ICELAND. PART III.

Day three in Iceland consisted of a full day super jeep tour. Our guide’s name was Wald and he was by far the most badass man I’ve ever met. He knew so much about his own country and it’s history and geological development that I felt put to shame as my own lack of knowledge of Canada. From Reykjavík we took highway 1 east towards Eyjafjallajökull volcano, the big one that erupted in 2010 and basically stopped all european traffic for days. There we turned inland in the direction of Þórsmörk and headed all the way up to Gígjökull, an outlet glacier that falls down from the Eyjafjallajökull Crater. It would literally be impossible to get in that far without a super jeep. The ground was covered in massive rocks and we crossed several streams far too deep and wide for any normal vehicle to pass. At the foot of the glacier we saw the impact of the 2010 eruption. There used to be a large lake that rested at the foot, but after immense flooding and then the intense heat, the water has disappeared.

On the drive back to the highway we stopped at Seljalandsfoss waterfall. We were so fortunate with the weather and it was beautiful and sunny all day. We ventured behind the waterfall and I snapped a picture of Matt under a section where the water had stopped falling and he moved just in time to avoid getting soaked by part of the falls. As much as I would have enjoyed seeing him get soaked, I was thankful he didn’t since we didn’t bring a change of clothes with us except our glacier hiking clothing which would have been too warm during the day while exploring the south and east part of the Iceland. Before our next stop we got a true taste of Icelandic cuisine. A hidden gem in the mountains we stopped at Country Hotel Anne and had traditional Icelandic lamb stew. It was by the far the best soup/stew we have ever had. Even better than my mom’s jamaican spicy chicken soup or Matt’s mom’s squash soup, and that’s saying A LOT. Next we headed down to the black sand beaches for a 4×4 drive which would also be impossible in a normal vehicle. One of the other traveller’s that was with us wasn’t paying much attention, with his back turned to the massive North Atlantic waves and one came crashing down on him and he got soaked to say the least. I think his pride was a little shattered as well. Continuing east we visited the impressive Skógarfoss (foss means waterfall in Icelandic) before coming to Sólheimajökull glacier where we went for a Blue Ice Glacier Walk. We learned so much about glaciers, how they are formed, how they move over the land and how the 2010 eruption affected it. We also learned that the aqua blue color that is commonly associated with glaciers and ice bergs is just an effect of the light hitting the air bubbles trapped within the light.

After our super jeep tour we grabbed a bit to eat in town then walked down to the southern peninsula in Reykjavik. I brought the tripod and camera and we sat on the rocks overlooking the bay and started to see the northern lights! Right there in the city! So of course we had to photograph them. It was intensely beautiful. The whole point (or original point) of our trip to Iceland was to see the northern lights and we got to see it twice! Second time was towards the end of our trip and will be blogged soon!

Check out the rest if you missed it:
ICELAND: Part I.
ICELAND: Part II.
Our Iceland trip was also featured over on SMP Living‘s blog.

Location: Eyjafjallajökull, Gígjökull glacier, Seljalandsfoss, black sand beaches, Skógarfoss, Sólheimajökull glacier, Reykjavik
Date: March 2013
Cameras: D700
Lenses: 50mm 1.4D, 85mm 1.8G & 24-70mm 2.8G