Mind.Wanders: Iceland

TRAVELS: ICELAND (Part 3 - JÖKULSÁRLÓN, SVíNAFELLSJÖKULL GLACIER & BLUE LAGOON)

We were scheduled to leave the hotel at 10am that morning, so after a good breakfast at the hotel, we were ready to leave. That morning, the day was already bright enough for us to see the landscape around our hotel, and it was breathtaking! We were surrounded by vast greenery and beautiful snow-capped mountains. Fizal and I were the last ones to get into our minivan (it wasn't even 10am yet!) so I didn't dare to stop and snap some photos, hehe.

Our first stop that morning was the ever so popular Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, obviously, since it was just minutes away from the hotel. It was a very windy morning and it was freezing cold, but the view of the glaciers made it all worth it. If you're lucky you'll be able to see seals chilling on the ice and sunbathing, but since it wasn't a typically sunny day when we came, there weren't many of them laying around. - we saw a few! There was also a small cafe there for people to sit and enjoy some nice hot drinks after a walk along the glacial water line. After some good photos were taken and we couldn't bare the cold anymore, we hopped back into the minivan and departed to our next stop.

Can't contain my excitement!

Asgeir made a short stop just a few minutes (driving) from Jökulsárlón Lagoon to another beach nearby. Now this glacial view, is awesome at another level. There were probably hundreds of ice pieces, large and small laying there on the beach. The blue ice looked so stunning against the black sand beach, its just surreal. To me, this is more interesting than the previous glacier lagoon because we got to go closer to the blocks of ice and witness how humongous they were right in front of our eyes. We walked around the beach and in between the ice pieces, and as cheesy as it may sound, it really felt like ice-wonderland!

This was literally how we saw it along the beach!

They're hugeeeee ice blocks i tell ya!

Water was coming up to our feet!

These are all ice pieces! can you believe it! Another otherworldly landscape in Iceland.
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We then hit the road again and stopped for some snacks at a cafe near the Svínafellsjökull glaciers in Vatnajökull National Park. After that was the highlight of this trip, glacier hiking adventure! Because the ice-caving activity was cancelled due to flooding, the company refunded our money for the ice-caving activity but took us for glacier hiking instead. How awesome is that?! Although, we would obviously preferred and be much interested to witness the blueness of the ice caves, but hey, there's no one to blame for that and we were grateful for this spontaneous adventure.

We were given our crampons, ice axes, helmets, and were briefed prior to the hike. We then started the hike onto pure icy, wintry terrain! It was scary and mesmerizing at the same time. It was bit tricky for us first-timers to use the crampons because we were scared we might slip off the slopes of the glacier, but we got the hang of it after few minutes walking. The view was to die for, MasyaAllah. The colour of the glacier varies into 3 colours; white - snow that was recently compacted and turned into ice; dark blue - old compacted ice; brown - debris from the mountains/volcanic ashes that were trapped between the snow which eventually turned into ice as well.

We were told some amazing stories, histories, geological information and a bit of humor here and there by our guide and it was a incredible experience! Among the stories were, there was a couple of students that got lost in the glaciers long ago (can't remember when but I think it might have been in the 1950s - not sure!), and decades later, they discovered their backpacks/equipments emerging from the ice! The movement of the glaciers brought them along the way in which they were found by hikers. How crazy is that! So basically, whatever you lose or drop in the ice, you can retrieve them back decades later. We also heard a cracking sound of the glacier - we were told that it rarely makes those sounds and that we were lucky enough to be able to hear it. It was a bit scary as it sounded so loud against the empty vastness of the glaciers. Our guide also told us that because of climate change and everything, the glaciers are moving pretty fast now and is expected to melt in about 10-15 years! :(

Anyways, we are so thankful for this opportunity to be able to see and set foot on such magnificent nature. If the glacier hike was this spectacular, I wonder how would the ice cave experience be? hmm...

Asgeir prepping me with gears.

Yeah, we looked like miners. haha.

Yeah, glacier miner!

Almost there...

Awestrucked at this massive jagged frozen landscape! SubhanAllah.

We couldn't even see the end of the glacier - all we could see was blurry icy-blue horizon at the far end. Its beyond the imagination. I'm speechless even til now whilst typing this. haha. I could still remember only hearing the sounds of scraping and crunching of our crampons against the ice while we're walking.

Fun fact: The movie Interstellar by Christopher Nolan was shot on this glacier representing a whole other alien universe.

We conquered the Svínafellsjökull Glacier! We were lucky we had the chance to experience this hike with a nice sun setting. MasyaAllah.

And sad to leave... haha.

There is another post dedicated to this glacier hiking adventure, just because the glacier was super amazing and there were so many photos taken. It just wouldn't do justice to the place if I didn't post more photos and had just kept them to myself. haha. (See here for my photo diary of the glacier hike)

After lunch and some rest, we head back onto the road leading back to Reykjavik. We were scheduled to hunt for the northern lights that night. According to the forecast, there might be some clear skies on our way back to Reykjavik. Asgeir just said to keep our heads up and look for stars; apparently, if you see stars, then you're chance of seeing the lights are pretty good (given the activity is high too). We kept checking the aurora forecast (while praying in our hearts, haha) as the weather in Iceland are extremely unpredictable, you can get clear sky in one minute and pouring rain in the next!

We eventually came to stop at Seljalandsfoss. For your information, the waterfall at Seljalandsfoss is beautifully lit up at night, so you can visit and hang around there at night while star gazing, hehe. We went near the fall to take some photos and later came back to our minivan. The sky was clear, millions of stars were seen above us, so we all just hang around our van, chatting, heads tilted up, hopeful. We waited for more than an hour in the freeeeezing cold, shivering, wishing we would see this remarkable natural phenomenon. It was then getting late, we kept getting in and out of the van to warm ourselves, until Asgeir called it off. The activity was particularly low that night, although the sky was clear, we could hardly see the lights using naked eyes, We got in the van, in disappointment, hopes crushed, again. But it was still a great experience though, everyone was so desperately wishful and would even wait for hours in the freezing cold just to see them.

We waited and stared into the sky for northern lights appearance with this view in front of us.

We got back to our Airbnb pretty late that night and just had our much needed rest from what seemed a very long day.
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We didn't really have anything planned for the next day, which was our last day in Iceland. Obviously we would want to make the most of it. One of our new friend we met in the tour said she was going Icelandic horse riding and snorkeling at the Silfra fissures in Thingvellir National Park. I was so intrigued by both, especially if you get to float between the tectonic plates of 2 continents; North America and Eurasia in clear blue water! But I guess we were a little too late to make any reservations, so we opted for the Blue Lagoon instead.

It was a Sunday morning and like in many European countries, the buses didn't come by very frequently. So Fizal and I spontaneously decided to try hitchhiking the Icelandic for a ride to Reykjavik city centre. A couple of cars drove by and ignored us, until we heard a honk behind us, and there was a man in the car signaling us to come over. The very kind stranger drove us to the BSI Reykjavik for our Blue Lagoon Express ride.

We didn't make any reservation for the Blue Lagoon Geothermal Spa because we weren't planning on dipping into the pool. So we bought our visitor's pass at the bus terminal. We arrived only to find that the visitor's pass were not available due to the area being still under renovation. Bummer - could've gone somewhere else instead. We stayed until the next bus scheduled to come (1 hour later) and just wandered around the area.

I just can't brain this guy's hair.

The main pathway to the Blue Lagoon spa.

There was also some sceneries of the lagoon outside of the spa area. This is free to wander around and the water is as blue and you get beautiful mossy landscape in the area too!

This is the outside area of the actual (paid) pool.

Stunning barren landscape!

And of course, we had to pose with the moss covered rocks/lava. hehe.

So when we reached Reykjavik, we had lunch and ended our last day walking around the town again for some last minute souvenir shopping. Our flight was early the next morning and I gotta say, Iceland left a special mark in my heart. It has been a wonderful trip, though some things didn't go as planned, but we had some really amazing times!

Definitely one of my favourite places and trips ever! Thank you Iceland for this wonderful experience!

Until my next trip.

Travel Tales on my Iceland trip Part 1 and Part 2 here.

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, by Hannah Ismail

Mind.Wanders

PHOTO DIARY: GLACIER HIKING - SVíNAFELLSJÖKULL GLACIER, ICELAND

TRAVELS: ICELAND (Part 3 - JÖKULSÁRLÓN, SVíNAFELLSJÖKULL GLACIER & BLUE LAGOON)

Hello!

Travel Tales

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Mind.Wanders

PHOTO DIARY: GLACIER HIKING - SVíNAFELLSJÖKULL GLACIER, ICELAND

TRAVELS: ICELAND (Part 3 - JÖKULSÁRLÓN, SVíNAFELLSJÖKULL GLACIER & BLUE LAGOON)

Hello!

Travel Tales

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