The Farm Holidays information describe this day's drive as "mind-blowing" and it wasn't far from the truth. However, before we hit the road I needed to take a shower. Now you may ask yourself why would I bring this up? I bring it to your attention because it was the most disgusting shower of my life. From the moment I turned the hot water on, I was surrounded by a very strong sulfur smell (rotten eggs). This smell grew stronger and stronger the longer I was in the shower so as you might expect I made it fast but not before almost gagging. Fortunately, when it was done, and I had left the bathroom, the smell didn't linger on my body. Of course, maybe my brother thought different. Either way we got the hell out of Dodge.
The first thing we came across on the drive was the Great Sandur. When volcanoes go off under the glacier, they melt the ice and when this water comes pouring down towards the ocean, huge amounts of sediment are carried with it. For miles and miles of this drive the coastline and a few miles inland were covered with this black sand sediment. The sand, the road, the ocean and the glacier make for a very dramatic picture. 
Up next was a stop at Skatafell National Park. The park is just of the Ring Route and has several hiking trails, many of which lead up to the glacier. First we took the short hike up to Svartifoss (waterfall). This waterfall is a pretty impressive sight as it is surrounded by basalt columns. Feeling adventurous, my brother decided to walk behind the falls as I stayed back at took pictures of him. From his description the walk behind was relatively easy and he only got a little misted.
From there, we continued up the trail another 20 minutes to the edge of Skaftafellsjökull (glacier). Although, from this point, you can't actually touch the glacier, you do get a great view of it and can better grasp the huge size. We didn't want to take the same path back down we took up, so ignored the "closed" sign of another path and took our chances. Yes, yes, I know this isn't the brightest thing but we weren't looking to "follow the rules". Unfortunately for us, about half way down we ran into the crew working on this path. The were a bit irate the we'd ignored there signs but we just kept on walking. About 15 minutes later we were back at the car and alive. Time to hit the road before the "man" came after us. We'd spent a total of about 2 hours in the park.
Around 2:30 we reach the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon. This lagoon can't be missed from Route 1. The road passes right over the lagoon with the best views from the East side of the bridge. There is an amphibious boat ride for 2500ISK ($40) where they cram about 30 people into a small space with life vests. After watching the relatively short trip this vehicle takes (about 30 minutes), we realized we could see just as much walking around the lagoon and opted to save the cash (a rare opportunity in Iceland). We spent a good 45 minutes checking out the lagoon and were treated to a nice ice breakage that set off a nice chain reaction of collisions in the lagoon. This place is, without a doubt, is one of the biggest tourist traps in Iceland and was probably the most crowded area we encountered in our entire journey. Someone is making big bucks off this lagoon. 
We got to the Smrylabjörg farm house around 4:00 wanted to take it easy a bit. Monday's long day and hike had taken a lot out of us and we weren't even halfway done with our trip. We decided to pass on the 3500ISK dinner ($56) and eat peanut butter sandwiches instead. Most of the hotels offered a common area and we generally made good us of it, spending a couple hours watching some TV and downing some drinks. Unfortunately, few other guests made us of these areas so meeting people was infrequent. We did meet a nice group of 4 from the Czech Republic that were following the Ring Route as well and we shared some experiences. TV at the farm houses was at best hit or miss with between 1 and 5 channels. 5 channels might sound like a good amount but when 2 of the channels are showing the same show, a third is showing a still frame picture of what looked like paella and a fourth has greatest hits from some British talk show that makes little sense, this American TV junkie is at a loss. Thank goodness we had some alcohol.
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