Ice, Ice Baby - Part 7

For Part 1.

These first 6 pix were taken at Kirkjugólf-- literally "Church floor." But there never was a church or any other building here. When the settlers arrived, they saw it and assumed that this was the ruins of an old church. Looks like hex tiles, but it's actually the top of a clump of basalt columns. You would think I would include a photo. But I didn't. Didn't even take a very good one. But my kids look cute. Check out here for a good shot taken by some stranger.


Waterfall at Dverghamrar (Dwarf's Cliffs). There was one of these simple beauties every 500 yards.
Núpsstaður farm houses. In the south of Iceland, you see this old orange and red thing in every photo.





Not a good shot, but I thought I'd use it to show a point. That cliff is a sea cliff. It is also 25 km from the sea. Various eruptions have raised the level of the land with lava or glacial wash. Often we would drive through villages which used to be thriving fishing villages until the harbour filled with lava and the sea became unreachable. Few people die in Iceland due to the volcanoes, but often their lives are changed irrevocably as the earth and it's purpose changes around them.



This bridge is a fine example of man's tentative existence in Iceland. In 1996, there was a sub-glacial volcanic eruption underneath Vatnajökull, which rapidly melted the glacier, causing icebergs to rapidly break off and flow down the river, and crash into the bridge shown here. Many of these iceberg exceeded 100 tons in weight and these steel girders didn't stand a chance. Now, they've rebuilt the bridge, and this monument to that bit of morning activity made a great slide for the kids (ages 7 - 32).



The Black Falls



"Hof" is Icelandic for "temple" and so this was the Temple Church. It was just a pretty little church. All of the churches (and many of the old homes) are painted a pretty, vibrant cornflower blue inside. It was really lovely.
Here the glacier meets the water and icebergs calve off and float into the Atlantic. We had a boat tour around the lagoon.



Due to the massive thickness and weight of the glacier, the glacial ice is 5 times more dense than regular ice, so it has a higher melting point. This makes it perfect for drinks. By the time that it breaks off into the water, the ice has been making its journey for the past 1000 years. We were able to sample it, and it was very cold, very clean, and very tasty. I wish that I had brought a Coke. The black lines in the bergs aren't pollution but the sediment that the glacier drags along with it.


Part of our group, all booted up.
The lady on the boat informed us that there are often seals sunning themselves. Livia perked right up to this, and we searched and searched, but only saw this very seal-like iceberg. We were told to go and check near the beach, as sometimes there are seals there. Ariel, Tracey and the girls went ahead of me to check. As I was walking along to join them, I saw them coming back, looking forlorn. (Lena was actually screaming because the terns saw her as a threat and were dive-bombing her. That was funny.) So I waited for them to catch up and looked out over the lagoon. And what did I see?
For Livia, this made the whole trip worth it.