Since the planned excursion wasn't until 1:30, we spent most of the morning sleeping, and didn't get up until later in the day.
Once we were up, we donned whatever rainproof gear we could and headed for lunch. We decided to go to the nearby gas station to try the world famous Icelandic gas station hotdog.
The hotdog had fried onions, and I also had a lemon cheesecake muffin (it had a cream cheese filling, very tasty)
We then headed for the Katlatrack office to wait for the tour to pick us up. While we were waiting, we saw some para-gliders launching from the mountain ridge behind Vik.
The tour vehicle arrived, and our 6 person tour group scrambled into it. The other members of the tour were from France, Portugal, and Spain. They were all living and working in Vik, while doing tourist activities in their spare time.
Our journey towards the cave quickly abandoned the main road for the unpaved and rough F-roads. Many off road cars in Iceland are able to change the level of inflation in their tires on the fly. When driving off-road, they will partially deflate the tires in order to increase the surface area, and therefore increase traction.
We were driving through a huge flat plane of black sand south of the Katla volcano, which was formed after the last eruption, which melted the glacier on top of the volcano, causing a huge flood over southern iceland. Worryingly, the volcano is due for another eruption, and the driver informed us that if it happened we would have to take shelter on top of one of the nearby mountain ridges.
We took a break in an area of the plain with stunning views of the surrounding mountains and glacier. Apparently it's a location that is often used in film / TV shows, such as Game of Thrones.
I had a bit of trouble adjusting my camera to the lighting.
After the toue guide spent some time showing off by joyriding up and down a steep hill like a roller coaster, we proceeded to base camp to kit up for our trip through the cave, which included a helmet and ice trackers for our boots.
Once the battle preparations were complete. we set out on a short hike to reach the cave, stopping occasionally for the tour guide to tell us some history on how the cave got it's name that were 100% real true stories.
Since the ice cave is constantly melting / changing from the water flow, they have to constantly redo any installations, and were in the process of redoing some of them for this cave. This mean't that we didn't have quite as many paths / guardrails as normal, and had to depend on our own climbing skills to make our way through the cave.
The entrance to the cave was a big open arch, with water dripping down from above. Wally and I took the opportunity to lick the walls, which also had water running down them.
After taking in the sights it was time to descent further into the cave, but not before the tour guide used his ice pick to break off some chunks of ice to hand out for everyone to eat.
Most of the cave was open to the air, but there was a fully enclosed side passage that we had to take turns walking down, since it was a bit of a tight squeeze.
While we were in the furthest part of the passage, Jackson tried licking the wall, and immediately regretted it since the wall he picked was covered in ash.
There was a second enclosed passage which led to an exit, the path for which had been completed while we were in the cave, since we weren't originally going to be using it. The passage had a series of plank bridges crossing a rushing stream.
We waited until the rest of the group gathered, then headed back to the base camp. We passed another much larger group on the way back, and also saw someone flying a drone.
Overall, the hike was a lot more adventure than we were expecting, requiring a lot of precarious climbing and wall hugging. We were all pretty exhausted and damp afterward, and planned on taking it easy for the rest of the day.
We took a different path back, one with a lot more greenery growing on top of the black sand, and also a river crossing.
After we arrived back at Vik, we took a detour to take some touristy photos of the famous red roofed church, which overlooks the whole town.
The view was incredible, especially with the sunset.
After we finished taking in the view, we went to the Restaurant Suður-Vík for dinner.
We ordered a cheese tray, a veggie pizza, and skyr cake for desert.
After we finished dinner, we stopped by the Reynisfjara for some more black sand beach adventures, and to see the Hálsanefshellir Cave, which is formed from basalt columns.
Seeing the beach wrapped in the fog and evening light was spellbinding, and one of the more beautiful things I have ever seen.
We spent so much time admiring the sunset that it was getting pretty dark by the time we reached the basalt stacks.
Also, Wally of course licked the basalt, but it didn't really taste like anything.
We originally though the small overhang in front was the cave, but there was a more proper cave around the side of the cliff. At this point, it was too dark to get any good pictures of the inside, but you could see honeycomb pattern formed by the bottom of the basalt structure.
We made our way back home and crashed for the evening.