Iceland Day 6
Day 6 in Iceland continued our glacier-related adventures. We went to the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon. This is a lagoon next to the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, formed by the glacier melting and full of icebergs that have broken off of the glacier. We booked a tour on a Zodiac boat to explore the lagoon.
A view from out the back of the boat.
There was a seal hanging out on a rock in the lagoon.
The four of us, on a boat, in a glacier lagoon.
We eventually reached the back of the lagoon for a good view of the glacier.
We were lucky enough to get to see a piece of the glacier break off (calve) and fall into the water. It was awesome to see, and bitter sweet. Knowing that it happens, we were excited to get to see it happen. But the fact that it is happening is sad, knowing that it means the glacier is melting and receding. The lagoon has doubled in size in the last 15 years at the expense of the glacier. Note that the video is shot HDR, and is best viewed on an HDR display.
After the calving, the place it had broken from had fresh ice, which appears blue.
Sadly, we ran into car trouble at Jökulsárlón. As we pulled into the parking lot, the rental car alerted that one of the tires had low pressure. We got out and could hear the air escaping and tire deflating. We ended up going on our boat tour and leaving this problem to solve afterward.
Unfortunately, the car had no spare. It did have a tire repair spray, but it required an air compressor to use which the car did not have. So, I needed to call the rental car company, but I had no way to do that. I'd opted for an eSIM to get data in country, but had no way to make a phone call. I ended up borrowing a phone from the ticket desk (her personal phone) to call the rental car company. They said they'd send out roadside assistance, but we'd be paying out of pocket because we had not opted for the extra roadside assistance package. Also, in Iceland, tire damage is not covered by the rental car company, so we were going to have to pay to replace the tire as well.
The roadside assistance guy in Kirkjubæjarklaustur was busy, so they had to send the guy from Höfn (both about an hour away, but Höfn was the opposite direction of where we were headed). Since we had an hour or two to wait, we wandered around Jökulsárlón to see it from land.
The roadside assistance guy, Sven, was very nice and helpful. He looked at the tires, and said that all 4 were totally worn down on the inside, likely due to an alignment problem. The car needed 4 new tires. The good news was this was the rental car company's fault, so they'd be paying for everything. The bad news was that he'd have to tow it to the tire shop in Höfn. Our plan of seeing a few more things, then driving 5 hours back to Reykjavik was shot, but we were still going to need to drive to Reykjavik to our new place to stay. Höfn is a bit more than an hour further east of Jökulsárlón, so we'd be adding that distance to our drive back as well.
So, we hopped in Sven's truck and rode with him to Höfn.
Gas stations are a hub of food, supplies, and gas in Iceland. So, while our car was getting new tires, we walked to the closest gas station and got ice cream. Ice cream is Iceland is so delicious.
After our car ordeal, we drove all the way back from Höfn to Reykjavik (about 6 hours driving). We passed Falljökull glacier on the way, where we'd hiked the day before. So, we decided to stop and get a picture of the glacier from afar. Note that Falljökull is just the glacier in the foreground, though all the glaciers you see are part of the Vatnajökull glacier system.
We finally got to our apartment in Reykjavik a bit after 11pm. We got our stuff in quickly and got to bed, as we knew we had to be up around 6am the next day.
Table of contents for the whole trip
