A place you have to see : Jökulsárlón

After a beautiful drive along the south coast of Iceland – I finally made it to Jökulsárlón.

Jökulsárlón is an enormous glacial lagoon situated below the Vatnajökull glacier in south-west Iceland. This lagoon is a direct result of Earths warming temperatures and subsequent glacial melt. In this lagoon, calving from the glacier results in short term icebergs. Most of the icebergs in the lagoon are melting very rapidly, which has created this incredible lagoon which in the not so distant past – did not exist.

Arriving at the lagoon, I was pretty amazed by how beautiful it was! So many shapes and colours littering the lagoon – something new and beautiful at each turn of ones head.

I loved the way the glacial water gently lapped at black sand, and how the clouds appeared to be slicing the sky in two

On this particular day I actually frgot to bring a neutral density filter for my camera, which was a shame, as my 12-40mm lens is a very bright lens, and there was so much sun and much light that a filter to eliminate some of the brightness would have made a big difference in the quality of the photographs produced! However, you and live and you learn, and now I never forget to bring lens filters with me everywhere!

There are several companies located at the lagoon who operate boats and will take people out on the lagoon to see more of the icebergs and they are absolutely worth doing.

Hot tip: bring sunglasses! On sunny days the reflection off the water can be quite uncomfortable for naked eyes.

Many of the icebergs seemed to have developed quite uniform lines and angles, which makes sense. The water here isn’t subject to ocean currents and as such, there would be no waves to cause inconsistent melt

I am obsessed with all things wintery! Ice, snow, rain and freezing cold all appeal to me in ways that summer weather doesn’t, so I was pretty enamoured by all of the different icebergs, and could’ve spent all day (and night) looking for new ones.

The view of Vatnajökull sitting above the lagoon was pretty spectacular too.

Some of the icebergs looked almost soft and powdery.

While others looked extremely jagged and sharp

From some viewpoints, the mountains behind the ‘bergs were what stole the show.

Having people in the background of some shots really helps to show just how large these chunks of ice are too

After my boat trip into the lagoon ended, I spent quite a while just wandering along the typical (for Iceland) black sand shoreline and admiring the lagoon, the icebergs and the sense of quiet and peace that such a beautiful place afforded me

Then just as I was packing up my things and getting ready to start the long drive back to Reykjavik, I saw something out of the corner of my eye…

Look at the above photo – can you see something in it that is a bit out of the ordinary?

If not – try and find the small ripples on the lower left and mid quadrants of the frame.

yeah, those little ripples are seals!

Apparently there are small amount of seals who enjoy the protected environment the lagoon provides and can occasionally be seen from the shoreline!

I couldn’t get as close as I wanted to, but to be fair, I probably wouldn’t consider anything less than donning a drysuit and jumping into the water with them as close enough! However, seeing just the two of them popping up out of the water, diving down and twirling themselves around as they played was pretty amazing, and made what had already been an amazing adventure, even more incredible.