Monday 24 October 2016

Diamond Beach,Iceland

The Diamond beach is by Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon and Iceland's greatest wonders of nature.Jökulsárlón ( "glacial river lagoon") is a large glacial lake in southeast Iceland, on the edge of Vatnajökull National Park. Situated at the head of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, it developed into a lake after the glacier started receding from the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. There are massive chunks of glacier falling off regularly and dozens of them floating in the lagoon before they slowly glide out into the ocean.

The lake has grown since then at varying rates because of melting of the glaciers.It recently became the deepest lake in Iceland, at over 248 metres (814 ft), as glacial retreat extended its boundaries.The size of the lake has increased fourfold since the 1970s.Although the sight of glacier breaking off and floating is surreal,it is disheartening to think that we are not taking care of such wonders of nature.

How to reach -

The drive from Reykjavik takes just under 5 hours (231 miles /372km), and from Vik just over 2 hours (119 miles /192km).If you are driving from m,its better to stay here overnight.The weather in Iceland could be very harsh,we had planned to see the beach during sunset and sunrise but it kept raining the whole day ,the day we reached.We could only see the beach the following day.So it's better to stay there overnight.The next day happened to be quite sunny and the ice chunks literally looked like diamonds.

Seal spotting -

The lake is filled with fish that drift in from the sea along with the tides. Seals gather in large numbers at the mouth of the lake to catch fish during the winter. We happened to spot quite a few .


















Wednesday 19 October 2016

Golden circle,Iceland

The Golden Circle (Icelandic: Gullni hringurinn) is a popular tourist route in southern Iceland, covering about 300 kilometres (190 mi) looping from Reykjavík into the southern uplands of Iceland and back. It is the area that contains most tours and travel-related activities in Iceland.[1]
The name Golden Circle is a marketing term that has no roots in Icelandic history.
The three primary stops on the route are the Þingvellir National Park, the Gullfoss waterfall, and the geothermal area in Haukadalur, which contains the geysers Geysirand Strokkur. Though Geysir has been mostly dormant for many years, Strokkur, on the other hand, continues to erupt every 5–10 minutes