Falljokull means “falling glacier”
When we got to Skaftafell, we immediately went to our campground to pitch our tent and then go to our glacier tour; we went with a company called Glacier Guides, and they were great! We met our guide, Svavar; he was an excellent guide and really nice too. We were given crampons and ice axes before boarding our bus.
When we got to the glacier, we walked 15 minutes before getting on it, crossing rivers of melted glacier and then walking more. We put on the crampons before getting on the glacier. The glacier was really big. Now you may be thinking, Wow, Zada, years of Language Arts and this travel blog and two parents who are teachers, as well as the wide world of adjectives before you, and you choose, “It’s really big”? Well, I’m sorry, but it was kind of imposing. The glacier was full of micro-rivers and it looked like Swiss cheese, it was covered in holes and tunnels. We came to a river that was somewhat deep, and the Svavar mentioned you could drink from it. So I did. The glacier water was some of the best water ever. It was so good that when he said a good way to do it was span the river and put your ice axe across it, put your legs on either side of the river, and do a push up so your face got in the water, I did that too.
After we did that, we stopped at a cauldron, which is a bowl shaped depression on the glacier. They are formed when the water flowing down into the tunnels finds a different channel the old tunnel melts around the edges making a low area filled with rocks and dust. With his ice axe, Svavar made stairs for us in the ice so we could look into one of the tunnels. It looked like a worm had savaged his way through an apple, and it also reminded me of the museum, where they poured liquid iron into fire ant holes to see the tunnels they made. He pushed snow into it, and that made it look like a Rube Goldberg invention.
After everyone had gone, we started going again, and then Svavar showed us the glacier mice. He said they were rocks that got covered in moss, and then when they got flipped over by wind or water or something, the other side got covered in moss, and then with they got flipped over and started rolling they looked like mice.
As we went down, and he showed us a really deep hole, where you couldn’t see the bottom. He said that if you threw a rock down, it would go about 9.8 meters per seconds, and when he threw the rock down, it took 5 seconds to hit the bottom. We went down and drove back. Svavar was really awesome; he taught us a lot of really cool stuff and led us to a lot of amazing glacier sights.
Adios!!
When we got to the glacier, we walked 15 minutes before getting on it, crossing rivers of melted glacier and then walking more. We put on the crampons before getting on the glacier. The glacier was really big. Now you may be thinking, Wow, Zada, years of Language Arts and this travel blog and two parents who are teachers, as well as the wide world of adjectives before you, and you choose, “It’s really big”? Well, I’m sorry, but it was kind of imposing. The glacier was full of micro-rivers and it looked like Swiss cheese, it was covered in holes and tunnels. We came to a river that was somewhat deep, and the Svavar mentioned you could drink from it. So I did. The glacier water was some of the best water ever. It was so good that when he said a good way to do it was span the river and put your ice axe across it, put your legs on either side of the river, and do a push up so your face got in the water, I did that too.
After we did that, we stopped at a cauldron, which is a bowl shaped depression on the glacier. They are formed when the water flowing down into the tunnels finds a different channel the old tunnel melts around the edges making a low area filled with rocks and dust. With his ice axe, Svavar made stairs for us in the ice so we could look into one of the tunnels. It looked like a worm had savaged his way through an apple, and it also reminded me of the museum, where they poured liquid iron into fire ant holes to see the tunnels they made. He pushed snow into it, and that made it look like a Rube Goldberg invention.
After everyone had gone, we started going again, and then Svavar showed us the glacier mice. He said they were rocks that got covered in moss, and then when they got flipped over by wind or water or something, the other side got covered in moss, and then with they got flipped over and started rolling they looked like mice.
As we went down, and he showed us a really deep hole, where you couldn’t see the bottom. He said that if you threw a rock down, it would go about 9.8 meters per seconds, and when he threw the rock down, it took 5 seconds to hit the bottom. We went down and drove back. Svavar was really awesome; he taught us a lot of really cool stuff and led us to a lot of amazing glacier sights.
Adios!!
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