Day 10 - Vik and Dyrholeay

 We started Day 10 by exploring the area near the guesthouse we stayed at - it was desolate 

There was nothing else near and around the guesthouse, as can be seen in the picture above. The guesthouse was nice- had a heated tub on the deck - Satto and I enjoyed sitting in the hot water. We cooked our own dinner and talked to some other travelers. 

There was a river flowing nearby.

Alex and I did another of our star jumps !

We checked out and headed to Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon. Sometimes they close it due to too many tourists. This is a beautiful and deep canyon. It was covered in beautiful verdant green moss.

After spending some time enjoying the canyon views, we headed towards the town of Vik. 

 

The view near Vik.

A beautiful church in Vik- the setting is picture-prefect!

The beautiful black sands of the Reynisfjara beach.

We somehow missed the turn to get close to the stacks. Instead we parked and hiked up Dyrholeay. Dyrholeay peninsula is a promenade famed for its staggering view of Iceland's South coast as well as for its historic lighthouse and birdlife.

We hiked up the path to the lighthouse.

It was an easy hike. If we were to drive to the top, it's a series of steep switchbacks, that can be scary as the road is very narrow up the hill.

It was windy but not that cold.

There is a walking path to walk around the lighthouse. 

The views of the black sand beach were spectacular.

We were lucky enough to get to see some puffins. 

We did another star jump on our way down!

Satto and Neel are far ahead of Alex and I, when we were on our way down. 

We did a brief stop at Skogafoss. It's a huge, gorgeous waterfall. 

There was a lot of mist from the spray.

We did a quick star jump !

One can see the 500 steps that take you to the top of the waterfall. We will be doing the Skogar hike tomorrow and hence did not climb up today. 

We continued onto the guesthouse. The guesthouse was beautiful. There was a waterfall on the property and the guesthouse owner said they generate electricity from the waterfall.

Neel and Satto decided to hike up to near the waterfall. 

But the waterfall was really far, even though it looked close. We gave up and walked back down to the guesthouse.

The guesthouse had a very friendly dog, who loved playing with his soccerball.

Neel spent a good chunk of time playing with the dog. Wish I could remember the dog's name!

What a gorgeous sunset view !

Alex cooked some rice and salmon for dinner.

Alex enjoying his beer! After a very yummy meal, we settled in for the night. 

 

 

Day 9 - Jokulsarlon and Glacier Hike on Vatnajokull Glacier

 Today, after breakfast, we headed out to Jokulsarlon and Diamond Beach. It was about a 40 minute drive. Jokulsarlon is a lake filled with glacier meltwater from a receding glacier. 

It has huge chunks of floating icebergs and the water color is an amazing blue green hue, depending on the conditions.

We did another star jump!

Look at the perfect reflections!

After spending about an hour here, we headed out for the glacier hike. We somehow missed stopping at Diamond Beach, which has black sand and sparkling icebergs!

After grabbing a quick lunch along the way, we reached the meeting point for the glacier hike on Vatnajokull Glacier- the largest icecap in Europe. We had signed up for a 5 hour hike (starting at 1 pm). This means we get to spend at least 3 hours on the glacier. 

Our guide was a guy from New Zealand!

After everyone got fitted with crampons, we were loaded into the jeep and driven to a place close to the glacier. There was a lot of meltwater due to the glacier receding and we had to walk about 20 minutes to get to the starting point. Here, the glacier looks quite brown from all the mud and soil mixed into the ice and doesn't look as pretty as one would expect.

At the beginning of the tour, we were taken to a ice cave and the guide talked a little bit about how it gets formed and the different ice layers etc

After that, we started the glacier hike. The guide was always there to help get over the steeper parts.

I fell a couple of times due to getting entangled on my own crampons !

As we climbed higher, the glacier had more blue hues in the ice.

They had made some ice ladders for the steep climbs.

The also had some ropes laid to help with climbing.

We did our star jump, but I was a bit too scared to jump more than a few millimeters on a glacier!

It was not that cold being on the glacier. 

The guide helped us cross some crevasses. We could not see the bottom of those crevasses!

We could not see the top of the glacier. It seemed to go on and on!

At some parts, the ice was a deep blue and very pretty!

I was able to drink the water - it was clear and clean and refreshing!

After spending some time relaxing and enjoying the view, the whole group headed back down. We never did reach the top of the glacier. There are multi day tours where one can do more walking across the glacier. 

We really enjoyed this experience and highly recommend it. One can do the shorter one for 3 hours, if 5 hours is too long. The kids wanted to do a full day tour- they so much enjoyed the hike on the glacier.

Once we got back, we drove to the next guesthouse and settled in for the night!