For The Love of Travel

Beautiful sun for our shooting of Hofskirksja turf church.  There has been a church at Hof for 700 years and the first written records of a church on this site are from a catenary (old medieval document) from 1343! The core of the current church was built in 1884 and dedicated to St Clement when Iceland was a Catholic country. It’s walls made of rock and roof from stone slabs, covered with turf.

Then to Reynisdrangar (just one of the many locations Game of Thrones has used in Iceland).

These are dramatic basalt rock formations that shoot right out of the ocean. F16 on camera 🎥 to get a star 🌟 burst from shooting the sun.  You’re welcome! 

And we saw a KP level 1-2 Aurora on our last night! Woo hoo!

 

We did a long drive across passes in the Vatnajokull National Park to get to the east coast.  We arrived late in the evening into Djupivogur, a lovely little village with a harbour set against a snowy mountain backdrop. Delish dinner of lobster tails and garlic toast.

Next day was spent at the Eystrahorn mountain and Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon
trying to get speccy shots.

Excited that night as we got a hint of an aurora over this glacier…biting and freezing winds so cameras were hard to control for ‘shake’ on our tripods! 

 

 

 

 

 

Early morning rise to get shots at the Fjallsarjokull glacier just south – more colour in the skies! Yay! 

We drove to another mountain, Vestrahorn for sunset pics…in wellies so we could stand in water to get the reflection of the mountain when the water ebbed. Not bad for my first try. 

Another full day yesterday with sunrise at Diamond Ice Beach – trying out our ‘wave painting’ technique, using a fast shutter speed to capture the ebb of the water around ice forms on the black sand. You do have to watch out for the waves from the Atlantic as they come crashing into shore – holding onto tripod and at times lifting it up, is a good move! Fellow traveller Maureen’s image below – a little gem. 

Then ice caving at Svinafellsjokull glacier in the afternoon. Crampons are my new best friend! Attached to boots, they stop you slipping down mountainsides and off glaciers – you also get quite a work out of all of the muscle groups in your legs!!!!  

We are having full days of gorgeousness – no rest for the wicked photographers. We leave around 6:45 for sunrise photos (always hopeful that there might be some lovely sky colours, but not to be had so far) and return to the hotel around 22:00, especially if there is a hint that an aurora may be viewable.

Hverir – geo thermal spot noted for its bubbling pools of mud and steaming fumaroles emitting sulphuric gas. Loved this pattern in the lava field covered in snow. 

Lovely Icelandic horse came to greet us on one of our stops. You can’t get tired of seeing these delightful creatures – did you know that their gait is so smooth, you can sip a glass of wine while riding on one, and not spill a drop? Please note, no horse has been subjected to this in our journey!

The Hrafnabjargafoss waterfall in the river Skjalfandafljot, Highlands of Iceland, is a little off the beaten track (we got there in a bumpy journey over lava fields covered in DEEP snow, by modified 4WD vehicles with 44 inch tires, slightly deflated to allow ease of travel over glacier and snow). Skjalfandafljot falls into several highly impressive canyons. Other beautiful waterfalls in the river are Aldeyjarfoss and Godafoss.

Godafoss (Waterfall of the Gods), beautiful and elegant semicircular arc of cascades, swirling patterns in blue and green. Has a connection with a momentous time in Icelandic history – the decision to reject Norse paganism for Christianity by the Legislative Assembly in 1000.

Aldeyjarfoss, is 20 metres high, tumbling through a narrow passage into a wide basin, the concertina black basalt columns providing a stark contrast against the thrashing white foam, making it one of Iceland’s gems. 

We stayed in a lovely hotel next to next to Lake Myvatn and I went for a walk early one morning to see the pseudocraters, formed by a gas explosion when boiling lava flowed over the wetlands.

Dettifoss waterfall, with water drawn from the immense Vatnajokull glacier, is reputed to be the most powerful in Europe, with 500 cubic metres falling per second. 

And we’ve had crazy driving conditions, with snow blizzards across the road, close to white out conditions – our driver Rainier, does such a splendid job to keep us safe.