While we slept last night there was a great Northern Lights display….bummer. The hotels really need a “Please wake me if there’s Northern Lights option. I had checked the forecast earlier in the day and it was cloudy..must have cleared up.
After yesterday’s windscreen sacrifice to the weather gods we were given another beautiful day. To break up our trip we stop first at Kirkjugólf – also known as “the church floor” which is 80 sqm of basalt columns that look like floor tiles. ‘
Then an hour’s drive to Skatafell National Park to see Svartifoss. It’s a 12 metre high waterfall that has black basalt column formations. It’s a bit of a hike up the hill to go see but was worth the visit. The carpark was absolutely packed.
Then another hour and we arrived at Jökulsárlón.
This is truly a magical place. We wander around the lagoon part and take a stack of photos.
It is high sun and we wandered around the lagoon. We found a few mini iceburgs to catch and take photos of. Problem is then everyone wants your piece of ice instead of finding their own. Walking around here is the sound of 100 drippy taps.
The big iceburgs melting and every now and then a crack as a chunk of ice breaks off. I could sit here and watch the iceburgs do their dance with the current.
Then we head to our accommodation to check in and then back again for sunset.
This time we go to the beach section. You can see why it’s also called “Diamond Beach” as the little iceburgs wash up and in the sun they glisten and look like diamonds. It’s a photographer’s playground with ice, waves and black sand.
These huge to small chunks of ice as like beached whales, washed ashore rather then sent out to sea.
Some of the chunks easily fit 5 grown men standing on them. It’s interesting to watch families dodge the waves and as the waves go out rush to the berg with their small children, deposit them on the chunk of ice and quickly run back to shore to take what I’m sure is a cute photo. I wonder if they think about the fact the icebergs floated there and if they got a bigger wave could float back off again, dragging their small children out to sea.