November 21

I woke up several times during the night to try and see the northern lights but no luck. One time the mountains had a purple haze above them but it wasn’t the stark colours I’m really looking for. At least it doesn’t get light until 10 so we could have a lazy morning after a broken sleep. Our first stop was at a waterfall just east of vik. It didn’t have a name and it looked to be in a field but it was spectacular. There were many cascading layers and it was just so pretty and peaceful. From there the drive was open and flat. A volcano erupted around 1760 and destroyed everything in the area, and it looked like it was also a glacier recession area. As we got closer to kirkjubaejarklaustur (quite the mouth full!) there were more volcanic rocks and the landscape got a little nicer. The moss covering the rocks at least made it look semi normal. Although it looked like a shame to have all that potentially good farm land under lava. In Kirk we watched a video about the volcano eruption and gave ourselves a chance to wander around out of the rain. It was a miserably cold and wet day. Next we went and checked out the basalt columns that were flat and made it look like a perfect tile laden floor. The lady at the info desk recommended another place just east of town that had more of the big columns so we went and saw those as well. They were quite a bit bigger, about 2 feet around, and were very cool. I’m just fascinated by the straight edges. We drove a little further then decided we better get some fuel so we stopped in the next town only to find out that all the fuel stations were down on the southeast coast. We had a look at our gauge and decided we could make it to diamond beach before we would have to turn around. The beach and lagoon were amazing!! We stopped at the jokulsarlon lagoon first, at a parking area away from the main tourist area. We walked over the ridge and were greeted by the sight of huge icebergs floating in the water. They were a beautiful mix of white, black, blue, and clear. On the edge. were smaller ice chunks that really did look like diamonds. It was how I would imagine Antarctica would look. Next we went to the beach. The neatest thing for me was to see the icebergs floating out from the lagoon and headed to the surf where they were pounded and sent back to the beach. Amazing! When we couldn’t feel our fingers anymore we decided to head back to the town to see if we could get fuel. When we arrived it still wasn’t back on so we tried to get some coffees, only to have the power shut off. Eventually we did get coffees and fuel and could make it to our hotel for the night. We got into our hotel and it’s much more hostel style but still alright. We at at the hotel restaurant for dinner. I had a steak pie that looked nothing like a pie and more like braised beef with a puff pastry on top. At least it tasted good. We treated ourselves to apple cake for dessert (hof adventure hotel)