Wanting to see Aurora Borealis would be in the wish list of many travelers, but the certainty of seeing one seems to be a challenge. Several factors like solar activity, clarity of skies and outside temperature (that can be bearable) all seem to play equal roles to make the sight an enjoyable one. Initially, we explored the possibility to try either in Finland or Norway, but the logistics of travel from NY to these regions made it very challenging. On the other hand, Iceland is like <5hr flight and can be done with a really cheap airfare (Luckily, WOW air was still in business when we traveled!).
Iceland is probably known for its relatively warmer temperatures than upstate NY. Late February is when we went and it was certainly warmer than Albany, NY area. The entire trip is for 3-4 days and it started with a cloudy day. We booked a 2-day trip via Troll Expeditions to do the South Coast again, but this tour included a trip to Ice Caves, which we were not able to do during our
summer trip as this is only possible during winter. Right from the arrival at Keflavik airport in the early morning, we took a bus to Reykjavik bus terminal from where Troll people picked us up for our 2-day tour.
The cloudy day became a rainy day, partially and it made things not so pleasant, but it was still a great sight! Luckily by the time we arrived for the glacier hike at Skaftafell in Vatnajokull Park, the rain had stopped and it was certainly helpful. We geared up with helmet, crampons and were provided with ice pick, for just in case necessity. It was quite a hike with some narrow pathways that were slippery due to the rainy weather. It was amazing to walk between two huge ‘mountains’ of glacier on either side within a narrow path. The blue color in the depths of the ice provided a treat for the eyes and the cloudy day, in fact, enhanced the visual treat.
After some hike on the glacier, we arrived at an ‘Ice Cave’. This was pretty much a small cave like structure formed in some areas of the glacier by the combination of wind, melting water and Moulin. The rugged structure of the ice and subsequent irregular patterns of melting leaves wonderful patterns on the inside walls of the caves. It seems like scoops of blue ice with different sizes scooped off walls. Apparently, these caves continue to transform every day and the guides have to determine which ones are safe to passage through. The ground rocks embedded as sand particles randomly in those scooped off walls gives a feeling that one is inside a layer of bubbles, some of which have been popped off.
After this, we arrived at our hotel and grabbed some dinner. The rain has started again and any possibility to see northern lights became a distant dream. The next day morning, we started our journey back to Reykjavik and on the way we stopped at the Jokulsarlon, a glacier lagoon. This is place where the glaciers on land is so close to the ocean that the broken off pieces of ice floated off to the nearby ocean and this slow journey to ocean is very calm to watch with the backdrop of the mountains covered with ice and snow. The ice bergs of all different sizes were traveling to the ocean and some of the ice bergs get washed off on the beach, which is called the ‘Diamond’ beach.
By the time we reached the next stop, Svinafellsjokull, the rain had subsided again. This was an unexpected stop and quite a bit exciting. This was a short hike from the road to a glacier view and on the way were the icebergs floating in the lagoon in the foreground.
It was a beautiful glacier and the hike along it made it a pleasant unexpected stop.
Next day, we roamed around the town a bit and took a bus from the Harpa museum to Perlan. Perlan is some kind of activity center with an IMAX type theater where they were featuring Northern Lights. It was a nice clear day, but we still weren’t sure how our Northern Lights experience that night would be and so we decided to see this IMAX movie. It was quite a good feature.
We came back and rested a bit in the hotel before our private jeep tour arrived for the Aurora experience. It was about an hour drive away from the city in Reykjanes peninsula when the driver pulled off the road into a dirt road which kind of ended close to an abandoned house building. We seemed to have arrived at the right time to see the dancing lights of Aurora. There was quite a bit of activity in the sky for some time. This was enough time for the guides to click a bunch of pictures of it with and without the tourists! It was a cold night and felt colder due to the fact that we had to stand outside in the wind for the entire time, but the hot chocolate that they provided was so soothing! We continued our picture session with the lights dancing quite a bit and it was rising from the horizon to almost the top of our heads sometimes. The cameras seemed to capture the brilliance of these lights much better than the naked eyes! The long exposure setting in the camera is absolutely needed!
Before wrapping up for the evening, the guides provided a
haunted house tour of the abandoned building with action that provided for a
humorous end to the evening!
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