Skaftafell is a lovely place. Not very surprising, since it is set aside as a national park, but there it is. It is crowned by Vatnajokull – the 3rd largest icecap in the world (after Antarctica and Greenland) and her scads of glacial fingers jutting out in every direction. Aside from all frozen gorgeous there are delightful rambles all over the park through the forest? – it is very green and covered with trees; it just feels odd to call it a forest when it tops out at you shoulder.
Almost every hike in the park is rated at “easy” or “moderate” so we walked several trails, seeing the beautiful falls. Our favorite was the Svartifoss - Sjonarsker - Sel loop, which in 5.3 short km takes you past five waterfalls, and the tallest stand of trees in all of Iceland. Even though all our wanderings took place under the “liquid sunshine” (as they called it in New Zealand), we still enjoyed the park tremendously. The camping facilities were excellent; the tent (freshly re-seam-sealed for us just a couple of weeks before we left) reasonably water-proof, and the visitor center café has outstanding carrot cake. They are also showing the Spain/ Italy Euro 2012 final in the screening room instead of the informative film about the 1996 eruption of Grimsvotn, the volcano under the ice cap.
Skaftafell is a lovely place. Not very surprising, since it is set aside as a national park, but there it is. It is crowned by Vatnajokull – the 3rd largest icecap in the world (after Antarctica and Greenland) and her scads of glacial fingers jutting out in every direction. Aside from all frozen gorgeous there are delightful rambles all over the park through the forest? – it is very green and covered with trees; it just feels odd to call it a forest when it tops out at you shoulder. 
Almost every hike in the park is rated at “easy” or “moderate” so we walked several trails, seeing the beautiful falls. Our favorite was the Svartifoss - Sjonarsker - Sel loop, which in 5.3 short km takes you past five waterfalls, and the tallest stand of trees in all of Iceland. Even though all our wanderings took place under the “liquid sunshine” (as they called it in New Zealand), we still enjoyed the park tremendously. The camping facilities were excellent; the tent (freshly re-seam-sealed for us just a couple of weeks before we left) reasonably water-proof, and the visitor center café has outstanding carrot cake. They are also showing the Spain/ Italy Euro 2012 final in the screening room instead of the informative film about the 1996 eruption of Grimsvotn, the volcano under the ice cap. 
No comments:
Post a Comment