Vatnajokull Day!

Henceforth let August 1 be known as Vatnajokull Day, and may it be celebrated the world over!

Vatnajokull (VOUGHT-nyur-cuddle): the largest glacier in Europe, the third largest glacier in the world, and the largest glacier in the world that is not a part of the polar caps.  The core of this glacier is from the last ice-age.  It is so large that the dozens of tongues have their own names and are treated like their own glaciers.  The most recent volcanic eruption in Iceland happened inside this glacier at Grimsvotn.

Our day began by stopping at a gas station and discovering a treasure trove of hand-stitched Icelandic wool on consignment.  I got a beanie, and Stephanie got a head-band ear-warming thing.  Then we drove down to Jokulsarlon for our cruise of the glacial lagoon.

Notice the new hat!

This is the main establishment that takes tourists on lagoon cruises.  They have metal boats that haul thirty to forty people at a time on twenty minutes cruises that venture a few hundred feet into the lagoon.

This is the boat that we went on.  

Across the river from the big place there is this guy Ingvar who runs his own tours out of a trailer.  He is a local guy who worked for the big place for many years before deciding to start his own company.  His tour is twice as long, takes you all the way across the lagoon to see the glacial tongue where it is slowly collapsing into the lagoon, and he gets you within feet of the icebergs.  He was friendly and warm in a way that not all Icelanders are.  The passengers on the boat were Ingvar, Stephanie, and me.  It was unbelievably cool.

A glacial lagoon forms when a glacial tongue ends at a lake.  As the glacier comes apart, icebergs break off and float around the lake for several days or weeks until they melt or drift down a short river to the ocean.  Apparently the icebergs can reach over a kilometer in diameter, though this is very rare.

The black striations in some of the bergs are a record of ancient volcanic eruptions that created layers of ash on the glacier many years ago.

The core of glaciers are this bright blue color.  They will turn white when the sun hits them.  Lucky for us, there had not been sun at Jokulsarlon for many days prior to our arrival.

Each berg is like a modern sculpture.

A pod of seals live in the lagoon.  You can see their little noses sticking out of the water.

Ingvar pulled out a piece of ice for us to play with.  This ice may be thousands of years old.  Apparently, there was a company a few years ago that made ice cubes out of the glacier and sold it to stupidly rich people to pour their scotch over.  What?!


After the glacial lagoon, we drove to a highway turn off where we were to meet the company that would take us on the glacier.  We were picked up by a caravan of "super jeeps."

A "super jeep" is any four wheel drive vehicle with cartoonishly large tires.  

Our driver was a white-haired Icelander with bad English.  The road he drove us on was treacherous in the extreme, a narrow dirt track with blind corners, sharp turns, and hundred-foot drops.  He drove at breakneck speed while talking on his cell phone.  Periodically he would stop and address us in bad English while pointing at the landscape.  Something like: "Here...two-hundred meter...three-hundred here...drop...glacier many kilometer years ago...now: nope."  Then speed off again.  

I am pretty sure this guy was the owner of the company.  

They dressed us up in astronaut costumes and gave us a quick lesson on how to drive the skidoos (snow-mobiles).  Then we were on the glacier.

Steph and I shared a skidoo.  We drove along a track in single file like a train, but it was more adventurous than that sounds.  Our top speed was about 45 kph, which felt quite fast. 

It was foggy and damp, and we did not see much of the glacier, but it was fun nonetheless.

The trip lasted approximately two hours.  Then we piled back in the "super jeep" for the horrifying drive back down. 

That night at Arnanes we splurged on the lobster spectacular:

Beer made from ten-thousand-year-old glacier-water:

And rhubard tart with iced-skyr:

Let it ring from the mountaintops: August 1 shall henceforth be known as Vatnajokull day!