One of the items on my wish list when visiting Iceland was to see a natural ice cave. These natural wonders come a close second to seeing the Northern Lights for me. So on my second trip to Iceland, I was more than enthusiastic to include an ice cave tour to my itinerary. Tours to ice caves in Iceland are seasonal and these usually take place in the winter months starting from November till March when the caves are more stable and safest to visit.
The ice cave that I visited was located near Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon. Here, smaller glaciers flow from Europe’s largest glacier, Vatnajökull Glacier, into the lagoon and my journey to explore the ice cave started from the car park at the glacier lagoon.
Once we got off at the glacier’s edge, our guide began handing out safety equipment like crampons that were fastened to our shoes for walking on the ice and safety helmets to protect our skulls against falling ice, and hitting our heads on the ice.
Steps had already been cut into the ice to make the descent into the cave easier for visitors. The crampons definitely are a must as we were walking on slippery ice. As I entered the ice cave, silence gradually enveloped me. The surrounding walls of ice seemed to absorb and muffle any noise. The only sounds were those of dripping water and the soft crunch of our footsteps on ice.
Its humbling to know that the ice forming the walls of the cave could be hundreds or even thousands of years old. So when you visit a glacier ice cave, you are actually going back in time. The ice cave starts as snow falling on the mountains. Layers of snow accumulates every year and gets compressed by even more snowfall over the years. In time, the immense weight of countless layers of snow on top squeezes even air bubbles out of the frozen ice below leaving them clear like crystal. During the summer, the ice on top melts and flows through cracks in the glacier, carving out these ice caves and tunnels.
While we assume that ice caves will always be here for us to visit, global warming cause by climate change is already melting away most of the world’s glaciers, including those in Iceland. As the glaciers fade away, so will the magic of these ice caves. In the face of such imminent loss, it becomes critical that we take decisive steps to mitigate climate change and safeguard the fragile beauty of our planet’s icy realms.
Beyond the Little Red Dot 