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| Northern Lights success! |
We spent a week in Iceland a few months ago, driving the
country’s ring road and catching many of the sights. We were warned many times to not plan a trip
solely to see the aurora, since it’s not guaranteed to show up any particular
day and seeing it requires clear
skies. Having absolutely loved our time
there, though, we were happy to play the odds.
We’ve never had a trip be so dependent on the weather and as the weekend
approached Iceland’s forecast turned pretty bleak: rain, total cloud cover, and 30 mph
wind. That said, we already had Bailey care sorted,
car parking booked, and our plane tickets purchased so it seemed silly not to
at least try our luck. We had an
uneventful trip to the airport and arrived in Iceland where the weather turned
out to be even more rainy and windy than predicted… there was no chance
whatsoever of seeing the lights that first night. Since the sun didn’t rise until 10:30, we
decided to have a lie in (as the Brits say) and eat a massive breakfast before exploring
the capital city of Reykjavik. We
wandered around the cute downtown for a few hours and despite the light drizzle
found it to be quite charming in a ski-town sort of way… many outdoor stores,
narrow hilly streets lined with cute shops, colorful small houses with sharply
angled roofs, etc. As the weather
turned a little nastier we took a break to watch a great documentary about two
of Iceland’s latest volcanic eruptions and enjoy a cup of coffee.
After the movie we headed towards our next lodging. I had booked farm house accommodation in the
middle of nowhere (the goal was to be away from city lights) for the following
two nights, so we drove northwest along the ring road for a few hours, watched
the sun set at 3:30, and checked in by 5:30.
Honestly, the darkness even that early in the evening was profound. If it hadn’t been chucking down rain and
hurling 30+ MPH gusts of wind we would have had an ideal spot for aurora
watching! But the weather was what it
was, and so we cooked dinner and played cards and had a good look at an online aurora
forecasting site. The website predicted 0% chance of seeing the
lights for about 95% of Iceland for the next 48 hours. The only tiny spot that had a chance of clear
skies the following evening was the southernmost tip of the country – about
four hours drive from where we were staying.
Worth a try? Well, we did come all
the way to Iceland for this sooooo…. yes.
We lucked out and booked the last room in our favorite B&B from the
previous Iceland trip - Grand Guesthouse Gardekot – which happened to be right
in the middle of the predicted clear spot.
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| Reykjavík |
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| Reykjavík |
The next morning was another lazy one with a huge breakfast
(we may not have had a proper Thanksgiving feast but we managed to consume an equivalent caloric excess!) The darkness and
rain ruined all chances of a hike, so we were in the car heading towards Vik before
sunrise.
An entertaining James Patterson book on CD made the trip
pass quickly and we made it to Vik with an hour of sunlight to spare. Maybe it was the joy of seeing relatively
clear skies, or stretching our legs after an atypically sedentary few days (not
helped by the large breakfasts and constant snacking on Pringles, bagels, and
candy…) but we really enjoyed Dyrolahey black sand beach and its cool caves and
basalt columns. The wind was amazingly strong and we entertained ourselves by
running with it (I was fast again!) and then against it (achieving the pace of
a fast walk even at max effort). We also spent some time watching the angry sea and exploring the area. It was
lots of fun except for the occasional stinging stone projectile.
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| Leaving our farmhouse accommodation in western Iceland... at 10:00 in the morning. Menacing skies, no? |
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| Sunrise on our drive to Vik. |
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| Basalt columns on Dyrholaey Beach near Vik. |
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| Very angry ocean and fierce winds. |
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| Cool geology in the cave. |
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| Fun times in 40 mph winds... until one of the little black rocks flung up and smacked me right as the picture was about to be snapped. |
After the beach we headed back to our place to warm up with
a shower, then joined a couple other guests for some tea and a chat. We heated some soup for an early dinner and were
ready to go searching for the Northern Lights as soon as darkness fell. We ended up in a little rest area with a
good view of the northern horizon, far enough off the main road to not be
bothered by passing traffic. Then we
waited. I’m not sure if it usually
happens this way, but we saw the first wisps of the lights fairly early in the
evening (around 7:00 pm) and they were just barely off the horizon. By 1:00 in the morning they were visible all
the way from the horizon to overhead. And yes, we stayed out there looking at them
for 7 hours!! I think some people get
lucky and see the lights without much work but for us it took a bit of
tenacity. The first few hours we saw
underwhelming, very faintly green (almost gray, really) streaks that looked
like clouds. Honestly, the 25 -econd
shutter speed we were using on the camera makes the green look more brilliant
than it did in person for most of the time we were out there. That said, the camera did absolutely no
justice to the two-minute stretch of crazy light show we saw right at the end
of the evening. Chris happened to be
outside of the car and started pounding on the roof. I jumped out and looked straight up and saw
at first some bright shades of green swirling slowly overhead that gradually
turned into a brilliant kaleidoscope show.
Yes, it was two minutes out of the seven hours we sat in the car (again,
thank goodness for James Patterson) but honestly it was so worth it! I hate to
say it, but I feel a little hooked on seeing more of a show. Maybe we’ll break the budget and go Lights
hunting again this winter?
Other than my trip home to see family in December, we
literally have no other trips planned (for now).
It seems like the sun is setting on our
string of crazy travel adventures. As I
get further and further along in this pregnancy (can’t believe I’m already 6
months along) we’re hesitant to venture too far from home and are looking towards
the future. There will certainly be more
adventures, but for the next while they’ll be much more focused on the birth
and rearing of a hopefully healthy and happy baby. Boy and girl name suggestions and advice are
always welcome, as are used baby clothes!
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| Staying warm while snapping photos of the lights required a little imagination :) |
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| The lights were just along the horizon in the earlier hours. That bright spot is Chris holding a flashlight on himself for the 25 second exposure. LOL. |
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| Clouds in front of the band of light. |
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| My favorite photo - maybe 10:00 pm? Northern Lights with the Big Dipper. |
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| Car drove by :) |
