[The following post is from the archives of my In Search Of Incredible blog, originally published on 23 June 2014]

 

23 January 2014, Thursday

Ahhh, the best day of the trip, for so many reasons. But first, let’s take it from the top. We started the day at 7:30am, waking up to a nice breakfast at Vík Hostel. There was toast, ham, cheese, waffles, smoked trout, eggs, cheese and margarine spreads and different types of jam. And of course, free-flow milk, coffee and tea. The staff were super friendly as well so it was all very nice.

After having our fill, we checked out and loaded our luggage into our trusty Suzuki 4WD and headed out at 9:40am. It was still dark at the time. The day before, I spotted a nice-looking church perched atop a hill and I wanted to check it out, so we drove over to have a look at the church.

The church was not very big, and its design was very simple and minimalist. Yet, the lighting against its pristine white walls made it look very beautiful and grand. It beauty was accentuated by its lofty position on the hilltop, set against the ocean on one side, and against the mountain range on the other side. From the church, we had a great view of the entire Vík town.

Just as we were about to leave, we felt droplets strike our faces. We thought it was raining initially, but upon closer inspection, we realised it was actually snowing! It wasn’t snow-snow, more like rain-snow, so we quickly ran to our vehicle to seek shelter. Still, it was a thrill to experience some snowfall.

Our destination for the day was Höfn, and along the way, we would be stopping by a couple of places. I was the driver for the day. Despite the early snow/rain, the morning turned out to be bright and sunny as we drove eastwards, which was a great surprise. We haven’t had proper sun since we arrived in Iceland.

After driving for about an hour, we passed by an area with strange, green, mossy mounds. I was quite intrigued by it so we decided to stop and have a short break. We found a signboard that told us we were near Fjaðrárgljúfur, a gorge that is up to 100m deep and 2km long. It was a short distance away and we would have to walk there. However, it was an unplanned stop so we didn’t venture to see Fjaðrárgljúfur.

The green mounds were fascinating though. They covered the entire landscape and it looked like another planet. However, we didn’t linger for long because we had still quite a way to go, so we set off again at 11am.

An hour later, we took another breather at a small village called Kirkjubæjarklaustur, or Klauster, for short. There was an interesting attraction near there called Kirkjugólf, aka The Church Floor.

Kirkjugólf is a protected natural monument located in a field near the town, and it is pretty inconspicuous. It is basically a natural pavement of basalt columns. It was formed by lava cooling and contraction pressure, and only the top of the basalt columns can be seen, thus giving the appearance of a church floor, and hence its name. It isn’t very big at all, and most people will simply dismiss it as being nothing special. But as a geography student in school, such natural features interest and captivate me, and I admire how nature can create such works of art.

After half an hour, we departed yet again. Coincidentally, the next destination was also basalt columns, but this time, they were much larger in scale than the ones at Kirkjugólf. The place was called Dverghamrar, which means “Dwarf Cliffs”.

After parking our car, we followed a footpath that led us to Dverghamrar about 5 minutes later. The hexagonal columns of basalt here were much taller, reaching about 20m in height. Legend has it that a young farm girl passed by the cliffs one night in 1904 and heard beautiful singing emanating from the cliffs, and so it was believed that it was the dwarves in the cliffs who had sung. Hence, the name Dwarf Cliffs was born.

After about 20 minutes here, we huddled back into the car and continued our journey east. We had been driving for some distance now, and it was an absolutely beautiful day with clear skies and gorgeous sunshine. The scenery along the way was breathtaking, with mountain after mountain, with nary a car in sight. The weather and road conditions were great and I was zooming at about 120km/hr. Such was bliss.

About 45 minutes later, we took another unplanned stop, because the scenery was just too beautiful and we felt that we needed to stop to take it in. A signboard told us that we were in Skeiðarársandur, an almost desert plain that is mainly made of volcanic sands.

In 1996, this region was badly damaged by an avalanche caused by a volcanic explosion that occurred beneath the Vatnajökulll glacier. The resulting flood swept away everything in its path and destroyed the Ring Road.

Here, at this rest point, we had a splendid view of Hvannadalshnúkur, which is Iceland’s highest summit at 2,110m. The peak is part of Vatnajökull National Park and it is possible to climb to the top, with the aid of experienced guides.

The marvellous view aside, the most striking thing about this place was how still it was. It was so quiet you could almost hear your own heart beating. It really struck me at that moment how vast our earth is and how wonderful it is to be isolated sometimes, with no unnecessary noise or distractions. Just you and nature at one.

We left Skeiðarársandur at about 1:40pm, and continued our journey to the last attraction for the day – Jökulsárlón, arriving at about 2:30pm. Jökulsárlón is one of Iceland’s best known and most popular natural wonders, and rightly so. It is a must-visit stop for anyone visiting Iceland.

Jökulsárlón is a glacial lagoon located at the head of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier and it developed into a lake after the glacier started receding from the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. The lake is now 1.5km away from the ocean’s edge and covers an area about 18 square kilometres. At 248m, it is Iceland’s deepest lake.

The Jökulsárlón lagoon is filled with icebergs of various sizes that break from the edge of the glacier and flow towards the Atlantic Ocean. They may look still but they are actually inching towards the ocean mouth. There are boat tours that can get you on the lagoon and closer to the glacier, but thankfully, on this winter day, there were no boats to spoil our view.

I don’t know how many times I’ve used the word “breathtaking” in my Iceland posts so far, but Jökulsárlón really just takes the cake. The sight truly IS breathtaking. It was so beautiful it seemed unreal. We were really lucky because the weather that day was perfect and it made the whole experience magical.

I couldn’t stop taking pictures because after I shot a picture, I moved to another spot and it seemed even better, and I would shoot again. It was like the lyrics in “A Whole New World” coming to life – “Unbelievable sights, indescribable feelings”… “A whole new world, every turn a surprise, with new horizons to pursue”. Everywhere you turned was a postcard image.

Jökulsárlón was SY’s favourite experience in Iceland, and I think I have to agree with him. Words really can’t describe the magic of the place, so I shall let pictures do the talking…

We spent a good one hour at Jökulsárlón, before finally leaving rather reluctantly at 3:45pm because the sun was setting soon. We felt damn awesome as we drove towards Höfn, our rest stop for the night.

We arrived Höfn at 4:55pm and located our accommodation, Höfn Hostel, which is part of the Hostelling International network. Compared to Vík Hostel, Höfn Hostel is much bigger and it can cater to a larger number of tourists in summer time. As such, it is not as cosy as Vík Hostel.

Höfn Hostel
Address: Hvannabraut 3, 740 Höfn
Tel: +354 478 1736
Website: http://www.hostel.is/Hostels/Hofn
Rate: About S$60 per person per bed, including breakfast

After unloading our luggage, we headed out to find food because we were really starving by then, having not had a proper lunch that day. As usual, there was only one decent restaurant that was open and so we had our dinner at Kaffi Hornid restaurant café bar.

After having Víking Beer the day before, I tried another local beer, this time, it was Vatnajökull Beer. I also decided to try the reindeer burger, just to break the monotony of beef, chicken and fish. Reindeer meat tastes just like any other meat, and it was unremarkable at best, but not discounting its tastiness.

That night, we were thinking it was best chance of seeing the aurora because of the clear skies we had earlier in the day. We kept ourselves busy by posting our pictures on Facebook and Instagram, occasionally glancing out of the window to see if there was any sign of the aurora.

At about 1am, while YS and I were in the common area, YS overheard one of our fellow guests saying that there was a faint trace of the aurora in the sky, and they were going to check it out. We told IJ and SY about it and decided to give it a shot, since we had already gone so far and we didn’t have many nights left in Iceland. Höfn might be our best hope.

So we grabbed our gear and warm clothing and drove out in search of the aurora. The first place we went was the pier, which was beside the water’s edge. We assumed that we would have an unobstructed view of the aurora there. However, it was still too bright there, with too much light pollution. So I suggested going to the outskirts of town, by backtracking the road that we came from as we approached Höfn earlier.

We found a rather secluded spot near a house and parked our car. We scanned the skies for signs of the aurora and we spotted a trace of it. Needless to say, we were super excited. I quickly took out my tripod and mounted my DSLR camera on it.

Earlier in the day at Vík, I came across a magazine article providing tips on how to photograph the aurora. I snapped a picture of it and that turned out to be a lifesaver.

It read: “After manually setting focus to infinity your camera settings should be as follows: ISO 200, f.2.8 and expose for 30 seconds.” I did as instructed, except I did not manually set focus to infinity because I didn’t know how to do it at the time.

As I did not set focus to infinity, I needed to focus on an object before I could press the shutter. But it was almost pitch dark there so it proved to be a real challenge to try to focus the camera on something. Thankfully, there was a small light in the distance and I just about managed to focus my camera on an object and was able to press the shutter.

The first few shots were quite off and it took a few tries to get the angle right. When I finally managed to capture the aurora on my camera, all four of us were ecstatic. It was quite comical actually. For so long, the aurora had eluded us, and finally there was proof that it exists and it isn’t some camera trick to lure tourists to Iceland!

Well, truth be told, there is some degree of camera trickery involved. The actual aurora as seen by the naked eye isn’t as robust or spectacular as the one captured in the photograph. It appears as such because of the long exposure (30 seconds), enabling the camera to capture the swirling gases dancing in the sky.

However, we comforted ourselves by saying that what we had seen wasn’t the full strength of the aurora display. On a scale of 0 to 10, it was maybe a 2. I am sure the full blast will be much more impressive.

We hung around in the freezing cold, hoping that the lights would strengthen, but it just floated in the air like some formless vapour, refusing to dance for us. By the time we decided to pack our bags and leave, it was around 2:30am. Nevertheless, it was a dream fulfilled to see the aurora borealis in action, as faint as it may have been, and we couldn’t stop talking about it as we went back to the hostel.

These pictures are proof that we had seen the aurora borealis, and I’m proud of them! Undoubtedly, the best day of the trip.