Day 6 was dedicated to the ice cave tour (or so we thought). We decided to stop at Jokarlsarlon lagoon again since we had some extra time on the way to the tour pick-up point.
Today at the beach we watched the waves crash over the glaciers in direct morning sun.
When we returned to the lagoon we noticed things we didn’t have time to before, like the local wildlife. A plethora of birds soared about, even some crows. Sea lions basked on a faraway glacier and occasionally swam a few laps around the pool.
(side note: seeing sea lions seems to be a big deal in Iceland and they’re very culturally significant. Ironically this was the one thing we didn’t really give a hoot about since we often go swimming with sea lions in La Jolla, or simply see them at Point Dume in Malibu)
We left and headed to the ice cave tour pickup, but we were early. One of the guides said we could high-tail it down the road to a Shell station that had a restaurant. In the restaurant, we had fried fish and au-gratin potatoes in five minutes before dashing back to the pick-up.
An hour later we were at the famous Vatnajokull crystal cave.
Although the tour had been billed (and I do intend the pun) as a “photography tour,” we only had 40 minutes to explore the cave.
40 minutes in a small cave with three different tours, each of about 12 people.
You can guess who got the short end of the stick when it came to taking photos: the couple that didn’t come in a group of ten friends.
Still, the experience was something we’ll never forget. The walls of the cave are otherworldly and ethereally beautiful. They look like all different shades of blue ocean waves just frozen in time and stood upright.
After we went back to the pickup we decided we’d spend the rest of the day checking out all the apple commands that we’d ignored earlier.
The first one was an innocuous sign that said kviamyrarkambur. We drove out to a little parking area and saw that it was a faraway viewpoint for one of the glaciers.
That wasn’t good enough for us so we walked as close to the glacial lake as we safely could.
Back on the road again we stopped at Fjallsarlon, which, it turns out, is another glacier lagoon.
This was the best lagoon we had seen so far. Jokarsarlon is bigger, but at this one we could walk right up and touch the glaciers, and the mountain the glacier is sliding down is much closer. More than anywhere else we’d been to in Iceland thus far Fjallsarlon had an alien feel to it.
By the time we left, it was getting dark, so we headed back to our hotel, stopping to eat at the only restaurant on the way. At the restaurant we had Iceland Char, which is a less pink version of salmon, but with pink spots on the skin. (very tasty)
Sam was more excited about the horses next to the parking lot.
