Down the coast to Jokulsarlon

Well, it just got more and more stunning the further south we went along this rugged coastline. We stopped for a quick walk … somewhere… ;) (Need a working camera with GPS really, hey ho).

Here’s a before & after picture of what the road used to look like. Highway 1 is almost entirely sealed now, but not quite.

Then it was on down the coast. The first time you see the icecap flowing down towards you it is… breathtaking really. No other way to describe it. Like everywhere the icecap & glaciers are retreating at a massive rate.

We did a short walk to one of the smaller glaciers. A nice walk in that it was fairly quiet. We discovered that Maaike and I have different desires when it comes to touring. I prefer zapping around all the major highlights, Maaike enjoys staying in one place for a while and exploring, and certainly getting off the beaten track. We mostly managed to cover both bases.. ;)

Then it was on to Jokulsarlon, for me a definite (if busy) highlight of the trip. Here, the icecap carves straight into the ocean. Well, it did, now there’s a short tidal river which sees an incredible amount of wildlife use..

One of the odd things you notice while walking around are all the dead fish. Initially I thought it was some impurity or something (which didn’t really make sense, but hey ho). Turns out the mackerel(thanks mum, I guessed trout) swim in from the sea and basically get hypothermia and die. This is, I suspect, why the seals etc. love the place so much. It’s easy pickings. We found a couple of “fishermen” literally going into the water and kicking the fish out. I ended up getting my shoes and socks off to go in and get one (you want to take the still moving ones, rather than the dead ones on the shore!). I was rescued by a fisherman who just came along and got the one I was going for, and then gave us another! Then suggested a way to cook it (gut it, chop it up, boil it). Delicious.

Another thing we saw at Jokulsarlon was slightly hidden in plain sight. I’m not sure how you know whether something is a “genuine” Banksy or not, but it certainly looked like one to me.

Update 10-11-2014, my brother Matt pointed me to http://grapevine.is/culture/art/2014/09/29/banksy-in-iceland/, it’s not a Banksy – but done by a Norwegian (Pobel)

Then it was on up the coast via another glacial lagoon at Fjallsarlon. Not as busy, but definitely quite beautiful in its own right.

All in all a definite highlight.