Jökulsárlón (Jokulsarlon)

We stopped at a service station for a very weak coffee - so weak that Camilla resorted to coffee powder and cold water! - and again soon afterwards for soup and chocolate by a lonely tree. At Fagurhólsmýri we hoped to get on a tour to Ingólfshöfði, but it was too late in the season and all we found was the tractor used in the tours, with deflated wheels. We did, however, see our first great skua there - and back on the road soon afterwards we saw a gyrfalcon fly up from the roadside. We stopped again at a viewpoint of Kvíárjökull glacier and a broken bridge.

At Jökulsárlón we stopped on the western side of the bridge to look at the view of the lagoon from there, rather than heading straight for the car park and tourist setup on the other side.

Postponing further acquaintance with the lagoon, we then wandered down to the beach, lured by a stranded giant iceberg. There was a feeding frenzy of birds where the river hit the sea, and others lined the sandbanks; we also saw a seal moving up and down, swimming against the current. We wandered along the beach a little and tried to photograph a pair of juvenile skuas.

At the one building (cafe/office) we booked a spot on the next boat tour and had donuts and coffee (anything else was too expensive). The half hour boat tour was fun, but it's pretty expensive (1900pp) and you don't really see much you can't see from the shore, so if you're on a tight budget you could skip this and just sit on the little hill for a while and admire the lagoon.

It started raining soon after we left Jökulsárlón and long stretches of 40km/hour gravel slowed us down on the seventy kilometres or so to Höfn.

Next: Höfn and back
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