Icebergs & Glaciers

The Vikings discovered Iceland about 1200 years ago. I can't imagine what is was like for those early settlers to live on this harsh, cold, volcanically active island. Today, Icelanders are a kind and quirky people. We took our last trip to the south west coast of the island with an Icelandic guide Jonas and his son Frederic. Jonas has a unique sense of humour that mostly is not appropriate for this blog. But, he did describe Iceland as the "ash hole of the earth" and when asked by a lovely woman from ny city what the large white balls were in the fields, he quickly stated, "those are marshmallows for the trolls" (bales of hay). As locals, our guides knew the land like the back of their hand. We visited secret waterfalls, a glacial lagoon where ice flowed into the ocean, and a black sand beach with crystal blue ice burgs. The highlight of the trip was definitely the glacier walk. We strapped on crampons and hard hats and walked on a massive glacier flowing down into the valley from higher elevations. It was a surreal experience. The ice was a beautiful mix of whites, blues, and blacks as the rocks and sand that the glacier picks up are deposited throughout the ice. In the back ground the glacier rose up the volcanic mountain forming a massive ice wall. The sun came out briefly while we were on the glacier. What a way to end this trip!