So, I fell off the bandwagon yesterday. We arrived in Höfn yesterday evening after a day of hike-drive-hike-drive-midterm. And then we proceded to party (mildly) because THE bar in town was already closed.
Sunday (13): Before setting out in the morning, I hiked up to the top of the nearby 40m waterfall (Skógafoss) with Sharon to have a look around. A little farther up stream from the main sight was a second smaller, more niagra like waterfall. A shortish drive brought us to the parking lot of the Skaftafellsjökull - a glacier on the southern part of the country. We hiked up past the moraines, and onto the glacier. It is both amazing and increadibly sad to see how much the glacier has receded over the past 100 years. I am aware, and I believe it is important to mention that we are coming out a mini-ice age, but its rather unreal to see how much ice has melted. The glacier has receded a few hundred meters (estimated based on how far we hiked) in the last 50-odd years. We drove on for a ways, stopped at another glacier to see it's lagoon (on the near side of where Beyond the Wall was filmed for the Game of Thrones!!!) then on to one final lagoon - where amphibious boats take tourists out. <-- does that sound sustainable to you? Kinda seems like it's unnecessarily contributing to climate change...But then again, I flew here on Earth Day.
We arrived in Höfn with a little time to study in the hostel before writing the midterm after which we grabbed some bjór and headed to the beach.
Today (14): Up bright and early, as usual, this time to head a research centre here for a few hours of lecture followed by a grocery trip. We then had little time to get ready to set out on another hike to a glacier, this time Hoffellsjokull. Our guide (nicknamed Thor because his real name is a mouthful) sounded sad as he talked about the receding glacier. Every month for the last five years he has been taking a photograph from the same spot. When he started, he was just barely at the ice, now the ice is hundreds of metres away. I think was stuck me was not so much the recession in metres, but the depletion in volume of the glacier. I can even begin to estimate a km^3 value, but it is most definitely massive. We hiked up a hill west of the glacier face to get a better view, and it was magnificent!
On our way back into town, we unanimously decided to make a pit stop at a dairy farm which makes its own ice cream! The chocolate vanilla cone I had was delicious! Before dinner a Ava, Luke, Lesley, Riley, Steve and I headed for the pool to try out the waterslides and the hot pools. Then Luke and I made ribs (not on the BBQ, sadly, there was no propane, and the grill looked uber disgusting). One game of thrones episode later, here I am!
Ok picutres! I've taken so many gorgeous ones of glaciers, I'm going to try for some variety....Enjoy!
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