Our second vacation.

Sitting in a cafe in the small village of Djupivogur out on the eastern end of Iceland, drinking good coffee (well one of us is), and taking in the mountain and coastal views. It’s kind of like Kaikoura, NZ here with the ocean, lobsters and the mountains (well big hills because there are no glaciers in this area). We are having our second weekend of our time here. After another twenty odd days work. This stint we have both been to the other glacier called the “Glacier of boredom” AKA Solheimajokull. The company car broke down again. The bus drivers are still grumpy and late. The glacier is dirty and flat. At night the ice weasels come! Well not really but having the tent pitched almost under a 60m waterfall makes sleeping in with anything in your bladder impossible. The only way to survive is to treat the company car as a therapy device and get out and about as much as you can! Life in Skaftafell has still been fun. Summit trips once a week are keeping us fit (read tired and sore), the lack of helicopters to fly you to the snow line is a major difference compared to Fox. In fact the one sight seeing flight operator stays out of the valley while we have walks on our glacier. It’s actually really busy here for the Icelanders, they are calling it the biggest season ever, but it’s still a small hick operation compared to Fox. We’re still having fun and that’s the key though. IFLM (Icelandic Mountain Guides), who we work for, are actually very happy that we are not going to Antarctica, they have got us to work a bit longer this season and have asked us back next year. They even hooked us up with a hire car at wholesale for our three days off to come and visit this end of the island. It’s kind of like the other end of Iceland but without the huge glaciers and with a strong smell of fish. These are some of the Icelandic fjords, the water is very clear. When the clouds aren’t here there are amazing views of the Vatnajokull (the biggest icecap in Europe) and of the pastel coloured mountains stained in purple, pink, green, orange and blue. These are just the colours of the rocks that are constantly falling off them. If you painted it no one would believe you! There are lots of fishing villages selling lobsters at around 3900isk (approx $90 NZ) for a meal for one, needless to say we haven’t exactly been over indulging but just to make Jim jealous I’m going to pretend that we have. So all is good in the land of fire and ice and with about 10 days work and a few days play left we’re enjoying every minute of it.
Bles Bles