Day 13 - 08/15/22 - Djúpivogur, Iceland

 Due to a cancellation we were able to obtain two seats on a private excursion to the Hoffellsjökull  Glacier. That's the good news. The bad news was the ship arrived at 7am and we needed to be on the first tender.  This translated into getting up before 6am!  But we did it and were first at the tender holding area on deck 1.  We met the tour organizer, Jean-Pierre, along with rest of the group and we made the first general tender.

 

On shore in this tiny town of 400, we connected with the local tour operator and we walked up the slight incline where our expedition vehicle was waiting for us.  Essentially it was a HIGHLY modified Mercedes Sprinter van that rested on huge oversized tires suitable for going off road. The tire pressure can be changed on the fly!  I thought to myself: cool! And I probably verbalized it.  We paid the tour operator and climbed up into it.  We only were a group of 10 and there were a couple seats left over.  Here's a picture of the rig.

 

 

As soon as we started moving, I realized it was going to be a difficult ride on the highway.  The unit was quite top heavy and rolled left and right and felt like it was going to roll over.  Then there was the constant hum of the tires and for the first hour of the trip, we in the back couldn't hear anything. I spoke to the driver at our first stop and he corrected the audio for most of the remaining trip. The road followed the coastline and there was one tunnel.  The geology was very rugged and striking.  We saw lots of swans, sheep, and horses.

 

The rest stop was in the small fishing village of Höfn where we visited the National Park office and used the facilities. Our driver lives here.  The port is too shallow for cruise ships, but would possibly be 

 

If yesterday's theme was waterfalls, today's theme is geology.  The landscape is very rugged and striking.  We left Höfn and backtracked a bit to the glacier turnoff.  As we approached the final stretch of gravel road, he lowered the air pressure in the tires from 28psi to 10psi.  He also had to reduce his speed to less than 40kmh.

 

As we approached the glacier we could see that regular huge tour buses could easily make it up to the parking area.  It was then a short walk up a rocky incline to the viewing area where there are interpretive signs.  The glacier was probably 1/2 mile from our viewing area and contained many streaks of gravel it had picked up in its travel.  It turned out this was just one of three major fingers of the glacier.

 

We then visited the Skútafoss waterfall which was quite unique and included a small dam. The uniqueness came from tge initially visible two small waterfalls.  As one walked closer, there was a large lava cave and another bigger waterfall. After our visit, we continued our drive retracing our route back to the port.  Along the way there was the same very interesting geology only from a different perspective. Back at the tender dock at 1:30 (an hour before the last tender), our driver pointed out his personal rig: a black lifted and stretched Ford Expedition (two extra sets of doors) which was being driven by his father.  He was really proud of it and bragged that it had a 500hp diesel motor under the hood.  

 

I should note that by the end of the ride I had nearly 15,000 steps logged.  That should give you some indication of the amount of motion in the van.

 

The tender process was in full swing as groups were returning.  We shopped a bit, used the rest room and watched some boys in wet suit jump off the dock into the frigid water.  Brrrr! While waiting, we were treated to another surprise:  a rainbow over our ship.  It was stunning and the flattest rainbow I've ever seen.  We boarded the next to last tender and were quickly tendered back to the ship.  

 

Photo credit: Angela Bowman

 

Back on board we shed coats and backpacks and Angela headed for the Crows Nest while I made a few dinner reservations for tonight and upcoming dinners.  Reservation spots were pretty difficult to obtain, but I worked it out.  I went to the Crows Nest but could see no room, so I went to the Lido to try to update my blog.  Angela was there, but I just didn't see her.

 

We had dinner reservations at 5pm at Nami, a sushi restaurant onboard we really like.  We got to sit at the sushi bar and watch the sushi being made. It was a fun and relaxing light dinner.  With over an hour before the evening show, we found some seats on Deck two where I promptly fell asleep for a short nap.  But I awoke and we found nice sets in the World Stage, where master guitarist Greg Rodman put on a terrific performance of guitar tunes. Afterwards we finished the night watching the sunset while I updated my blogs.

 

Tomorrow fortunately is a late arrival in Reykjavik at 10am, so we don't have the pressure to get up early.  I'm pretty tired.  But we have a nice excursion planned and it will have to wait for tomorrow.