Iceland Day 4 Part 1
Days 1 to 3 in Iceland were amazing, but day 4 took things to another level. In fact, I'm going to have to split day 4 into 2 posts. For the first post: our big activity of the day - an ice cave!
We booked a tour to see an ice cave in the Mýrdalsjökull glacier near the Katla volcano. Getting there is difficult, so we rode in this fancy van with giant tires. They even had a phone app to control the tire pressure to deflate them when riding through the volcanic ash desert.
We spent a 30-45 minutes driving through the ash desert created by Katla's last eruption, and stopped to take in the amazing views. It really was awesome. Of note, this is where they filmed the opening scene to Star Wars: Rogue One.
We could start to see the glacier in the distance from there.
After a bit more driving, we got as far as we could and had to proceed on foot. To walk on ice, you've got to have crampons. These were smaller and simpler than the ones we used for our glacier hike the next day.
Here's Mýrdalsjökull glacier. The ice is covered in black volcanic ash.
Our guide let us have a little fun with his ice axe.
They built a makeshift scaffolding to get up to the ice cave.
Heading into the ice cave.
The ice cave was so cool. It was created by the rivers of water that flow through the glacier. At some point, this was a river, but the water eventually took a different route leaving a tunnel for us to walk through. And since this glacier is full of volcanic ash from all the eruptions, the river left a convenient layer of ash on the ground for us to walk on.
Note that this ice cave is open on both ends, as it opens up into a large crack in the glacier.
Molly's not sure about tasting the glacier ice.
After leaving the cave, we got a little bonus. The glacier has melted a bit at one point, leaving an opening we could go in. Yes, there's thousands of tons of ice above their heads.
One last picture of the glacier and surrounding landscape before getting in the monster truck to head back.
This was one of our favorite experiences of the trip. The ice cave was so cool, and the drive there through the volcanic ash desert really did feel like you were on a different planet. I can see why Star Wars chose to use it.
Table of contents for the whole trip
