Iceland Day 4

Studlagil l
By 9 am we were on our amphibious craft which took us across rough moraine to drive into the lagoon where we motored along among the ice bergs? Flows? The glacier is receding at 300m a year, leaving in its place this lagoon. We held a piece of ice 1000 years old.

We then drove to Diamond Beach, so-called because big chunks of ice float out of the lagoon, under the bridge and into the sea where they get washed up onto the beach.

As we drove east along the coast in bright sunshine we stopped off at a few viewpoints and a small fishing village, Djupivogur, where we stopped for lunch and admired sculpted eggs, one for every breed to bird in the area.

We then climbed high into wild barren country with beautiful views of another waterfall and the fjord below. We stopped by Egilsstadir, home of the Lagarfljot wyrm

We had an unexpected stop at a new tourist attraction Studlagil, a deep canyon which came into sight after the basalt columns were exposed when the river level fell due to a dam being built higher up the river. There were many steel steps down to a viewing platform but it was worth the puff back up to see yet more basalt honeycombs more impressive than the more famous Giant’s Causeway.

At 1539 feet above sea level, our farm stay at Modradalur is the highest inhabited place in Iceland. It was 5 degrees minus wind chill and reminded me of the altiplano of Peru though the landscape was more like the steppes of Mongolia. Apparently the terrain is so moon-like the YSA sent its astronauts here to train prior to the first moon landing.

We had dinner here. I always like to try new food, typical of the area, so had what Johaness our guide and driver insists is Christmas dinner here. It was called Aroma of the Smoke Shack, and is lamb smoked over sheep dung - with all the Christmas trimmings of course. These were small potatoes lavishly covered in white sauce, processed peas, pickled red cabbage and some salad. 5 slices of lamb were on the plate. It looked pink like boiled ham, but tasted as smokey as Talisker. I don’t like whisky so I’ll leave you to judge how much I enjoyed it.

I’m sorry but I’m getting no time to look at journals. This is a wonderful trip but very full-on!