A Blizzard in the Highlands - Day 3 in Iceland

Our most adventurous day kicked off at about 9am because we had a long drive ahead of us. Apparently it snowed an unusually large amount the night before so we were greeted to a more wintry wonderland than before! We set off for The Cave which is a lava cave that was formed in 1000 AD… it was a 2 hour treacherous drive… pretty crazy actually and I was so happy to not be driving. Like literally 6 inches of snow on the road - the only way we knew it was a road was because there were little posts on the sides- it was crazy! We were about 20 minutes late but right after we arrived we learned that there was a car and tour bus stuck on the road to the cave- we could actually see them- didn’t look fun, but Icelanders always help each other when they see each other stuck on the side of the road. Thank god for studded tires, but we were still sliding around from time to time…


9am commute


The cave is literally in the middle of nowhere- it’s in the highlands, which is pretty much the middle of the island where no one lives. 
The Highlands

The visit began with a walk to the cave entrance which was windy as hell through the snow. 






The cave entrance had some steps down and on our way we saw tons of ice stalactites and stalagmites. Then the further you got into the cave there were lava ones (lava poop) as well. 




The stalactites dripping from the ceiling


minerals on the ceiling - mostly iron

the "chocolate wall" - lava with a high iron content

It was really cool, and it actually got warmer as we walked farther into the cave, which I think is something crazy like 50km long… we only went in like 1km. I think the land here movs about 2cm per year (which is the same speed that fingernails grow). At the end of the tunnel we turned off all our headlamps and it was pitch black. An overwhelming feeling of darkness. Apparently if you are in that kind of darkness for too long your optic nerves stop working and you actually go blind. Bacteria is the only thing that can live in the cave and interestingly enough 



The coolest thing about the cave was that there was this spot where animal bones were found along with a glass necklace. There wasn’t glass in Iceland at the time so it was a curious find. They think that it was perhaps a stolen necklace and that the thief was either hiding in the cave or had been caught and was sentenced to exile which was common in that day. But there were no remains of the human in the cave, which means he either left or a rock fell on him and crushed him. Such a cool story. 

Just a lazy drive - ha!



From there we drive through the blizzard to our last waterfall in Hraunfossar called Barnafoss, which was beautiful but sooo cold and windy we couldn’t really enjoy it. But lots of little waterfalls and such a powerful force of nature. The story of this waterfall in folklore was that there was a couple with 2 sons and the couple went out for the day and told the 2 boys to stay at home. But the 2 boys wanted to cross the natural bridge over the falls and they ended up falling to their deaths. From then on the mother put a spell on anyone who went over the bridge until an earthquake made the bridge fall down and make the falls the way we see them today.  No one knows if this is a true story or if it is a legend to teach children to respect their parents and nature. We stopped there for lunch and headed to our third spa! 



Our guide Joost


Hvammsvík Hot springs are across the bay from Reykjavik. It is a series of pools that overlook the ocean. We got there a little after dark so we couldn’t enjoy the ocean views too much but it was still amazing. The night sky was full or stars and I had to pull up my night sky app to check out what we were looking at. The water at this place was hotter than the other 2, but this one also is fed from a geothermal spring so the source is boiling hot water. I will have to do a report of each of the springs for anyone who wants to go, they were all so different! 





After a quick bite to eat at our hotel, we retired for the night, with only the Blue Lagoon on the agenda for departure day! 



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