On Sunday night I’d received an email saying that the zodiac tour of the glacier lagoon at Jökulsárlón ‘might’ be cancelled due to the wind. This was the one thing that I really wanted to do on this trip to Iceland as it’s something that’s not doable during winter. Nevertheless, if our safety was at risk then I suppose…

So on Monday morning we took our time. Glen had had a crap sleep, developing a full-blown head cold, and waking me up sometime around 5am. I put in earplugs, slipped on my eye mask and went back to sleep. Lucky me.

After breakfast, we checked out. I packed up the car while Glen settled the bill and was given the dire warning to be careful if we were going east (we were) as the winds were very strong (they were) and we might get blown off the road (oh what fun).

We hadn’t had any confirmation of cancellation but considering the lagoon itself wasn’t going anywhere I still wanted to see it so we drove east. I thought it was only about 50 minutes away but it was actually an hour and a half so we kept driving.

Thankfully it was more stunning scenery along the way and the sun was out for most of it. We snapped photos of more waterfalls, a raging river, some grass covered rocks. The landscape changed from mountains to desolate volcanic ash plains and then glaciers! So varied. So wow.

We stopped at a cafe along the way and saw an advertisement for a puffin tour. It was actually for one that I’d seen a while ago and recommended to Glen but we hadn’t booked, possibly because of a lack of time, but we booked it now. Anything to see puffins! I’m just hoping it doesn’t rain tomorrow morning when the tour is on.

We made it Jökulsárlón around 12, the wind extremely strong, and found out that yes, our tour had been cancelled, but we could book onto the amphibious tour group. This was in a much bigger boat and we still went into the water, just not as close to the icebergs. This was probably better considering that Glen gets seasick at the sight of a boat. I’m not sure why he agreed to go on the zodiac in the first place.

We put on extra layers of clothing, pulled on our beanies and gloves and joined the queue for the 1:10 tour. We got on the truck/boat, drove to the edge of the lagoon and then into the water and sailed around the icebergs.

We spotted a seal, and then a big chunk of one of the icebergs snapped off and plunged into the water. So cool! It flipped over a bit and the zodiac that was following behind us—probably in case of any accidents—hacked off a bit and gave it to us. The guide then chopped it into pieces and we had…well, ice. It tasted of ice. And it was fresh. Fresh ice.

The icebergs were awesome, coming in three different colours—white, blue and black (from the volcanic ash). We sailed around for a bit, got splashed, rocked with the boat (even I was starting to feel queasy) and then headed back to dry land. I was super thrilled that we done it.

Once we got off we climbed to the top of the nearby hill/mound, took some photos, leant into the wind that was rapidly gathering strength and then got back in the car to drive to our hotel. We were extremely lucky with the weather because about five minutes after getting in the car, it started pelting down with rain. We’d missed it by that much.

Fifty minutes later we arrived at our hotel (Hotel Skaftafell) but it was before check-in and the rooms weren’t ready yet. We ate some food at the rest stop over the road, relaxed, then checked in and Glen went for a nap.

Because I’d stuffed up the hotel bookings (booking for the wrong night) when I changed it we could only get two single rooms. They’re next to each other, which is good. Glen’s been loving having his own doona while in the Scandinavian countries so he should be pretty happy with having his own room and bed too.

Once it got closer to 8pm, I was starving so had to wake Glen who at first told me to go to dinner by myself and bring him back soup but then later joined me after I’d ordered. I had my book and everything!

Dinner was really surprisingly good and once again ate too much. In the evening we sat in my room and watched half of the final episode of Sense8 then lights out just before 11. There are blockout shutters on the window, which is great as it was still balmy and light outside when I went to bed.

In total I drove about 175km today, which was about 2 and a quarter hours. Tomorrow we’ve got to drive about 4 hours. I was wiped after today’s adventures and driving; tomorrow we’re going to have to take lots of breaks I think.