Day 10: July 16, 2007 Eglistaðir to Skaftafell
Trip Start
Jul 08, 2007
1
10
21
Trip End
Jul 23, 2007
Skaftafell National Park,
Iceland
Monday, July 16, 2007
Once again, I slept through the night. Bill complained of all of the noise in the campground but I'm afraid I never heard it!
We pulled out of camp at 9:30 and descended to Reyðarfjörður, stopping to view a scenic waterfall and glacial valley. An amazing new tunnel cut off a trip around the peninsula and brought us to Fáskruðsfjörður. We made a short foto stop but Kathy discovered the berm was littered with scolectite specimens that emptied the van quickly. Mal and Motley found really nice samples. I got a bunch of teaching specimens.
Magnus insisted that we stop in Þetra, the house on Stöðvarfjörður where a woman named Petru collected about a zillion beautiful rock and mineral specimens and had them displayed throughout her house and yard. It's most impressive! She still lives there.
We made a Magnus stop for lunch up a side canyon on the south side of Berudsfjorður at a place called Fossagil. It has a beautiful waterfall. The roadcut contains some nice zeolites. Jeff found a museum quality specimen of mesolite. It's heavy and delicate but well worth the effort and expense to get it back safely.
Concerned about time, I chose to skip Teigarhorn. On the west side of the Eystrahorn I was able to recognize the beautiful magma mixing outcrop that Þrainn showed us in 2004. We examined it and discussed it at length.
As I expounded about Iceland's "most beautiful view" Magnus kept smiling. To my chagrin, another new tunnel now bypasses the overlook on the crest of the Vestrahorn that overlooks Höpn. The overlook is still accessible but we blew it off because of low clouds. Everyone enjoyed the views of the valley glaciers as we passed in front of them. We stopped to fotograf the Höffellsjökull.
After that, we made a beeline down to Jökulsárlón. The site continues to be amazing, jammed with icebergs. Sydney treated me to the 20-minute boat ride through the icebergs. Although it is spectacular, the $40 price makes it pale in comparison to the day-long $100 excursion on Lago Argentino in Patagonia. The clouds were too low to get a view of the glaciers that produce the icebergs. Numerous seals played and fished in the Lagoon.
Our final leg on our long day's journey took about an hour to get to Skaftafell National Park. Öræfajökull was in the clouds but the Swinajökull, Skaftallfellsjökull, and Skeidarárjökull were clear and beautiful. We got a campsite near the visitor's center. The place gets more commercialized and less visitor friendly every time I visit. If one can only take a short lukewarm shower with 4x50 pieces, they should at least provide a 24-hour change machine!
Everyone was tired after dinner so we all turned in.
