I went for a jog before the boys woke. I ran through the bizarre, moss covered moonscape behind the hotel. I followed what looked like a motorcycles path for fear of getting lost. Eventually I came to track which I followed to the road and then ran toward some basalt cliffs before returning to the hotel. The boys were still sleepy, so I read my book (on the history of mountaineering), in the reception. An annoying asian american girl was talking to her boyfriend on the phone "Awwww, you're sleepy, you need a hug, I miss you, do you miss me?" etc....
We went to breakfast, there was a space where there should have been scrambled egg (Luca's addiction), which was eventually delivered, but wasn't to Luca's exacting standards. We packed and set off from probably the least inspiring hotel of the trip to go to Skaftafell national park, where hopefully we'd be able to do a walk to another glacier tongue.
We parked up and went for a walk to the tip of Skaftafellsjökull. It was another glorious day, but Ellis didn't really appreciate doing the walk (we'd seen glaciers before....). It was also a little disappointing when we got back and first saw a route which would have taken us to a glorious waterfall which I'd wanted to go to and second discovered that the other glacier tongue we could have walked to was the one used in Batman Begins. Dang it!
I'd been panicking mildly during the walk about my petrol levels which had suddently plummeted on the morning;s drive. But we soon found a petrol station, filled up and set off to Jökulsárlón lagoon.
As we travelled with awe inspiringly jagged arettes of the mountains on our left (like sharks teeth), we could see the weather closing in infront of us and before long we were under thick cloud. The cloud stayed with us and looked increasingly like rain as we parked up at Jökulsárlón. We went into the very congested cafe (like so many of these places, it was just a very basic portakabin - tourism seems to have taken Iceland by surprise), grabbed something to eat as it started to chuck it down. Luckily the rain had pretty much stopped by the time we were due to start our boat ride on the lagoon, but it was still pretty cold. Even more luckily, the guides gave us some thick waterproof overalls to put on. We looked pretty funny in them, Luca looked like a Martian Robot from a 60's Sci-Fi film, and Ellis looked like a TellyTubby - especially when he ran!
We got onto the Zodiac (one of those speedboats with inflated rubber around the edge of it), and sped off into the lagoon. We rode in between and all around the icebergs which had broken off the glacier. They were huge, much bigger than a house - and that was just what we could see, 90% of each iceberg was invisible under the water. And as they melt and their balance changes, they could tumble over at any minute. At first they are blue and glass like, but as they start to melt they turn white.
We went right up to the glacier and could see where the icebergs had broken away. Apparently, only a few decades ago the glacier had gone all the way up to the bridge. We watched some seals wallowing on the icebergs.
Afterwards, we went straight to our next hotel in Hofn. This one was a converted Dairy, but you really couldn't tell.It had all been done very recently - would have been a bit more impressive if they finished painting the outside, but the inside was great. Our setup was on 2 floors. Very cool.
It was pretty cold and dreary, but we went into Hofn in search of somewhere to eat. Everywhere looked a bit posh for us,but I read about somewhere in the guidebook which sounded like it would be a bit more suitable - a takeaway/cafe which did good burgers and also good (and relatively cheap), Lobster baguettes. It was pretty cramped, but quite cool in a really basic kind of way. We waited for ages to get some seats, but eventually did and it was well worth it.
we went for wander after and then went back to the hotel. We all read quietly in bed (poor old Luca has a Shakespeare play to read....), and I had a drink of the Icelandic Whisky which I'd bought at the airport - it was horrible (like licorice), and I haven't touched it since.
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