See this magnificent place before it’s gone forever

Langjokull is a great white monster that devours mountains. This glacier covers 935 square kilometres and is 580 metres thick in places.

Its white fangs claw at Icelandic landscapes scoured and flattened by its immense energy. Rock peaks struggle to rise above its surface. Its crevasse-scarred hide vanishes into the distance, shrouded in descending mist.

Langjokull Glacier is a beast, but it is under threat.Credit: Alamy

We seem frail, inconsequential humans in the face of this beast, but not everything is as it seems at Langjokull. Our four-wheel drive lurches several hundred metres past the original visitor centre onwards over bare rock to a newer replacement on the retreating glacial edge.

As we slither onto the ice, our vehicle rolls over deep ruts created by surging meltwater. You wouldn’t want to divert from the marked driving route these days, says our driver, Gunnar. You could find yourself swallowed by a newly formed sinkhole.

I’ve read a lot about global warming, but seeing it so starkly in action is shocking, and it makes me wonder if I should be here at all, contributing to the problem. As we drive upwards, water gushes down, filled with coughed-up grime and boulders that could take off a wheel. Driving here is no longer a smooth skate but an obstacle course that has me clinging to my armrest.

They say cruises are for timid travellers, but Abercrombie and Kent has ignored that stereotype. We’ve been cruising through Svalbard and Greenland, and now our expedition ship is docked at Akranes north of Reykjavik.

The world’s longest artificial ice tunnel, which runs 550 metres into Langjokull.Credit: iStock

We’ve driven here to see Iceland’s fabulous landscapes, but this frozen world is in flux. No wonder. Next day in Reykjavik, the temperature hits 30 degrees. The July average is 12 degrees.

As we scramble out of the vehicle and into whipping wind, it feels cold at this altitude. It isn’t, though. We plunge into an ice tunnel and the glacier around us creaks and gurgles like the world’s worst plumbing system. We’re using crampons, but wellington boots would be better. The ice is soggy with puddles.

We’ve entered the world’s longest artificial ice tunnel, which runs 550 metres into Langjokull. It took a team of specialist engineers and glaciologists four years to create. It leads 25 metres below the glacier’s surface, with another 200 metres of ice beneath our feet.

Abercrombie and Kent’s expedition ship.

Glaciers evolve, so the tunnel needs continual monitoring. That’s especially true these days. Langjokull is melting rapidly. A series of display maps show this massive glacier will be a nub by 2065.

One of Iceland’s glaciers, Okjokull, is already gone. All Iceland’s 400-plus glaciers are in retreat. The country is losing 11 billion tonnes of ice a year. We’re all shocked, and yet here we are, stomping along leaving enormous carbon footprints.

Langjokull reminds me of this: we all have to spread the global-warming word. We must choose our travels wisely, and compensate for them. Heedless travel is a thing of the past.

It’s warmer than I expect beneath the glacier. The maintenance crew no longer need to shave growing ice off the walls; the worry now is ice collapse. Geological time seems to have stopped.

You can trace Iceland’s volcanic explosions in the glacier’s banded layers of ash, notably the 2010 eruption that made world headlines for disrupting air traffic. But the black lines no longer get preserved in ice that mostly melts rather than freezes.

The tunnel’s walls are slick, and water pools at our feet. We cross a wooden bridge over a gushing stream in the crevasse below. Such meltwater lubricates the glacier, causing it to slowly slide down the hill.

This monster is gurgling and groaning as it falls apart. One day the magnificent sight of Langjokull Glacier might just be something old folk talk about, while their grandchildren listen in disbelief.

THE DETAILS

Cruise
Abercrombie and Kent’s 15-day “Arctic Cruise Adventure: In Search of the Polar Bear” departs Oslo on July 25, 2025, with a flight to Svalbard and a cruise that takes in Svalbard, Jan Mayen, Greenland and Iceland. From $35,200 a person including meals, drinks, gratuities, airport transfers, Arctic clothing and daily expedition excursions. Phone [phone]. See abercrombiekent.com.au

More
west.is

The writer travelled as a guest of Abercrombie and Kent.