South Iceland 2022- Storm of colour in a cave of ice

South Iceland 2022

A Storm of colour in a cave of ice

On the way with Marc and Christine, our tour follows the classic southern route from Selfoss via Vik and Cape Dyrholaey to Jokulsaron and Vestrahorn and Eystrahorn on Krossanesfjall this time. We experience the atmosphere in a glacier cave at Breidamerkurjökull, and finally visit the mighty Gullfoss (a huge waterfall). The conditions in January are sometimes very extreme – actually typical for Iceland. Between crazy wind speeds, hailstorms and the northern lights sunshine, too, can be found again and again. Due to the storm, however, Vik’s rock passage on the beach is only possible to be traversed in a forward-leaning crouch- I need two attempts and can hardly breathe because of the wind. During our Northern Lights night there is a curfew due to the surge of the hurricane gusts and a bad hailstorm hits us at Skogafoss and Vestrahorn. Despite intensive cleaning, I still find black volcanic sand from the Vestrahorn months later in my photo backpack. The landscape is unbelievably huge. One of my highlights is the surreal glacier cave at sunrise which struck me as just magical. Standing under meter thick, ancient layers of ice soft sunlight enters the cave through some opening. The blue-orange color contrast is incredibly strong. Since the glaciers are retreating faster and faster in relation to the snow build-up, a visit to the cave creates an apocalyptic atmosphere – one inevitably begins to wonder how the climate, Iceland and the world will continue without ice in the future.