Iceland Day 14 – How Can The Weather Change That Much Overnight

posted in: Trip Posts | 0

The title of this post says it all.  After having such a wonderful evening last night, we were awoken by a steady rain and winds that must have been gusting to 25-30 mph or higher.  The entire camper was rocking, we thought we must be on a cruise, not camping.  I did not know a camper like this could be buffeted by the wind that badly,  It was also cold, about 40 degrees, and no telling what the wind chill was outside.  

We had been looking forward to better weather in the south, but now we were back in worse conditions than we had in the northern part of Iceland, it was really mentally distressing and a little depressing.

As bad as we had it, we looked out to see all of the people struggling with the bad weather who were in tents or “pop-tops”  One vehicle had to turn 180 degrees around because the wind was hitting their pop-top tent from the back side, not the sloped side with the fiberglass roof, I am sure they were getting wet inside.  The rain was not that hard, but the wind was brutal.  

I let Stephanie sleep in while I made my coffee and worked on the blog from yesterday.  We had to run the heater harder this morning to keep the camper warm because of the wind.  It is fairly well insulated, and the insides are supposedly covered with a thin wool carpeting, but who knows if that is real.  It was the floor that stayed cold, it was not well insulated apparently.  Also, we have two small round vents in the ceiling, about three inches in diameter, and I made a cardboard cover to stick inside one of them, there was too much cold air coming in because of the wind.

I woke Stephanie up at about 9:00 AM.  I was still trying to figure out the plan for today because we were not sure how much we could do with such bad weather.  I was just not motivated to get going, and I wished we had the extra day we originally had on our schedule before losing it to the flight delay.  We could have just ridden out the weather here and hoped it would be better tomorrow, but now we had no choice, we must move onward. 

 No one else seemed to be in a hurry to leave either.  I am sure the cafe here was doing great business, anyone in a tent or pop-top camper was most likely going inside to have something warm and to get out of the bad weather.

Once we got everything for the front bed stored and converted back to the couch, we had breakfast.  It would have been nice to have something warm, but I had turned off the gas bottle for the stove last night, not anticipating the need for a hot breakfast today. Unfortunately, the gas bottle is only accessible by opening the back doors, and with the wind and rain, that was not going to happen.  We did it once from the inside, but it was really hard to reach.  We just had yogurt, granola bars, and a banana

We filled up our water bottles and took one last bathroom break at the main building before getting on the road.  It was over an hour’s drive to our first stop for the day.

Jökulsárlón Lake and Glacier

We drove in the wind and rain toward our first destination, a location called Diamond Beach.  It was a little funny because we were now driving down the exact same road we had taken yesterday while trying to find a spot to take photos of the glaciers off in the distance.   It never dawned on me that we would be going to the glaciers today anyway, and we did not need to photo them from afar, we would be up close.   That whole side trip we did yesterday when we had not stopped at our different campground initially, the extra driving to take photos of the glaciers, and going into the wrong town to camp after we had made the change in campground selection the day before, added quite a few extra kilometers to our Iceland drive.

We arrived at the first stop, and saw there were two parking areas, on the right was parking to view the Jökulsárlón Glacier and the large lake in front of it, and it was the first stop we were doing here.  The second stop was for the actual Diamond Beach, it was farther down the main road, across a bridge and on the other side of the road, we would head there next.

The parking was for a fee, so we found a space in the busy lot and parked,  It was still raining lightly, but it was extremely windy.  We bundled up and put on our rain pants, raincoats and some extra layers for warmth and headed outside.  The first task was to find the machines to pay for parking.  They were not far away, but we had to wait until one became available.  Did I say it was windy?  Again, parking was by license plate number except this machine did not take a photo of your plate that you could choose from to pay for your vehicle.  There were cameras at the parking entrance, and we did have to put in our license plate number, but there was no selection from photos to make sure we were “in the system” so to speak.  We scanned our credit card and paid the 1,000 ISK parking fee.  We had a receipt emailed to us just in case there was an issue later with the payment, and we got some type of bill from CampEasy for non-payment of parking.

Floating Ice in Lake Jökulsárlón

From there, we headed up the trail to the top of a viewing area to see the lake with icebergs floating in it, and the Jökulsárlón glacier, which was some distance away.  The icebergs come from ice that has calved off of the glacier, which means broken off at the edge of the lake at the glacier face.  The ice was all floating on this side of the large lake because of the wind, it had pushed it all to this way. We had thought it was windy in the parking lot, but it was much windier on top of the exposed hill.  We could barely stand still for photos.

Seals Swimming In Lake Jökulsárlón

There were three seals swimming in the lake near the shoreline and we got photos of them, as well as all of the floating ice.   The lake was a pretty blue color, and quite large.  There were amphibious boats you could pay to ride on, similar to “duck boats” in the USA.  They did not ride all the way over to the glacier face, they just drove around the floating icebergs.  We did see that they did provide everyone with a special suit, probably waterproof, insulated and also used for flotation.

Doesn’t This Look Fun!!!

We took our photos and headed back to the camper to go to the other side of the main road to Diamond Beach.  We left the parking lot and crossed the bridge that was over the river that emptied into the ocean from the lake.  The current was really moving fast in the river from all of the rain.

We entered the parking lot on the left, or ocean side, and saw that it was also paid parking, but there was some writing on the bottom of the sign we were able to read as we passed by it saying that the parking fee was good for the day for both lots, so we did not have to pay here again.

Ice on Diamond Beach

Once again, we donned all of our rain gear and headed from the parking lot to the black sand beach.  This area is called Diamond Beach because the wind and ocean waves push many of the smaller icebergs onto the beach.  Many of them are crystal clear, and in the sunshine (whatever that is) they sparkle like diamonds.  There were a lot of icebergs on the beach, some were as small as a foot in diameter, and many were quite large, maybe 12-15 feet across.  Some were black ice, some were blue/white ice and some were clear ice.  It was really interesting to see, even in the rain and wind.  Just offshore was the fast-flowing river, and it was flowing over what looked like a sandbar, and the ocean waves were breaking on the bar.  There were some pieces of larger ice stuck on the sandbar out in the water.

Of course, this was a popular spot, but there were not that many people here and we got a lot of photos of the ice without anyone else in them.  We also took some videos with the GoPro since we had the movement of the river and the large waves breaking over the sandbar.  We walked out to the end of the rows of ice to where we could see further down the large black sand beach, and be closer to the area where the waves were actually breaking on the beach and not the sandbar. 

Interesting Iceberg

We had to be careful because the tide was apparently coming in and occasionally the water from a wave got really close to where we were standing, we did not want our shoes to get wet.  It seemed a little less windy on this side compared to the glacier side, but it was still raining, and that made it hard to keep the camera equipment dry, especially the lens front.  Luckily, I had a cloth with me to use to wipe it off, but we had to really try and take photos downwind, otherwise the lens would get too wet and make spots on the photos.

Black Sand Beach – Nice and Calm Today

We were there for about 40 minutes and then had to walk the long distance back to the camper, into the wind on the soft sand beach.  We were glad to get inside and take off all of our rain gear.  We were commenting on how nice it was to have purchased our Gortex rain pants before this trip.  Stephanie said she was doubtful we would need them before we left, but they were really keeping us dry as well as the new raincoats we had gotten last year.

Having More Fun In The Rain & Wind!

We started off again and turned up the heat in the cab of the camper to get warm as we drove to the next spot on our list of things to do today, a stop at the Fjallsárlón Glacier.  There are quite a few glaciers in this area of Iceland, and it is a National Park.

Fjallsárlón Glacier

We stopped at a parking area with a cafe where you could also take boat rides to this glacier.  We never gave that a thought, it was way too cold and rainy to ride in a boat today, plus we had seen enough glaciers up close in Antarctica and Alaska on previous trips.  We parked in the free parking lot, once again putting on all of our rain gear, we hiked out to see the glacier and lake. 

This lake was a muddy brown color, either from the rain, or it was just that color all the time.  It was quite a hike there, at least 1.5 Km each way, and uphill most of the way there, and then downhill to the shore of the lake.  It was a nice view, we just wish it was on a sunny day to give the glacier more color.

We hiked back to the camper and we were pretty tired from the walk, especially when half of it was against the wind.  Off with the raingear and back into the warmth of the camper cab to drive to our next destination, the Svínafellsjökull Glacier.  This was described as a “short” walk to the glacier, and you could actually get right up to it.  One review even said it was an easy walk, and that their mother had done it with a broken foot in a walking boot.  Well, we have learned that someone else’s description of an “easy” walk is not the same as ours.  

Svínafellsjökull Glacier

It was a nice parking area, not too busy, so we ate some sandwiches first, it was already 2:00 PM and we were hungry,  We had planned to stop earlier, but we could not find a good area to pull off on for lunch.

The description of walking right up to touch the glacier was obviously a wintertime description, there was a small lake all the way across the front of the glacier that couldn’t be crossed except when it might be frozen in the wintertime.  We never went that far down to the actual shore of the lake.  We stayed up on a hill and enjoyed it from there, not wanting to add even more distance to the walk and have to get back up the hill to this point from the shoreline.   It was not a terrible hike, but it was even longer than the last walk we had at the previous stop, even though it was described as being close to the parking lot.  There was another glacier next to this one, but it was about three times farther away to get to.  Not on our list for today……,.

It seemed even longer to get back to the camper.  This was going to be the last long hike for today, we were tired and our legs were sore, and the cold damp weather was not helping our joints to feel better either.  Plus, the wind was making the walk even harder, it was blowing really hard

Fjallsárlón Glacier

The next stop was the Skeiðarársandur viewpoint.  There was a parking area off the side of the road and we pulled in.  This was a large mountain that was sort of out by itself and had a different shape.   However, the amazing thing was how green it was. From afar, when we first saw it as we were driving toward it, we thought the sun had come out a little and was shining on it, but when we arrived, there was no sun, it was just that bright in color.  It was a short stop for photos, and best of all, no hiking to see it.

Next up was something called the Fossálar Waterfall.  It was right beside the road, but when we got to the small parking area, we could see it was not that spectacular of a waterfall.  It was not a tall waterfall, just more like a large rapids area, so we did not even stop, we were running a little behind in time from all of the stops we had made earlier today. 

Skeiðarársandur viewpoint.

Our campground for tonight was still about two hours away.  There were also a couple of other places we elected to skip, some required a decent hiking distance to get there, and we were done with that for today, and we really did not have the time for it anyway.

There were several areas we drove through today where it was just wide open, flat land, and the wind was really blowing.  Most of the time it seemed to be coming from behind us, but occasionally it was from the side and some of the gusts really made the camper sway, and this required driving with two hands, especially when there was traffic coming the other way and we had to make sure we stayed in our narrow lane.

Black Sandy Flatlands

Some areas were just flat black sand areas, as far as one could see, some were grasslands, and then some were green moss-covered lava fields.  We had seen these moss-covered lava fields earlier in the trip, but these seemed much older, and the moss was thicker, making it seem like a smooth, green surface.

There were a few other stops on the list, but like I said earlier, we were running short on time, and even more short on energy.  One was some basalt columns near a waterfall, and it was just a short 1.5 mile “easy” hike each way, not happening today.  

Moss Covered Lava Fields

We had thought the rain was going to let up earlier when we had stopped to walk to the last glacier, we had actually seen a glimpse of blue sky.  However, once we got away from the mountains and entered the much flatter landscape, the rain and wind actually got a little worse.  We were now heading straight to the campground, and our anticipated time of arrival according to the GPS was about 5:30 PM.

It was raining hard when we pulled into the town of Vik, finally a town name we think we can say, but it is probably pronounced like “Wick”, or something completely different from what it looks like.  We have given up on trying to say the names of towns, waterfalls, etc, we just sort of slur through them, or make up our own phonetic names and we are sure it is not even close to the correct pronunciation.

We first stopped by the Vinbodin store because we wanted to go ahead and purchase enough wine for the remainder of the trip.  We might not see another one in some of the smaller areas we still have to travel to, but this one was right next to the campground, making it convenient.  We could see that the campground was already really full, which was sort of surprising because it was early in “campground time”, but not early if you factored in all of the rain and our location, much closer to Reykjavik where everything has been more crowded.  After our wine purchase, I dropped Stephanie off at the campground reception area.  At this campground, they had large signs saying to check in before finding a campsite, which is not the norm.  There were campers of all sizes and shapes parked in a line for the reception. 

Stephanie sent me a text, they were out of sites with electricity, so we were going to have to see how things go using our batteries for power tonight.  Stephanei paid and then came back to the camper and we made our first round through the large campsite looking for a spot.  It had rained a lot here, and there were some areas that were flooded, and drier space was already at a premium.  We saw a couple of spots and we were trying to stay on the gravel because it was better than wet, muddy grass, but we could not find anything that fit that bill.  We finally pulled into a grassed area between two small van campers and parked for the night.  It was reasonably dry grass.  There was only one large bathhouse with a separate cooking/cleaning area, and we were not that close but also not too far away, it was the best we could do.  

Our Camping Spot

We poured a glass of wine and sort of enjoyed sitting in the camper and watching the constant parade of new arrivals trying to find a space to park for the night.  It did not seem like there was any limit to the number of campers here, as long as people paid, they let them come in to try and find a spot.    After about an hour, the rain let up and some of the spots that were really full of standing water started to drain off.  We actually found a couple of different spaces we might have been able to use now that the rain had subsided and we could walk around a bit when we headed to the restroom/bathhouse area.

We actually told some people about a couple of spots we had seen.  They had just arrived and were driving around looking.  Some decent camping spots were hard to see because they were sort of blocked from view by other campers at the end of the row.  That couple we had showed two spots to park in selected one of them, so we felt good about helping them out.  It was a little disappointing that some people in small camper vans had parked earlier so that others could not get into a space beside them because of some picnic tables out in the way.  However, if they had moved over just a few feet, they would have had plenty of room for them and another person beside them even with the tables.

There was a constant stream of people coming in to find a space, and luckily, with the rain stopping, some of the flooded areas no longer had standing water in them, but the campground was packed.

A Little Drier Campground Now

We started on dinner, we were making pasta with arribiata sauce, and having some bread we were cooking in a pan to toast it on our gas grill.  We boiled water and cooked the pasta while also heating the sauce.  Once those were done, covered and set to the side, we cooked the french bread slices in a frying pan, similar to making grilled cheese, just not that well done.

We had bought just one bottle of red wine, a Chilean Cabernet to have with this dinner.  It was good, but to me, it tasted more like a Malbec.

We headed to the cooking area to wash our dishes and it was a madhouse.  It was pretty large, but it was packed with people eating and drinking and washing dishes.  For a lot of campers, this is the only heated space they have if they are in tents or pop-top campers on top of their cars.  With the rain, this was a welcome respite from the cold and windy weather.  

There seem to be more of the micro-van campers than anything else in most campgrounds.  They are good for two people and likely have a bed in the back.  Most people we see in these have to cook in the campground kitchens.  They are probably a lot better than a tent, it is dry and they probably have some heat.  We see lots of them everywhere, we will need to take a photo and post it on the blog.

Back to dishwashing……We were lucky enough to get one of the three sinks in the cooking area and started washing our dishes.  Unfortunately, there was only lukewarm water at best.  Most people run the water continuously while washing their dishes and it wastes a lot of hot water, but there really is no other choice.  We got our dishes washed and headed back to the camper.  

We were being very conservative with our lights and running the heater, which burns diesel fuel for heat but has a 12V electrical blower.  We have a meter that tells us the overall voltage of the three batteries that we are supposed to have, one in the van, and the others in the camper somewhere.  We did start the camper engine  and verify that the alternator on the engine does charge the batteries that are used for the camper, which makes sense.  We could see the voltage increase on the meter readout  Since we had started the engine for the “test”, we let it run for about 10 minutes, just for some peace of mind.

It was getting late and I was too tired to work on the blog much tonight, and just like me, my battery on the laptop was running low on power.

We made up the bed and went to sleep around 11:00 PM.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *