November 22

- [ ] We got away fairly early and headed toward Skaftafell. We were a little early for our tour so we made a little detour and saw svinafellsjokull glacier. It had a beautiful lagoon at the bottom and it finally wasn’t raining so we had a nice view. Our tour started at the national park so we got out gear there and then hopped on a modified bus (with off-road tires) with a bunch of Chinese and headed to the base of the “falling glacier” ( I can’t remember the Icelandic name). It was quite the off road track and I was impressed they could get the bus there! We offloaded and luckily split into two groups with almost all the Chinese in the other group. We crossed a rickety bridge and walked up a trail to the foot of the glacier. Our guide taught us how to put the crampons on and then took us to see an ice cave. It was really pretty but honestly it was a lot smaller than I expected. Still neat to be in especially since you can only go in in the winter. Then we started hiking up the glacier. We had an older Chinese couple with our group and he didn’t understand English and kept stopping to take pictures and wasn’t really paying attention to what he was doing. At one point he slipped but luckily didn’t go too far. I think by the end our guide was a little fed up! On the glacier was beautiful. It’s a little intimidating walking up the ice but you learn to stomp when you walk and the crampons do a great job. I might have to get some for at home during the winter! We could see a long ways up the glacier and you could see all the jagged peaks above, and the glacier lagoon below. Plus it was the nicest weather we had had all trip. It was stunning and definitely a highlight of the trip! Sadly we had to go down and head back to base. I could have stayed up there all day. It was still nice when we got to the base so we went for a walk to see one of the other glaciers. So beautiful! On the way back we even saw a ptarmigan. We had a long drive so we figured we better start driving, plus it was almost 4 and getting dark. It was a 3.5 hour drive to Where we were staying outside of Laugarvatn. The very last part of the drive was gravel and under construction but we figured it would be fine. Luckily we were only a few kilometres from the hotel when we got to the roadworks and it was just pure mud. I trusted michaels driving but I didn’t trust the panda! Luckily we made it through and made it to the hotel safe and sound. The hotel is a working dairy farm. We went to the restaurant and then had windows inside so you could look down at the cows. Very neat! And of course we had to have the homemade ice cream for dessert! (Hotel Efsti-Dalur)