Iceland

Flaajokull

We got to Iceland 4 days ago and it has been jammed pack with awesomeness. We picked up our 4WD rental from the airport and headed for the Ring Road. We covered a lot of grounds in the first 3 days - Geysir, Gullfoss, Seljalandfoss, Dyrholaey, Reynisfjara, Skogafoss, Svinafellskogull, Fjallsarlon, Diamond Beach, and Jokulsarlon. My advice to anyone planning a trip here is to give yourself enough time so that you don't have to skip any of these places. Words can't describe these places so I won't attempt to.

We were expecting Day 4 to be slower. There isn't that much to do or see in Hofn itself. We decided to go to a nearby farm which had a petting zoo. Turned out that the zoo doesn't open for another 2 days. But the owner was very kind to let us walk around the farm so the kids got to see goats, sheep, duck, chicken, and a lovely cat and golden retriever. Later we went to a guesthouse which offers horse-riding. The person who offers horse-riding wasn't around so we introduced ourselves to the horses instead. My son who was nervous about touching the horses managed to give one of them a tiny pet on the head. My daughter who is comfortable with horses changed her mind about horse-riding because the horses didn't smell so good. The petting zoo and horse- riding didn't quite go as planned but the visits didn't turn out to be epic fails. 

We decided to spend the afternoon to visit Flaajokull, the smallest glacier tongue in the Vatnajokull National Park. It was a long and bumpy ride on the gravel road leading to the carpark. From the carpark, there is a sign-posted path - meant to be an easy hike right to the face of the glacier. It was easy enough for the kids to do even though they complaint about the distance. After close to an hour of walking we got to the lake in front of the glacier. My wife stayed with the kids who wanted to play at the lake. The glacier looked like it was 20 minutes away from where we were so I continued with the hike. But after 10 minutes, the path ended abruptly, possible destroyed by a rockslide. So I went back to join my family at the lake for a snack. On our drive back, we saw a pack of reindeers.

We rounded off the day with a wonderful dinner at a cosy restaurant in Hofn called Nyhorn. Lamb chop for the kids whilst my wife and I had smoked cod. I would recommend this Scandinavian restaurant to anyone passing by Hofn. The day didn't go quite as planned, but it was way better than I had expected.

Looking forward to the rest of the holiday!