Iceland Day 6 - Höfn & Ice Caves
Well, what can I say. WE <3 HÖFN.
The night before, we agreed on having the best pizza of our lives, in this cute little fisher town, followed by the best milkshakes. Today was the only day we slept in. I have to admit it felt good haha. The plan was to get pancakes for breakfast but unfortunately the place only offers them weekdays. We got some amazing sandwiches instead. Like I mean they were out of this world. Seriously if Marco and I are going back to Iceland, Höfn and Egilsstadir are the only places we'll go back to for multiple days because it's so pretty.
After we finished our breakfast we went to the local pool. There was not much, but some swimming lanes and two hot tubs. It didn't matter because we had entrance for free :) We sat in the tub for a while relaxing our exhausted butt cheeks (driving like 400-600km's a day, you know what I'm saying). Then it was time to move on. Next stop Glacier Ice Caves. Their Headquarters was literally just like an old gas station of some sort. But the interior was really nice. It was like a Cafe/Waiting area situation. We grabbed some coffee and muffins and talked to the locals. Everyone there was just so nice! The lady at the coffee counter aswell as the Icecave Team themselves. When all participants were at the location we headed for the bus taking us there. It was a lifted Chevy 4x4 bus. One of the craziest vehicles I have ever seen! I got the passenger seat which was nice since I had a ton of gear with me. After about 15 minutes we turned into a parking lot and went through it onto a rough gravel path. Now it was clear to me why we needed a 4x4. We arrived after ten more minutes.
The Guide explained us what we need to take care about, gave us harnesses and ice cleats for our shoes. He then went on to tell us some background information about the mountains and glaciers before we made our way towards the ice. We arrived on a gray mass that seemed to be gravel but felt different. Actually we were walking on ice already, he told us. The ice mixes with dust and rocks which makes it look gray and feel like gravel. So walking on a glacier was checked of our To-Do-List!
We went on to the actual caves. What can I say. It was very impressive. Buildings designed by the architect called nature. The first thing I noticed was how dry it actually was in the cave. The ice “walls” were dry, the floor was dry. Just a little dripping from the “roof” so to speak.
Whitewalker, the second ice cave, was not as tall as the first one but longer and had a river in it. That was good because our group got separated a little bit which was good for taking pictures. Unfortunately in most of the cave there was a safety rope that would be visible on many of the photos.
After that we turned back towards the bus but not before seeing a glacier lake at the foot of big ice blocks. Of course I had to take the best picture possible – and broke into the ice. All the way up to the knee with one foot. That was kinda scary, haha. Especially, since it was super quite, the cracking of the ice was deafening. Back at the HQ with one wet foot, we grabbed some more coffee and food, talked a little bit more with the lady from the counter and just enjoyed the afternoon before heading 3.5h for our next AirBNB. We told here we'd be coming back in two days. She called us crazy. More on that, later...
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