Iceland - Ice Cave

At 8:45 the next morning we met our guide for the Katla Ice Caves tour and climbed into our off roading van.  We were one of the first groups of the day which meant we enjoyed the way in with very little other company, but on the way out it started getting busy.

On the drive to the cave we saw where the opening scene of Rogue One was filmed and several scenes from Interstellar.  The glacier was unique in color due to layers of volcanic ash landing on top of the years snow deposits.  The mix of ice and ash was facinating.

We parked the van and geared up for our ice tour: helmets, headlamps and crampons.

Everyday employees go out and make sure the path to the caves is stable and safe.  With the constant melting, raining, wind and sun the ice is ever changing, so therefore is the path to the cave.

We appreciated the ropes and boards keeping us secure.

It was a rainy day so we were pretty cold and wet on our journey.  It also helped us see how the rain from above affects the cave.

Water flowing through the glacier creates little streams which hollow out the ice letting wind in.  The wind then blows through and expands the hole in cooperation with the stream and a cave is formed.  

The blue color inside the glacier was incredible, hard to capture in photo.

We were pretty wet by the time we got back to our big van and it felt nice to get out of the rain.

We admired the church in Vik when we stopped at the grocery store for lunch.  We enjoyed trying the vanilla filled bread, donuts, carmel Tim Tams, premade sandwiches and wraps.

Our next stop was Fjadrargljufur Canyon, better known as Justin Bieber Canyon (a bit easier to say. He filmed a music video there -which we had to watch on our next drive.)

The beautiful canyon walk ended with our first waterfall of the day.

Color 6

Width 4

Height 7

Magnitude 4

Special Factor 7

We loved that the falls sort of had three sections of falling.

Total:28

There were cute little sheepies on the other side of the canyon and Andrew had to flex his awesome camera to zoom in on them.

On the way to the Reynisfjara black sand beast and basalt column Emily, Andrew, Greg, and I got out to run on the spongy grass in the rain- I only took enough steps to say I'd done it - it was pouring out there.

The basalt columns were so cool.  It is inspiring to see how unique God's creative power is.

The geometry there is so cool!

There were puffins all over the tops of the cliffs, flying in to feed their babies.

You can kind of see the puffins here - the gloomy skies and rain didn't help with pictures.

We stayed at the beach a while enjoying the smooth black rocks on the beach, the waves, puffins, and people watching (There were two different coulples taking wedding photos!  The brides looked so cold.)

On to Kvernufoss.  There was a little walk but you could go underneath the waterfall.

Kvernufoos:

Color 6

Width 4

Height 8

Magnitude 5

Special Factor 6

We enjoyed the beautiful walk and going behind the falls.

Total:29

We drove by this hit build into the rock and had to stop and check it out.  Is is called Rutshellir and was for hay storage.

It was rather dark and smelly inside but well worth it because we got to get up close to some sheep and Icelandic horses.

Andrew actually touched the horse. 😜 Islandic Horses are pretty small.

Lily practiced her sheep call (perfected on our trip in England two years before) and the sheep answered.  Back and forth they talked until we left for Nauthursagil.

The description in Greg's trip outline said "more challenging, fewer people, small stream crossing."  Well there weren't too many people because to get to the waterfall you pretty much had to walk in the river because the canyon was so steep.

We went as far as we could without soaking our tennis shoes and found a tiny waterfall but to get to the big one you had to cross the river and climb up the side of the little falls.  We decided we didn't want wet shoes the rest of the trip and headed back.

Exploring along the way Andrew and Emily found a steep hike and adventured up; Greg followed then out onto of the canyon on the opposite side of the rest of us.

They continued their exploration until they could see the falls.

Nauthusagil (evaluated by Emily, Andrew and Greg only)

Color 5

Width 3

Height 7

Magnitude 4

Special Factor 8

The walk up the river was a fun adventure and the three explorers loved their additional hike.

Total: 27

By the time we got back in the car everyone was famished.  To appease Andrew I did look for a McDonalds but learned that there are no McDonald's in Iceland, one of the few countries in the world without one.

I did manage to get lucky and find a food court type place that was open for 20 more minutes.  We all managed to find something we liked and cleared our plates right before they closed.

Our drive to the hotel included a drive through a very long tunnel under the water.

I left my phone in the car during the cave tour so I didn't even record the steps for the day.  

Interesting facts learned:

Rogue One and Interstellar filmed scenes in Iceland on the volcano and glacier of Eyjafallajokull.

Puffins flap their wings up to 400 times per minute.

There are no McDonald's in Iceland.