Höfn

The Iceland weather man didn’t lie to us today! After yesterdays forecast of “sun” ended up being rain and snow, we had low expectations. We could even see the tops of the mountains when we opened the blinds on the van which was a sight to see!

Up and at it bright and early this morning for a glacier hike through the tour company Local Guide Vatnajökull. We drove up in a Jacked-up Super Ford to Falljökull - a finger of the larger Vatnojökull Glacier which covers 10% of the entire country and is 2000 meters at its highest peak. We were greeted with warm temps and sun for the 3.5 hours we hiked sections of the glacier; seeing plenty of crevasses (some reaching as deep at 30m) and some arctic fox prints! We learned a lot about how glaciers form and move, impacting the landscape.

We ended up driving back to Skaftafell to hike up to Svartifoss, a waterfall 20m high cascading down black basalt columns. On our drive to our next campground, we stopped at 2 glacier lakes and diamond beach. The first glacier lake was Fjallsárlón which was the smaller of the 2. Next up was Jökulsárlón with its impressive icebergs. With the tide coming in, these big blocks of ice were drifting farther into the lagoon.

When the tide is flowing in the opposite direction, these icebergs travel from the lagoon down the river and into the ocean. They then get pushed by the waves onto Diamond Beach. As the icebergs melt and wash up on shore they become extremely clear, like diamonds.

We are now in Höfn which is the biggest town in southeast Iceland, with 2000 habitants. Which says a lot when we have been driving past farming villages that consist of a few houses for the last couple days.

Tomorrow is one of our less planned days, driving along the coast and likely stopping at all the waterfalls we spot!Les mer