On Day 10, we did our last tour of the trip. We went with Saga Travel to explore the icy lava cave of Lofthellir. The owners of Saga Travel also own a lot of land in the Mývatn area, including the land where the cave is located.
The guides aired down the tires to prevent the lava from puncturing them.
We had about a 20 minute hike from the parking spot to the cave across beautiful smooth lava.
The cave entrance was hidden by snow.
It was much bigger than I expected, once we got in.
The ice is significant and permenatnt. It is also deep, an estimated 2-3 meters below the surface!
Sliding on the ice was a lot of fun, though.
The ceiling in the cave was a sparkly mix of crystals and ice.
The ice is very, very fragile.
But some of it is significant enough to climb near!
Or hug!
Towards the end of the tour, our guide has us turn off our headlamps and be perfectly still and quite. Then he started playing music. At first, we thought he had brought along some kind of instrument or kids xylophone, but he was actually playing the ice!!
After our tour, we headed up to Húsavík which is the whale-watching capital of the world.
On the way back from Húsavík, we stopped to see Goðafoss. When Iceland officially converted to Christiantiy, the leader of the Alþingi stopped at this waterfall on his way home and tossed his pagan icons into the water.
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