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Grandma Posing On An 'Ice Throne' Drifts Away In Iceland, Coast Guard Rescued Brings Her Back
We have all gone to great lengths to get that perfect travel photo, but one grandma may have taken it too far. Twenty-four-year-old English teacher, Catherine Streng recently shared with Twitter that her sweet grandmother had almost got washed out to sea in the unforgiving Icelandic waters, after the iceberg she was posed on got pulled away by a large wave. To the delight of the internet, Streng the entire dramatic tale in a thread, complete with pictures, making us all realize that maybe you don’t always need to flex so hard for the gram – you might just drown.
Steng works in South Korea, but has her family based in Texas. She was alerted of her grandma’s daring ice-capades by her dad, who sent a series of texts and photos from the trip. Frequent travelers, Streng told Buzzfeed the reason they were in Iceland was because her dad’s mother wanted to experience “the nature and beautiful scenery” of the Nordic area – and experience it she did.
The titanic event all went down at the Jökulsárlón Lagoon, located in the southeastern part of Iceland. Streng’s grandmother spotted a large iceberg shaped like a throne and decided this was the perfect photo opportunity. She sat on the ice and had her son take a photo, but things didn’t go according to plan.
In one icy swoop, grandma was off to sea, managing to stay atop the icy chair without falling into the cold Icelandic depths off the sea. “My father described [what happened] in the following way,” Streng told the outlet, and read one of the descriptive texts he had sent her:
“She ascended the throne after a wave had pulled back and left it briefly exposed on the beach. Then a wave washed in and dislodged the ice throne, rocking it from side to side. When the wave retreated, it lifted the dislodged throne throne and carried her out with the tide.”
Streng said her grandmother floated so far out to see that she required a formal rescue, and fortunately, there was someone around who could assist. Licensed boat captain and water rescuer Randy Lacount, from Florida, had witnessed the entire thing and jumped to her rescue. “He just happened to be onshore when the whole thing occurred, so he waded out into the roiling water and pulled her off the iceberg as it drifted out to sea, supporting her until they reached the shore,” said Streng’s dad.
Not to be deterred by a little ice mishap, Streng’s father and grandmother are still on vacation in Iceland. The teacher noted that several other people had successfully posed for iceberg photos without incident, but that grandma was just the “lucky one,” adding, “That’s just so something that would happen to my family.”
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Since the story had a happy ending people in the comments found the whole ordeal hilarious
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What do you think ?
Hans 5 years ago
Anyone else finds it rather strange to read "lmaoo" all over when in fact this was totally irresponsible, might have killed the grandma, and put the rescuer at risk?
Iris 5 years ago
Every year, here in Iceland, tourists loose their lifes because of some dum behavior like this. Sometimes because they don't know how to drive on our roads, sometimes because they think that Iceland is a one big postcard, made for risky, but save pictures. Well it IS risky and it IS NOT save to "play" with the nature in this way.
Hans 5 years ago
Anyone else finds it rather strange to read "lmaoo" all over when in fact this was totally irresponsible, might have killed the grandma, and put the rescuer at risk?
Iris 5 years ago
Every year, here in Iceland, tourists loose their lifes because of some dum behavior like this. Sometimes because they don't know how to drive on our roads, sometimes because they think that Iceland is a one big postcard, made for risky, but save pictures. Well it IS risky and it IS NOT save to "play" with the nature in this way.
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