Day 4 Ice Cave

Before I tell you about our excursions on Day 4, I have to backtrack a little and tell you about the northern lights.  We went out last night for some northern light chasing as the forecast was good.  The good news is that we saw some.  The bad news is that my nighttime photography skills are not very good.  Here are a couple of photos to show you.  These have not been enhanced by software and are as taken.  You get the gist, we saw some northern lights.  I can’t say that I thought they were spectacular.  I am now considering on doing a tour to see if I can get better photos.

So, Day 4. We woke up to a beautiful view outside our room.  The photo below was taken at 7:00 a.m.  

We are heading out earlier today and driving back to the Jokulsarlon Glacier for the meet up to go on the ice cave tour.  We are making changes to our itinerary to not complete the Ring Road due to weather conditions and road closures over the next few days.  It will snow in the east and north but the west and south will be sunny so we will go where there’s sunshine.  Hofn will be as far east as we will go.  One thing that has been consistent in Iceland is sun or snow, there’s always wind.  The weather today is another sunny day.  There are very few cars on the road right now and it reminds me that it’s really crowded where we live.

We met at check in point and were loaded into a very large big wheel 4x4.  Packed in like Icelandic herrings, and then we are off.  The trip was about a 25 minutes drive, some on very bumpy roads, the guide (Benny) gave us some facts about Iceland.  One of the facts about Iceland is that there are no mosquitoes in Iceland.  Interestingly it’s not because of the cold (he said Greenland has bad mosquitoes) but because of the wind.  When we stopped near a glacier the guide distributed crampons to everyone but we were asked to just hold them.  We walked for about 5 minutes and then it was time to put on the crampons.  We walked in the snow toward the glacier for a bit more and then stopped at the entrance to explain about the caves and the ice layers.  These guides go and search for new caves in September as these caves all melt away by April.  Being that it’s already March, some melting has already happened and they take a chainsaw to it to make sure it’s safe.  We went to three caves.  The wind was blowing so strong that we were covered with snow just being outside.  It was extra cold today because of the wind.

Getting to the caves:

Walking on ice

Cave 1

Cave 2

Cave 3 - the best one

 

Other nearby caves but we didn't enter because they were not safe

The temperature was so cold that our iPhones shut down on their own.  Luckily, I brought my DSLR and was smart enough to bring an extra battery because I read that batteries drain faster in the cold.  

Oh, I have an explanation for the no diamonds on Diamond Beach.  So usually, the glacier melt and chunks of ice are pushed out to the ocean.  This year, Iceland is experiencing the coldest winter in a hundred years so the ice are stuck on the side of the glaciers.  Therefore, Rick and I went to see them. After the tour, we went to the Fjallsarlon Glacier Lagoon to see them.  We had to do a little hiking to the lagoon and omg, it was soooo windy and cold, even with being all bundled up like nanook!  But, we found the missing diamonds.

We then had lunch (more ham and cheese sandwiches) and then got on the road.  Both of us were a bit tuckered out so we pulled off and took a nap.  I have no idea how long Rick napped but I didn’t wake up until we got to Vik.  That’s about a total of about two hours of napping.  It is quite good to be a passenger.  A quick trip to the Kronan market to get more drinks, get more gas, and then we are on the road again.  

Rick's notes for the day:  btw, the formatting of the blog template we have chosen has a mind of its own.  So when you see interesting formating choices, please blame them on Blogger and not us.

Fun fact #1: there are no mosquitos in Iceland, too windy (I see Rosie stole my first fun fact in her blog post).  Fun fact #2: Rosie and I found out later in the day that the newly shorn sheep we saw driving to the glacier lagoon were actually reindeer.  Fun fact #3: Minks were imported to Iceland in 1931 for fur farming and some escaped and are now classified as an invasive species.  Our cave guide noted that minks kill birds for 'sport' while other species like the Artic fox kill only for food. Sorry Rosette, we did not see any that we could club and get a stoll made from its fur. And the final fun fact is that Iceland is growing by about 2 inches per year due to the shifting of the tectonic plates.

Driving in Iceland is super easy.  I think it must be the least car traveled country I have driven in.  It is nice that the cars are left-side drive so there is no translation that needs to happen there.  The road quality is mediocre but given the conditions, not bad.  The speed limit is slow.  Max speed in the entire country is 90 kph (54 mph).  In most of the country, round-abouts are used in lieu of traffic signals.  Most roads are two lanes and passing is super simple given that lack of cars on the road.  There are a few tour buses on the roads and some truckasaurus for touring people off-road.  Many of the bridges in Iceland are one lane.  I am not sure if there is any right-away other than who gets there first has the right away.  I have given way 3-4 times but the other ~40 bridges I have been the only car or the other side gave way.  As I have mentioned on other travel blogs, Google Maps is pretty darn amazing when driving in a foreign country.  We are using a wifi hot-spot we rented online before we left and the coverage on that device has been great.  The Google maps even handle the round-abouts by telling you what exit of the round-about to use...nice.  So far on the trip, I have only received one gesture from another motorist.  Yesterday, I left-turned out of a parking lot onto the main coastal highway. Some guy who was probably 100-150 yards away coming the other direction raised his hand up in a questioning fashion...to be hospitable, I did the same.  It was kind of odd because it was not even close to me cutting him off.

It is getting late and I am out of thoughts.  So in lieu of more words, here are some photos and a video I captured today.

Wait a moment... We  saw some northern lights tonight!  Sucess!  It was really cool!  Please find below some of my photos.  We watched it dance across the sky.  Btw, the dots are the stars and photos 3 and 4 have the moon.  Interestingly, when I shoot in RAW format, the pictures have much more details but I have to convert the photos to JPEG to be able to upload to the blog so you see a lot less.  But neverthe less, legit photos of the Aurora Borealis.  Now I can say that my Iceland trip taken in March was a success.  A quick shout out to Chuck for the hand warmer suggestion!  They worked great!  Now we can end the Day 4 blog.