Ice: Glacier Lagoon and Diamond Beach
Chunks of glacier Ice floating in the lagoon
Located in the south east of Iceland there is a lagoon filled with icebergs! Called Jökulsárlón - or Glacier Lagoon - it has become one of Iceland’s major attractions. With a maximum depth of 248m, Glacier Lagoon is Iceland’s deepest lake and it only began forming in the 1930s when the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier began retreating, leaving the lagoon in its path. The lagoon connects with the ocean so it’s composed of a mixture of seawater and freshwater - hence its unusual colour.
Jökulsárlón is just south of Vatnajökull, which is the largest glacier in Europe and covers a huge area of the south east of Iceland. Because the lagoon has been formed from melted glacial water, it is growing as the glacier shrinks, while big blocks of ice break off the glacier and into the lagoon. Therefore, every time you visit the lagoon it will look different as more ice melts and breaks away. The downside of such a beautiful place is that it is a visible and tangible demonstration of global warming and the effect it is having. A telling statistic is that the lagoon has increased in size fourfold since the 1970s.
Glacier Lagoon with Vatnajökull Glacier in the background
Seals love it at Jökulsárlón and can often be seen swimming or basking on the icebergs - we spent ages watching them bob up and down and play among the icebergs. They clearly know you are there, turning to look directly at you, then carrying on with what they are doing, as obviously humans are not terribly interesting creatures! We, however, found them immensely interesting as they swam and bobbed about and watched them for ages. I very much want to go back in the winter to see how different the lagoon looks then, and according to the articles online about Jökulsárlón, the seals flock to the mouth of the lagoon to catch fish in the winter so it will be a great time to go and watch them.
The icebergs that break away from the glacier and fall into the lagoon slowly melt and drift out to sea, where they bob about in the North Atlantic waves before being washed ashore on the black beach opposite the lagoon. This beach is called Breiðamerkursandur but it is the beach that everyone knows as Diamond Beach. The reason is because when the sea-smoothed chunks of ice get washed up onto the black beach they glisten and shine in the sun like diamonds. It really is an extraordinary sight. It is wonderful in any weather but when the sun shines through the ice they look like miniature sculptures and are stunningly beautiful. This is another reason I want to go back - I’d like to get down to the beach at early dawn as the sun comes up and catches the ice ‘diamonds’ in the rosy dawn light. And this is another place that you can go to again and again because it will always look different! This was the place that had fascinated me the most from Matthew’s photographs before I came out to Iceland for the first time and it didn’t disappoint.
Aaand this is the point where we have our heath and safety announcement….. also known as the point where I admit to having been caught by a sneaker wave. “And what is a sneaker wave?” I hear you ask. Well, I didn’t know either and had seen a notice posted at the black sand beach at Reynisfjara a day or so earlier. It warned of the danger of sneaker waves. I had not read the notice properly and just assumed it would be about not swimming because there was some sort of riptide or something like that. However, since my experience at Diamond Beach I have been back and read the notice properly and I rather wish I’d read it properly when I first came across it. Sneaker waves are a phenomenon found on this particular coast of Iceland and they are very well named indeed. Basically, you can see the waves coming in and out and see the line on the sand where the waves come up to, and you can be well inside that line when suddenly out of nowhere comes a huge wave that can engulf you and drag you out into the sea with no warning. This is a serious thing - people have died due to sneaker waves and it made me realise - ALWAYS read any warning notices that the authorities have bothered to put up. If they’ve gone to the trouble of doing it, there’s probably a very good reason for it!
The sign I didn’t bother to read properly the first time - to my cost!
So….. back to Diamond Beach - and you can see what’s coming can’t you? Shame I didn’t! One minute I was hunkered down (well inside the water line of the waves) taking a picture of a particularly stunning chunk of ice and the next…… well, the next I was on my back under what felt like a wall of water, sliding inexorably towards the open sea….!! Luckily for me it must have been a small sneaker and I didn’t get swept right out but rather was being dragged by the pull as it retreated, and Matthew had at this point turned round to see where I was (and discovered I was on my back soaking wet!). He rushed over and helped me up and no harm was done to me - although how I didn’t catch my death of cold I have no idea!! For my camera however, it was a different matter. It died that day and nothing we tried to do was able to resurrect it. I was lucky that I was able to retrieve the pictures that were already on the memory card but from that day on I was without a camera.
Yep - this was the photo that had me half-drowned under a sneaker wave
I was also lucky that I had my iPhone with me which also got unceremoniously dumped in the North Atlantic sea but which was a lot more able to cope with it and didn’t stop working so the pictures of Glacier Lagoon were still able to be taken (yes, I did then go to Glacier Lagoon, soaking wet, when the outside temperature was 2°C and spend around 90 minutes taking pictures of icebergs and seals!!!) But I was luckiest of all that all I lost was a camera. People have lost their lives by not respecting the dangers of the sea along that coast and it is a mistake I will never make again. If doing a road trip, I will also now always make sure there is a change of clothes in the car for emergencies and crazy scenarios!!!
Black sand and ‘diamonds’
But sneaker waves notwithstanding, this was an amazing trip and one I want to make again very soon. Diamond Beach is just stunning and Glacier Lagoon - well, it is just incredible. I saw it described as one of Iceland’s natural Crown Jewels and that is definitely not an overstatement. Definitely recommended.
