Day 4 of our trip was a hike to the ice caves of Svínafellsjökull Glacier. That is one thing height on my bucket list, walking in to an ice cave. Those things come and go and one is more beautiful than the other. It is recommended to go with a local guide because of the danger of falling in to glaciers crevasse and they monitor the caves to ensure us a safe trip in to them.
The tour that we have booked brought us at the Svínafellsjökull Glacier in the east part of Iceland. We took an oversized 4x4 car that took as to the starting point of the hike over the glacier and to the ice caves. We didn't have much time but if you do go for a hike instead of taking the car, it is not more then 1 hour extra and the stunning views and nature around you is really spectacular.
From the parking lot we walked down the glacier and had some stunning views. In the beginning of the trail you don't even realize you are walking over many hundreds of years old Ice and snow because of all the rubble and debris that the glacier took down from the mountains, but when you walk further onto the glacier you are hearing noises from breaking and cracking ice. In the beginning that's realy scary but after a while you get used to it.
After only a 15 minute walk we arrived at skull ice cave. Can you see why they call it that way? This was a very big cave but the colors were not that impressive. I took an HDR picture to bring out more of the colors.
The next cave we visited was more of a adventure. After a Hike over the Glacier we arrived at the entrance of the next cave. There we had to put on some climbing gear for our descent Into the cave. The descent was very narrow and they did carve out some steps Into the ice to make the descent easier. Just a couple of weeks ago this cave was still flooded. In the beginning of the cave there was a wooden walkway so you could enter more easy and with dry feet.
If you go further into the cave you'll run into the water again and te view is like this last picture. The white lines you see are old volcanic ashes and the black lines are volcanic lava, rocks and debris from volcanic eruptions that are captured in the ice. I really loved it here also because it was not cold any more, no wind is no cold :D
We book our tour at http://localguide.is/ice-cave-tours/ice-cave-tour/ a good and well organised company!