Iceland Day 5 - Skaftafell, Jökulsárlón and Stafafell

Added: July 30, 2008

Tags: Iceland glacier lagoon mountains photos

Finally I am able to publish about the 5th day in Iceland. Actually, photos were ready before our Norway trip, but I did not have time to select them.

Wednesday 18th of June is even better weather than last day. It is sunny, but with much better visibility. Our planned mileage is smaller today, but there is paid attraction with possibility of many people in queue.

Additional pages are available:

Morning
Afternoon

Afternoon

F985

We had prepared list of places we'd like to see. But pre-planned itineraries are usually not the best. Thus we always consulted Lonely Planet and local sources for possible changes.

Side trip at F985 is one of them. We are quite confident with our 4WD capabilities now, so we decided to "risk" it here. Road leads to some mountain hut near glacier, but we will see how far we get.

This was really good decision! It is wonderful place. Wild, rough, cold, windy, colorful! Unfortunatelly we did not get to Jöklasel hut, because road works obstructed our way (we turned before checking the road is really closed...)

In the beginning the road looked quite normal (remember that unpaved is normal in Iceland).
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But later it was more 4WD.
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Before Höfn

I don't have any photos from Höfn, apart 2 from near by petrol station, but it is surrounded by beautiful hills.

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There is always one black sheep in colorful rhyolite mountains.
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Lónsöræfi

Lónsöræfi east of Höfn is another place full of rhyolite mountains. We got our chance to enjoy them here after failed attempt in Landmannalaughar. If my preparation was more thorough we could be accommodated in nearby Stafafell, leaving us more time for exploration and possible hike here. But hostel in Stafafell was not online and I just missed it when I booked hostels. So we were left with only short spare time thus we opted for moto-hike. Another 80km were waiting for us before we reach Berunes.

I am not fan of Batman, but that hill looks like one :-)
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Hill on the right is Reyðarártindur.
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One of these hills (or in following pictures) is Hvannagil, that was originally planned for hike. But as usual if I take photos, we are always late. And there has been plenty of opportunities for photos today.
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We are close to place where we decided "we do not need to cross every river in Iceland". OK, truth is stream was scary and we were out of shovels :-)
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From this point of view it looks like we decided correctly.
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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
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This is at the other bank, place we photographed from distance before.
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Sometimes (well, too often to be coincidence) I take photo, then check how it looks like in Zuzka's interpretation and then humbly rush to take another one - similar to hers. This was one of them.
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