Glacier Face

Between May and September, visitors can cruise through the maze of icebergs bobbing in the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon. Huge chunks of ice calved from the nearby Breiðamerkurjökulll glacier can spend as long as five years before they eventually join the ocean. Along the way, local seals frolic in the icy waters. Just across from the lagoon is the world-famous Diamond Beach, where many of the clear blue glacier ice chunks are marooned on the black volcanic sand at low tide. If the area looks familiar, it’s because it has been featured in many movies and TV shows. Two James Bond films were shot here—A View to a Kill and Die Another Day, along with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Batman Begins and Interstellar. Alex points out that the area is quickly changing, though. “The glaciers are melting really quickly here, and we can see it happening. We were surrounded by huge chunks of ice between us and the beach. We’re about 300 feet away from the face of the glacier here; it’s not safe to get any closer. At any second sheets will calve and would completely crush us, so this is the closest we could get.”