After the excitement of the glacier tour yesterday, we weren't sure what the day would hold today but the maps certainly suggested a scenic drive was to come.

We set out after a great breakfast (I think I managed to eat about the total cost of the night's accommodation just to be sure again) and hit the road. First stop was a gorgeous small waterfall and uphill walk for me to get some bloodflow and to try and keep this wretched virus moving through (sore throat and now a tickly cough has joined the fray. No more temperatures today hopefully after another slight one at the end of yesterday). Am hoping Bronnie does not contract this one a lot. After that, and before we left town fully, we refuelled the Daxia (still pleasing fuel economy of around 5L/100km or $24/100km) and went to a lovely place called the "church cloister". A series of basalt pillars again, but just the tops and slight bit of sides were visible, inconspicuously located in a field with a short walk from the car. Lovely. We noted the flower like pattern of the rock arrangements with often a central hexagon shaped stone, slightly sunked in, with 6 pentagon shapes surrounding it. A nice easy start to the day before we really started the drive proper. A little further along the road and we went to another basalt pillar formation often associated with dwarves and cathedral (can't quite remember the details). Many waterfalls cascading down off the top of the nearby cliffs added to the scenery.

The drive was indeed hugely scenic as we followed the route 1 along the coast between black sand/pebble covered lands, the occasional patch of farming land on our right. In between some small showers, the landscape changed and we were very excited to spot a couple of the tongues of the large glacier that covers a HUGE part of south eastern Iceland, the Vatnajokull glacier. As we passed the glacier on our left, we spotted some cars parked in a carpark some 500m off the main road so decided to check it out. I'm very glad we did. Despite the initially rainy conditions, we headed along a path over a moraine and right up to the glacier edge. Unlike the Katla glacier of yesterday, this one was more "typical" in appearance with many folds, crevasses and chunks waiting to calve off the front and into the lake in front of it. The typical blue hue of the glacier was present and to our fortune, the clouds parted giving us just brilliant views. After a good hour or so just loving it, we headed back to the car.

Another 30 minutes or so along the road and with weather conditions improving steadily, we made our way to another place to view the Vatnajokull glacier. A striking feature that I wasnt quite prepared for was how steeply at time glaciers make their way over the top of mountain ranges and into valleys. And, they are IMMENSE! This time, the sun was fully out and so we got some stunning images of this section of the glacier again, with lots of blue colour.

Final stop en route to our accommodation for the evening was at a glacial lagoon and a place called diamond beach. With the prospect of instant fortune looming, we got a park in the overflow carpark (this one was busy!) and had a look. The glacial lagoon was filled with large icebergs that have broken off the glacier, and some of them were a most brilliant blue colour. The bright blue occurs when the massively compacted ice at the bottom of a glacier has then broken off and started to thaw in the water (slowly at 2-4C), but then when it flips over in the water, the section from below the water is still super blue. Quite pretty. In the channel exit of the lagoon there was a seal that was feeding in the eddies behind a large iceberg that was stuck on the bottom, creating a perfect spot for unsuspecting fish to rest, only to be ambushed by the seal! There were loads of sea birds here too.

On the beach there were huge chunks of ice washed up and some just offshore getting smashed by the surf. It amazes us how quickly we've normalised the black sand too. As we walked along the shoreline, the reason for the name "diamond beach" was revealed. As the tiny sections of glacier slowly melt (remember it takes longer, not just because the air temp and water temp are low, but because the compressed ice is slower to melt, something about a larger latent heat of fusion????), they leave these delightful small ice cubes on the beach, and in the sunlight give a glint easily mistaken for a diamond. We tried to get some photos to show this. Mystery solved and we're not suddenly wealthy, oh well.

Onto our accommodation outside of Hofn, a small fishing town with 10 large and many small commercial fishing boats (cod, char and salmon along with a lobster like cray called langosteen) the main industry here. After a quick hello to the Icelandic horses nearby for me, we headed into a local diner and enjoyed two of Icelands feature foods. A langosteen roll for me and a hotdog for Bronnie. Both were quite delicious. Langosteen was like the mussel equivalent of shellfish. You could taste the ocean but without any fishy or kelp like flavours and not as salty as prawn but not as sweet as crab. Very mild and pleasant flavour and texture.

Tomorrow we continue on the ring road, I wonder what is in store.