2018 ICELAND Jökulsárlón 10 - Where is Jök?

We left about 10:15. The skies were clear and blue. Temp was around 1C (34F) all day and 5F degrees warmer than Michigan!! Clouds hung over the far horizon and luckily stayed there most of the day. My sis took over driving duty that day and gave me a break to take photos along the way.

Our first meet-up was not until 13:45 in Jökulsárlón, our most eastern point of travel. There we would view the Glacial Lagoon (not the Blue Lagoon) and take our only formal tour...the Ice Cave. It was maybe an hour drive along the Ring Road away, but we gave ourselves plenty of time to check out the town and the lagoon before our tour.

First we decided to back-track about four miles to the Visitor Center of Vatnajökull (or Skaftafell) National Park. We thought maybe we could quickly walk back and at least touch the glacier (all the white stuff in this photo). Once there, we learned the actual glacier was a bit of a hike away from the Center. We talked it over and decided to double back and proceed to "Jök" (pronounced Yoke), as we called it.

Still experiencing the ever-changing landscape and a waterfall here and there. Just beautiful and fascinating. Don't know the name of this one.

No sighting of billboards or advertisements anywhere, just official basic wood road signs announcing a family name down a particular road. Here and there we saw utility poles and wires, but that was the extent of "damage" to the natural beauty of the land.

Along the way (actually throughout the entire trip), we saw small herds of Icelandic horses grazing and romping the in fields. Usually there would be a busload of tourists checking them out. We stopped at one spot that was not so busy.

The horses came right up to the fence, as curious of us as we were of them. Or maybe it was because of the little vending machine nearby dispensing "horse candy" for a fee. A cheap way to feed your horses; let someone else buy their food.

 

I was a little nervous of them biting, but no problem.

There were also places along the way storing bales wrapped in colorful plastics. We guessed this was hay for horse feed. Other fodder crops grown are rye, barley, and an exceptionally nutritious grass due to long periods of daylight in the short, cool summers.

We experienced only one detour. They were repairing a bridge and directed us across what looked like a temporary mound of gravel with 20 foot drop-offs on each side. That was a bit scary. Most of the other bridges were still one lane, but we came across a particularly long bridge that had three bump-outs for opposing traffic and a 2-way suspension bridge nearby Jök.

At about the approximated time, we looked everywhere for signs directing us to the town of Jök. Alas, they alluded us. Did we somehow miss it? Were we lost? That seemed pretty impossible.