Saturday 17 September 2011

Day 68.3

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The Dark Cloud of Doom.

We had dinner in the car around 6pm, parked at the west bank of Jökulsárlón. With a splendid view of the iceberg-filled lagoon, even baked beans tasted like abalones. Such is the power of hypnotizing effect the bewitching lagoon had on us. After the recce earlier in the afternoon for a good spot to camp along the east bank of the lagoon for the night, it was time to explore the west side. Lighting condition should be superb in a few hours time, I was already rubbing my hands with glee..  

Jökulsárlón, a shot of me by DD with her S95 camera.
There were a lot more ducks and birds swimming in the west side of the lagoon compared to the east. I reckoned it had to be the disturbance caused by the boat tours and the tourists on the east that drove them to the more tranquil west bank. It was such a joy to watch them all swimming around the crystal clear ice pieces.

The duckies' affair with the ice crystal, shot with the S95.
We must have wandered about 3.5km along the west bank of the lagoon over an hour or so when we first noticed a 'storm cloud' appearing in the distant from the northwest direction shortly after 8pm. "Just a storm cloud, no problem even if that comes our way." We had seen plenty of these back in Hebrides, Scotland. Decked out in our storm jackets and pants, everything will be fine as usual...or so we thought.

The approach of the bizarre 'storm cloud' from the north of Jökulsárlón.
It's been an hour or so since that 'storm cloud' was first sighted and by now it had advanced much closer for us to have a better observation. This one wasn't bringing any rain, the air was dead still, not a wisp of wind. This was no ordinary storm cloud, heck it might not even be one. It appeared to be more like an evil dark mist consuming everything in it's way. The glacier and mountains were falling victim, the lagoon with it's icebergs next in line.

We came face to face with the evil dark cloud as it prepared to consume all in it's path.
The light was slowly changing to an unbelievable purplish blue ambiance never before seen, my eyes must be playing tricks. The duckies and birds by now had all disappeared, the whole place had became eerily dead silent. As the sinister looking cloud began to descend on the lagoon, we witnessed the incredible 'bubbles' in the cloud only seen in some science fiction or horror movies.

The ominous 'bubbles' in the cloud can be clearly seen right in the middle as well as reflected in the lagoon.
By then, it was clear that this was neither an approaching rainstorm nor a sandstorm. I thought the chance of this being a volcanic ash cloud was extremely slim as well. We did not hear any rumbling eruptions or felt any ground movement all day. There were no reports of eruption when we last checked at Skaftafell yesterday. I had even remotely considered the far-fetched possibility of supernatural or extraterrestrial phenomenon. Being a fan of science frictions, I would have love the later, to prove mankind is not alone in the universe. But no way we were going to stay put and find out. There was only one logical option left, RUN.

Hopes of reaching the safety of our car dwindled as the apocalyptic scene played out right before our eyes. Notwithstanding our fears, it was truly a sight to behold...  



4 comments:

  1. Iceland is one of my favourit targets to explore.
    Interesting blog and some nice image you have.
    Regards, Ben.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Ben,
    Thanks for visiting. Iceland is one of my favorite destinations during the trip too.

    See you around.

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very beautiful place and great landscape shots
    Well done

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Andrey, thanks for visiting.

    ReplyDelete