After we went looking for the northern lights last night in the bus last night, a few of us decided to take shifts to wake up and see if they were there. I was on 2:00am - as I'm usually awake then anyway. So I'm up and out and looking at the sky above. I can see a faint white stream stretching from one side to the other and think this might be the start of it. Keep looking, playing on the iPad, looking. The 3:00 girl arrives and we keep looking. It gets a bit more intense but not too much, and no colour. By 4:00 it's gone, so back to bed.
They say go to Iceland and don't expect the lights so if you don't see them, you won't be disappointed. And that's how I've done it - if I see them, great. If not, it's been amazing and I don't feel I've missed out.
I came out this morning to this...
And this, over Vatnajokull - that's the glacier, not sure what the mountain is called...
At breakfast, I try a spread on toast - sort of like creamed cheese with mushroom. Sounds a bit weird but was really good.
Yesterday Piedir had mentioned how the sheep particularly love the grass that grows right up high on the massive cliffs. Then the farmers have to go and rescue them. There's a fabulous poster of this in reception.
Then pack up and back on to the bus.
First stop - back at Jokulsarlon for a boat ride amongst the icicles! Google had indicated that the boats had stopped for the season but we are in luck - they are running. At the ticket box, the guy stumbled over the price and was trying to translate it to euro. I said, "I don't care how much it costs!" And I didn't!
Yesterday this place was spectacular. Today the sun is shining and it is beyind words...
Veronika (or as she pronounces it, Weronika) tells us a bit about the lagoon. She has a lump of ice that is over 800 years old. You can tell the age by the air bubbles inside. After she hands it round so everyone can take a photo with it (I did not do this), she smashed it up and handed it round for us to taste.
The bit of the glacier we can see is only 10% of it - the rest is underwater. There is so much water here! They say if you filled a water bottle and gave one to everyone on the planet, you'd only use a tiny percentage of all the water in Iceland.
There is herring, krill and trout in this freezing lake.
After the boat ride, I take a look further up and see some seals swimming around! You can just make them out - the two dots in the middle...
Then it's over the road to the ocean, complete with a wild sea and blocks of ice on the black sand...
Lunch time, back at the cafe we went to yesterday. Good soup and crusty roll. They're very big on soup here.
Next up we get fitted for our crampons and get our helmets and pick axes ready to head off for the glacier walk.
A short drive to Svinafellsjokull, a short walk up next to the glacier then a lesson in how to put on a crampon...
..a lesson in how to walk in them. What to do and what not to do - it's a bit scary, actually. "If you start to fall and are heading for a crevice try and stop yourself with your pick axe and dig the crampons in. Don't follow your phone or camera if you drop it. Walk slightly legs apart - like two dogs fighting. Stomp your feet in as you walk. Bend at the knee. Follow in a line. Don't stop to take a photo, keep up." Bit scary but then we're off onto the glacier.
Johan is obviously qualified and is leading us out. There's another tour of four, plus guide and he is bringing up the rear, with the two Chinese girls, who don't seem to know what's going on. We head out for a way, then the first photo stop.
It's quite fascinating to look down - the ice is obviously transparent but solid. So it's like your walking on water, sort of...
My foot slipped along the way and my toe slipped out. Talk about teamwork - one person grabbed my axe, another held my arm for balance, and another put the crampon back on! So nice.
Walking on again until the next stop...
There's a deep crevice here that Johan and the other guide let us walk up to to have a look. They are very careful with everyone, playing everything by the book.
We can pick into the ice and have a taste of it here. And Johan has a screwdriver thing that digs out the ice for eating.
As we start to head back, we come to sort of an ice slide and Johan again let's us up one by one to look...
Then he goes and finds a large rock to throw down and we can hear it tumbling and hitting the walls for ages until a loud splash, quite a way down.
Then we head back. We've been out there for 1.5 hours and it was fantastic!
Then it's back to the cafe to unload the hiking gear, grab a coffee and on the road to head back to Reykjavik - a five-hour drive!
As we're driving, Johan points out a mist over the landscape. It's the amazing volcanic rocks covered in moss that cover a lot of the landscape. Apparently when the hot and cold airs mix, it gives off a mist - like your breath in a cold day.
Then it's back on the bus and we're off towards Reykjavik. Johan and I are talking about stuff in general - the lack of police on the road but if you do get caught, as he did - doing 130km/h one time - it's an expensive fine. But he talked his way down from 70,000 ISK to 50,000. He's on the lookout for the northern lights as it is dark already and all of a sudden he pulls over - he can see them. We all pile out of the bus but it's still a bit too light and they're not clear.
Johan thinks if we go a bit further, past the town, allow the sun to set, it might be better. So that's what we do and then there they are! After what I said earlier, I was okay with missing them but the fact that they were here and they were massive is the ultimate finish to this incrdible trip!
They streaked and swirled, constantly moving position. I don't have a camera that can capture them at all, but the Brazilian did and he's going to send us some of the pictures! What a great guy - he might be a bit of a know-it-all but he knows how to take a photo and he's happy to go to the effort of sending them to us. Now I just hope I have the right email address for him!
We stopped for about half an hour, marvelling at Mother Nature's best. Then back and into Reykjavik to be dropped off at our hotels. Here's Johan from my seat for the last three days...
In another Libran moment, I had been unable to choose between two hotels - Hotel Fron and Hotel Centrum Reykjavik - so I decided to stay at both! Fron before the trip and Centrum after. So here I am. What an amazing three days!
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