After a comfortable night in Vik, we had breakfast at the hotel ( a nice buffet), and set off. The weather was actually delightful- sunny ad cool, no need for a parka- yet.
The road east of Vik had light traffic, and for a 55mph limit, narrow. Our first stop was at Skatafell in Vatnajokull National Park. This area was one of Iceland's most isolated areas until the early 70s when the last glacial river at the sands of this area was bridged in order to complete the Ring Road (the road that circles Iceland). At Skaftafell, we took a hike that took us to the edge of the Vatnajokull glacier. In a couple of places, we noted a path through the brush to our left, and followed those paths to areas crowded with wildflowers at the base of small waterfalls. What a great surprise! Half the trail followed the edge of the mountain, the return loop went over some rocky terrain. I was personally delighted to find wildflowers all along the route, many of them tiny, but still beautiful.
Lupines are everywhere in this area. We found out that in 1945, a committee was set up to revegetate areas of Iceland. A representative of the committee went to Alaska and brought back seeds. Now lupines have taken over the landscape, and in some areas are crowding out native vegetation. Some Icelanders love them, others, not so much.
We continued along the coast to Jokulsarlon and Fjallsarlon glacial lagoons. In Jokulsarlon, gigantic icebergs float in the lagoon. A short distance away, we walked to Diamond beach, where small icebergs had washed up on the black sand beach.
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| Glacial lagoon |
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| Diamond Beach |
From there, we continued on to our stop for the day at a guesthouse about 40 minutes from the next town, Hofn. In following directions to this place, we thought Google must be joking. We couldn't see anything at all from the main road, just an empty barn. Hmm. I KNOW I vetted all these places. But a few minutes down a gravel road brought us to our quiet (!!) accommodations for the evening. We were greeted by a few sheep.
Dinner was at the guesthouse.
Photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/xcoePKexzkRJD4VSA
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