The next morning, Harris and I woke up early again to do the Skaftafell Glacier. The Mountain Guides tour company had their office right in the campground so it was a short walk. I once again got all geared up in my Antarctica gear but the guide suggested that we were way over dressed. Instead, I donned my hoodie and jeans. We were fitted for crampons (spikey things that clip on to your shoes), an axe, and a helmet. We jumped in the van and took a short drive to the glacier. The guide was from Italy and was very passionate about walking on the ice. It was fun to see his excitement as we approached the parking lot.

Took a short walk across the moraine (rock field at the base of the glacier), crossed a makeshift bridge, and then took a short break where he taught us how to put on the crampons. We then hiked across the glacier which was really just compacted ice and snow. It was surprisingly dirty and solid. The spikes of the crampons were perfect for getting traction. At one point, there was a somewhat narrow path between a crevasse and an ice hole, so the guide made us strap in with our rock climbing harness and clip on to a rope. Meanwhile, he walked back and forth over the "narrow" path without any harness which made me feel like I could do the same. I kept wanting to stop to take pictures but the group kept on walking and with the crampons on, it was hard to catch up.

The views were definitely beautiful and we watched a couple of sheep climbing on the very steep grassy mountainside nearby. Our guide told us they were the best climbers in Iceland and you could see why. After a short walk down the steep side of the glacier, we arrived at our destination -- the ice cave! You could see where the nearby stream was melting away the bottom side of the glacier to form the ice cave. We went down in groups of 4 into the cave to take a few pictures.

Our guide said we were all doing good on time, so we then continued the climb up more of the glacier. We didn't go even close to the top but we did find another stream on the glacier where the melting water was in the process of forming a crevasse and a good sized hole in the ice. Our guide stapped us in and let us lean over the edge to get a better look. He was telling us that he was looking forward to when the water would freeze in the winter again and he could explore to see if there was another cave forming. Now it was time to head back to the campground which we did in better time than it took us to get there.

Harris and I were hungry when we got back but everyone else had already eaten. Fortunately, I had bought some hot dogs a couple days before so I cooked them in the RV...only to find out they were *nothing* like American hot dogs...they were gross! Neither of us could eat more than one bite so we tossed them and lunch was a peanut butter + Nutella sandwich (nowhere had any grape jelly!) with snacks instead.

After lunch, James took us to the Jökulsárlón Iceberg Lagoon that he had been to earlier that day with Jeremy and Jillian. He thought it was a pretty short drive but turned out to be more like 45 minutes so we got there just as the sun was setting. That turned out to be the perfect backdrop for some photos. This lagoon had some nice sized icebergs that had broken off from the nearby glaciers as they floated for a bit before heading out to the Atlantic Ocean. We walked across the highway to the Diamond Beach which had black sand and chunks of icebergs scattered across the beach. It was a pretty neat sight. We drove back to the campground for the night and played a few games of Uno.