It's not good news. John has Covid. We'd hoped to dodge it for a few weeks at least, but it wasn't to be. He was feeling unwell last night, had a terrible night and is feeling awful this morning, with a very high temperature (28.9/102F). We have no choice but to keep going with our planned itinerary and our booked accommodation along the way. Everything, everywhere is full, so it's not an option to stay put.
John skipped breakfast and we made a slow getaway at 9:30am. I thought we had only 150 km to drive during the day but it was actually double that. We backtracked about 10km to visit Reynisfjara Beach and its basalt columns which we had skipped the evening before. By great good fortune, and contrary to an earlier weather report, the day dawned fine and sunny, a complete contrast to yesterday's cold rain. It meant we could at least see the beach, which was impressive with its black basalt sand.
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| Reynisfjara Beach and basalt columns |
Onwards to Fjadrargljufur Canyon. John wasn't up to walking so I fast-walked the 2km return track which ran above a very pretty, deep gorge.
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| Fjadrargljufur Canyon |
From there it was quite a drive to Svinafellsjokull Glacier. The southeastern coast of Iceland is truly amazing for the number of glaciers that descend from the glacial dome further inland, and typically come right down virtually onto the farmland. They are very different from Fox or Franz Josef Glaciers, where you now have quite a hike to reach the terminal moraine. However, there was a quite a track to get to the foot of Svinafellsjokull Glacier, so we opted just to view it from the carpark.
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| Svinafellsjokull Glacier on the right |
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| Some cool landscape en route |
We did, however, stop at Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon. This is a very popular spot with tourists, and the first place we have really met them en masse. The glacier rolls on down into the lagoon, which is formed from melting ice. Floating in the lagoon are both large and small icebergs. These then drift out on the river, under the bridge and out to sea, where they break up. Diamond Beach is so-called because many of the ice chunks get washed up onto the beach as perfect clear little chunks. It is quite dramatic, and very unusual. We admired it for a bit but John couldn't handle being out in the cold air for too long.
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| The lagoon with the glacier behind |
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Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon
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| Diamond Beach |
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| Diamond Beach "diamonds" |
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| Typical farm buildings tucked up against the hillside |
We had planned to soak in Hoffell Pool, but gave away the idea of submerging ourselves in it because John already had a temperature and it didn't seem a good idea to get into a hot pool. We rocked up at our accommodation in Hofn at 4pm, nice and early. I'd found the driving quite hard going because the roads are narrow, with no pullover shoulder. The carriageway is generally raised above the surrounding ground, with banks which drop steeply away on each side. The road surface is often pretty rough with a strong camber, and the narrow entry/exit points to tourist spots are thickly gravelled. It makes for tough driving, as well as being on the wrong side of the road and driving in the left hand seat. However, we survived. Another 4 hours on the cards tomorrow. If anyone reading this is considering cycling Iceland, just don't! There are some proper cycle trails closer to Reykjavik, but elsewhere you would be sharing a very narrow road, with no possibility of pulling off the road. Super scary.
Our hostel room is very nice. John has had a sleep and his temperature has gone down a lot, which is great news. It's certainly put a hopefully short-term dampener on our holiday here, but we've just got to go with it. Hopefully a good sleep for both of us tonight and we'll be feeling better in the morning.
