tiggymalvern | Iceland

The next day in Iceland started with a scheduled three hour glacier hike - with a forecast for rain throughout the day. Fun!

The glacier hike was at a different part of Vatnajokull roughly a thirty minute drive west of the ice cave place. This glacial finger is called Virkisjokull, and from a distance it seems to cascade down the mountain at quite a steep angle.

As we got closer, the promised bad weather was encroaching, and we made the walk from the minibus to the foot of the glacier in the rain, just as we did the day before.

We were prepared to get very wet, but we were dressed for it, so off we went! The first part of the hike is the hardest, as you climb up the black slope of rock and scree to get on top of the glacier.

Then as we hiked upwards, everything got so much better, and suddenly we were looking towards blue sky!

Niece, me, nephew, brother and sis on the lower part of the glacier wielding our ice axes. Note the impressive crampons on our feet too. (My brother got a lecture from the guide on not swinging his ice axe over people's heads 🤪)

Up we went, leaving behind the flatter part where the ice melts and refreezes daily, towards the wrinkled higher elevation sections where the ice is crushed together as it pushes down the mountain under its own weight.

The wrinkles suddenly get bigger and more dramatic.

Looking back down towards the south coast - where interestingly there was still more cloud, and that rain from the forecast was hanging out. There's another glacier hike group below us, following in our footsteps.

And then we went in between the wrinkles - you can just see people on the right for scale.

We did a loop through the wrinkles (where I was generally not taking photos, because it was narrow with tricky footing) and then posed for more photos before heading back down again. (My sister did not enjoy the journey back down - getting down steep and slippery places is always harder than going up them.)

Back down at the bottom by the partially frozen lake in much better light than when we set out! With minibuses for scale.

Virkisjokull as we left it, looking beautiful in the sun.

We did get lucky with the timing of our glacier hike - our guide told us that the tour the previous afternoon (when we had been at a very wet and windy Diamond Beach) started out and then rapidly turned back when it became clear that conditions were not suitable. Not only did we dodge the forecast rain, but it was completely still for our trip too, no wind at all. Truly gorgeous conditions.

By then it was past lunchtime by our clocks and our stomachs, and we went for food at the Cafe Vatnajokull five minutes down the road, as recommended by our guide. It was a very inauspicious looking place, built into a petrol station, but the staff were lovely and it served a really good Thai curry soup. That actually had serious spice in it! Almost unheard of in Iceland! And not only was it good food at good value (for Iceland), they offered free refills on the soup, tea and coffee too (also the only place we came across those in Iceland). If you're driving highway One along the south coast, definitely stop there.

We then spent the afternoon exploring that section of Highway one, since we'd barrelled along it at high speed on the Day of Driving two days before. This time we could stop and take photos at our leisure and our own pace. There is a lot of scenery worth stopping for...

The weather closed in again as we travelled, with the cloud returning by the time we stopped at Fjallsarlon. This is another, smaller version of Glacier Lagoon, at the foot of a different glacial finger. There's no paved road to this one - the approach is down an unsigned, rutted, potholed road full of significant puddles, which we took carefully in our 4WD high clearance rented van.

But the approach road means that there are far fewer people there than at the more famous Glacier Lagoon, and damn, was it stunning! The smaller lake means that you can see across its whole length to the glacier that spawns both the lake and the icebergs.

Doing it again, I'd probably pass on Glacier Lagoon and go straight to Fjallsarlon...

Back along Hringvegur we went, our target our hotel for the night just outside Vik. With yet more scenery to stop and admire at every point. This was a river flowing alongside the highway.

A waterfall and barn on the opposite bank.

Looking along a valley... somewhere. Don't ask me exactly where!

Then we climbed up onto the plateau between Kalfafell and Vik, and along the way there was a break in the clouds and the sun was getting close to setting.