VATNAJOKULL (Day 5)

We were up early. Fortunately it had been a quiet night in terms of weather. We packed up and waited at the tour agency until it opened at 8 am. We booked a tour for 10 am then had a bit of time to kill. Unfortunately the town was completely dead... the few restaurants were closed; there was no grocery store; people were extremely sparse; at least the gas station was open. We drove back down towards the glacier lagoon where we parked along the side of the road near a big sign and waited for the bus to pick us up.

The bus arrived and drove us up alongside Skaftafellsjokull (the one we walked on yesterday) to Vatnajokull (which means water glacier). The large bus ascended the very steep, gravel road surprisingly quickly, crossing streams that stopped smaller cars. Our guide told us that Skaftafellsjokull means 'hungry tongue glacier,' so named because there weren't many sheep in the area.

After about 10 miles, we arrived at the mountain lodge (elevation 2,755 feet). We suited up, then walked down to a row of skidoos.

Following a guide, we rode around on top of the glacier for about 2 hours, admiring the thick blanket of clouds and getting pelted by snow and ice. Vatnajokull is the largest glacier in Europe. It's roughly 3,300 square miles (but getting smaller each year) and up to 3,000 feet thick (where we stopped was around 1,000 feet thick). The main glacier moves 8 - 12 inches per day. Parts of the glaciers, such as some 'dead ice' caverns we stopped at, no longer move.

We returned to our normal clothes and loaded back in the bus. It was raining and visibility was very poor... not the most reassuring for these narrow roads with steep drop offs!

We continued on, stopping briefly at Stokksnes. This is a popular place to see seals and migratory birds... but apparently they all (except for a few seagulls) had already left for the winter as well.

We made a very long drive up along the eastern part of the country. It was absolutely spectacular! We passed hundreds of swans in the ocean, radiant fjords, jagged cliffs, road construction, incredibly steep hills, confused sheep and even a high pass (complete with an emergency hut).

Eventually we arrived at the tiny city of Fellabaer where we camped. There were nice warm showers here. Unfortunately most of the water on the island smells of sulfur (think 'rotten eggs').

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