South East Coast

 The moss covered lava field.

 Mt. Hvannadalashnukur.

 The first waterfall.

 Picnicing by the turf houses.

 Svartifoss waterfall and the columnar formations.

 The Ice Lagoon with the Vatnajokulspjodgardur glacier in the background.

Mohammad enthralled with ice.

Thursday, August 17^th.

Today was an excellent day, we were active and we saw a variety of things. We started off at nine again and drove for about an hour past more of the cliffs that formed the edge of the continent centuries ago. The cliffs are steep and covered in green grass and moss, but no trees. The scenery was beautiful. We stopped at part of an enormous old lava field that is covered in rocks covered in beautiful, soft moss.

We drove on for a while and then stopped at a little town to buy groceries for a picnic. We carried on to a view of the tallest mountain in Iceland, Hvannadalashnukur, which stands at 2110 metres. It is ice covered and surrounded by glacier.

Then we drove to Vatnajokulspjodgardur National Park. This park is enormous and consists largely of the largest glacier in Iceland. We were at the southern end, at a place called Skaftafell. Here we went on a two hour hike up the side of a mountain to a couple of turf houses on a cliff that had a commanding view of the flat expanse of the flood plain from the mountains to the ocean. This is where we had our picnic with a small group of horses watching us.

After lunch we continued up the mountain to see a beautiful waterfall, Svartifoss, which was flowing over another example of the hexagonal columnar basalt formations that we saw the other day. Really interesting the way the lava cooled into this shape.

Johann drove us to the edge of the glacier where we could take some photos of the ice. As usual, Mohammad, Tim and I went a little further than the others and took perhaps a bit too much time, because then Johann had to drive as quickly as possible to the next location, about an hour down the road. This is the famous Ice Lagoon, where icebergs of varying sizes calve off the glacier and float in the lagoon for up to a year before they are small enough to float out of the lagoon and down to the sea. The sun was out and the colour of the water and the icebergs was spectacular. Unfortunately we got there five minutes too late for our boat cruise. So, Johann re-booked us for two hours later and we spent some time photographing and admiring the ice from the shore, before we drove to Diamond Beach where the small icebergs flow out to the ocean. Here the water was blue, the ice white and the sand black – stunning.

When the time came (6:30) we drove back to the lagoon and boarded the amphibious vehicle for our cruise. We loaded up on land and then drove into the water. We drove around the icebergs admiring their shapes and colours. Mohammad, who is from Jordan, but lives in Dubai, has never seen ice before and was enthralled. The water was rough and some of us got wet feet as the water came into the boat.

From there we drove to our new 'Tourist Farm' Gistiheimilid Gerdi. I had another excellent meal, haddock this time. Tim, Mohammad and I went out after to take a few sunset shots and go for a short walk. Then back to bed.