Icebergs of Jökulsarlon

We drive along the Ring Road which is the only road here south of the large Vatnajökull glacier. Most of the time we are still miles away from the glacier but at times we get closer to the glacier. We get to a little lagoon called Jökulsarlon we decide to stop here – and we are not the only ones stopping it seems like every tourist stop here.

The small lagoon is full of tiny icebergs some of them are floating slowly around inside the lagoon while others seem to have run on ground inside the lagoon. Apparently the icebergs stay in the lagoon for up to 5 years. They might grow a bit during the winter when the temperature drops and the lagoon freezes over and then they will melt down a bit during the summer.

The very short river Jökulsa will sometime take the small icebergs out to the open ocean where they will finally melt and disappear. Though the river is very shallow so the bigger icebergs will run on ground and get stuck inside the lagoon making sure there will always be a lot of icebergs inside the lagoon.  So the icebergs escaping the lagoon are fairly small and would present any danger if Titanic should decide to sail by.

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We walk along the shore of the lagoon to have a closer look at some of the icebergs. They are here in different shapes and colours which apparently has something to do with the way they have broken off from the glacier, melted and then refrozen again. It is nice to go and see the many icebergs in so many shapes. There is a small hill you can walk up on top of to have a little look of the lagoon from above. There are signs along the shore telling you not to go swimming – I must admit I didn’t really need a sign to stay on land – the huge amount of ice in the lagoon was enough to ensure I would stay dry. A few ducks didn’t seem to be able to read the signs so they did swim around on the freezing cold water with there ducklings.

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