We had a lot to do today, so we woke up pretty early. Sunrise is at 4am, so you don’t have to fumble around in the dark which is nice, but there is a bit of commotion to getting going in a camper van. Well Madeleine managed to sleep through it all so we decided to let her sleep while we drove to our first destination, Reynesfjarna beach. The beach was pretty cool, rock formations in the surf, puffin colony on the cliff and basalt columns forming caves under the cliff. The best part though was the look on Madeleine’s face when we opened the doors to the van and woke her up on the beach. Priceless.
Not a bad way to wake up
Next it was horseback riding. Colleen and Madeleine went on a guided ride on a black sand beach. I would have joined them, but apparently the diminutive Icelandic horses have a weight limit for riders, and I exceed that limit. The girls said the ride was great. Perfect weather, great views etc, but the highlight was the tolt. As I understand it, all horses have 4 gaits, walk, trot, canter and gallop. The Icelandic horse is the only horse in the world with a 5th gait, the tolt. So Madeleine got to tolt on a black sand beach in Iceland. Not bad.
Back to the van for lunch, then meet up with the tour group for a glacier cave expedition. We drove in a souped up 4x4 van across the glacier’s out wash plain (which was pretty neat), the van broke down and had to wait while the rear wheel drive was removed (which was not so neat), then put on some crampons and a helmet and headed on to the glacier. Wow. It was pretty spectacular. The cave was formed by water exiting a lake formed on top of the glacier. We were able to walk through the cave and into what was the lake. It was awesome. Water was still flowing, so the path took us over narrow footbridges that allowed us to see the the wild shapes that the water had cut in the glacier were up close. It’s hard to describe just haw amazing the whole thing was. At one point the guide chipped off some ice for us. Sucking on 1000 year old ice at the bottom of a glacial lake, that’s a new one for me.
Next was the lava show. Many of the things we chose to do on this trip are for Madeleine’s sake. When I read about the lava show, I thought she might get a kick out of it, but I didn’t think much of it myself. In the end, I think I liked it more than she did. Basically, they heat up volcanic rocks (no shortage of them in Iceland) until they are molten and then pour it down a sluice. The mc then does a presentation explaining various aspects of lava while poking and prodding the lava with a pole. It was spectacular. While not from a volcano, the lava we saw was exactly the same as if is was from a volcano. Watching it move, bubble, cool and crack, not 10 ft from where I was sitting was amazing (the photo doesn’t do it justice. At the end they even gave us a piece of the cooled lava as a souvenir.
Yeah, that was a lot. Poor Madeleine was zonked at the end of the day. No rest for the weary though, tomorrow we’re off to Hofn with a hike and some sightseeing along the way.
Vik campground
Iceland
