in tow, to the glaciers. |
A small elegant waterfall on our way to the glacier. |
We took a Jeep tour to the top of the glacier.
(There were also a bus tour, which was more expensive.
Why would anyone choose a bus over a Jeep?)
The driver of the Jeep was superman; he did a high-speed backup over a windy unpaved
mountain road with two snowmobiles in tow. We were all in awe.
He was also a nice fellow; he stopped the Jeep to feed the mountain goats, which
came at his call.
The Jeep took us to a lodge on the edge of the glacier at 800m above sea level.
Here we had to change in better gears (they provided everything from helmets to boots)
and learned how to control a snowmobile (pretty simple: press handle to move forward,
release handle to stop, twist handle to steer).
Our snowmobiles never went above 40 kmph and was very safe.
However, it took some arm strength to steer the snowmobile properly.
We rode in single file to a peak at 1200m above sea-level; the journey took about
15 min.
We then had some time to walk around and took in the scenery before returning with
the same path.
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| Snowmobiles on the glacier. Note the tracks on the snowfield. |
No, we were not on the moon. |
Student drivers, really to go. |
Esther and Thomas at the peak. |
View from the peak; pretty misty down there. |
The rugged peak piercing through the snow. |
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| 2:15pm |
After a long and relaxing lunch, we went to Jökulsarlón
(Glacier River Lagoon) .
Huge icebergs, splitting from the adjacent glacier, floated and drifted in the lagoon.
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| Jökulsarlón. Icebergs were naturally blue. The black marks were
lava soil sticked to the ice when the glacier slided over the ground. |
We took a boat ride in the lagoon to have a closer look of the iceberg.
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| This was the vessel for the boat ride. |
All on board (life jackets mandatory). |
Close up on Icebergs. |
Birds hunting at the lagoon. |
After the boat ride, we were in very good mode (especially after some unexpectedly nice
seafood soup at the visitor center) and spent some time strolling along the beach.
It was great to relax and enjoy the day in such a beautiful place.
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| This peaceful beach, where the river lagoon flow into the sea ... |
... and the peace was broken by these intruders. |
Esther and Thomas, with miles of beaches behind them. |
Chunks of ice washed on the beach. 100% transparent. |
More pictures back at the lagoon. |
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| Reflections in the Glacier River Lagoon. |
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| 6:00pm |
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| Esther relaxing in the farm house. |
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| Fluffy kittie! Isn't he pretty? |
Thomas giving kittie the finger. |
We spent the night at the farmhouse Flatey,
with cozy rooms and a beautiful cat with long grey hair.
He condescended to play with us for a while, but could not stand our over-admiration
and had to escape to the field.
We had dinner at Flatey (the coffee, with real cream, was quite impressive) before
going to rest, just when it started raining.
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