Iceland Day 4 - Vik - Reynisfjara - Vatnajokull
You wake up to rain :(
And this overwhelming view :)
Got to refill drinking water from the stream.
Rain wouldn't stop us so headed toward Vik.
Re-fulled here; From the car we could see only shadows of humongous mountains on the other side of the road and crying clouds .
Vik campground
Raidrops on the windsheild.
The quietness in the place brings so much peace.
Black sand beach .
Large black sea caves,white restless waters,white clouds, black sand beach and two tiny colors of love
Purple nootka
And Icelandic delicious Hotdogs .
Sea Arch afar .
Story goes : This village was engulfed with volcano . Everyone fled except one man who stayed back .He would not budge.Who ever went by that village placed a stone on top of another stone in good wishes for the man who did not abandon his village.Even today people passing by places a stone.
Icelandic peridotite
On the way to Vatnajokull, mountains here does not leave you as i said earlier , they change their attire and come in a different disguise.Sometimes they are black in color due to ashes from volcanoes, other times they are green from the mosses that grow on them , and then again sometimes they are brown as they have bare rocks or like in these pictures , they are covered with snow .
Our guide for the glacier hike .It was her birthday and we sang to her . Here she is blushing and told us she has forgotten all she was about to tell us . She told us many stories on the way up to the glacier top.
Like , Sheep will climb the mountains and then will not be able to come down . they will die of starvation . So people will climb the mountains to rescue their sheep . The highest point of Sudursveit Olympics was climbing on the cliffs to rescue the sheep .
During world war two , it seems a German balloon landed on one of the mountains. A farmer was out with his sheep . And saw the balloon . Then called all other farmers and together they climbed the mountain and reached the balloon . the balloon was full of goodies which the farmers shared .
This is our group .A couple from Netherlands,another one from China , us and our two beautiful guides.We are walking over the glacial ice covered with ash from nearby volcano.With Ice axes ,Crampons and helmets we are almost all set for the hike .
We crossed the "so called" bridge over the glacial waters.
Crampons all set !!
Our first encounter with a crevasse on the way to the top.
She made us do push ups on the crevasse to get drinking water.
Determined to reach the top we marched ahead.
The deepest crevasse in this glacier . We threw a rock and waited for few minutes to hear the rock touch the bottom of the crevasse.
Preparing to rappel the crevasse.
As we reached the top , we heard ice breaking noises and had to rush down the glacier via a different route .
Exhausted from the 8 hour hike , we gobbled Arctic char and Icelandic lobster for dinner .
We were looking for a hotel to stay near by . Asked the waiter for information . We could not understand the name of the hotels she was mentioning and asked her to write it down for us . And this is what she gave us .Both of them were occupied for the night . A dense fog had engulfed the whole area. Visibility was negligible . So we decided to car camp beside the icebergs !!
