The Glacial Lagoon and Skaftafell National Park

Whoever the bum tie was who determined that white seersucker quilt covers and pillow cases for this hotel need to actually have t.o sleep with their face pressed against seer sucker all night! Whatever were they thinking? Anyway, after another slip and slide trip to breakfast with the assistance of crampons on shoes, breakfast is devoured and then time to check out of the hotel fir an 8 am departure. We have had to change our itinerary somewhat as the blustery strong winds due this afternoon mean that we are going to aim for the glacial lagoon first thing. As the sun doesn’t rise until about 9.45, we are driving in darkness.
Our first stop is at Vik where we have only enough time for a bathroom break and to buy something for our lunch to eat along the way. SB and I stayed here on our trip. The store and woollen factory area has practically been rebuilt as I almost didn’t recognise it. We are told that we will have a longer stop here tomorrow which will be good as there are a pair of wool slippers that may very likely have my name on them.
It’s difficult taking good photos out the bus window as although Simon is a very good driver in these ‘treacherous’ road conditions, he hasn’t cleaned the windows so they are covered in road grime. Hiwever I hope that some of the snaps are sufficient to convey the magical snowscape we see everywhere.
The next image is fizzy, but I’ve been waiting to see the pink or blue hay bales that Louisa had previously told us about. The normal plastic is black, white or green. However for a small cost extra the farmer can order pink or blue plastic whereby the extra cost goes towards cancer reasearch. Pink for breast cancer and blue for prostate cancer. Isn’t that a fabulous idea?

We are now in the southern area of Vatnajokull National Park which is named after Europe’s largest glacier. This park is also the largest one in Western Europe. Even though we are in a full sized bus, loaded with people and luggage, we are still being blown about across the road as we drive along vast ‘sand’ plains that were created by glacial outwashes.

An unexpected treasure of a stop is at Diamond Beach’ where we get to walk amongst the ice that has broken from the glacier and been carried through the lake to the ocean. Amazing!

Yes, that is me licking the ice. Shiny Bright wasn’t here, so someone had to do it
We then drive the short distance to the Jokulasarlon Glacial Lagoon. For those who followed my previous Iceland blog,you may recall that the duck boat ride on the lagoon amongst thousand year old icebergs was number two on my most memorable holiday
moments. As the ice was now so thick there was no opportunity to to actually be on the lagoon, but the sight was still totally breathtaking.

We then make our way back to our notes, but have a short stop at an area they have put a piece of the the previous bridge that was destroyed in the last volcano flow. The force of lava was such that solid iron structures were twisted like pretzels. (Their is no defending the bum ties that have graffitied it).

Time for one last stop before hitting our hotel at a waterfall that still has snow falling down it.

More of the sand plains as we reach our hotel for the next two nights.

Checked into hitelwhich is again basic but liveable, at least it doesn’t have stupid seersucker pillow cases.
Happy hour in the bar with D and G, to then be joined by Nicole from Tumut who is a young free spirit and very chatty. Dinner is good.
Lamb roast, and yes, the lamb tastes differently here, not as strong a taste. I then ordered dessert which was baked Skyr which is like yoghurt but apparently more correctly identified as a cheese. Very nice. Just enough time to work more on the blog and at 9pm we are all meeting to go out into the bloody cold to head away from the local lights, in actual search of the Northetn Lights. Hopefully we will have success but you won’t know until tomorrow’s blog as we won’t be back in the hotel until after 11! So here’s your lot for today.