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Published: February 15th 2011
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Iceland
2/02/2011 to 6/02/2011.
The capital of Iceland, Reykjavik sits at about 64 degrees north of the equator, not far from the arctic circle. For a place so far north, the climate is fairly mild due to a warm ocean current that passes by the island. As a result, there is usually not that much snow over winter, in the capital city anyway. But wouldnt you know it, it was snowing when we arrived in Iceland and did so for the whole first night. We walked into town from our hotel and had a burger and a couple of beers. The local brew is called Viking which isnt too bad.
The next day, the ground was white with snow and the sun was out so we headed up to the Blue Lagoon for a swim in the thermal pools. The water was a boiling 38 degrees, some patches hotter than others that were actually unbearable, but not as unbearable as the -3 degrees outside the lagoon. It is a beautiful place to go and relax with the sun shining through the steam which is rising up from the bright blue water. The lagoon floor is covered in silica mud
which is squidgy and is supposed to be good for your skin, so everyone was getting it from the bottom and putting it on their faces. We looked like we were going to a corroborri (?). After lazing about for a bit we headed back to town and the weather took a turn for the worst, another snow storm!! The weather changes so quickly in iceland. That night there was a break in the clouds and we went on the North Lights tour which leaves at 9pm. You have to get out of the city lights to be able to see it properly. We found some clear patches of sky but there was not much to be seen. We saw a very faint aurora but it was nothing to claim at all. We were waiting and waiting around, then the wind picked up and a massive snow storm hit. We all piled back on the bus and it took us ages to get back to the city because the bus driver could only drive slow and he couldnt see much out the front.
The following day we were up early to head off on our full day excursion which
was visiting the Geysir's, Gulfoss waterfall, a National park and snowmobiling over one of the glaciers up in the mountains. We headed off into the country towards our first stop, the Geysir. This is THE Geysir which all other geysirs around the world are named after. Well, Geysir is actually dormant at the moment but Stokkur, another Geysir next to it, still blows every 6 minutes or so. It is an amazing site and the power behind it is crazy! We then headed off up towards the highlands on our way to the glacier for the snowmobiling tour. Our tour van could only go so far because of the snow conditions on the roads so we were driven the rest of the way in massive 4x4 trucks with rediculously big tires. We bashed our way up to the base camp in the mountains and got suited up for the trip. The skies were reasonably clear when we arrived but as soon as we started driving the snowmobiles, BOOM, stuck in another snow storm. It was complete white out and all we could see was the three snowmobiles in front of us. We had to follow the same path which i
dont know how we did because we couldnt see anything. If you lifted your viser, snow would hammer you in the eyes and with the viser down the condensation from your breath freezes on the inside and you cant see out of the viser. We managed to follow the leader somehow and make it to the top of the glacier. Once at the top we looked out over the glacier which were told was there but it was literally white nothingness all around us. We started our way back down and the white out cleared somewhat so we could actually see where we were going. Now that we could see we had a bit of burn on the snowmobile with Dini wacking me in the back telling me to slow down. Its a bit of a bumpy ride and supprisingly unstable but awesome fun. The rest of the day was basically a blizzard but we went and visited the Gulfoss waterfall which was pretty awesome and went to the national park. The national park is where the American and Euroasian techtonic plates are pulling apart and there is actually a rift valley seperating the two plates. We thought that was
pretty interesting!! You can actually scuba dive down one of the fissure cracks in the area... maybe next time. That night, the Northern Lights tour was cancelled due to the snow storm.
The next day we headed into town to do some urban exploring. Like groundhog day, another snow storm. We went and visited a museum where the vikings first settled in Reykjavik. It is actually built underground where they found ruins of an old house underneath a modern day house built on street level. We got the run down of how Iceland was settled and by the time we got out the sun was shining. That evening we wanted to try some authentic icelandic food, so we went to a little fish shack at the port and had lobster soup with mink whale and scallop skewers. Mink whale tastes supprisingly good!!! Its similar to beef, not chicken!! After the feed we went back to the hotel and jumped on the Northern Lights tour again. We pulled over at one spot and could see the aurora dimly through the clouds. That was not good enough and it was still cloudy so we moved on to another spot and waited
for the clouds to pass over and they did at about midnight, but there was no sign of the lights. Pretty much everyone lost interest and got back on the bus except for us and a couple of die hards. Then the lights came dimly at first and then it was on. The lights fluctuated between dull and bright and big lines of green stretched from one end of the sky to another. You could actually see them swaying around like waves. They actually move really quick through the sky so you have to be quick with the camera. It took us a while to get the settings right on the camera but we ended up getting some good photos before the battery ran out. An amazing end to an awesome trip to Iceland.
About four big buses go on the tour each night and we later found out on the plane back to england that the other 3 buses that we had begun the trip with, didnt get to see the lights because they veered off somewhere else half way through the trip.... It was lucky we werent on one of the other buses.
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