So today was supposed to be a day of Arctic adventure- the plan was to do both an extended glacier walk as well as some ice climbing. A degree of fitness would have been nice but DH was still sporting a dangling arm, a dragging leg, and a sore back/groin/thigh (although her teeth had stopped falling out). Dave B had hurt his knee while working out and Deb B... well Deb had spent her fitness membership on Yves Saint Laurent Arctic clothing and tattoos so there`s every chance that we may have to rent an Icelandic toboggan to get down. 

Technically it was supposed to be a long day on the glacier but with all of the time required to get geared up, driving to the glacier, various breaks, rope set-ups, etc. the hiking in our crampons was only a couple of hours so there was no need to leave anyone behind. We did have a few `man down` situations- apparently when you get tired while hiking in crampons you have a tendency to stab yourself in your pant legs and go for a tumble. By the time we finished, Deb B`s designer rain pants looked more shredded than a julienne salad. 

The ice climbing was good fun although I think rappelling down the cliff was a little more difficult than climbing up because you had to believe that an ice bolt and a distracted 140 lb dude was good enough to prevent you from falling into the crevice if you should happen to fall. Dave B, who has something of a fear of heights, figured out early on that if he did everything with his eyes closed, it actually wasn`t that difficult. The terrain and conditions in Iceland are amongst the best in the world for ice climbing and it was good fun to explore the inner workings of a crevasse riddled outlet glacier. Sólheimajökull (yes, these are the kinds of names we are struggling to pronounce in Iceland) is an outlet glacier from the Mýrdalsjökull ice cap (another tongue twister). It is presently retreating about 100 m/yr, and, assuming we all keep driving SUVs, within a couple of decades an ice lake will form in front of the glacier. 

The glaciers and ice caps of Iceland cover 11.1% of the land area of the country (Iceland has 269 named glaciers of almost all types) but if the present trend continues, most glaciers on Iceland will have melted away within 500 years. More room for golf courses but probably not a good thing.On the way to Sólheimajökull we had passed Eyjafjallajökull (they aren`t kidding around with these names) although it was a bit difficult to make out in the distance (due to rare clear weather, we had a good view of it while we were on the ferry). Even though no one remembers the name (or can`t remember the name), this is the ice cap that covers the caldera of a volcano that erupted in 2010- an eruption that was devastatingly explosive in nature, due to melt water getting into the volcanic vent. The biggest eruption threw volcanic ash several kilometres up in the atmosphere which led to air travel disruption in northwest Europe for six days from 15 April to 21 April 2010 including the closure of airspace over many parts of Europe. The eruptions also created massive electrical storms. And apparently Eyjafjallajökull eruptions tend to precede much more powerful sub-glacial eruptions from Katla, another sub-glacial volcano, which lies just 25 km west so we did tend to pick up the speed as we drove in this area. 

On the other side of our glacier climbing we stopped at Jökulsárlón (even our Icelandic GPS unit struggled to pronounce these names) which is a large glacial lake filled with huge blocks of ice/icebergs that calve from the edge of the nearby glacier. Some of these bergs are about 30 metres high, and a lake filled with huge towers of ice is obviously an unusual sight- if you've seen A View to a Kill, Die Another Day, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, or Batman Begins, then you've seen the unique Jökulsárlón Lagoon. 

We spent the night in Hofn which is the major centre of lobster fishing in Iceland and this results in numerous lobster dishes as the local specialty. DH and I boycott all lobster dishes because of the boiled alive cooking process, but Deb B was able to effectively tune out all of the screaming coming from the kitchen and, with her super-sized bib firmly in place, dug through a few of these crustaceans flinging empty claws all over the restaurant. Happy days!