day 81 Ice and diamonds

I've an event booked for 11.30 this morning half an hour's drive away so absolutely no rush, yes I could have caught up with yesterday's blog easily, but I didn't I really need to stay on top of the blogs.... Killing time drinking coffee making and consuming another fry up! And..... Sit down..... Showering! God that felt good! But it also nearly made me late! 

I'd already packed most of my stuff so just going was no issue...

The short drive was fine, at one point in the drive the road is diverted where the previous road and bridge had been washed away by a huge glacial melt! 

Arriving at Fjallsárlón a group of about ten of us kit up in huge waterproof insulated jackets and little life preservers.... Not that falling in and floating would be much fun..... Your dead in five minutes apparently! 

We're heading out into this lake of iceberg and glacier in a Rib..... Rigid inflatable boat..... 

passing smallish looking bergs until you consider they float with only 10% above water.... Getting too close and one flipping would be disastrous

awkward selfie later......

And we approach the glacier itself a good 100 meters back, getting closer isn't optional... One fall and we're at best washed away .. More likely dead... Serious business this tourism!!

this particular glacial flow is receding at 50 meters per year in other flows it's up to 150 meters, I'm lucky to see this ... Heading back back through the pretty thick broken ice

you really get the impression of being north! Not far from the artic circle! 

Back on land and disrobed the little party breaks up and I'm away in search of diamonds! 

Diamond beach to be exact.... This is another black sand beach at the mouth of the outflow from Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon !

Looking back towards the lagoon it would be a very interesting boat trip..... You can see why it opens later in the year! 

on to the diamond's!

yep diamond beach is covered in ice crystals up to a few meters long with a miriad of shapes and textures

with the tourists come the influencers! 

she was prancing up and down in front of her camera all the time I was there .... Kind of missing the point of the experience! 

An experience I recommend.... You do get parking mugged the usual five pounds for the day, for a half hour visit tourist tax ..... For once it's worth while....I won't see this elsewhere I think!

From here my trip North is panoramic ecstasy! 

I'm entering the Eastern fjords and words nor pictures can portray the beauty ..... I'll leave it to the pictures. 

having decided against going to see a Viking village that had been built and abandoned for a movie, my path goes through a tunnel under a mountain leaving the grey clouds stuck to its peak and once in sunshine there's a bit of silly....a red painted wooden chair is bolted randomly to a rock,

depending upon your source it's either a place for the locals to leave cheese for the elves or a seat of contemplation.... I go with the elves.... No reason lol! 

tho that's some scenery to contemplate behind me!

From here the scenery just gets better and better! You start to realise you can't capture all of this and you become selective on a level I've not reached before! Anywhere else (possibly) I'd be snap happy .. Here I need to make progress along the road! 

Which in places without the guard rail would be pretty hairy with hundred feet drops down scree slopes to whatever lady below.... No I wasn't looking!!

There are view points along these stretches.....

I can these roads being regularly closed from land slides!

Into another fjord and a crown of icy peaks grabs my attention forcing a stop!

this is fantasy land! 

A thousand adventures of dwarves and goblins and ice maidens could be fantasized here!

But I settle for a good port for the night.... At least a campsite above one at the pretty harbour town of Djupivogur!

another night of stunning views with dinner in the van!

Day 80 Understanding

I've not as yet had a more beautiful place to stop! The falls the mountains the aurora!! 

Feeling blessed as I leave, I nearly make a bad choice I was considering passing up on a visit to Skogar museum that would have been an awful mistake! 

Nothing as yet has given me a feel for the past in any depth this museum really achieves that! 

I don't think Iceland has been 'modern' for very long a hundred years or so is my guess and prior to that subsistence living relying on boats to brave the often insane seas here

farming of sheep for meat and wool spinning yarn to make the famous jumpers

a good selection of spindle whorls here too.

Cattle to provide leather and horn, drinking vessels and cutlery made from horn due to the lack of wood here

a spoon former here!... Boil up a strip of horn cut to shape and place in the former close it up and leave the spoon to cool... Who needs plastic! 

Naturally horns for communication over the rugged landscape, calling people in for meals, church... Probably no end of reasons and different calls

but horns obviously carried status.... A horn call was a command not a request. Calling back to the farmstead would bring you to these basic looking homes

comprising workshops, kitchens and sleeping quarters where multiple people slept together for warmth

you can see where the side has been cut out to make entry exit easier but once in an ornate bed board is placed to stop anyone being pushed out!........

living areas were decidedly more posh,

entertainment of visitors, business, music, schooling would be carried out here, all under those rock slate and turf ceilings..... You wouldn't think so from that image! 

People's attire, Sunday best/weddings etc was really fancy! 

with ornate buckles and brooches that still held onto designs familiar to the ancient Norse 

transport over land was on foot or horse back, the women folk riding side saddle with more or less ornate sales depending on your wealth

and men's more practical saddles 

imply that the women looked after the homes whilst men attended to the more distant business of daily life. 

Like I say that museum really gave me an impression of how things may have been ....I can always be wrong in my interpretations!

On my way and I get an impression of the distances here.... How often did people travel to meet?

a lighter and very much more modern stop I go off the main road to see a cave...... Modern?...... Well modern in its name!

it's named the Yoda cave..... Yes after Yoda from start wars!..... Very silly! 

But a good break from the road! 

From the cave to the sea is just black sand all ground up by ancient glacier! 

But this is the start of a lesson in how terrain changes here

To dormant volcano.... You can caldera in so many peaks as you drive along! 

through moorland

with occasional patches of odd rocky terrain.... Little piles of rocks that no doubt tourism has had more prominent

long stretches of round looking rocks covering miles of land that on closer inspection are rocks covered in grey moss

plateau with waterfalls, the entire lengths of which have smoothed and eroded by eons of water flow! 

the last section of road before I stop for the day is a wide valley floor....I call it valley but it's miles across, it really leaves you feeling tiny.... Never a bad experience! It's quite overwhelming

looking back and seeing the huge plateau you'd driven past reduced to slim grey line on the horizon! 

Equally turning forward and seeing the next plateau with the huge Vatnajokull glacier grinding it's way to the level of the land your on 

my stop for the night is at the base of the hill to the left of the left hand glacier....

As always stop eating sleep become priority.... Leaving this blog to be written later!