I decided over night that one of the things I wanted to do in Iceland was to ride on a Glacier in one of the large-tired vehicles, "Jeeps" they call them here but they are really Toyotas, Nissans, Dodges - anything but Jeeps. So this morning before setting off, and among our other chores, we dropped in at the information center to find out that to get such a ride we had to drive a little way West down Highway 1 to a hostel where we would find a group called Glacier Jeeps.

We found the interesting, small thesis on Saturn on a plaque while walking around Hofn.

During our wonderings around the town we met and talked to a young French (the young lady was French Canadian) couple who where hitch hiking so we undertook that "if we saw them on the road we would give them a lift". So about an hour later thats exactly what happened.

Within 40 miles we found the hostel we were looking for, found the "jeep guys" and said goodbye to our guests (fortunately they got another ride almost immediately). The remainder of the day was occupied with the experience of driving on a glacier.

This experience left us with the view that Icelanders have a lot to learn about the business of tourism.

For our adventure we shared a Toyota Landcruiser with a couple (Finn and Cuban) and their two daughters. The initial stage of the drive was accessing the glacier via a spectacular road that climbed the southern moraine wall, with the aim of getting high enough that the glacier surface was covered in snow rather than the crevassed bare ice of the lower reaches. Once at the company base on the glacier the driver reduced the air pressure in the vehicle tires to 3.5 psi and our "adventure began". But unfortunately the weather really did not cooperate (a story that seems like it might be the rule rather than the exception) and we mostly drove in fog and rain. So while we did not see much the experience satisfied my desire to "ride in a Iceland glacier vehicle". Next time I will take the skidoo option.

Back down at the hostel we drove only a few miles to find a quiet spot off the highway near a small hydro power station.

The picture of the Ford van and its enormous tires is just for the gear heads out there. I would have loved a ride in it but that was not on offer. It has 4-link air suspension front and rear.