By Tony
Today is going to be a turning point, the weather has sorted itself out, breakfast was not too bad at all and the kids even got themselves ready without too much stress. Happy days!
We left the “country hotel”and headed into the Vatnajökull National Park. The park is one enormous great big glacier, covering around 10% of Iceland. At the southern most area there are a couple of big lagoons created by the meltwater and the glacier itself.
Our first stop was at one of the lagoons, we wandered along the shoreline that was littered with glacier ice; more floated in the lagoon and was beautifully blue.
After the walk we headed to “Diamond Beach”, so called due to the ice that is scattered along the shoreline contrasting against the black sand.
Another short car ride and we arrived at the next lagoon where we unexpectedly had some open wallet surgery to take a boat tour on the lagoon right up to the glacier. I did wonder how I was going to get the boat home that I had obviously purchased, but happily they informed me that I was misunderstood.
The boat tour was a few hours wait, so a quick instant noodle in the car park was followed by a cracking walk along the lagoon edge, although the we did seem to miss the intended circular route and had to practically jog back!
Arriving for our boat tour, we were kitted out with the necessary waterproofs, life vest, etc and made our way to the ribs. One great point was the lack of people, so it ended up only 7of us in our boat.
We had a charming beaded Icelandic chap called Yuri, he gave some really colour to the tour, providing history of the glacier and how things are changing with climate change.
The kids loved the boat ride and we were able to get really close to the glacier. Rebecca and William also got to hold some ice which the skipper pulled out of the lagoon, which was quite cool.
As we got closer to the glacier, the man stopped the boat and we started to hear a sound like wind chimes. Then, he picked out a piece of ice from the lake. We all got to hold it. I described it as ‘honeycomb’ it was so lovely, until William & I got to put it back but we didn’t see the ice that we dropped it on hence it smashed.
By Rebecca
We went on a big drive to a glacier and we went on a boat ride around the lake that surrounded the glacier. The man in charge off the boat told us that the black ice was just dirty ice.
By William
Before that we went on a hike around the grounds.
30 minutes down the road, our hotel was comfortable and although we are again split over multiple rooms at least we have a great view!
As we’ve found out dinner was expensive but excellent, great quality and the kids are really well looked after. In our hotel, half size potions for 50% of the cost; but, they are not half size, at least 70% of an adult. Top stuff. William had the most amazing lamb, I had pork Schnitzel, Li had pork tenderloin, and Rebecca had Arctic char again. Chocolate Brownie for dessert!
