Zodiac Boats

 No visit to Iceland would be complete without an excursion in a zodiac boat on a glacier lagoon! 

Our stylish, and very warm jackets, were also flotation devices.  I've mentioned several times that on this whole trip I never felt the urge to 'suck in' when someone was taking my picture.  I looked like the pillsbury dough boy the whole time since I was wearing so many layers!

After a short hike, we arrived at the glacier lagoon.  

Beautiful glacier, icebergs and the zodiac boats!

The icebergs reminded us a bit of our Antarctica trip but these were much smaller.  

Some of the ones in Antarctica were the size of aircraft carriers!

They were quite pretty, especially the blue ones.

So many shapes of ice and gradations of color!  It really wasn't cold at all, but then we did have on multiple layers.

Our guide took several photos of each couple. I think that pre-COVID, you actually were encouraged to taste the ice.  Now you just pretend to taste it.

Even though no pieces of the glacier calved when we were there, it was still a really fun experience.  

The group before us, had two pieces calve and said it sounded like thunder.  Sorry we missed that experience.  

I love adventuring with my handsome arctic explorer!

Icelandic Animals

 For an animal lover like me, seeing Icelandic horses and sheep was a treat not because they are hard to spot, like leopards on safari, but because they are just so darn cute.

The population of Iceland is 364,134 and the #of sheep is about 800,000 - more than 2 sheep per person.

We were lucky to encounter a small flock on the road side of the fence. When I got out of the car with my camera, most of them ran away but not these two brave guys.  I am not sure how close they would have let me get before running away but they certainly didn't seem afraid.

Another day one posed for me.

And on another hike I got this nice profile shot!

There are some black sheep. And some that I would call 'Oreo sheep' as they are black on the ends with a band of white in the middle. Never got a photo of one of those.

During the summer months the sheep are entirely free range, feasting on the tall grasses of the highlands.  In the fall, they are brought down to lower elevations.  Before the hard winter sets in, they will be safely in barns like the one you can see in this photo.

Sometimes Icelandic horses and dogs are used for the round up, but the one time we saw sheep on the move, they were being 'herded' by an ATV.  Not nearly as picturesque!  

In times past, up until the 1970s, the sheep wintered over in turf barns.

Much more interesting than the modern sheep barns we saw all over Iceland.

After round up and before they go to the winter barns, sheep are herded into these circular pens called retts.  Each section is labeled with the name of a farm and the owners sort them by their 'particular facial expressions', 😀 or more precisely, by the tags in their ears.

We thought of our horse loving son, Scott,  as we drove past field after field with these adorable Icelandic horses.  

This color combination is my favorite.

Loved seeing this mom and baby....mare and foal!

On our very last day in the countryside we were so lucky to find a group of horses, right by the fence, where there also happened to be a safe place to park.

We enjoyed feeding them the grass that was on our side of the fence!  It always tastes better huh?
This pretty brown guy was more interested in nibbling my pants, coat and hands than the grass I offered him.

We did become good friends anyway!

The last Icelandic 'animal' we saw was the famous 'rhino rock'.  

It does look like a rhinoceros having a drink, doesn't it?

My google map calculations indicated that a trip to the rhino rock would add about 45 minutes to our drive.  That might have been true had the road been a normal road instead of potholed, narrow and one lane.  It took us more than an hour each way to get to this rock.  Interesting formation but I'm not sure it was worth it.

Let's see, next trip to Iceland we need to see reindeer and arctic foxes and maybe some whales.

Canyons

We often read that scenery in Iceland is truly dramatic!  The two canyons we explored certainly live up to that billing. 

The first one was Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon.  That's another one of those words that I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce.  Naturally we called it the F Canyon.  It is called one of the best easy hikes in Iceland and I agree wholeheartedly.

I consider this one a 'must-see' on any Iceland itinerary.

It has a sort of 'Middle Earth' feel. Don't you agree?

If it looks familiar it might be because Justin Bieber shot a video here (and in other places in Iceland) in 2015.

 https://youtu.be/PfGaX8G0f2E.  

The canyon became such a tourist draw, that it had to be closed for a time.  The hordes of tourists were destroying the fragile ecosystem.  I'm sure glad it opened back up in time for us to visit. 

Studlagil Canyon was one of the places I most wanted to see in all of Iceland.  It didn't disappoint.

Not mossy green like the F Canyon!  This one's claim to fame are the basalt columns.

I so wanted to climb down into the canyon but it made me nervous.  Not that it was a really long drop, but it was wet, slippery mud.  I knew that I would forever regret it if I didn't go for it so I did it!

Yeah for me!

The view from the bottom was extraordinary!

And yeah for the kind young people who helped Grandma out!  I didn't feel too geriatric since they were helping each other out as well.

Little moments of bravery can make all the difference!

Life in a Camper Van

Traveling in a camper van is similar in some ways to being on a cruise.  You can unpack and don't need to worry about where you will eat or find a hotel.  The big difference is that in a camper van YOU are the room steward, waiter, chef, tour director, and captain.  Even with that, I have to say that George and I loved it!

How could you not when you wake up to views like this each morning! Yes, 3 waterfalls right at our campground!

To camp in Iceland you must be in a designated campground.  When you find one, you simply drive out onto the field and park.  Most of the time, the caretakers are not there in the evening so you pay in the morning. It is all on the honor system. Campgrounds have electrical connections and all have nice bathrooms and showers.  Often they have common inside areas where tent campers can cook their meals  A few even had washers and dryers. 

You find your spot, hook up to the electricity and you are set for the evening.

Our van had a bathroom

The bathroom did mean some 'dumping' chores.

Because we used the campground toilets most of the time, we only had to 'dump' twice and it wasn't as bad as it sounds.

The kitchen area was small but usable.  We had all but 4 meals in the van which saved us a ton of money.

Because the 'hallway' was so narrow, we did have to have some coordination as we maneuvered 

around each other in the van!

The bed was warm and comfy.  There was adequate storage space and enough plugs for recharging our electronics.

Every campground had a place where you could refill the water supply and it was free.

 Bonus, with its big pink pig logo, was the best grocery store for purchasing perishables at prices that weren't too outrageous.  One funny thing, in this cold country the meat and dairy were in 

very cold rooms within the store, not in cold cases, like we have.  I was shivering as I shopped.

If you have a spirit of adventure and don't mind driving a van, I highly recommend seeing Iceland this way.  It was a unique experience and I would do it again.

Wind

Everything I read about Iceland  alerted me to the fact that the weather changed rapidly.  Some people say that they experienced all 4 seasons in one day. That wasn't true for us as temperatures didn't vary greatly.  The temperature fell to 32 degrees one night but most of the time, day and night, stayed in the upper 30's to the mid 40's.  We had some rain but not enough to affect our daily plans.  The only weather related change we made was because of wind.  Seriously high wind!  

It's hard to capture just how windy it was.  Let's just say that the wind howled and it was the only time I've every been scared in wind.

We started off to hike 2.7 easy miles to the Skaftell Glacier,.  Easy wouldn't be the word I would use to describe this hike on this particular day with the wind blowing at upwards of 30 MPH, with even stronger occasional gusts.  We got to the top of a ridge and could see the glacier but the wind was so strong that we just stopped.  George hunched down and I braced myself on the wooden guidepost.  Deciding it wasn't safe to stay on the ridge in that wind, we walked cross country and did eventually arrive at the very impressive glacier.  'Walking' probably isn't the best description of the hike.  It took so much effort to stay upright against the wind.  At times I just bent over and spread my feet to make a big base so I wouldn't be blown away.

The camper van rental company had warned us that is was not safe to drive the camper van if winds were over 45 MPH.  When we got back to the Visitor's Center, we learned that on the Ring Road (which is where we had planned to go later in the day) gusts were up to 90 MPH.  The decision to stay became easy when the Ring Road, which is the main tourist road all around Iceland, was closed. The red road is the ring road.  Closed.

Skaftfell is about in the middle of the picture, close to the white glacier.  The place we wanted to go was Hofń which is at the end of the red road.   One of the women working at the gift shop said that she wouldn't even drive her car on the Ring Road in that kind of wind. 

So we stayed put and enjoyed a relaxing day watching movies in our warm comfy van!