Monday, August August 19th, 2024
This morning we arrived in the town of Djúpivogur.
Our excursion was a full day and was called “Fjallsárión Ice Lagoon by Zodiac”. Our guide pointed out the sights as we traveled by bus.
He pointed out the Icelandic horses. A lot of these horses were along the road. They were smaller than most horse breeds in the world. These horses could survive the harsh Iceland weather. Icelandic horses had five gaits where other horses have three: walk, trot, and gallop. The two that these horses had was tölt and flugskeið. Tölt was a 4-beat ambling gait. The horse always had one or two feet touching the ground at equal intervals. Flugskeið had been nicknamed the fifth gear. It was very fast and a horse could reach speeds up to 30 mph on it. Not all Icelandic horses could do the flugskeið.
We saw swans that migrated from England and spent the summer along the East coast of Iceland. Some bird watchers had counted up to 30,000!
The geology of the area was quite interesting. The layers of lava flows were apparent. The jagged steep cliffs were imposing.
As we rode along the “Ring Road”,which was an 820 mile loop that connected most towns and villages. We saw spring water flowing that was clear and glacier runoff that was murky.
We saw potato farms and sheep along the road. The sheep had the right of way. Our bus had to stop and wait for the sheep to cross the road. We also crossed over one lane bridges.
As we approached our destination, Fjallsárlón, we saw glaciers in the distance.
Fjallsárlón was a glacier lagoon that’s about 20 years old when the glacier started to recede up the mountain. Fjallsárlón was an outlet glacier of Vatnajökull, the largest glacier in Europe.
We were fitted with a heavy duty parka that would keep us warm and dry when we were on the water.
After getting our parka and life jacket, we hiked down to the lagoon where we boarded a zodiac boat. It was nice to be in small groups with a guide.
It was an overcast day so the glacier and the icebergs weren’t glistening but we enjoyed our time on the lagoon.
After our zodiac ride on the lagoon we hiked up to the equipment shelter and turned in our parkas and life jackets. Lunch was served in the restaurant at the site and it was good.
On our drive back to the ship we drove along the North Atlantic shore.
We returned from our day excursion in time to hear Sue Stockdale a guest lecturer on board. This talk was called “Magnetic Attraction”. She discussed what motivated her to go on her adventure to the North Pole. In 1996 she was the first British woman to ski to the Magnetic North Pole. She was very interesting and she included videos and pictures of her experience. She was quite an adventurer!
It was another busy day exploring!
