June 3 - A River of Ice

Lyle and I chose not to travel the Ring Road (Highway 1) around Iceland. Instead we drove mostly along the south coast and just a little bit north to Hofn. The further east we drove, the more we felt that this was a right decision for us. Past Vik, the land became very barren indeed. At one point we passed another spectacular waterfall (see picture 1 below). At another time we drove for several kilometers through a barren stretch of crumbled rock likely formed after a receding glacier (see picture 2). Lyle said that this latter landscape reminded him of pictures he had seen of the surface of the moon. In fact, NASA’s astronauts did come to Iceland to practise for the moon landing.

Sue in front of a waterfall

Barren stretch of rock from a receding glacier

It was along this lonely stretch of road – all three hundred kilometers of it – that we came across the most spectacular sight. As we crossed yet another one lane bridge, we looked down to see a river crammed full of floating icebergs. It was quite amazing! Apparently the icebergs break off from the foot of a receding glacier further upstream and float down towards the ocean. Then the wind and waves are responsible for pushing the ice back into the river again where it jams until it either melts or until the current moves it back out to sea.

While this sight was amazing, even more fascinating was the sight when we walked under the bridge and over to the shore. Not all the icebergs had been pushed back into the river. Some had been carried onto the black sand beach and were lodged there in irregular piles. Some of the blocks of ice were as big as a car or a truck, and most still retained that slight bluish green hue of old ice.

Following the first two pictures of the waterfall and barren landscape, there are three more pictures. The first is of the icebergs jammed in the river. The last two pictures were taken as we walked by the icebergs on the beach. The whole scene made us more aware of how close we were to the Arctic Circle. 

Icebergs on the river

Lyle in front of icebergs on the beach

Sue in front of icebergs on the beach