Rusty here again. The next morning we were up about 8 because we had to be at the glacier at 915. We drove BACK the way we came to meet the glacier crew and it looked very exciting when they gave us harnesses and axes. I thought we were in for some serious stuff. Not to mention there were pictures of people in what looked like ice caves. But turns out those were just for looks.

We just tromped up and down the glacier mostly. We met at the glacier and split into two groups. Our guide was named Lucielle and he was very particular. We spent 20 minutes learning to put our crampons on because if we did not do it properly “they would come off and we would slip and break our leg”. Everything would lead to broken bones. “walk where I walk or you will break your leg” and so on and so on.

While we were at the first stop on the glacier we felt a rumbling and all of the sudden water started bubbling out of the holes in the glacier. The guide actually looked worried. This is when I realized this doesn’t happen every day. Sounds like there was some shifting and breaking of the ice beneath us which pushed the water up. We tromped around for awhile, took some pictures and tromped back. Our axes were only for the pictures unfortunately, and to play with. Not for real stuff. 

WE drove BACK the way we came and hiked in Skaftafell park to Svartifoss. This was a pretty busy but beautiful hike to a basalt column waterfall. It was steep as usual, Josh would tow Halle and I would tow Blake up the mountain.

We were all pretty tired at this point, and kind of ready to be done. But there was still so much to do. Next up were the green lava fields. These were SO COOL.

We drove back past Vik and stopped at the YODA Cave. This was by far the biggest black sand beach we’d seen. And we could drive the van right out onto the sand. I had a nap – I was fading. Tara was kind enough to keep the kids busy for a few minutes so I could crash in the front seat. They saw the cave then Josh hiked to the top of a huge rock mountain out on the beach. Impressive.

We drove to the Dyrhólaey Lighthouse. I’m glad we did. Tara wanted to do this, but this was on an awesome overhang. It was so windy and cold and foggy but then the fog lifted and it was awesome. And we looked over the edge and saw our closest Puffin yet, right there next to us.

The girls needed a bathroom at this point (I had to run over the side of the hill at the lighthouse) so I tried to find a rest stop. Instead I found a quiet little cafe / guesthouse at the end of a 1k road. There was a super nice woman who offered to “sell me something hot and make me a sandwich”. I was excited about that. And wouldn’t you know it was the best ham sandwich I’ve had in a long time. The hot chocolate was just okay but it was served cute on a silver platter.

Blake was asleep in the car with what was the beginning of a migraine. We drove to Skagafoss where Blake promptly puked. The rain and the wind set in. Blake puked again. We made some dinner in the van, tonight we had pasta with red sauce. Blake didn’t have any tonight needless to say. No one was really interested in getting out of the van to go explore the waterfall at this point. There’s a really cool hike that starts here called Waterfall way–next time. Halle snapped a quick pic of the falls from our van and we were on our way. We drove to Reykjamörk Hveragerði Campsite. We chose this because it was right beside the thermal river, but turns out the weather would not let us do the thermal river. This night of camping was the least fun, it was wet and rainy and we were kind of packed in. But I chatted with the owner for awhile and he was super nice, he had run 52 marathons when he was younger. Tara and Halle slept in the cold wet tent 😦 The boys and I shared the cozy van.