Day 5: Glacier time!

(Sorry for the late posts – I’ve been out of internet access).

The country of Iceland seems to be a present given away before it was finished being made. The landscapes and structures are impressive, but so recently formed . . .. We drive past sparsely placed sheep farms and mossy rock fields. Stretches of black rock give way to moss to wide grassy stretches. If abandoned here, we could see any house easily, thought it might take days to get there. I can’t get over the air of desolation. No wonder so many apocalyptic movies were filmed out here.

Skattafoss

We approach the glacier trekking across black gravel.  The small patches of yellow-green moss and lichen seem to glow.

The glaciers here are constantly changing and are tiger-striped with volcanic ash. The mountains nearby are smooth – glaciers, we’re told, act like sandpaper; the water picks up rocks as the glacier moves , smoothing down the mountainside. It takes 80-100 years for plants to grow on land left by a glacier, our guide adds. To some extent, it’s hard to know if the glacier has really left an area – sections of ice may be in tact, insulated underneath the dirt we walk on.

I’ve forgotten our glacier’s name in Icelandic; I just recall that pronounced in an American accent it sounds a lot like “fuck you”.

 Our guide points out various features:

“Glacier mice” look like mossy tribbles. These balls form when plant-matter grows on top of rock. If I understood him correctly, a rock will fall into an indent on the ice, and insolate it, making a deeper hole. Lichen (or moss?) can grow on the rocktop. As far as our guide knows, they’re unique to this glacier.

Moulins (“windmills”) are deep, circular holes in the glaciers. They often contain water and connect to what seems to be a labyrinth of holes and watery channels running through the glacier beneath us. 

Our guide says that people, hearing the roar of avalanches and seeing glaciers slide down the mountains, thought that the glaciers were snow dragons.

Game of Thrones’s current season’s scenes of behind the Wall were filmed on a nearby glacier, our guide tells us. He adds that volcanoes often erupt from underneath glaciers (and the ash gets trapped temporarily, with interesting effects). So yeah, it's a real land of Ice and Fire.

We forgot to bring water bottles to sample the glacier water, so our guide stuck his ice axe like a bridge across one stream. Taking a push-up position holding onto the axe, we could lower our mouths to the water.

I See Elf People?

Our guide, himself an immigrant to Iceland, said that his girlfriend’s aunt believes in fairies. He went on to tell us about a “politician/criminal/musician” who hired someone to ask elves in a particular rock if he could move the rock to his lawn. People elsewhere would lock him up as crazy, our guide said. It hit me that outside of Iceland, such people, who profess to see and hear what others can’t, might be evaluated for schizophrenia. I supposed prophets would be regarded similarly.

Glacier Pool

An hour’s drive past the glaciers is a pool of ice floes. It’s stunning in the day’s bright light, and very windy. White birds with thin wings fly and we spot a seal.

Blue ice is the coldest, having no oxygen. A group of performers was filming a dance here when we arrived; they fled the cold as soon as they could.

Traveler’s Tips

We went on Glacier Guides’ 5 hour tour, which is a little longer than you need to spend on a glacier, but was fun and we had a good guide.

What to wear:

It’s not so much colder on a glacier than on a hike, you just don’t want to get wet. I wore long underwear, pants, waterproof pants, a T-shirt, and a coat, with a hat and mittens.

Wear gloves/mittens in case you fall so that you won’t cut your hands on the ice shards. This may sound obvious, but waterproof boots are a must (ex. hiking boots).

Also, bring any food you’ll want, and a water bottle if you want to drink glacier water.

So far, we’ve never needed cash in Iceland – except for tipping this guide. We ended up giving him American money, having neglected to exchange anything.