Iceland 2014 - Day 3: From Höfn to Jökulsárlón - Rain, Rain and More Rain

Today's blog is a very short one. Sadly the weather today has been absolutely appalling - probably the worst day I've ever had in Iceland (and I've had some bad days before!). The rain has fallen all day, accompanied by strong, cold winds, and visibility has been limited, the mountains only just seen beneath the cloaks of cloud and fog. Occasionally there was a small amount of contrast in the sky, but generally it's been grey and wet.

The drive from Höfn to Hali, where I'm staying (13km from Jökulsárlón) was a quick one with very little to see along the way. There was no point in returning to Stokksnes to revisit Vesturhorn as the conditions when I left were awful. I did stop a couple of times along the way, which lifted my spirits temporarily!

Apart from those two stops, it was straight to Hali, check-in (got a bigger, better room this year, with a view of the mountains too!), and then on to Jökulsárlón to see if there was any chance of capturing the icebergs on the beach.

There were icebergs on both sides of the river this year, but I stopped before the bridge and re-dressed in all my waterproof gear. Apart from the gloves, it turned out to be sufficient to protect me from the rain and spray. The next car problem then happened - the remote control for the car stopped working, so I had to lock the car with the manual key, and hope that the remote worked to start the car when I returned (fortunately it did, but has been temperamental ever since).

Unfortunately the wind was coming in from the sea, bringing with it endless spray and the now heavy rain. The hood for my lens managed to protect the lens from the water for about 2 seconds. I tried to clean it with a microfibre cloth, but it just smeared the salty water around the filter. I managed a few long exposure shots before the water got the better of the filter, before trying a few with the lens naked. Within a few shots there was water on the front of the lens, so I finally gave up.

Here is the view from my room; this was taken at "sunset". The weather forecast for tomorrow is much better - sunny from 9ish, so hopefully I'll have a bit more luck and get some lovely iceberg shots that I'm so obsessed with taking! The sun should be back too.

Click here for blog from Day 2b
Click here for Day 4a blog 

Iceland 2014 - Day 2b: The Mammoth Drive from Egilsstaðir to Höfn

Having got to sleep at 3am after my northern light experience I decided to give the sunrise a miss, although it would have been nice with the morning glow upon the sunny trees... Ho hum, I had a 260km drive ahead of me on snowy roads, so I didn't want to take any chances with tiredness. As it was, I woke up at 8am but didn't get on the road until 10.15, having enjoyed my Icelandic breakfast of Skyr yoghurt and granola. I decided against returning to Litlanesfoss - it would take up too much time, would still be too snowy, and I couldn't really face an uphill climb again as I already had a sore back from lugging the tripod and camera gear up the previous day.

I had a brief look at the interesting church - they are more about the architecture and sculpture than being functional, my host told me - many of them suffering from leaks, etc. I headed off from Egilsstaðir, stopping for petrol before I embarked on my long journey around the east fjords (having learned from experience on my last trips that one should always fill up whenever possible). This is when disaster struck - I couldn't open the petrol cap! It brought back memories of a similar experience a year earlier in Vík when I came to fill up but also couldn't figure out how to open the cap (I'd ended up asking a man in the gas station's café to help me, and he came out in the driving hail only to tell me to stick the key into it; rather embarrassing). This time it wasn't just me being stupid; the thing was firmly stuck. There was a lever under the driver's seat, but it just wouldn't release the cap.  I thought that perhaps it was because the car was cold, so I drove on, hoping that the problem would magically rectify itself by the time I reached Fjarðabyggð at the entrance to the first of the many fjords I'd reach - Reyðarfjörður. I could have turned back and returned to the Hertz desk at the airport a couple of km away (and maybe then I could've got a car which took my iPod rather than being subjected to Katy Perry and Adele over-and-over on the disappointing Icelandic radio), but I decided to head on since I was already fairly late. I thought I'd have enough petrol to get me to Höfn anyway - just.

My mood now soured considerably, I drove uphill out of the town and was soon greeted with stunning snowy scenery. Wind blew the snow across the road like the previous day, and a huge halo surrounded the sun as it struggled to shine from behind hazy cloud.

I arrived at the town of Fjarðabyggð (your guess at how you pronounce that is as good as mine) and headed straight to find a petrol station, but sadly the problem persisted; still stuck, in spite of a nice warm car. There was no-one around to help. I consoled myself with the beautiful view and continued on my journey, but felt utterly pissed off. I tried to tell myself to relax and enjoy the views, but it was difficult worrying about my upcoming fate (potentially running out of petrol, etc..).

I drove through a 6km tunnel; it was nice after the endlessly snowy and icy roads to drive on clear tarmac. The tunnel was wide and easy driving, not scary like the one I'd driven in a few years ago near Borganes which was full of heavy trucks and left me feeling very nervous! I came out onto another picturesque fjord - Fáskrúðsfjörður, where I stopped for a few more photos, surrounded by sunny, snowy peaks.

Eventually I reached the end of that long fjord and hit the first ocean coastline; the scenery as I turned around to the south-west was stunning, with jagged ridges ahead of me covered in snow. I kept pulling over to the side to snap away at the latest array of Icelandic grandeur; as usual the journey was a little slower than it could have been.

As I headed into another, shallower fjord, I met my first horses of the day and pulled over to say hello. One of them was lying on its side; I hoped it was just sleeping. It was, and it moved a little just as another went over to greet it. It was clearly unwell, though, its coat all greasy and messed up and it kept rolling on its back. The other horse came over to meet me, hoping that my lens was edible. Another soon joined me. I stroked their soft noses, feeling their warm breath and wished I'd had some carrots or sugar-lumps. Instead I just tried to take some photographs of them before they tried to munch on the lens.

Eventually I dragged myself away from these beautiful creatures, hoping that the sick one would be okay - perhaps the farmer would be along soon... Another bend in the road brought more spectacular views, with steep black cliffs above me with ledges dusted in snow.

I turned in to a very long fjord, Berufjörður, knowing that the little town of Djúpivogur was at the far end of it on the other side and that this would be my last stop and last chance for petrol before the final 100km to Höfn. The range of petrol showing was extremely worrying - it seemed to move down about 20km for every 15km I drove, which meant I might not make it to Höfn after all, in spite of showing a possible 50-70km of petrol to spare. At the far end of the fjord was the only stretch of gravel road, with a few potholes, but my Vitara handled it well. On the far side was a wide vista of snowy mountains reflected in the fjord below. There was also some strange mounds covered in ice, which looked a bit like eggs hatching. I headed down onto a beach to have a closer look - the mounds were made up of seaweed. Other interesting ice formations clung to the seaweed and sand.

As I'd been researching the trip, I'd seen a triangular mountain and a ruined boat towards the end of the fjord, just before the town. I looked out for it and finally the boat was visible, so I turned off the road. Clouds had become thicker and the light was flat, but I headed to the beach towards the boat anyway and had a little play with some long exposures on the water and with the Zeiss lens of the boat.

Next stop was the town of Djúpivogur and straight to the N1 petrol station. Again the damn thing wouldn't open. I saw a couple of people nearby and shouted over to see if they could help me. I tugged on the lever and a helpful young Icelandic man finally managed to pull the thing open! I could fill up! I was extremely relieved, thanked him, filled up and was finally able to relax, although it was getting late and I was going to miss the alotted check-in time at my guest-house if I didn't get a move on. Around the next headland my weather luck ran out and I drove into the promised rain.

I was keen to get to Höfn quickly now, hoping that I might get a glimpse of sunset after I checked in. I drove along the next fjord without stopping and eventually reached the headland at Hvalnes, where I'd hoped to see the late afternoon sun fall on the rocks above me (so much for my planning; the weather always wins!). Just at the headland I spotted some reindeer at the side of the road, so stopped to see if they'd stay still for some photos. No such luck, they just scarpered as soon as they saw me.

As I turned at the top of the headland I'd planned to take a left turn where there's a long beach, reaching towards Vesturhorn, which also had good views of the mountain above me. In spite of the worsening weather I was lucky that an etheral fog hung around the peaks. I wandered up to the beach too, which had sweeping views towards Vesturhorn along a black sandy beach.

I continued on, passing a huge collection of swans, swirling around in the inlet, making an absolute racket as they did so.

Finally it was through a small tunnel, before which I saw some beautiful reflections of the mountains facing me.

I raced on to make check-in at the Hafnarnes guesthouse, just outside Höfn, before 6pm, then drove straight back to catch any last light at Stokksnes, underneath the magnificent Vesturhorn. The rain and snow held off, so I was able to catch a few shots before the weather finally turned and the light disappeared.

Dragging myself away I drove back into town, just as it began to snow heavily. I pulled into the first place I could find to eat once I got to Höfn (pronounced "hup!"). It turned out it was the place I'd seen recommended, Kaffi Hornið, the one place in town to eat lobster. I had a delicious burger instead and downed a litre of water, before heading back to the guesthouse, where I chatted to some young Asian guys (one from Taiwan, one Japanese and one South Korean). I spent some time sorting out a few photos and finally went to bed at 11, after a long, stressful, exhausting day. But hey, the scenery was pretty nice along the way!

Click here for Day 2a blog
Click here for Day 3 blog 

Iceland 2014 - Day 2a: Northern Lights!

After obsessively following both the hour-by-hour weather forecasts and aurora borealis forecasts I finally headed out last night at 12.15am, some clouds still lingering irritatingly in the sky. I drove across the bridge to Fellabaer, back to the spot that I'd watched the snow blow across the road earlier in the day. The foreground didn't actually hold a great deal of interest, but I thought I'd give it a go anyway. The forecast for the lights was pretty poor, but the sky was at least supposed to clear, so I could try some star trail shots.

As I stood out in the cold and took a few test shots on the Zeiss lens I realised that there were indeed some lights in the sky, it's just that they're pretty invisible to the naked eye sometimes. Whack a camera on them for 15 seconds and the sky is streaked with green though! Eventually the clouds cleared even more and for a few moments I could actually see the lights without a long exposure. It wasn't exactly spectacular; the lights weren't dancing across the sky. Here's what I got:

Eventually I headed a little further west, hoping to warm up my toes in the car. I didn't want to stop on the road, so had to find a turn-out that had reasonably interesting foreground. Nothing much inspiring happened along in the dark, so I stopped when I got the chance near a small hill (and a very bright house). The lights of Egilsstaðir in the distance were annoyingly bright for such a tiny town at 2am.

When my toes could take no more I drove back home, and actually worried that I might have frostbite, as my feet were numb and sore. When I got home it took about half an hour for the pain to stop and for the feeling and colour to return. It had been about -8°C, so not surprising that my feet got a little chilly!

After reviewing the night's work, I finally turned the light off at 3am, deciding that the morning's sunset would have to go unnoticed, as I had a 260km drive to Höfn to do the next day. My plans to revisit Litlanesfoss were also out, as the weather-forecast was deteriorating during the day and I wanted to get to the beautiful mountains of Höfn while there was still a chance of some good light; rain was forecast all day there though :(

Click here for Day 1 blog on Egilsstadir 
Click here for Day 2b - drive to Höfn

Iceland 2014 - Day 1: Egilsstaðir & Surrounds

My trip to Iceland didn't exactly start as planned. The journey was gruelling, to say the least. To cut a long story short, the plane was delayed due to technical problems, I got totally pissed with a bunch of Icelandic strangers in the Star Alliance lounge, shouted a lot at the incompetency of Heathrow Airport/Icelandair at their inability to get us to a hotel once the flight was eventually cancelled, slept briefly in the nearby Premier Inn, had some sour fruit for breakfast, rebooked my onward internal flight, pushed back my car hire, finally flew to Iceland, throwing up along the way as a result of the most horrendously badly-timed and severe hangover, got a bus into a bitterly cold Reykjavik, and finally took a bumpy little plane on to Egilsstaðir (upon which I was sick again). [postscript from 2017 - just got £350 compensation from Icelandair for the delay, which kind of made it all worthwhile!!] An early night and late morning later and I was finally able to start my Iceland 2014 adventure!

I've never been to Egilsstaðir before; the furthest I've travelled on previous trips is Jökulsárlón, but this time I thought I'd venture a little further afield, to a region that is almost off the tourist track. The appalling journey aside, so far it has been worth it. When I arrived last night it was snowing fairly heavily, as it was this morning. The weather forecast was pretty lousy until about 5pm when a patch of sun was expected. I headed out in the snow at about 10.30 to the local Bonus supermarket to stock up on supplies for the week (breakfast and lunch self-catered), returned to my lovely b&b (Gistihus Olgu), before wrapping up warm and heading out again along the snow-covered roads along the lake, Lagarfljot, and hopefully a trip up to Litlanesfoss. 

The area is rather famous in Iceland in that it has forest - lots and lots of trees, which most of the rest of the country lacks. I drove to the end of the lake, with patches of blue sky visible on the far side of the lake. Towards the end, there's a bridge that took me to the parking area for visits to the magnificent Hengifoss and smaller Litlanesfoss waterfalls, which I planned to hike up to. Given the snow I didn't expect to get further than Litlanesfoss, but it would be a good recce for going up tomorrow, when the weather-forecast is for clear skies.

After a rather strenuous half-hour hike uphill I reached the viewpoint of Litlanesfoss, greeted by a small snow-shower, accompanied by strong cold winds. I grabbed a few shots before heading back down again, my feet freezing as usual. The basalt columns surrounding the falls were spectacular, but the falls themselves were covered in snow, and would probably look better in summer!

On the way down I passed rocks and grasses covered in snow and ice and a patch of blue sky graced my presence briefly.

I drove back on the far side of the lake, as the weather seemed slightly clearer. It was a good choice, as the sun came out and there were some beautiful horses at the side of the road who came to say hello when I pulled up with my camera.

I drove on and found a well-timed parking spot with a fantastic sweeping view over the surrounding hills, with the sun now shining over me. The wind blew snow across the road behind me.

Eventually the cold pulled me away - my toes frozen and my fingers numb from the biting wind through my thin gloves (I'd left the thick ones at the b&b). I drove back home and recharged my batteries, skyped my husband and rehydrated before heading out for sunset. I'd left it a bit late and the sun was already low in the sky and was about to dip behind the hill on the opposite side of the lake. I found a small road with some horses nearby and turned in to enjoy the last of the sun. The horses were getting a bit playful and frisky in the distance. I wish I'd had a 300mm lens, as they were a little too far away.

I finally got the rented Zeiss out although the 21mm was a little wide for the view. I found a pretty stream that reflected the setting sun and the colourful clouds. As promised, the Zeiss produced great sunbursts as it set behind the clouds.

I drove back to town and caught the last of the light at the edge of the lake on the other side for a couple of long exposure shots at the village of Fellbaer, before heading to Salt Bistro for a delicious pizza!

And now I'm back at the b&b, waiting for the skies to clear and the promised northern lights to appear! I've found a website that tells me the aurora prediction over the next hour; it's currently at Kp 2, which may be enough to see in the north if the skies were clear, but they're not due to clear for another hour or two. Hopefully the aurora prediction will be up to Kp 3 by then and then I'll be out of here! For more info on how to capture the northern lights, please have a look at this other blog.

Here's the blog for Day 2a.