And a video:
Some 'cotton flowers' that are found all around Iceland near still water which I thought were very pretty:
Our car with the glacier backdrop:
Imagine having this view from your house!:
A bit further along the road was another track to a second glacier, but the road looked a bit more difficult so we parked near the main road and wandered down to the delta with its birdlife and the occasional sheep. When there are no cars on route 1 all you can hear are the birds, and the waters rushing down into the sea. It was very peaceful.
If you click this next photo you can see the moon in the middle!
Some peaceful video footage -L:
A couple of lovely sheep pictures:
You can see the glacier tounge in the background here.
(BAA BAA black sheep! -L)
Leaving this place, we drove further along stopping when we saw a few random signs perched on top of a hill called Eskey. Usually things like this mean there is something to see so after Leigh wandered down the bridge to take some photos of the river we walked up to see what was there.
(Can you see me in the next picture?! -L):
We climbed the hill to some incredible views. From this viewpoint we could see several of the mountains and glaciers, the delta beneath them and then after a short walk we could see the sea. I dont think I'd ever been anywhere this beautiful before.
The view towards the glacier:
And towards the sea:
The lack of people and cars was also quite impressive. If you had this anywhere else in the world, I am sure it would be flocked with tourists. We dragged ourselves away as we had to be at a meeting point for 2pm for the snowmobiling which was a little way along the road.
Waiting in the car park, we ate our lunch (best so far with chocolate brownie) for the jeep to arrive and take us on our next adventure. Now this was more than your usual jeep. It was a monster and the driver threw the thing around like it was a toy. The journey from the car park to the base of the glacier, Jokalson, was 16km and was all mountain track. It was a pretty scary journey and more than once did I think to myself I could very easily die up there (as you normally do on these kinds of trips abroad!)
Our superjeep:
Heres some footage of us starting the acent up the mountain in the super jeep. Our drivers was a maniac, and he spoke like Arnie from the 80s! -L:
You can tell Anna was loving this stop to take in the view! -L:
Check out Arnie asking me if 'my heart was pumping'!!!:
We made it to the base Joklasel:
were given our snow suits and helmets (I think Leigh looks like a spaceball ;-P and I just look like a numpty)
We walked down to take our first steps on a glacier.
It was a very odd feeling, being on snow in August with the sun blaring down, but this was soon forgetten after our short and to the point course on driving a snow mobile and that you should avoid cracks/creveses as you'll die if you fall down one.
And off we go:
I was beginning to get a little scared. The journey up here took us to 830m and we were told we were going up to 1000m on the snow mobiles. Leigh was driving as I didn't really fancy it. We set off in a line up the glacier. The first part was lots of broken ice, snow and water running off in little channels under us. Thankfully the snowmobile handled this, but it still didn't feel that sure underneath us as it bobbed about and jolted from side to side. We gradually climed the glacier, stopping off for some pictures half way until we reached our final position in the high corner of one of the mountains.
Our guides took it in turns to climb a steep slope and race down it quickly (they were showing off we decided):
while we all waited taking photos and enjoying the views over the delta and sea below. Thankfully as the weather was so good, we were able to see for miles. Our guide then gave us some stats on the glacier including telling us about the creveses that had formed and that they were getting bigger (I had actually spotted one of these as we drove over it but thought it couldn't have been much until he mentioned it - definitely didnt help my nerves). Then we started our descent down. Leigh was getting a little more confident which was scaring me even more.
Check out my supreme snowmobiling skills -L:
I enjoyed the snow mobiling very much indeed! -L
We finally made it back to base camp where I was quite relieved to get off the snowmobile. We gave back our helmets and snow suits ( I could actually do with one of these - it was quite snug) and prepared for our descent down the mountin in the scary super jeep. It was as bad as the journey up and seemed to go forever. Combined with the journey up, Leighs driving and the drive back down, I was a bit of a nervous wreck when we got back in the car. We headed back and just to spice thing up a bit more, we had a few suicidal sheep running down the road at us! I had really had enough now!
I drove back along the pretty coast line and Leigh took some pictures.We decided we would get our stove and find and head back to Eskey to cook our dinner.
Thankfully the weather was still nice, although there was a bit of a haze now over the mountains. We got back to out pretty hill, Leigh cooked up some pasta and then we lay on the grass verge listening to the sheep and birds all around us.
View from where we were laying:
We agreed this was one of the most beautiful places we'd ever been and perfect place for us to eat. We stayed her a few hours then headed back to our hotel. On the way back we stopped at a couple of the many ponds by the side of the road to watch the birds feeding and cleaning. We stopped for this photo as we had seen a bird (probably not the same one) on this hill on the drive to the hill for dinner.
View from our bed in the hotel:
Weather: Glorious Sunshine
Distance Travelled: 132km
