Iceland – South Coast (part 3)

A trip to Iceland is not complete without seeing or visiting a glacier.  And Iceland has lots of it.  We visited a few.

 

Svínafellsjökull Glacier

There is something so spectacular about the Svínafellsjökull glacier. It is the strong energy that vibrates through the atmosphere around it. There is no wonder it has been a favorite as a film location for critically acclaimed entertainment such as Batman Begins and Game of Thrones.

We can drive up to it and walk along the footpath provided to the side of the glacier where the view is spectacular.

Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon

The Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon is a place that no traveler should miss. The lagoon is located at the ring road  an hour drive from Skaftafell.  Jökulsárlón is well known for its spectacular beauty and a lot of floating icebergs.  It is one of the biggest attractions here in Iceland.

The lagoon lies at the tip of a glacier’s tongue, where icebergs regularly break off and fill the lagoon.  During the Little Ice Age between 1600 and 1900, with cooler temperatures prevailing in these latitudes, the glacier had grown by up to about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) from the coast at Jokulsá River, by about 1890. When the temperatures rose between 1920 and 1965, the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier tongue rapidly retreated, continually creating icebergs of varying size, thus creating a lagoon in its wake around 1934–35. The lake is about 200 metres (660 ft) deep where the glacier snout originally existed. In 1975, the lake was about 8 square kilometers (3.1 square miles) in area and now it reportedly stands at 18 square kilometers (6.9 square miles) at the edge of the glacier tongue.

Stepping on the ice is dangerous, it can break or flip.

Click the video to see more  about the glacier lagoon.

It’s a famous spot movies and TV series have been filmed here:  A View to a Kill, Die Another Day, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Batman Begins, as well as the “reality TV” series Amazing Race. There are day tours you can book from Reykjavik that will take you here during the summer months. We drove here ourselves, and getting there is quite easy, as it’s right off of Route 1 between Höfn and Skaftafell.

We were in awe to see those milky blue icebergs floating in the water!

Diamond Beach / Ice Beach

The Diamond Beach is just across the street of  Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon in South East Iceland.  There is a large bridge that crosses over the outlet of the lagoon that flows into the ocean.  This is where the icebergs float out to the ocean.  Some of the ice chunks are polished by the ocean and wash ashore again.  Then there are smaller ones to be found all over the black sands, which look like ice diamonds in all sizes and shapes.

 

Driving along the south shore route is really worth it.  A day or two is not enough to see all the beautiful places along Iceland’s south shore.

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