Iceland (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Fran Parnell [246]
Although it looks as though it’s been here since the last ice age, the lagoon is only about 75 years old. Until 1932 Breiðamerkurjökull reached the Ring Road; it’s now retreating rapidly, and the lagoon is consequently growing at a rate of knots.
Jökulsárlón is a natural film set. It starred briefly in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), pretending to be Siberia – the amphibious tourist-carrying boats were even painted grey and used as Russian ships. You might also have seen it in the James Bond film Die Another Day (2002), for which the lagoon was specially frozen and six Aston Martins were destroyed on the ice!
ACTIVITIES
Between mid-May and mid-September you can take a 35-minute trip on the lagoon in brilliant amphibious boats ( 478 2222; info@jokulsarlon.is; per person Ikr2600), which trundle along the shore like buses before driving into the water. Guides hop on board to tell you interesting factoids about the lagoon, and you get to taste 1000-year-old ice. Trips set off around every half-hour between 10am and 5pm daily.
If you’re short of time or money, you can get just as close to those cool-blue masterpieces by walking along the shore, and you can taste ancient ice by hauling it out of the water.
SLEEPING & EATING
The Jökulsárlón cafe ( 478 2122; 9am-7pm Jun–mid-Aug, 10am-5pm late May & early Sep) beside the lagoon is a good pit stop for information and some of southeast Iceland’s best seafood soup.
If you have a campervan with toilet, it’s OK to stay in the car park. Otherwise camping by the lagoon isn’t really condoned (particularly not on the eastern side, where there are lots of nesting birds).
Suðursveit & Mýrar
Between Jökulsárlón and Höfn the Ring Road passes several small farms, backed by mountains and yet more glaciers.
SIGHTS & ACTIVITIES
The museum Þórbergssetur ( 478 1078, 867 2900; Hali í Suðursveit; admission Ikr700; 9am-9pm May-Sep, noon-5pm Tue-Sun Oct-Apr) pays tribute to the most famous son of this sparsely populated region – writer Þórbergur Þórðarson (1888–1974), who was born at Hali in Suðursveit. The exhibition contains full-sized models of the farmhouse where he grew up and his study in Reykjavík, illustrated by quotes from his work. Þórbergur was a real maverick (with interests spanning yoga, Esperanto, astronomy, archaeology and geology), and his first book Bréf til Láru (Letter to Laura) caused huge controversy because of its radical socialist content. Þórbergssetur also functions as a kind of cultural centre, with changing art exhibitions, and a popular restaurant.
As for glaciers, if you want to get up onto Vatnajökull, the daddy of them all, for a snowmobile, skiing or 4WD tour (see the boxed text), then this area is where you branch vertically off into the mountains. Rte F985, which leads up to the Jöklasel hut, is about 35km east of Jökulsárlón.
Staying on the Ring Road, you’ll cross the lovely Mýrar, a region of wetlands surrounding the deltas of Hornafjarðarfljót and Kolgrímaá, home to lots of water birds.
The prominent and colourful mountain Ketillaugarfjall rises 670m above the Hornafjarðarfljót delta near Bjarnarnes. Its name derives from a legend about a woman named Ketillaug, who carried a pot of gold into the mountain and never returned. A brilliantly coloured alluvial fan at its base is visible from the road.
SLEEPING & EATING
Vagnsstaðir HI Hostel ( 478 1048; glacierjeeps@simnet.is; sites per person Ikr850, sb dm Ikr2100; May–mid-Oct) As the home of the Glacier Jeeps outfit (Click here), this is the obvious place to stay the night before or after a tour onto the Vatnajökull ice cap. The hostel itself, by the Ring Road 50km west of Höfn, is simple and purpose-built in the shadow of some imposing mountains.
Smyrlabjörg ( 478 1074; smyrlabjorg@eldhorn.is; s/d €110/144; closed late Dec; ) This friendly country hotel has 45 simply furnished rooms, all with satellite TV and attached bathroom. There’s a restaurant