We only had about a two-and-a-half-hour drive today, with a major stop about an hour out. But it was raining to beat the band the whole time and visibility was pretty much non-existent. So, the journey was a bit sketchy at times.
We were driving through Vatnajokull National Park, and under nicer weather conditions, I’m sure we would have had some stellar views of the Vatnajokull Glacier in the distance. This glacier is Iceland’s largest, covering 14% of the country. Unfortunately, we saw absolutely nothing except a cowabunga road.
To make matters worse, there was a low-hanging fog that limited visibility even more. The road had some deep puddles that would jolt the steering wheel and attempt to launch our little car into a lava bed when we hit them at speed (55 mph). And to add a bit more thrills and chills, there were a bunch of one-lane bridges scattered hither and yon, which would have been fine if we could have seen the far side, but felt like playing Russian Roulette when we couldn’t.
There were no towns, no mountains, no nothing. At least that’s how it looked to us.
There was a small gas station and cafe somewhere out in the middle of nowhere and the place was mobbed. Apparently, everyone was looking for sanctuary from the rain and fog. We just kept on rolling, rather than get caught in a COVID trap.
I definitely breathed a sigh of relief when we finally arrived at the Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon and Diamond Beach.
It was still raining hard but we no longer noticed such silly inconveniences. We just put on our crappy rain gear (I don’t care what they advertise, nothing other than rubber or plastic is truly waterproof in the steady Icelandic wind and rain!) and headed out into a mob scene.
The Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon is one of the most unique (and popular) sights in Iceland. It features icebergs floating out to sea and beached on the black volcanic sand. Some were streaked brown and black with sand and dirt. Others were shiny and clear. They mobbed together in the blue lagoon as if planning a jailbreak.
We climbed a muddy hill for a better view of the entire area and noticed several happy harbor seals frolicking in the lagoon. The whole scene was totally surreal, like some Disney creation.
It was a three-ring circus around the parking lot with tour operators hawking walking tours, zodiac boat tours, and even Duck Boat tours. We weren’t interested.
It might have been raining but we didn’t care. We wanted more! So we followed a lava stone trail along the river which led from the lagoon to the ocean.
It was amusing to watch the icebergs drifting downstream and then getting slammed by the incoming current. The icebergs first stopped, then started spinning lazy circles as if confused, before getting slowly pushed back into the lagoon from whence they came. Some even flipped upside down, exposing their psychedelic blue bottoms.
The river trail led under the Ring Road bridge to the ocean where the black sandy beach was littered with shiny icebergs the size of baseballs. They glittered against the black sand beach, and even in the gloomy rain, they really did look like glittering gemstones. That’s why it’s called “Diamond Beach“. They were the wave-smashed fragments from the larger icebergs that made it from the lagoon to the ocean. And you could pick them up and even give ‘em a good lick. The ice was over a thousand years old and the cleanest and tastiest water you could ever drink on earth. I couldn’t resist.
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I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that up until a few days ago, this was where you could catch an ice cave tour. But that was before two knucklehead Americans were killed when they were crushed by falling ice. Since then, all the ice cave tours have been shut down while the matter is investigated by the powers that be. The Icelanders are quick to point out that the operator was an American who took risks they would never take. Yeah, maybe.
But when we were preparing for our Iceland trip, we watched a YouTube video about how much fun could be had on an ice cave hike, and I said to Inna, “That’s for Darwin Award contestants. I wouldn’t crawl into a melting ice cave at the point of a gun. It’s dangerous as shit.”
Well, stupid is as stupid does.
We subsequently learned that the American tour operator did in fact carve a renegade trail into the glacier and then started leading tours which ultimately ended in disaster. But we also found out that ice cave tours had only been offered in the winter until COVID almost destroyed the tour companies’ livelihoods. So, think about that if you decide to go strolling inside a thawing glacier in summer.
A few minutes farther south from Jokulsarlon, there was the Fjallsárlón Glacier Lagoon, where we could get much closer to the glacier than at Jokulsarlon, and there were better views of all the cracks and crevices. But we were sopping wet and needed some serious car time to dry off.
We drove through the fog and rain, catching only quick glimpses of the terrain passing by. It was like a really boring, and yet stressful, video.
By the time we arrived at our destination in Kirkjubæjarklaustur, we were finally dry and we checked into the splendid Hotel Laki where we settled in for some farm-style hospitality.
The Laki area is infamous in geological circles. Between June 1783 and February 1784, there were a series of eruptions in the region around Mt. Laki that were some of the biggest and most poisonous in historic times. Over the course of eight months, there were ten eruptions, creating 135 craters and two vast lava fields. And the consequences were enormous for Iceland, as 75% of the domestic animals and 20% of the human population soon died.
The sulfurous cloud from the eruption eventually covered most of North America and Europe, leading to acid rain defoliation and extensive crop failures. The overall temperature of the planet was lowered by two degrees and the effects lasted nearly three years, ultimately impacting all of the planet.
And today, Laki has some wonderful hotels and guest houses where we can all pretend that everything’s gonna be alright.
