Iceland Part 2 - Northern Lights and Ice Lagoon

Wednesday (contd.)

After a hearty dinner and the children in bed early I went out to the deck to check the status of the sky. It was clear and dotted with stars. Eager to try out some night photography I set up my tripod and camera and began taking long exposure shots at the sky. Even after fidgeting with my White Balance I ended up with a green haze in my pictures. I soon realised that it was the northern lights making their appearance for the night. The KP index was quite high that night and I had read that the luck needed to see northern lights was a high KP index AND, more importantly, a cloudless sky, which we were blessed with that night! I excitedly summoned SC to look at my pictures. He wasn’t ready to believe me and waved off my pictures saying I was imagining as we could see absolutely nothing on the sky! I made him turn off all the lights in the cabin and waited for our eyes to dilate to the darkness. Soon I saw streaks of white light across the sky on the other side of the cabin. There were some more people outside and they had their photographic equipment set up. I hurriedly called SC and this time he too saw that. We quickly took some pictures before those streaks faded away.

We were absolutely excited to go to sleep and kept looking on either sides of the cabin. Sadly we could spot nothing with our naked eyes. So we went to bed and kept waking up through out the night to check the sky. During pre dawn the sky was flooded with stars…. something that we had not seen since childhood. The wind had picked up speed and it was impossible to use a tripod. We saw some light streaks across the sky and contended ourselves that those were indeed the northern lights which unfortunately could not be captured on the camera.

Thursday

I nearly stayed up the entire night. Attempts at trying to sleep only resulted in visions of green and purple which made me return to the large windows in the living area of the cabin. We also had a long day ahead of us and I was eager to get started early. I saw the day breaking at around 7 am. Got my coffee and sat down to drink it in peace watching the sun rise. The sun was rising and rising and rising and by 8 am it was still below the horizon. Another of those “only in Iceland” moments! The kids were up and we had to get ready to out to another sight that was as popular as the northern lights in Iceland.

It was a wonderful and sunny day with absolutely no wind and the drive to one of the most anticipated sights was filled with scenic views through out. First it was the countless waterfalls. Then was the sights of the glacial tongues of Vatnajökull, the largest glacier outside the Arctic. And then the black sands of a desert cut only by the innumerable rivers and glacial melts heading out to the Atlantic Ocean. 

Vatnajökull

After stopping at several locations for marvelling at the vision in front of our eyes and for pictures, we reached Jökulsárlón at about 12 noon. It was the busiest sight we had seen in Iceland this far. A lot of cars, people, tour buses and activities abound! We found a parking spot and quickly rushed out to bitterly cold winds. It was a sunny and gorgeous day - only from the inside. Before our fingers froze we quickly put on our gloves and edged towards the lagoon. Sam was annoyed with the wind and wanted to return to the car again. Not once she picked up a chunk of glacial ice from the shore! There were ice of all shapes and sizes. There were quite a few chunks of ice glittering in the sunlight on the shore. The children picked up some and wanted to lick them! We walked along the edge of the lagoon watching some large icebergs break and fall into the lagoon with a big splitting noise. The currents jostled the icebergs and they were always on the move; towards the ocean. I worked on some pictures after the other three went to the cabin to warm themselves up.

Jökulsárlón

I heard someone talking in Tamil and turned to see a couple. Walked up to them to find out they were from Chennai and we had a small chat about our visits to Iceland and bid good bye before all of us returned to our car. We then had our lunch watching the icebergs drifting. Lunch with a view!

We then drove across the Ring Road to the Diamond beach. I was expecting a few small pieces of ice along the shore but I was in for a pleasant surprise. It was as if a volcano had erupted to spit out diamonds of all shapes and sizes. It was yet anther black sand beach and the contrasting diamonds were glittering in the afternoon sun. The waves were trying to break the ice with all their might. The smaller pieces budged but not the large ones, resulting in huge sprays. It was a long walk in the sand from the car to the south west corner of the beach where are all the diamonds were scattered. Some waves were dangerous and some were mild. After countless pictures returned to the car to resume our journey back to the west. 

Diamond Beach

Moss covered Lava Rocks

We were then contemplating whether to visit Fjallsárlón or Fjaðrárgljúfur. We decided against Fjallsárlón as we wanted to experience a canyon while Fjallsárlón was again another Glacial Lagoon. If only we had more time we could have done both. Fjallsárlón was closer to the mouth of the glacier and we would have had the opportunity of seeing the crevasses of the blue-iced glacier much closer! We now returned the route we had taken earlier in the morning stopping once for gas and once for taking a picture of the moss covered lava rocks. The gas stations allowed one to fill either for 1000, 2000, 3000 or 5000 kr or full tank. We had read about cases where the gas companies place a large hold on the payment card in addition to charging the amount of gas actually filled if we select the full tank option. So we filled for a mere 2000kr to check the capacity of our car’s tank.

Fjaðrárgljúfur

Our next stop was along the lava fields. The colours were too lovely in the sun that was fast dipping into the horizon. The lava rocks looked like darkened pumice and the moss that grew on top of them were soft to touch. We had read about the fragile ecosystem of Iceland and did not venture too far into the field. After some awesome pictures we were soon on our way to Fjaðrárgljúfur and passed Hörgsland Cottages and Kirkjubæjarklaustur before the offline maps of Google maps helped us find the turn off to the canyon. The road wasn’t in a very good condition and SC being the experienced driver he was navigated them gently. Every time we get out of the car we realise how cold it actually is! The sun had set casting some nice glow in the sky but it was awfully cold and windy. We hiked up the short distance watching a sulphur rich, perhaps thermal, waterfall flowing into the canyon. We nicknamed it the “Chocolate Falls” and continued to the first view point. We caught the views of the canyon in twilight and with not enough light for wonderful pictures we returned to our car to drive back to Hörgsland Cottages.

My sore throat had worsened to a stuffy nose and a heavy head. I was quite sick by then due to a sleepless night and all the excitement of seeing never before sights. We hurriedly finished dinner and even with a clear sky and streaks of lights in the sky decided to give it a miss and went to bed. This time there were no visions and it was a sound sleep!

Friday

It was again a gorgeous morning and after a restful night I was up before 7 watching the day breaking as slow as possible! We were leaving this part of Iceland and it made us very sad to do so. It had been gorgeous weather and scenery and we just felt like staying there for ever. Unfortunately we had to stick to our plans and before long we had moved all our luggages into the car and started our drive back west. There were patches of ice on the road. We did not realise it was that cold overnight. Our cottage had kept us warm and cozy. 

Laufskálavarða

After a couple of quick stops to fill gas and to freeze the vision of the morning sun on a lava field in our camera we were on our way eagerly to see one of the most famous beaches in the world. Before long we had to stop at the cairns field of Laufskálavarða. The entire village of Laufskálar, the first farm in Iceland, was located here and that was wiped out during Mt. Katla’s eruption in 894. Since then it became a custom for every traveler passing through this site to place a pebble/rock on a cairn. There was also a mound that offered views of Mýrdalsjökull and Kötlujökull. After a short stop and each of us placing a pebble on the cairn we were off.

Vík church

As we neared Vík we saw that it had snowed in these parts earlier and all the slopes were covered with snow. We stopped under the Vík church at a gas station to take a picture of the church from the other angle and with snow in the background. 

I had 1 GB of data included in my prepaid plan but it wouldn’t connect since morning. I had no idea what was going on and was quite worried as we wouldn’t be able to check the weather without 3G data on the move. By now I realised we had run out of data and was wondering what could have possibly caused and realised with a jolt that Sam was watching videos on YouTube while rest of us were struggling to connect to the wifi at Hörgsland Cottages the previous night! Well, nothing could be done about that now and we just prayed there were no surprises.

We soon found the turn off to Reynisfjara beach and saw a pretty little village with sheep grazing along the way. Reminding myself to stop on the return we proceeded to parking for the beach and were surprised to find a lot of cars there. It was still windy and cold and not the ideal weather for beach, really!

Reynisfjara

You’ll be unprepared for he first sight of the Reynisfjara beach even after seeing numerous pictures on the internet. It is like seeing a very colourful picture in black and white! It is a black sand beach like every other beach in Iceland. The biggest attention seeker here is the cave and the basalt columns stacked up like some one from the ocean had come in overnight and had transferred the contents of his freight ship which was forgotten to be picked up by its owner. The Reynisdrangar stacks in the ocean looked a little different than they looked from the hill top couple of days ago. There is a myth that trolls that tried to drag their ship to the shore became the stacks when the sun rose. This beach is known for monstrous waves and had resulted in a few deaths. Knowing this I stayed well away from the edge and was admiring the beauty and taking pictures when one wave chased me back even further! Watched a few people getting wet and shuddered at the thought of how it would feel on a day like this. There was already some ice on the sand and it started snowing then. Before I could call out to the others, it stopped! The children tried climbing on the stacks and then we made our way further west to spot the Dyrhólaey Arch and the lighthouse on top of an earlier island. The wind was blowing the foam and spray from the waves did not offer us a clear view. We decided it was enough and returned to the car. I had brought along a flask with hot water flavoured with a cardamom and clove and that provided a good respite from the cold. All of us took a few sips to warm ourselves. 

We stopped a couple of times to take pictures of Icelandic sheep and horses before we turned off the Ring Road to head towards the Golden Circle. The wool of Icelandic sheep is very different in that it can keep one both warm and cool as the temperature outside regulates. They are also waterproof in that they continue to provide warmth even if they become wet. A unique evolution for a sub-arctic climate indeed! We trusted the GPS to guide us to the Gullfoss. Little did we realise that it was giving us a circuitous route. We reached Gullfoss before sunset and got to walk on snow after a long time! The sun was shining directly on the waterfalls and it made a lovely sight. The Gullfoss was one of the widest waterfalls we had seen in a long time. Reminded us of the horseshoe falls of the Niagara. There were also more people here than the other waterfalls we had seen as it was very close to Reykjavik.

Gullfoss

Strokkur Geysir

After the children had a snowball fight and we took some lovely pictures we were back to the car and set out towards the Geysir. We had passed it on our way and saw smoke coming out of the ground. We were eager to experience it. We parked on the other side of the road and walked to the Strokkur watching the Little Geysir bubbling and a number of warm water streams tainted with different colours along the way. Strokkur erupts every 4 to 8 minutes. I was ready with my dSLR to shoot as it appeared but apparently I was pretty slow. So I ditched the dSLR in favour of my iPhone and was able to capture a couple of quick pictures as the geyser erupted. The sun had set and we went back to the car hoping to make it to Secret Lagoon during twilight. It was a quick 20 minutes from the Geysir and we left to follow the car’s GPS that made it over an hour. Halfway through the journey it was completely dark and we decided the trip wasn’t worth and decided to proceed to South Central Motel for our night’s stay. It was then I remembered that we needed some important groceries for the evening and breakfast and our nearest store was 27 miles away at Selfoss! With no other option we drove to Selfoss. We recalled that they had a store at the gas station we had stopped at earlier in the morning and we could have bought it there. Shopped at Bonus this time which we found considerably better stocked and priced better. Filled some gas and we started our drive to the hotel.

I saw a glow in the sky and became excited! We drove the 25km quickly and set up the camera and tripod only to find the picture turning out orange. It was cloudy and lights from a distant city were reflected on it! With some disappointment we tried to enter the access code to the apartment that was emailed to us before we left the UK and found that it didn’t work. Panic set it as there was absolutely no one at the sight and it was just a block of apartments in the middle of nowhere. I found a phone number that I had saved and called it hoping that there was someone to pick it up at the other end. Good for us, someone did and gave the correct access code!

On entering the apartment we realised how different it was from Hörgsland Cottages. It was better furnished and everything seemed new and well maintained. We quickly brought in our bags and refreshed ourselves before having dinner and were off to bed in no time. It had started to drizzle by then. We had no idea what a blessing the previous couple of days were as we drifted off to sleep.

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