We decided to get an early start for the day to hopefully to avoid other tourists, as there are more now the closer we get back to Reykjavik. We’ve been spoiled thus far being in more remote areas. To facilitate the early rise Crosby cleverly placed his phone up by the front seats so he’d have to get up and get moving.

Since sunset is supposedly around 11 PM and sunrise around 3 AM, and it never really gets dark, the timing was no issue. It worked out well as our first stop was at Jokulsarlon where we were able to see lots of icebergs stationary and on the move all from the glacier that’s part of the National Park. We were mesmerized watching them sparkle in the sun, break apart or ram into each other, and float past us along with seals darting all around them. The formations looked like sculptures in white and blue, plain and striated. Totally gorgeous. We watched for quite awhile, then moved over to the other side of the outflow site. There we saw the icebergs flowing out to the Atlantic Ocean. But even better was the black sand beach with icebergs along the shore edge and a “diamond” scattered beach….small ice chunks all over the shore! It was incredible! We walked all along the beach, playing with the ice, amusing ourselves to no end.

We finally decided to drive further along the ring road, finding several other good spots to view the icebergs and the fingers of the glacier. As always here, there was no shortage of waterfalls, sheep and horses. We also caught glimpses of more reindeer. And…I didn’t mention yesterday that we think we saw an arctic fox!

We next went to view the Svartfoss, a waterfall that we managed to see after a short hike of 1.8 KM. It was a pleasant hike up, but soon began a light rain on the walk back. We were rather damp at the end, but a cup of coffee from the kiosk helped to warm us up. Besides, I can’t really complain as the only rain we’ve had up till now was on the morning we arrived.

In Vik we drove out to three different places to view the basalt sea stacks. The kids tell me they were featured in the legendary Game of Thrones as Eastwatch By The Sea. Hmmm…seems we keep running into those spots. At least they are gorgeous.

Continuing the drive we came upon Skogafoss, another spot featured in Game of Thrones involving a dragon that Jon Snow rode. But that wasn’t key for me. What was important was that it was obviously a gorgeous waterfall but there was a huge staircase next to it leading up to the viewing platforms. Hmmm…..at times I might have said “Forget it. I’ll wait for you down here”. But now? After walking for over 5,500 miles in the past three years I figured I should go for it. So off we went, with me counting the stairs. Luckily Kevin was walking behind me to ensure I safely made it up. Along the way another older woman had paused to rest, looking rather beat, but wasn’t ready to give in. She wanted to chat, but Kevin knew I’d lose my count, so he mentioned that we’d tell her at the top what she’d managed. Up we went, all 427 steps, to see the gorgeouus view. We continued along the path a bit further and saw two more waterfalls. But sometimes these kids about give me a heart attack with how close to the edge they’re willing to be. I just can’t watch.

We walked back down and up to the bottom of the waterfall, getting covered in mist but enjoying every minute.

As we drove on to our campsite in Hella we had to stop and turn around once we saw a random fence along the way covered in bras! Once at the camp we quickly made dinner as it was a long, late day.