Black Sand Beaches/Ice Cave

 And we're up and adam for a wonderful breakfast again - I SO enjoy the pastries they serve!  My favorite is a croissant type one with chocolate!  And I might end up having a couple of them every morning with my coffee!

Our first stop was a another waterfall - this waterfall you could actually walk behind if you wanted to - Patty and I chose not to since you do get pretty wet and we had done this at Niagara Falls!

We drove by a volcano that is completely covered by an ice cap and then on to another volcanic black sand beach!  At this beach, we were warned NOT to get very close to the ocean as the waves get unexpecetedly large at times!

These basalt columns are right next to the ocean!  Impressive looking!

Check out this rogue wave that just rolled in out of nowhere!!

The black volcanic rock formations were gorgeous against that cloudy sky!

Some of the places that we walk to have the most interesting rock formations!  Loved this one!  And you can see on the ground that a lot of places have these wire walkways to help it from getting so slick!

We had stopped at a convenience store to get sandwiches and chips again as we ate in the van!  And then it was to the town of Vik!  Here we would have a guide that would take the 6 of us about 45 minutes in the country, out to the ice cave we were going to see!

It was a ROUGH ride in this particular jeep over volcanic rock and streams and snow and ice!  Once there we looked up as to where the ice cave was and Patty and I could hardly believe it!!  This is a picture of it with my camera zoomed way way in!  If you look close on the right hand side, you can see the ropes and posts to hang onto as you climb over that way!

Now when I had read that we were seeing an ice cave, I just assumed we would walk a little ways and walk right into the cave - NOT - this next picture shows the steep hill we had to climb along with several walkways with nothing to hold onto, and then we took a left to get over to the ice cave!

We donned crampons and helmets - wore everything we had in the van and all headed out!  I felt like I was headed up to Mt. Everest - HA!!  Kind of scary in places and our guide helped Patty along some of the really slick areas!!  Let me tell you, it was a little unnerving!!!

We stopped at this point so everyone could take pictures!!

When we got close to the ice cave, I took this picture looking down!  And marveled at the fact that I had actually climbed all that way!

A picture in front of the cave!

The ice caves only last about a year - then as the glacier melts and shifts, this one will close and a new one will be found!  Check out the planks that we had to walk on inside this ice cave!

The blues were beautiful in the cave, but didn't always show up as it wasn't really very light in there!

Going down took a LOT less time than going up - total time on this journey was 3 1/2 hours!!  But something I will probably never do again in my lifetime!  

After getting back in our own van in Vik, we drove by this lovely church up on the hill - our guide told us we hoped to stop at this the next day or so!  What a beautiful sight!

Our hotel for the night was Magma Hotel - and we were all very excited because we were IN THE COUNTRY and got to stay for 2 nights at this place!  And to top it off, we each had our own individual cabin!!!  It was cute as can be and check out the view - a small lake with 5 icelandic horses in the distance!  We were smiling from ear to ear!!

Of course this place would have been the PERFECT place to see the Northern Lights again but we had complete cloud cover for both nights!

We had to walk an icy path to get to the restaurant - Tom and Wendy were there so we decided to actually have some wine tonight!  See those small bottles on the table?  Smaller than a wine cooler and each one was $12.00!  Yes, Iceland is very expensive!

I only posted another main meal picture because I want to remember the fish - it was arctic char with a sauce on it of some type ( maybe with some cheese) but whatever it was, the fish and sauce was delicious!  I cleaned my plate that night!

Group picture time!  Matilda and Jonesy (?) at the far end - then Kiddie our guide and across from him is his niece who joined us for a couple of days!  And then the 4 of us!

We both slept great that night - and it was SO NICE knowing we didn't have to pack up and put our luggage on the van in the morning!