At this pace Tegan and I were going to be walking zombies by tour end. After breaking into our overnight sleep by regularly checking for the lights (no success) we on the road by 5.30 to drive to the famed "Diamond Beach" on the Jokularslon Glacial Lagoon in time for sunrise leaving Billy and Monika to have some semblance of a normal lie in !
Jokularslon is a glacial lagoon with huge chunks of ice breaking up in the lagoons blue waters before floating out to the Atlantic Ocean and leaving chunks of ice on the beautiful black sand beach.
We were up against it right from the start. The skies were overcast, the wind chilling to say the least and the ice shapes uninspiring with the best blue chunks lolling about in choppy waters just off shore.
Depite our best endeavours and the obvious breathtaking setting of Jokukarsarlon, we struggled to get that oft posted perfect blue coloured ice shot of broken of glacial ice washed up on the perfectly contrasting black sands.
One of the main challenges was setting up the camera tripod close enough to take the features of the ice but not so close that you were likely to be swept away by the next large wave. On a number of occassions mid shot i had to quickly retreat leaving tripod and camera still in place on a longer exposure while waters lapped the tripod legs.
With enough shots taken we tore back to our accommodation to join Billy and Monika for breakfast before again returning to the lagoon proper this time with the sun finally appearing to provide a beautiful aura over the lagoon. This has to be one of the wonders of the world with calved glacial ice providing for a surreal jigsaw puzzle across the picturesque blue water against a backdrop of snow covered peaks.
While I flew my drone over the lagoon Billy tried to get a pack of ice sleeping seals to perform only succeeding in scaring them back into the water. My drone expedition ended successfully despite the drone reappearing from the opposite direction from which i was looking while Billy continued his circus stunts by jumping across packs of ice in shallow water with Monika at the ready with camera and life vest should he fall in !
With our senses fully overloaded we flew across open roads through the amazing Laki volcano fields (the remnants of one of history's largest eruptions back in the 1700's) to Vik to make time enough to allow Billy and Tegan to venture off on their death defying zip line excursion over nearby canyons.
Monika and I were far more sensible walking nearby Reynisfjara beach famed for its incredible geological structures while at the same time being notorious for its rogue waves which have swept a number of tourists to their deaths over the years.
A quick head count back at the car though showed that we'd all made it back safely with Billy and Tegan still abuz from the thrill of their open air experience.
With respective adventures completed we moved on from picturesque Vik picking up the Reyjkavik tourist traffic as we worked our way past the Skogafoss and Seljalandsfoss waterfalls to our beautifully isolated cabin accommodation at Bru with 360 views of nothing, a good panorama to check for the Northern Lights !
After little sleep and big hours on the road we fell asleep early ... well at least until my midnight sentry duty which revealed faint white lights. A check with the cameras long exposure confirmed them once again to be the northern lights ! Whike not as spectacular as our night in Hofsos it was still unique enough to get the gang out of bed, Billy lasting for 2 minutes in the cold, Monika for 15 and Tegan for 30 before I carried the flag in the hope that they might turn into something more spectacular.
It was not to be, but i was certainly not disappointed at being privileged to get another chance to see this wonderous spectacle !
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