Glacier Hike

Today's adventure began early in the morning and continued until sunset. It was necessary to leave our apartment at 6am because of  many hours of driving to our destination. We wanted to arrive at Skaftafell National Park an hour before our glacier hike began but arrived only about 15 minutes before the scheduled departure. Darkness, fog, snow, and icy roads really slowed us down. Five of those scheduled didn't show, making our group very small.

In forty years this glacier has receded three quarters of a mile. Even with this loss of size it is very hard to convey the size of this glacier. Look carefully at the left bottom quarter of the photo above and you will see half a dozen hikers.

 

We hiked from the park headquarters to the base of the glacier, strapped on our crampons, and other gear and began climbing the glacier.

 Ice caves form in the late fall and then begin to splinter and collapse in the late spring and summer. Guides are always on the lookout for sturdy ice caves.

It was a great day's activity. As we began the long drive back to Reykjavik were slightly moaning and groaning on how we would be a bit sore in the morning. As we got closer to Vik the sun was setting and the pillars were a stunning sight. Hubby found a spot to turn off and wanted to drive as parallel to the pillars as he could. We both saw the error in our ways at the same time but he couldn't brake quick enough and before we knew it the front end of the car was sunk headlight high in the black sand! We were about 100 yards from the road and it was quickly getting dark. We were in a pickle!

I got in the driver's seat and Hubby tried to push but our first attempt was unsuccessful. Hubby realized we were high centered in the sand and so we began to dig. He dug under the main part of the car and I dug out the front. It was a lot of quick digging! Hubby decided it was time for me to make a final attempt to free the car before be began our hike into Vik. (population 280, and a universal closing time of 7:00pm). I put the car in reverse and gunned it out of the sand, success! We were both surprised and relieved our little rental car had the strength to power out.

Even though it was considerably darker and I wanted to get back to the safety of the main road, Hubby had to stop and get the shot he was originally after.