Saturday, October 18, 2014

Jokulsarlon. The beauty of ice and frost.




Another Icelandic natural wonder. A never ending list. Jokulsarlon is a glacial lake formed when a glacier hugging the ocean retreated. The lake itself is around 1,5 kilometers away from the sea-but is connected to it via a freezing cold river. It is right beside the ring road going around the whole coast of the country and thus easy to get to. I arrived here in early spring. The weather was good-but not surprisingly cold. The Breidamerkurjokul glacier-itself part of the huge Vatnajokul is in the background pumping ice into the lake.

For a Norwegian, this place is like some sort of a time travel capsule. It shows Norway as it was when man arrived there at the end of the iceage. And its black beach of volcanic sand-highlighting why the country is nicked The Land of Ice and Fire-is totally clean-and away from the parking lot without footsteps. Giving it a form of untouched cleanness not found too many places in 2014.
A polarbear? A greyhound dog? A horse? I see them all in this floating ice sculpture slowly heading towards the sea and destruction.

It has finished its work-but it has done some serious scrubbing of the volcanic rock below the glacier. 

Some blue ice. The surface has not yet been pounded by the sun-once it does and cracks open, it turns white.

White ice, black rock. Like a piece of candy.

Not far away from the ice, life slowly takes over. a process taking generation upon generation in a climate as unforgiving as what is found here.

And even further out-established vegetation, even though it is not tall.

Not at the lake, but in the area. Warming my butt on a waterpipe leading hot water from a spring to a farming community. The land of ice and fire...

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