DAY 1
“There’s the short hike that’s epic and there’s the long hike up the mountain over there that’s even more epic,” our guide Julian said When put like that, was it even a choice???
Said mountain towered over us, with a path that literally zigzagged straight up the ridge, that led to the peak of the big mountain. And when I say straight up, it was actually 1200 feet straight up. As much as my legs protested the steep slog up the mountain, the vistas on the way up made it all worth it, culminating in the “epic” view at the top.
The mountains all around this region have a high iron content, creating these beautiful hills in variations of orange. Add in some rugged slopes, the greenery, snow patches, and black lava against the golden mountains and it looked like a backdrop to a movie set. It was windy. It was cold. And indeed it was “epic”. Julian (owner of @Arctic Exped), documented it all with his camera and drone, as you see in the very cool pictures above.
Our landing pad after the long day? A cabin, made entirely of glass (except for the bathroom), to take advantage of the sweeping views punctuated by snow capped mountains. Outside, the glass walls of the cabin were mirrored so no one could see in. Ironically there was not a single mirror on the inside—not even in the bathroom. So we are starting day 2 with an unshaven and rugged looking Kevin and a bad hair day for the rest of us…lol.
What’s in store for day 2? We aren’t sure. The names of all these places are at least 15 letters long with at least several alphabetical letters that we don’t recognize, making them impossible to pronounce and difficult to decipher our itinerary. So, we are relying on Julian, who hasn’t steered us wrong yet, to surprise us with our plan for today. Stay tuned……
DAY 2-3
One thing I’ve learned when budgeting for travel is that, much like a remodel, it’s good to factor in 30% more when anticipating how much you are planning to spend. That way, you can be spontaneous without feeling stressed about going over budget.
Such was the case today when we veered from our original plan and decided to squeeze in some time on dune buggies. The kids grinned wildly as they sped us across a black sand beach, upstream in a river, and through fields of bright purple lupin, against a backdrop of towering green volcanic mountains.
It’s been a busy two days… two giant waterfalls, two glaciers, a moraine, two black sand beaches, and the aforementioned buggy tour. All interesting, beautiful sites and fun experiences…. Mostly. Syd was mortified by the bright yellow rubber raincoats our guide, Julian (Arctic Exped), had us wear to our first waterfall. In retrospect, even she can admit that it was better than getting drenched by freezing glacial water! Not to mention it made for some absolutely funny and slightly embarrassing pics…LOL.
We spent most of today, before the buggies, strapping on crampons and hiking Sólheimajökull (aka, the Sun Home Glacier.)The abundant crevasses, combined with black ash from previous volcanic eruptions, made for a surreal, otherworldly landscape.
When Julian pointed to a vertical wall and said “that’s what we are going to ice climb”, we had a good laugh at his joke, until realizing he wasn’t joking! In fact, it was our “warm up” (which I did) to gauge our abilities before the bigger climb he had planned in an enormous crevasse. This scaredy cat took one look at the big one and said “no way!” Instead, I got some great footage of the others. 
We are now headed to the middle of nowhere (according to Julian) where we will kayak around icebergs tomorrow.
DAY 4-5
When thinking of icebergs, I immediately think of the Titanic, not of an iceberg filled lagoon….and definitely not kayaking amongst them! But that’s what we did at the base of Vatnajökull glacier where many large pieces of ice break off (calving) to become icebergs.
We paddled across the calm, glassy water, in 60 degree weather (balmy by Iceland standards,) around varying sizes of icebergs. Only 10% of each poked out above the water, something that was hard to wrap our heads around.
Icebergs are inherently unstable and tend to flip over, one reason being their bottoms melt to create this instability. Because of this particular lagoon’s connection to the ocean, the melting happens at a higher rate. The result? Icebergs moving and flipping so frequently, we witnessed at least three, and many more floating out to the ocean. Pieces of these icebergs could be found on the black sand beach around the corner All around a beautiful, unique experience.
Keeping with the iceberg theme, before leaving this morning, I joined Julian (Arctic Exped) on what I thought was going to be a cold “plunge,” quickly dipping into the 40 degree water and getting the hell out. Instead, we sat in the ice cold water up to our chests for 5 minutes (yes, it was hard to breathe at first), then sat in the sauna for 5, before going back to the cold. It was surprisingly doable, though the jury’s still out on the on the health benefits. My core is still thawing…lol.
We are now headed to the Eastern Fjords, a place Julian insists is even more in the middle of nowhere than before. Hard to believe…Stay tuned.
DAY 5-6
I think we can all agree that Iceland is an adventure vacation: huge hikes with spectacular views, glacier hiking, ice climbing, kayaking around icebergs, driving buggies on black sand beaches….the list goes on…
But not everything here is a big adventure. There are many places that are just beautiful and interesting in and of themselves and we’ve spent the past two days visiting some of them. The highlights? Here you go:
The slower pace has been nice after our go go go itinerary and the drives between stops have consistently been scenic. We all agree that the Icelandic landscape is pretty spectacular overall.
Back to adventurous things tomorrow.
DAY 7-8
The beauty of 22 hours of daylight is that if afternoon plans for a hike get delayed, you can easily just reschedule it for after dinner and it’s not a big deal. I mean, when the sun sets at midnight and rises at 2am, what difference does a few hours make?
So at 7:30pm, we set out on our last hike to an area that combined the orange hued mountains of our first day with the yellow sulphur deposit rings of the geothermal vents from our last few days. The result? A colorful landscape that could easily be mistaken for a painting.
It wasn’t easy to get here. We left the fjords of the north, where we spent a day successfully whale watching, and headed off-road to the central highlands. For 4 hours, we drove on bumpy lava-gravel roads through what can only be described as a moonscape: black sand dotted with lava rocks stretching as far as the eye could see. What made this drive so dramatic, though, were the edges of the moonscape surrounded on all sides by towering, snow capped mountains, each with its own massive glacier.
It’s strange to drive for hours through the middle of nowhere to a hotel built in the middle of nowhere. Really, though, this hotel was very strategically placed right next to the snowy mountains and beautiful landscape where we found ourselves on our evening hike.
We are off to Silfra today where we will snorkel in glacial water through a crevasse between two continents. Brrrrr….
DAY 9
It’s not often you can say that you’ve snorkeled between two continents, but that’s exactly what we did yesterday. Silfra is located where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are slowly moving apart about an inch a year, which has created a deep fissure filled with the clearest glacial meltwater.
Yes it was cold (41°F). Yes, we wore really thick wetsuits. That all became irrelevant as we got our first look into the clearest, bluest water I have ever been in. Typically, when snorkeling or diving, there is a lot of plankton, so even on the best visibility days, the plankton limits how far you can see.
Because the water in Silfra is straight from a glacier, not only could we drink it (we did), but there was no plankton hindering our visibility. Large rectangular rocks jutted out from sheer walls on either side that went down as far as the eye could see. As I slowly drifted along, it was wild to think that I was snorkeling between two continental plates. Not only was it exhilarating, but it was also a relief that the wetsuits did their job and we didn’t freeze to death… Lol.
We are now on our way home. It’s been a great 9 days in this beautiful country. Travel video to follow….
I’ve included, below, pics from the last few days of waterfalls, whale watching, and a very cool geyser.
