Exploring the South of Iceland: Part 2

Helloooo everybody! I’m back with stories from another epic day in Iceland.

I started off my day yesterday by driving from Vík to Diamond Beach, which is about 2.5 hours east. The drive was so beautiful! So much of the drive was through lava rock-covered areas, with mountains and glaciers. Seeing glaciers for the first time was truly amazing — I got goosebumps!

I arrived at Diamond Beach around noon. Next to the parking area, there was a lagoon with icebergs and a bunch of birds that I have never seen before! I will have to look up the names of them. There was a duck with a bunch of its adorable little babies, which kept diving deep into the water. There were also a couple of seals floating around! Apparently, they swim in the lagoon to hide from the orcas.

The beach was really beautiful, with black sand and chunks of icebergs scattered around. I loved watching the waves crash into the ice!

At about 1:30 pm, I met up with my group for…

A GLACIER HIKE!!!

We took super jeeps out to the glacier (but not on it). The jeep had controllers inside of it that would lift the front/back ends up higher to absorb shock from all the bumps. Our tour guide was funny! She said, “don’t worry, I watched a Youtube video on how to drive these things last night. I’ve got this 😎”.

Before we walked out onto the glacier, we had to put on a harness, crampons, and a helmet. We were told to “walk with passion” to avoid tripping and knocking all our teeth out.

We walked out onto the ice and took a moment to enjoy the beautiful view. From the glacier, we could see mountains, the lagoon, the beach… everything. Our tour guide said we were really lucky to have the visibility that we had, because sometimes you can’t see anything up there! I loved listening to the sound of the crampons on the ice. I wish I would’ve taken a video, but I was really trying not to trip😅. Just imagine chewing on Chick-fil-A ice… it was so satisfying!

I spent most of the hike talking with a mother and daughter pair from Berlin. They are here for two weeks! We talked about how many fun activities there are to do in Iceland, and I told them about my half marathon. They were like, “what are you doing hiking a glacier the day before running a half marathon?!”

They had a great point… I should have probably been limiting my activity, but this is what worked best with my schedule. I didn’t want to miss out on the glaciers!!!

The mom, Susanne, was so sweet and insisted on taking my picture everywhere we stopped! Here are a few that she took…

Our first stop on the glacier was at a pair of moulins that are about two years old. Moulins are holes in the ice that form when an air pocket fills with water, and the water spirals down. Imagine water spiraling down the drain… that’s what happens. As a result, the ice that is left is shaped like a ribbon. These moulins form very rapidly, which means that the ice is always changing. Our tour guide said that sometimes, she will take a group out and discover a new moulin. Two weeks later, it looks completely different.

I am so impressed by how much the tour guides know about the glaciers! I think it would be a lot of pressure to take people out on the ice when it’s constantly changing like that. They have to know where to walk so that nobody falls down into the glacier!

We were standing by the huge moulins, admiring the view but standing far enough from the edge, when our tour guide said, “Do you guys want to see what’s down there? I do! Let’s do it. Let’s see what’s down there”

She then started hacking at the ice with a pickaxe and driving a screw into the dense ice.

Not gonna lie, it made me a bit nervous to see that the ice was what was going to stop us from falling off a cliff when we had just learned about air pockets and how quickly the ice changes…

Other people were concerned too. Someone even asked, “So… how do you know that this ice can hold us?”

She then showed us how she drills into the ice. If ice starts coming out the top of the screw, it’s good. If not, you have to find another spot. She attached a couple of ropes and then motioned for us to come over, one by one, to stand at the edge of the moulin. It was so cool to be able to see down into the cave! I could see water gushing out of the glacier, and the ice was so much more blue! If you look at the photos, you’ll notice that there is black ash on the glacier from previous eruptions. There are black lines in the icebergs and glacier that tell the history of volcanic eruptions in the area! So cool. I hadn’t even considered that there would be ash on the glaciers.

Next, we continued our journey up the glacier. This was the most uphill part of the hike, but it went fairly quickly and wasn’t nearly as difficult as my hike the day before. Thank goodness! I am still sore from that hike. Oops!

The whole time, our tour guide kept saying, “if you see anything cool, let me know and we will check it out!”

She really knew what she was looking for (we didn’t, haha) and ended up finding a smaller moulin that we could go down into. Instead of standing at the edge, we climbed down into it. Not all the way, but enough to see how deep it was. Apparently, this moulin had a ceiling two weeks ago, and now it’s already gone! I thought that was super fascinating and really emphasized how quickly these glaciers change.

As I was climbing down the moulin, I accidentally kicked off a chunk of ice and watched it fall all the way to the bottom. I’ll just say I’m glad that wasn’t me falling down there 😅. The ice was bright blue inside the glacier, and like I mentioned, the ice appeared as a ribbon-like structure due to the spiraling of the water. Honestly, this may have been one of the coolest natural wonders I’ve experienced so far!

After everyone had a chance to climb down into the moulin, we started heading back to the jeeps. The walk down the glacier went much faster. I talked with Eva the whole way down. I learned that she is earning her master’s in engineering! And Germans get 30 days of vacation, so nearly everyone takes a two-week vacation in the summer.

When we arrived back at the jeep, Susanne sent me the photos on WhatsApp. She kept saying, “I’ll be thinking of you on your 5-hour drive home” and “I’ll be thinking of you during your race tomorrow!”. She was just SO sweet.

This is what I love about solo traveling. Meeting people from all over the world, having a great time together, and then thinking of them later on and wondering what they’re up to.

We finished our tour at about 6pm. I ate a sandwich that I packed in my collapsible cooler from REI (so glad I packed this!). I had shopped at Krónan earlier that morning in Vík.

A+ for planning ahead!

Before I headed back to Reykjavík, I visited one more place. I couldn’t resist because our tour guide has said we should check it out! It’s a small lagoon just 5ish miles from Diamond Beach. Since it’s smaller than the Jökulsárlón lagoon, you can get much closer to the icebergs. I’m definitely glad I stopped there!

On the drive home, I took in the sight of the glaciers one last time. It was just so awesome to look up at them again after just being on one! The glacier hike was truly a unique experience, and I would definitely do it again. My mom would probably rather me not, though 😉😂.

I ended my day with a 5-hour drive back to Reykjavík. I felt really good up until the last 30 minutes of the trip, and then I was exhausted. Hence, the reason I did not publish this post last night!

Until next time,

Clara