Reset search
Iceland - Fire and Ice
  • Libelle
  • Libelle

Iceland - Fire and Ice

March 2019 Read more
FollowInsightsInsightsCalendarCalendarPhotosPhotosShareShareBucket list
InsightsCalendarPhotos
  • Trip start
    March 7, 2019
  • LibelleIceland - Fire and IceLibelle

    Landed and on the road

    March 7, 2019 in Iceland ⋅ ⛅ 1 °C

    The first glimps of this interesting land mass from the air. I've never seen anything like it before. Snow capped mountains in the distance and rock luna landscape in the foreground. Black lava rock beaches outline the coast like permanent marker. There's no trees visible but a patchwork of moss, grass and lichen in shades of khaki green and brown.Read more

  • LibelleIceland - Fire and IceLibelle

    Our first evening

    March 7, 2019 in Iceland ⋅ ☀️ 1 °C

    We were greeted at our Airbnb with homemade bread in the oven, which was fabulous. After settling our things and having a quick munch we went for a wander down to the bay to watch the sunset.

    It was lovely, the open space, the sun setting over the ocean, the colours on the mountains, the gentle breeze. We were joined on the groin by two cats which appeared not to be particularly friendly to one another. As we continued our wander we found one of the nearby lakes was frozen over enough that two boys were messing about on the ice. When Sandra went to step onto it however there was a loud crack like a shot gun going off, that shocked us. Evidently there was a particular way, place and knowledge required , that we did not possess. The nearby swans were not perturbed and continued to bath in the last of the light.

    Eventually with the light fading and temperature dropping we decided it was time to head back, put on some more layers and go for a recky in Reykjavic for some dinner.    Read more

  • LibelleIceland - Fire and IceLibelle

    Our first amazing Icelandic meal!

    March 7, 2019 in Iceland ⋅ ⛅ 0 °C

    After making our way into town we found a fantastic little restaurant called Lækjarbrekka (Lyk-yar-pr-e-hk-a, I think). The sourdough bread was served with creamy skyr butter, tapenade and seaweed salt. I had a Rutabaga (Icelandic yellow swede) soup and lamb in Icelandic flatbread with buttermilk coleslaw, potato strings and bacon. Dessert I shared with Sandra, an Icelandic pancake with whipped cream and blueberry jam. It was the most delicious meal. And on our way out we saw our first puffin! It was a little bit stuffed though.

    Before heading back to our accommodation we stopped by Hallgrimskirkja (Hatl-grim-ski-rrk-ya) the largest church in Iceland built between 1945 and 1986. The architect had apparently wanted to represent the mountains, trapp rocks and glaciers of Iceland in the design.    Read more

  • LibelleIceland - Fire and IceLibelle

    Aurora hunting!!!

    March 7, 2019 in Iceland ⋅ 🌙 -1 °C

    With the skies being clear and we decided to go for a drive back down and arond the coast, away from the suburban lights and see if we could see the infamouse Northern Lights. There was a coule of women at our accomodation who had said they had seen them that evening near the lighthouse. There were plenty of other cars parked up with occupants also hoping to catch a glipms of this cosmic wonder.

    At first we saw very little and then there were what appeared to be whisps of cloud on the horizon. One of us took a picture and the wisps turned green on the camera screen. It was the aurora borealis! I had read that the aurora appeared differently to the naked eye than in pictures due to the longer exposure time in night photography. It was amazing to watch it ripple across the night sky. We all had a go at using the tripod and capturing the perfect shot. Which was quite difficult when batteling the freezing cold wind and car headlights being turned on. However both these frustrations were well worth it. Having seen this spectacular sight for ourselvesand capturing some awesome shots we were eager to get out of the cold and the wind and back to our warm room and cuppa.    Read more

  • LibelleIceland - Fire and IceLibelle

    On the road....

    March 8, 2019 in Iceland ⋅ ⛅ 0 °C

    We began our drive from Reykjavik in beautiful sunshine. Our accommodation tonight didn't have anywhere nearby to eat so our first stop was groceries for dinner before heading out of town on the Golden Circle toward Þingvellir (thing-vell-ir) National Park. It wasn't long before we had our first stop to explore the lichen and moss covered rocks and has some fun on a frozen pond with perspective.Read more

  • LibelleIceland - Fire and IceLibelle

    Þingvallavatnn and Almannagjá

    March 8, 2019 in England ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    Thing-vall-ava-tn is the largest naturally occurring lake in Iceland 83.7km2. That's almost 4.5 times the size of Rotto for the West Aussies and 1.3 times the size of Guernsey for those in the UK. The deepest point of the lake is 114m and among the fauna to call it home is char, a salmon like fish native to Iceland. Char is one of the meat staples in Icelandic diet.

    Al-man-najia is the name of the gorge formed between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates as they separate. Currently the rate of movement is about 2cm per year. Here it is possible to stand on two continents whilst in one country!

    Oh and for the GoT enthusiasts this was the entrance to the Eyrie.    Read more

  • LibelleIceland - Fire and IceLibelle

    Öxarárfoss

    March 8, 2019 in Iceland ⋅ 🌬 1 °C

    This was our first Icelandic waterfall. Öxarárfoss, at 13m high and 6m wide is relatively small. We were fortunate that there were not too many people around at the time and we were able to enjoy the waterfall by ourselves for the most part. I later found out that apparently during winter, the waterfall becomes entirely frozen over and crazy ice climbers have climbed UP the waterfall! That is not something I intend on doing!Read more

  • LibelleIceland - Fire and IceLibelle

    Geyser and Geysir

    March 8, 2019 in Iceland ⋅ ⛅ 0 °C

    So this was a language learning for me today. Geyser is the English noun for a hot spring in which water intermittently boils, sending a column of water and steam into the air. Geysir on the other hand is where it all began and is the name of the individual hot spring that was the first know to Europeans. The name is derived from the Icelandic verb geysa, which means to gush.

    Geysir is currently dormant with its' last active period in 2000, correlating with earthquake activity. There was however Strokkur (Stro-k-kur) a geyser which erupts about every 5-10 minutes to a height of 25-30 meters. As we stood waiting for the eruption we watched the pool of hot water swirl with convection curents before the water seemed to be simmering on the top with fine bubbles appearing and clouds of steam rising from the surface. The water seems to retract to the centre of the pool before the colour changes from blue grey to turquoise as a giant bubble of steam rises to the surface and erupts skyward.

    We wandered around the rest of the park, looking at the other hot spings with there amazingly crystal clear water. The photos don't do it justice because of the continual plumes of steam rising. The landscape was dotted with pockets of steam coming from the earth. It was NOT the place stray from the path! Having been to the thermal parks in New Zealand there were two things I noticed; firstly the smell of sulphur was no where near as strong as NZ and it didn't stain my clothes! Secondly there wasn't anything to say that the springs were acidic, which probably has something to do with the minerals in the soil.    Read more

  • LibelleIceland - Fire and IceLibelle

    Snowed in!

    March 11, 2019 in Iceland ⋅ ❄️ 0 °C

    So this morning we woke up to about a foot of freshly fallen snow! My first reaction was WOW! It's so pretty! This was quickly followed up with both Sandra and Anne bringing to my attention that we may not be going anywhere due to the snow and incoming severe weather. The difference in thinking between an Aussie with limited knowledge of snow and the Germans with a fair bit of knowledge about snow.

    Hmmm, what to do about this situation. Well firstly what are we able to do? Not much. The ice cave tour is cancelled and our accomodation in Vik for tonight is not at all understanding and won't refund even though we emailed at 7:30 am to let them know the situation. Oh and we're in a SELF CATERED cabin with planned provisions for one evening and one morning, pluss a few snacks! Siggy our Airbnb host does however provide us with good news of sorts. His guests for tonight are unable to make it so we can stay in that cabin. Otherwise we may have needed to move to another. So with this being the sum of it the Aussie "she'll be right" attitude comes out and "any one for a cuppa".

    Next was food rationing! As mentioned we hadn't planned an extra night in self catering so meals were .... thoughtfully limited.
    I had...
    Breaky: packet of fruit and spice oat cakes
    Lunch: 5 houmous crisps and 1 cheese crisp bread
    Dinner: 2 slices bread, one with houmous spread and the othe with salmon paste and prapika cream cheese spread.
    Dessert: 1 rice cake with blueberry jam
    Breaky day 2: porridge with blueberry yoghurt
    and throughout the day ... probably 8 coffees. Coffee does wonders for supressing appetite, haha :)

    So how do you entertain yourself in a little cabin in the middle of nowhere in Iceland for the best part of 30 hours? Well, we read our books, listened to Snow Patrol, shovelled snow, wrote postcards, updated diaries, had a snowball fight, created snow angels, built a snow man, took photos, pretended to be blown away, drank coffee and I took a looong shower, haha. We also had wifi, so all in all it wasn't so bad being in our cute and cosy cabin.    Read more

  • LibelleIceland - Fire and IceLibelle

    And we're on the move again!... Almost

    March 12, 2019 in Iceland ⋅ 🌬 2 °C

    Today we have woken up to a sky with beautiful blue patches! Yep we're excited about patches! There is sunshine with stunning golden rays landing on the hills and mountains around us! The wind is still blowing but not quite as ferocious as it was during the night. Our Airbnb host, Siggy, was out with his tractor in the morning, clearing a path for us back to the Ring Road. It's a 3.5 hour drive to our accommodation in good condition so we can expect that this will be quite the journey!Read more

  • LibelleIceland - Fire and IceLibelle

    The black beach and the sneaker waves

    March 12, 2019 in Iceland ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

    Just outside of Vik is Reynisfjara (Rey-niss-fyara), a black sand beach with sneaker waves that have apparently taken many unsuspecting tourists. It is odd to see such dark sand near the beach when I have grown up near some of the best white sandy beaches on the planet. The sand is slightly courser than the sand at home in Western Australia. I little bit back from where the waves crash the beach is made up of beautiful smooth pebbles no more than 3cm by 1.5cm.

    In the side of the rocky cliff face is a cave known as Hálsanefshellir. This one I've no idea how to pronounce and I tried looking it up for ages! I think it may be howl-soun-evs-hettl-ir, but this is based only on what I could make out from pronunciation guides! The roof of the cave was a perfect dome shape and the most interesting hexagon shaped tubes formed on the outside. Nearer the beach they were more hexagon stacks, similar to those in Northern Ireland at the Giants Causeway.

    Out from the coast is Reynisdrangar (ray-niss-drang-gar), basalt sea stacks how to nesting sea birds including puffins. Unfortunately for us we are a little to early to see them. Icelandic folk lore has two tales for how the stacks came to be, both involve trolls. The first is two trolls went out one night to play mischief by dragging ships from the ocean but didn't make it back before sunrise and were turned to stone. The other is the story of two trolls that murdered a woman. The woman's husband sought justice by tricking the two trolls out at night. The trolls couldn't make it bake before sunrise and were turned to stone. GoT enthusiasts may recognise the sea stacks from Season 7 Eastwatch by the Sea.

    Also visible from the beach and to the west is Dyrhólaey (dir-oh-lay) a sea arch which litteraly translates to door hole island. Makes sense really :) Given the long drive ahead and not wanting to jdrive in the dark we admired the view from the beach rather than walking along the beach toward it.

    - the cave    Read more

  • LibelleIceland - Fire and IceLibelle

    A morning of relaxation

    March 13, 2019 in Iceland ⋅ 🌧 1 °C

    It's Blue Lagoon day!! And ironically the first morning I've actually found stressful due to having to be somewhere at a particular time.

    The Lagoon is a geothermal spa with mineral rich water that is supposed to be good for your skin. The lagoon itself is actually a man made structure and the water ihs fed in as the water output from the nearby geothermal power plant. The power plant uses super heated water to run turbines that generate electricity and the water then runs through a heat exchanger for manuciple heating use before being fed into the lagoon. Due to the high mineral content the water is disposed of in the landscape rather than recycled. A full cyle takes approximately two days. The unusual milky blue colour of the water is due to the mineral content and the way it interacts with the sunlight.

    At the Lagoon we were given an electronic wrist band which operates the lockers and also allows for purchases at the swim up bar! Having changed into our bathers, taking the mandatory shower and lathering our hair with conditioner (apparently the minerals are not so great for hair) we are ready to get in.

    There are two entrance choices; 1 straight throighthe main entrance fromt he building, outside and down the ramp to the lagoon or 2 enter the pool from the side entrance which allows you to be in the water the whole time and not exposed to the elements. We went with this option :) afterall it was windy and snowing .... and we are in bathers!!

    The water was beautiful and warm. It is an interesting experince to have from shoulders down in warm calm water whilst neck and head are exposed to the wind and incoming snow. By the way snow hurts when the wind is hurling at your face, haha.

    It was a surprice to see how big the lagoon is, is seemed to go on forever. Which was nice as we were able to escape many of the people and just enjoy the experience with a smoothie and silica mud mask.

    This was a definite highlight and an experience well worth it, I left feeling very relaxed.    Read more

  • LibelleIceland - Fire and IceLibelle

    Home time

    March 14, 2019 in Iceland ⋅ ⛅ 3 °C

    On the tarmac waiting to fly back to the UK. Taking a moment to settle myself before the flight. Unbeknown to many, flying and airports now trigger a particularly anxious feelings, to the point that I can almost be in tears. Surprising hey? Today my hands were shaking so violently I was barely able to write my details on the tax return form!

    I once again have a row to myself and observing the last glimpses of this magical land goes someway to calming me. Iceland is somewhere I'd love to come back to. I have loved seeing it at the end of winter and I'd love to see it in the summer just to see how vastly different the seasons appear.    Read more

  • LibelleIceland - Fire and IceLibelle

    And that's all folks

    March 14, 2019 in England ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    What an incredible week to think about as I wait to disembark. The weather has been a mixed bag; landing in Iceland with the most glorious sunshine and then turning cloudy later in the week, the wind changing from a beautiful lively breeze to full on hurican strength gale, precipitation in the form of rain, sleet, hail and snow. The amazing visual evidence of tectonic forces; Almannagjá gorge where two plates are sepparating, geysirs expelling water heated below the earth, lava fields, glaciers. The amazing aray of moss and herbaceous flora which is able to inbabit. It really was an insight into the beginnging of time and how our amazing Earth and ecosytstems evolve. Just WOW!!!Read more

    Trip end
    March 14, 2019
  • 2026© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Help Center
  • Legal notice