Iceland, Day 3

We started off with one bitch of a hike. I really wanted to see Svartivoss, but greatly underestimated the trail to go see it. It was a few kilometers, 90% being uphill. I was in fairly decent shape before this growing child of mine made me feel like the world was crushing my lungs. I got winded very easily (and having asthma in the cold doesn’t help), so we took some small breaks on the way up. We were on a bit of a time crunch due to when our Ice Cave Tour was set to depart (and the drive was about 30 minutes) ad we decided to venture a little on the nearby trails before attmepting this one. The icy walk made it difficult, even with the black hex-pads that were in place to help reduce slipping (mini spikes or crampons probably would’ve been a wise purchase, but oh well). We were able to get up to the top (without dying, a great accomplishment I feel). Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to go all the way down to the viewing bridge, but we still got a good view at the top. The time it took to get down vs. on the way up? Literally a quarter of the time. It was a relief going downhill all the way vs. an uphill climb of an average of 30°.

We made it back to the campervan on time and made our way to the meeting point for our Ice Cave Tour (Jökulsárlón). The Ice Cave was newly discovered just some weeks before we arrived and our tour guide was one of the many guides who was able to help map it for tours (we even got to go to a smaller room not many tour groups went in because he knew it existed and how to safely access it). The trip to get to the cave was a bumpy 40ish minute drive over rough and sketchy terrain (truly off-roading in this super jeep-like vehicle), and surprise surprise, I took a nap during all the bumps and hills (pregnancy naps hit different). The cave, though not as bright as some photos of other ice caves have shown, was still amazing and learning about their formations and how many of them get discovered was captivating. By the time we exited the cave, it was almost dark (around 1530), so we headed back to the super vehicle to trek back to the meeting point. We originally had Diamond Beach on our list of sights to see, but we ran out of daylight/time to do so, which sucks, especially since it was across the street from the meeting point. You win some, you lose some. Welcome to roadtripping in a foreign country.