Friday, September 22, 2017

Reykjavik and Extreme Iceland - Glacier Wonderland (our one "tourist" activity) - Day 6

Reykjavik car rental:

I'll take the silver car, please.
 Reykjavik street art:

Reykjavik geothermal heating system:

That's right folks. Iceland's water is heated by the Earth. If you've been following my blog for a while, you'll know I traveled to Yellowstone recently (last year) and saw geothermal activity. That's what's happening here in Iceland. They've figured out a way to channel it and pipe it into your house...or the street (as seen above). Amazing stuff really! (side note: it smells like sulfur when you shower or wash your dishes in hot water)

This morning, we woke, showered in the scent of hard boiled eggs and walked 4 minutes to Hotel (Hostel) Oddsson, where Extreme Iceland picked us up for our one touristy adventure in Iceland. It's called Glacier Wonderland.

An 11 hour adventure! Someone picks you up, drives you to a glacier, where another even bigger vehicle drives ON the glacier and takes you to a glacial tunnel. Then back you go. There are a few stops along the way.
We start off in Reykjavik, a town of 200k people (there are 300k in Iceland)

20 min out of town, things get isolated

And geothermal

Our first stop is a lava waterfall

Vegetation is sparse (so we think)


The waterfall is between two levels of lava. Rain falls through the top layer which is very porous, and then can't penetrate the older, more solid later.




After our first stop at the lava waterfall, we continue on to a quick lunch/bathroom stop before driving a vegetatively barren path (I can't say "road") to the glacier. 





Let me say that this "road" feels very one way. Though we share it with oncoming traffic, more than once my heart jumped into my throat.



After 30 minutes on a rocky, unstable, occasionally terrifying road, we arrive at "base camp." It is here we don the fancy warm clothes we purchased before our trip (that I thought would be unnecessary, but were TOTALLY necessary -- Thank you, Krista!). Waterproof pants, hand warmers and waterproof boots (which I rented).



This vehicle "super truck" is equip with inflatable, deflatable tires. While driving on a glacier, you want your tires deflated to a certain level (there's an app for this) so you don't dig into the ice and snow as much as you would with fully inflated tires.

The truck itself was 0 degrees Celsius (freezing point - 32 degrees Fahrenheit). This was WONDERFUL, because we were basically wearing all the clothes we brought on the trip. I think I was wearing five layers (undershirt, Oregon Trail "You have died of dysentery" t-shirt, American Giant zip-up hoodie, 32 Degree puffy jacket and then a waterproof/wind breaker. I also had hand warmer packs, gloves, scarf and hat. I wasn't screwing around. And I have to tell you...I was the perfect temperature. We took like 10 pictures trying to capture the fact that we could see our breath. You're going to have to trust us. 

Before
After

The super truck thing drove 20-30 minutes up the glacier. For maybe 10 minutes, we had a view of snow/glacier, then we lost all vision with a white out. This was not great for my motion sickness, so I closed my eyes. 

At our stopping point, we disembarked into a STRONG wind with biting snow and slowly made our way into the glacier tunnel.
Our Tour Guide
The entrance of the tunnel

About 30 feet into the tunnel we were given crampons to help us walk in the snow. We later learned that the tunnel was opened in 2015 and the area we received our crampons was the original entrance. Glaciers move and creep over time, y'all.


For the next hour, we were led through a series of tunnels. All were lit with LED lights because it would be pitch black otherwise.


















They dug out a room to be the chapel, which was something like 45 meters under ice/snow and had an amazing sound (here is an Icelandic song about children and innocence).


After the glacier shenanigans, we exited back into the biting wind and snow. Escaped into the super truck. And head back on the bus to Reykjavik. On the way, we stopped the "most powerful geothermal" area on Earth (debatable). We did see a cute (possibly abandoned dog who seemed to want to come on the bus with us.) Then back to Reykjavik, where we did some laundry (so much harder than you expect when all settings are in Icelandic!)






Very possibly where Interstellar was filmed!

Geothermal magic (under construction, so it didn't seem like much)

Hi cute doggie

Take me with you Human.