Iceland Day 6 - Solheimajokull Glacier

Another wonderfully bright morning, and I went out for a pre breakfast walk and watched the clouds lift up the steep hillside behind our hotel, and heard the numerous birds calling. It is a really beautiful and peaceful place. We had a quick half hour stop at the beach and photographed some more icebergs which had washed onto the black sand beach before heading towards Ingolfshofoi which is tall rocky island off the coast which contains a seabird colony, which includes a Puffin colony.

To reach the island, rather than using a boat we used a tractor and trailer to travel about 5km across a black sand desert. This is the remains of a glacial flood following a sub-glacial volcanic eruption. It was very other worldly and great fun travelling across although it was very windy, and as we reached the island the sand started to building up into dunes, and the tractor started to struggle for traction and everybody had to stand at the front of the trailer to add additional weight over the wheels.

Once we arrived at the island we had to scramble up a large dune to actually get onto the island. Our guide told us about the island, it was one of the first places to be settled in Iceland in 874, and there was a carved stone monument commemorating this. Next we headed towards the birds and we saw (and were dived bombed by) some Skuas, probably because we were near their 'nests' which were effectively a flattend piece of grass. We did see a couple of Skua chicks.

As we rounded the corner of the island we reached the highest cliffs and found the Puffins. There were only about 4 Puffins which were visible, but they posed for us for a long time, and a couple even took off of a little flight. Next it was back down to the tractor for our journey back across the sands.

Next stop was another little waterfall which seemed to spill over a dome of rock, and it was called Systrafoss, and then we called a Vik to photograph the Church on the hillside which was covered in the blue Lupins which seem to be so prevalent here. According to Kristian, Lupins are an invasive species, similar to how Rhododendrons are in our country. The interior of the church was very nice.

Our final stop of the day, and the highlight of the trip so far, was at Solheimajokull, another glacier. As we left the main road we started to drive through what can only be described as a moonscape, which was very dusty and strewn with boulders. We parked up and started to walk towards the snout of the glacier, we wound our down through the glacial deposits which were a mixture of mud and volcanic ash from 2010. It was all very dark grey and black, and at times it felt like being in the bottom of an open cast coal mine, but more alien.

We finally saw the snout of the glacier, and we climbed onto it, and walked about. It was an amazing experience. You could see the ice breaking through the upper covering of ash, and there were streams of melt water on the surface and in the clear parts you could see layers of ash suspended in the ice. Across the surface of the glacier there were near perfect cones of black mud/ash. Kristian explained how these formed. When ash lands on the glacier, it effectively insulates the ice below it, so it starts to melt at a slower rate to that surrounding it, so the glacier falls away around the insulated part forming the cones. The glacier moves about 150m a year, although it is receding and also getting thinner.

It was eerily silent except for the occasional crack of ice moving and fracturing slightly. It was a very alien, stark but beautiful place and one I will not forget.

This blip is looking across the snout of the glacier and I like how the sunlight has caught the green mosses (the only colour in the area).

We then left to go to our penultimate hotel at Skogar, next to the Skogafoss waterfall which is our first item for tomorrow. We've also recruited a new blipper this week, WinstonTales so go have a look at a different perspective of Iceland.