October 28, 2022

Day 4: Ice

This day was a day of travelling to reach glaciers and ice caves. We had to get up early as we had about 5-hour drive to Skaftafell on the south-east side of Iceland, right under the glacier. This gave us a chance to experience sunrise in Iceland. Today, it was at 8:51, 10 minutes later than three days ago when we arrived. How many photos can you take? We stopped so many times as the next scenery “picture” in front of us seemed always different and better than the last one.

Most of it still covered by lava rocks, but then patches of cultivated land, farms with sheep, cows and many, many horses (which we didn’t stop to pet and I didn’t take photos of). Some powerful waterfalls and some less, but still so pretty to see shooting out of the mountain. The closer we were getting, the more of white peaks we could see, calling… We had to stop and walk on that green moss. The rocks are very sharp and hard, but the moss is actually so soft and our feet were just sinking into it. I took a short video as I was so surprised to of how soft all that was.

What did this whole island look like when discovered, with no roads and no human settlements? Thinking about Floki (from “Vikings”) who, when thrown by the waves on the shores of Iceland, thought that he died and that that was Heaven (or their version of heaven). Then he walked and walked to try and find someone but Iceland was completely uninhabited.

Finally, the hike up and I was walking on ice! We were immediately divided into smaller groups (I was blue) with our own guide. I named him “Elf” but, I didn’t share it with him. I couldn’t wait to go down the ice steps into the caves where glacier’s water drips from the cave ceilings – the cleanest water on Earth. I had a sip from my hand, while some were filling their water bottles.