Iceland 6. White and Colorful

On our sixth day in Iceland, we woke up with the street (and our car) covered with tons of snow. We spent quite a time trying to clean the car and once we finished, we drove south again to complete the part of the surroundings of Vik that we missed up.

As you can see, this day my obsession with horses, houses and farms continued. We drove direction Vík but we stopped a while in a snowy field to say goodbye to our beloved Icelandic horses.

It snowed quite a lot during this morning, but in a moment, the weather seemed to calm a little bit. We take this opportunity and we started to walk on the snow direction the Wrecked Plane DC-3. After walking an hour more or less through a lot of snow, we realized that it was actually sunny. I think that this was the only moment in the whole trip that we stayed more than an hour without it was raining or snowing.

It was quite interesting to visit the plane in the middle of the snow. All we could see was white, and the plane seemed pretty camouflaged on the surrounding.

After spending an hour more or less taking photos of the plane, we decided to say goodbye to the south coast of Iceland. It was time to return to Reykjavík, but on the way, we decided to visit Eyrarbakki, a little and colorful seaside village located in Suðurland.

It was too cold when we arrived, that we drove around the streets of this village. After a while driving and walking a little bit by the area, we jumped again to the car and continued our journey to the main city. The weather forecast announced a big snow storm on the next day, so we decided to arrive in Reykjavík before dusk, just to be preventive. Guess what we did when we were at the city? Chase the Northern Lights!

Iceland 5. Walking on a glacier

We woke up on our fifth morning in Iceland at -8ºC! We booked a glacier walk at Sólheimajökull, so we were a little bit worried about the conditions. Surprisingly, once we arrived there it was not so cold, and we could even fly @tropicalbert’s drone! 

We started to hike the glacier and I have to say that I know that this excursion was not a difficult one, I thought walking with crampons would be more complicated, but it was not! The previous night the snow started to fall again over the country. The glacier had a tiny snow cover so our guide headed us to an ice cave, so we could experience the famous blue color of these ice formations from up close.

Although the morning started pretty sunny, and even during a moment it was actually warm, the clouds were darker every time and finally, it started to snow again. We left the glacier during a snowstorm, so we were very lucky to see it without bad weather. We spent almost 3 hours on the glacier, so it was time to say goodbye to this ice formation and continue our journey through the south coast.

We saw a beautiful house near a secondary road, so we decided to drove through this new path and discover new places. After a while, we realized we arrived at the world-famous Reynisfjara: the black sand beach.

After a moment, a few buses arrived and the beach started to be a little crowded. After that, we decided to move on and we went to our next destination: Vik and its surroundings.

I think that this was that moment of our trip when I realized I was obsessed with Icelandic horses. Believe me, if I say that you can’t imagine how many pictures of horses I took during those days. But I couldn’t stop doing that! They are so perfect and seemed to be posing for a photo all the time… that it was impossible not to immortalize them!. I needed to stop to take a picture of almost every horse I saw, so @tropicalbert, if you are reading that, thank you so much for being so patient with me and caring about the fact that I loved those animals.

Returning home, we decided to stop at Skógafoss. It was the waterfall I wanted to see the most, and it didn’t disappoint me at all. At the time we visited it, there was almost no one, so we could say that half of the waterfall was entirely for us!

Another thing that you should know about this trip, is that I also became obsessed with houses and farms. Although I didn’t upload as many images of this kind, I needed to stop whenever we saw a house to take a picture (or maybe more than just one). I didn't care about the cold or the snow when it came to immortalizing a moment. This obsession with houses and horses continued in the next days, so stay tuned!

Iceland 4. Icebergs and Northern Lights

As I said in the previous post, the weather conditions forced us to change our original plans. We checked the weather forecast everyday and it seemed pretty normal (in winter conditions, of course). But one day it changed. It seemed that the snow finally arrived to this country, and I couldn’t be happier.

Due to these weather conditions, we only had one opportunity to visit Jökulsárlón, and we wanted to visit it so badly that we woke up at 05:00 to drive from Hella to the glacier lake; a 3 and a half hour drive there turned into a 7 hour journey due to the weather conditions.

As you may see in the title of this post, you can imagine that this day was pretty intense. And I think that this was one of the most filling days of my life. Before explaining our adventures at Jökulsárlón, I wanted to tell you one of the reasons why this day was a bit extreme for me.

I’ll explain you the situation. @tropicalbert and I were in a gas station eating a hot dog early in the morning (yes, hot dogs were the 80% of our feeding during the trip), and talking about the Northern Lights. We wanted so hard to see them, but the aurora forecast was extremely bad during our stay. We went out at nights and tried to chase them but we failed. He told me that the night we were supposed to fly to Barcelona, the forecast was actually really good. So, he had the idea to skip our flight and catch another one two days later, to have more chances of seeing the lights. I thought he was crazy, because I couldn't afford that new plan, but he proposes to help me with the costs. You can imagine the romantic situation while eating a hot dog and him trying to convince me. But finally… I said yes! So, we decided to extend our adventure in this country!

After saying that, it’s time for Jökulsárlón! We arrived there almost at midday. I have to say that the weather and road conditions were difficult, and we drove with a lot of caution. But, I also have to say that we stopped so many times along the road because we were fascinated by the landscape.

We were amazed by the floating icebergs in the water. We observed them for a while and walked on the snow to see them from many points of view. While enjoying the views and taking pictures, we noticed that the water was full of seals, playing around as if we weren’t there. I’ve seen a lot of images of Jökulsárlón, and normally the pictures are without snow. So, I’m happy to have seen this place covered with snow, with a different point of view that the one I expected.

After spending a bit of time in the lake, we decided to go to the beach to observe the ice remains from the broken icebergs on the sand. The beach was half covered in snow and half covered in ice. It was an interesting contrast between the black and white tones and it gave for a great view.

We had a long journey returning home (in this case, we slept in Hvolsvollur). We arrived at night, after spending a nice road trip observing the snow and the beautiful colors of that afternoon.

If you’ve read the title, you’ll notice that there is another reason why this day was a bit extreme. After trying almost every night, we finally saw them: the Northern Lights. We stayed in a guesthouse, and we spent a nice time talking to the owner about this country. After telling him that we didn’t see the Northern lights, we checked the forecast and, although it was not good, it was not too bad. So, with his recommendation, we drove along a dark road towards Þórsmörk.

We stayed in the car quite a long time looking at the sky without blinking. @tropicalbert spent this time saying: there are lights in that direction, and I spent the night saying: it is light pollution, keep calm. But actually, he was right. We were seeing the lights!

The Northern Lights were getting brighter and brighter, and seeing them dancing in the night sky was a dream come true. We changed our flights to have more opportunities to see the auroras, and it was a gift to see them in a night that was not expected. Like this country, the Northern Lights are magic. And I couldn't think in anything else than: Will I have more chances to see them during the trip? I guess you'll need to continue reading if you want to know the answer.