Island Tag 5

'The name fit - they shimmered like diamonds on black sand, shimmered like countless treasures released by the sea' 

Since we hadn't managed the night before, today we made a new attempt to visit the Diamond Beach. After a slightly longer drive, we finally made it and even found a parking space. The beach is divided into two attractions - the floating ice floes where the glacier meets the water on one side and the black beach where small ice blocks are driven by the sea on the other side. There are some tours available there that take you over the glacier or through the water, but due to lack of time, we didn't book any.

We first looked at the ice floes and were impressed by the drifting ice. You could even hear it crunch when two floes collided and slowly but incessantly bumped and bounced off each other. We took photos and were captivated by the extraordinary view that greeted us. We even saw seals! The seals there seem to be accustomed to humans and although they didn't come close to the shore, they were close enough to be visible with the naked eye. Despite the cold, we stayed there much longer than planned - it's not easy to tear yourself away from something extraordinary. Captivated by the ice, as frozen and rigid as the ice itself. Ultimately, we continued and visited the famous Diamond Beach.

It's just a few steps from the place where ice and water meet and where the crumbling ice is carried out to sea. However, it doesn't get very far and is driven back to the beach by the tide and washed up there in small pieces, which is black from volcanic ash. The ice fragments - large and small - catch the light and glitter, stand out against the black background and shimmer like diamonds. Holding one in your hands is like finding a treasure that the sea has released after thousands of years. Cold and wet and incredible. And of course, you have to be careful not to get too close or you might get caught by the waves! Here too, we took many photos, you have to capture something like that, and then slowly and reluctantly made our way back.

On the way back, we stopped at the Moss Fields just before Vik. These are stone fields - fields that were created by volcanic eruptions and that nature is reclaiming. Rare species of moss overlook the stones and give the black a green and brown (autumn, you know) shimmer.

We reached the Black Beach before sunset. This part of the beach is particularly famous in Iceland (although almost all beaches have black sand there), but the rock formations there are gigantic and unusually shaped. Strong, rectangular shapes greet you on the outer side of the cliff, and two sharp towers stick out eerily in the sea. If you drive a little further, you reach the cliffs that are so famous for the Puffins, but we had planned that for the next day. The interplay of the black sand underfoot, the gray cliffs, and the gray-blue sea was almost eerie and made my heart beat faster.

As usual, we only found our accommodation in Vik in the dark.