Glacier Picture
Vatnajokull 8.-10. April 2004
Friday
During the night some fresh snow comes in!
It is still foggy, but we start the engines and take off.
Einar Kjartansson with his daughter and her boyfriend in the Cherokee with skis
on the top. Einar is the one responsible for planning the journey. His knowledge
of weather forecasting has proven invaluable again and again.
Dagur Bragason takes a look at his engine. Fortunately there is no real problem.
As we get higher on the ice-cap the fog gets thinner and finally we are driving
out of it. In front of us a big mountain rises above the horizon. These are the
Kverkfjoll mountains.
Speeding along the flat ice-cap is no problem for Dagur and his extra long
Toyota Hi-Lux Double Cab...
...Skuli has no problems either.
Hard to believe this is on the center of the largest ice-cap in Europe.
No wind, sun shining, fresh snow!
Closer to Kverkfjoll we meet another group. Among them is this beautiful Land
Rover Defender on 44 inch tires. With the winch and fog lights and all the other
accessories, there is not much stopping this one!
Einar and his Trooper close to the top.
Margret, Dagur and me at the third highest mountain in Iceland,
Skarphedinstindur (1929 m).
Kverkfjoll are located at the northern part of the Vatnajokull ice-cap and are
famous for the geothermal heat and beautiful colors. As you notice the fog seems
to be creeping in all around. The mountain that stands up through the fog is
Herdubreid (1682 m).
Einar and Dagur with the track from the ice-cap in the back.
4x4 Off Roads!
A small hut is at Kverkfjoll. It has sleeping for 6 people.
Gengissig is the highest lake in Iceland (1600 m). It stays mostly clear of ice
in spite of the freezing temperature because the geothermal activity warms it
up.
This huge F-350 with 46 inch Mickey Thompson Baja Claw tires, makes our
big trucks seem small in comparison. The Powerstroke engine has been enhanced to
480 horsepower. It's got Dana 60 front and Dana 80 rear with ARB
air-lockers. The list of modifications is impressive.
Any truck can break down and this one proves no exception. At the way back in the middle of the ice-cap, the transfer case breaks. The truck had to be pulled all the way off the glacier and to Reykjavik!
East of Kverkfjoll is a stream of natural hot water stream that is popular for
bathing. We try to find a way to get to it. But with no luck this time. Bathing
in Hveragil continues to be on our list of goals to reach!
Sigurjon and his Land Cruiser with some fabulous view.
Four of the travelers are a in a special Guinnes beer drinking club. Meetings
are held with name-calling at 17:00 each and every friday. The Land Rover
functions perfectly as a bar table.
It is getting late, the weather will be getting worse and we have a long way to travel over the ice-cap again.
In the middle of Vatnajokull we see a group of snowmobilers trying to fix a
broken snowmobile. They look like they know there stuff so we just head on our
way.
The visibility is gradually getting worse, but we have the GPS and laptops to
lead us the correct route back to the hut.
