Last night we decided to just drive until dusk and then find another random pull off for the night. Sometimes you are in the middle of nowhere and can’t find a campground when you need one anyways. We found another grass and gravel pull off of the road that went a ways off the road into a small pine forest. We camped there. When we’re camping “off the grid” we make sure we go by the “leave no trace” rules and leave everything as we found it.
We headed out around 8:30am. We still had 3.5 hours until we reached our next destination – Jökulsárlón and Fjallsárlón. We didn’t get there until well after 1pm because we always stop so many times to see cool things and take photos.
As we drove into the Eastern part of the country, we started spotting glaciers off in the distance. You could see giant areas of white in the valleys of mountains. As we approached they got more and more massive. When we finally got down all up close and personal to the first one, we were in awe. The things are gigantic! And the floating icebergs at the bottom of the glacial lagoons are each so unique! We hiked down, hopped onto some of the accessible floating icebergs and messed around for a bit, freaked mom out a bit, and then moved on.
And we picked up a hitchhiker. haha. We’ve seen plenty but never had the room or the time or we weren’t going the right direction. This guy was by himself and going the same way as all of us. 20 min to the glaciers. He was from Italy and had done a work program there for a month and then had been backpacking and hitchhiking for 2. He had pretty cool stories.
So then on to the second glacier. We thought the first one was cool. Then we got to the second one! We were awestruck. It was so picturesque! A massive white glacier flowed down between the mountains into a blue glacial pool of white and blue floating icebergs. Seals were swimming around darting in and out. Tons of people had stopped to take photos. It was truly a beautiful sight.
There was also an area where some of the floating icebergs and ice chunks wash up on the black sand beach. That was really neat to see too. I can’t really say much more about it, except that you have to see it for yourself to appreciate the beauty of it!
Tonight we’re staying at a campground at the base of another mountain. We’re all set up much earlier than usual. There’s a waterfall in the distance, and a glacier to the far left of us. There are showers and a communal kitchen here so we’re happy about that. We’d been really roughing it the last few days! haha. Rain is in the forecast tomorrow and Sunday, so we’re praying and hoping for the best. We still have more to do!
Camp spot from the night before. A random gravel/grass road off Route 1
Breakfast on the road
Next few photos, just some of Iceland’s ever changing weather and scenery.
Must. Climb. Cool. Things.
An adorable little campground
Off roading a bit
Glacier one
I was thirsty. *shrugs shoulders* Water was crystal clear despite what it looks like around me.
Jokulsarlon
You literally go from the blue ice lagoon, to this a few minutes down the road. It’s crazy.
Camp spot for Friday night at Svinafelli
