icelandic escapades {volcano & glacier tour}

Day 2- Our itinerary was simple.  The travel package we purchased included a Volcano and Glacier Walk Day Tour provided by Icelandic Mountain Guides.   It was described as an all day tour and to plan for 8-10 hours.  We met in the lobby of our hotel along with at least 30 other tourists.  I kept looking for a large charter bus to load because I didn't realize that all of us on the tour were divided up into smaller groups and assigned to a guide that would take us in his personal Super Jeep.  Most of the Super Jeeps were Toyota Land Cruisers, Nissan Pathfinders, or Land Rovers.  All of them had tires that were very large but otherwise appeared normal, until we made a stop to see a volcano and our guide inflated them even more so we could cross a river.  This was not a drive by and look out the window tour and it certainly wasn't something suited for Sally our SadCar.  We were very happy to have the Super Jeep.

Our Super Jeep

Several of the Super Jeeps at a pit stop on our tour.

Our guide was Viðar {Vee-DAR} Helgason.  He took one look at us in the lobby and knew instantly that he scored the best group of all the guides.  Let's just say the other groups were not as excited or lively...or young.  We took one look at Vidar and knew instantly that he was no cracker jack tour guide.  Good-Clean-Livin' had paid us back once more.

Vidar the Great- the poster child for Icelandic Mountain Guides
(his mother knitted his sweater for him)

We set out east from Reykjavik: our destination, the Eyjafjallajökull Volcano.  Our first clue that we scored the best guide was our jeep took the lead.  There was no Super Jeep ahead of us to block the view of all Iceland laid in our path...including sheep crossing the road.

As we made our way to the volcano we could tell that Vidar not only loved being a guide, he was also extremely passionate about Iceland and the outdoors and was very eager to share his culture and heritage with us.  We also learned that he doesn't do this volcano and glacier walk tour on a regular basis.  His typical gig is taking groups {some military} on extreme camping trips for a two week duration over the glacier(s) to develop their survival skills.  But he has five kids, so a bit of extra cash in the off-season comes in the form of these easy little day trips.

Our first scenic stop was Gígjökull, a glacier that comes down the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.  It looks like a regular mountain with an ice cap but the glacier actually covers the volcano's crater.  The most recent eruption in 2010 created a break in the glacier large enough to spew ash into the atmosphere and wreak havoc on trans-Atlantic flight paths for several weeks.  {I secretly hoped for an eruption while we were there that would force us to stay a few more days.} 

The area where we stopped was covered in coarse black dirt which is actually the remaining ash and lava from the last time this thing blew.  

How much ash and debris settled in the field?  Here's a large hill of it.

Here I am standing at the edge of the river flowing through the lava field at the base of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.  

Vidar the Great took command of all Super Jeeps at this point.  Through radio communication he made the decision of where everyone would cross the river.  But he went first just to be sure it was safe.The view from our Super Jeep as we plunged into the river:

Super Jeeps do super things...like cross glacial rivers into volcanic fields:

  

We made our next stop at Seljalandsfoss waterfall.  Thousands of years ago this cliff was actually the coastline of Iceland.  The water drops about 200 feet over the cliff. 

There are trails to walk behind the waterfall.  But since things were still a bit frosty the stairway was just a tad bit slick.  But as in all of Iceland everything is at your own risk so the stairway was available for anyone wanting to take a chance...we did not.

Our tour included lunch at a quaint farm where we were fed a traditional Icelandic lamb stew.  It was delicious.

The beer aficionados in our group {everyone but me} tried this local brew and liked it.  The Olvishold Brugghus is a microbrewery at an old dairy farm in south Iceland founded by two neighboring farmers.  They told us this beer is available in the USA.

I couldn't resist taking pictures of farm implements.  If only we had visited in summertime to see them surrounded by lush green grass.

Icelandic sheep barn

After lunch we begged Vidar the Great to take us by this little village church.  I could see it from our lunch stop while I was galavanting around taking pictures of farm implements and sheep barns and I just wasn't going to leave there without getting closer to it for a picture.  It is typical of the style of rural churches in Iceland.

Our next stop was the Sólheimajökull glacier, which is technically an outlet of the Mýrdalsjökull Icecap.  Here is an aerial picture I found on Google Images that gives a good view of both.

On our approach to the glacier I was surprised it was not solid white ice {I know, silly tourist thought} but Vidar the Great explained a large portion of the area where we would hike contained quite a bit of ash and debris from volcanic activity.  There were also boulders and other earthen junk that the glacier had acquired over the last several hundred years in its descent.

Before hiking the glacier everyone was issued a pair of spikes, called crampons, to attach to their boots.  I can imagine every little kid in Iceland receives a pair of these for a birthday or Christmas gift when they are about five years old just like kids in America get bicycles {or BB guns if you're my kids}.  They weren't hard to walk on as long as we remembered to pick up our feet!

After the crampons we all received a standard issue ice axe.

I was all geared up and ready to hike the glacier:

Here, Vidar the Great wanted to demonstrate how important it was to follow behind him in a single file line and not venture out.  This area which appeared normal to us novice ice hikers was actually a deep hole.  And if we had fallen in that hole there is no doubt Vidar the Great would have rescued us but it would have drastically changed our hiking plans and most likely ended the tour.  We stayed in line.

From that point we set out to hike the glacier, all the while Vidar the Great pointed out various features such as ice ridges, sculptures, cracks and deep crevasses.  Sadly, there were no ice caves on this particular day.

We learned that the surface features of the glacier change frequently.  For example, this deep hole had water flowing through it fairly close to the surface where we stood just two days earlier.  

Vidar the Great went down to investigate just how far it had retreated.

At this point it started to snow so we took several photos to commemorate our trek on the glacier then headed back down.

As we began our initial hike several guides were ending theirs and all of them coming off the glacier treated Vidar like a celebrity.  The same thing happened as we made our descent and met up with more guides that were bringing other groups. We already knew he was the best but this was all the proof we needed that this guy was no ordinary mountaineer.

At the base of the glacier area is this large lagoon which contains some of the glacier runoff as well as sub-glacial water.  It was pretty but did not smell good {think rotten eggs} due to the high levels of sulphuric acid courtesy of the underground volcanic activity.

Following our glacial trek Vidar the Great had a special treat in store {mostly for me}.  We had been joking about why we took a trip to Iceland and I was saying how I always vote to go to the beach but always end up in someplace opposite- like Iceland.  So he took us to the beach.
I dipped my toes in the North Atlantic Ocean.  It was frigid but worth it.

We found a nice stone and wrote in the sand.

Then I collected a bottle of sand to add to my collection at home and we made our way to the last stop on our tour- Skógarfoss waterfall.  It is about 80 feet wide and 200 feet tall.  At one point Vidar the Great scampered up the cliffside with the skill of a mountain goat while we took in the enormity of this one.

This tour was included in our travel package so we really didn't know what to expect.  But we were blown away with how great of a tour it was and all agreed this was THE BEST part of our trip.  We were able to see so many of the natural features of Iceland in a days time without having to do the driving or planning.  Of course we did have the BEST guide in all of Iceland which made it even better.  We looked up this tour on-line and it would have been about $300 per person if we had purchased separately from our travel package.


Once again, I just have to add this was an amazing trip.