August 30 - Kverkfjöll
An early start today as we had a private tour guide to help us attack Vatnajökull from the north by car, with glorious sunshine overhead making for a refreshing change from the cloud, wind, and rain of the last week.
We drove for many hours across the surface of the Moon (apparently) with the only other signs of civilization being a lonely park ranger who stumbled across us during a break to have some coffee. Luckily, our super-jeep on this journey behaved much better than the ones we had been riding in several days ago, as we were not driving in a convoy and it would have been a very long wait for help.
The terrain alternated between barren moonscape, gravel pits, rugged lava flows, and occasional green valleys. At one point we stopped for a walk to see where some outlaws had once lived in a cave in a lava flow, but after ten minutes walking we found that the rangers had already put a footbridge across a stream away for the season. Instead, we got to meet the local flies. Lots and lots of flies. My thinking is that the outlaws probably should have thought their plan through better, since there there's not likely much worse going on in the Icelandic penal system than having to put up with these goddamn flies 24 hours a day.
A few hours later and we were at the Kverkfjöll lodge at the base of the ice cap. The few other people there were much more active than we are: some were prepping crampons and ice picks for hikes up the glacier, and a support team was setting up the tents for the athletes in the 250 km Fire and Ice Ultra Marathon. (Maybe next year.) For us, the target was the Kverkfjöll ice caves at the foot of the glacier, formed by a geothermal spring located under the ice cap. Unfortunately it is not safe to go inside the caves in the summer due to falling ice (whereas in winter they can be used for hot baths) so we had to settle for some photos of the cave mouth from a distance.
On the long journey back out of the highlands, our guide took us as close as he could do the active lava flow still emanating from the Holuhraun eruption of 2014. We could only look at it from a distance through binoculars, though; not because it was dangerous (it is, but with a guide you're allowed to go close), but rather because between us and it was an existing lava field plus a river (both seen here in the foreground) so navigating the couple of kilometers would take several hours.
Several bumpy, off-road hours later and we found civilization again in the form of a rest stop in the back country. After a day of seeing almost no signs of life, we were treated to cuteness overload as a couple of semi-domesticated arctic fox pups had an extended round of playing at silly buggers, much to the chagrin of the local black lab.
Our guide explained that every year the rest stop takes in a couple of orphan cubs (whose mother has been shot by hunters) and lets them live there for the summer. He also said we don't want to know what happens to them when summer ends. :(
We drove for many hours across the surface of the Moon (apparently) with the only other signs of civilization being a lonely park ranger who stumbled across us during a break to have some coffee. Luckily, our super-jeep on this journey behaved much better than the ones we had been riding in several days ago, as we were not driving in a convoy and it would have been a very long wait for help.
The terrain alternated between barren moonscape, gravel pits, rugged lava flows, and occasional green valleys. At one point we stopped for a walk to see where some outlaws had once lived in a cave in a lava flow, but after ten minutes walking we found that the rangers had already put a footbridge across a stream away for the season. Instead, we got to meet the local flies. Lots and lots of flies. My thinking is that the outlaws probably should have thought their plan through better, since there there's not likely much worse going on in the Icelandic penal system than having to put up with these goddamn flies 24 hours a day.
A few hours later and we were at the Kverkfjöll lodge at the base of the ice cap. The few other people there were much more active than we are: some were prepping crampons and ice picks for hikes up the glacier, and a support team was setting up the tents for the athletes in the 250 km Fire and Ice Ultra Marathon. (Maybe next year.) For us, the target was the Kverkfjöll ice caves at the foot of the glacier, formed by a geothermal spring located under the ice cap. Unfortunately it is not safe to go inside the caves in the summer due to falling ice (whereas in winter they can be used for hot baths) so we had to settle for some photos of the cave mouth from a distance.
On the long journey back out of the highlands, our guide took us as close as he could do the active lava flow still emanating from the Holuhraun eruption of 2014. We could only look at it from a distance through binoculars, though; not because it was dangerous (it is, but with a guide you're allowed to go close), but rather because between us and it was an existing lava field plus a river (both seen here in the foreground) so navigating the couple of kilometers would take several hours.
Several bumpy, off-road hours later and we found civilization again in the form of a rest stop in the back country. After a day of seeing almost no signs of life, we were treated to cuteness overload as a couple of semi-domesticated arctic fox pups had an extended round of playing at silly buggers, much to the chagrin of the local black lab.
Our guide explained that every year the rest stop takes in a couple of orphan cubs (whose mother has been shot by hunters) and lets them live there for the summer. He also said we don't want to know what happens to them when summer ends. :(
posted by Paineroo @ 1:59 AM
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