Southern Loop

The hotel we are staying at is hostel style and about a kilometer away from the Hotel Highland where the lectures are held. In the hotel is this great book that describes all of the beasts of Iceland and all of the different sightings of said beasts. My favorite is the “King of Bears” which is a unicorn/bear!












We have been pretty much alternating one day of lecture and one day of field trips. We have been learning about ice and glaciology in addition to the kind of life that can originate, survive and thrive in these environments. Tuesday was spent making a large loop around the southwestern portion of Iceland on a sometimes precarious bus ride.


The bus lost two hubcabs and the rear door no longer opens properly, but our bus driver Johan is a trooper and splashed through the river crossings as if we were in a off-road vehicle.




Our first stop was a small volcanic crater, the outside of which was covered with very soft moss…some decided to take advantage and take a nap.









Because the weather was poor and we were behind schedule we only stopped at the Eldgjá volcanic fissure briefly and were unable to hike up the fissure but instead just did a tourist stop getting out of the bus to take pictures and use the restroom before moving on.








Our next stop was the coast just outside of Vik to see a black sand beach, extremely awesome columnar basalt and puffins!

























Columnar basalt. From the side and the walls of a cave.



A little Andy Goldsworthy playground...


















Our next stop was at the Myrdalsjökull glacier, which was quite spectacular.


The glacier moves at ~100m per year. (AHHHHH! Great Geologic disaster movie…I can see it now!)










The Martians (Joe, Bethany and myself) on the glacier










Trikonasana on the glacier











The last two stops of the day were at coastal waterfalls.
The sun came out for a little bit:





Adam and the rainbow










and several people decided to go beneath the fall...












while some were content to just enjoy its beauty from a distance:

Vlada contemplating Skogafoss