Day 9 – Iceland Trip 2014

Well the final full day in Iceland has come and gone. It was a bit more relaxed than usual. I managed to get in a good nine hours sleep. Our 'day' of photography wasn't going to start until 4pm.

Most of us spent the day relaxing and having a good mooch around the shops of Reykjavik.

Once 4pm came, we boarded the 'Gusti' fun bus. We made our way over to one of the Southern beaches that we had visited on the first week.

First stop was what James Farley described as a "Fish Graveyard". The Fish are hung out to dry on racks and left for weeks on end until ready. Not entirely sure what for, but I wouldn't like to sample them.

"The fish graveyard"

"The fish graveyard"

Second stop was a quaint church. I haven't a clue where it was.

Quaint Church

Third stop was the beach. We photographed this last week. It may well have been on day 3. This was a small shack or roof of an old shack. I'd spotted it last time we were here, but that was when we were leaving for the day, so it was too late to shoot it.

Beach with black sand

We then moved on to our dinner destination. Where we recharged our bellies ready for the night ahead.

After dinner we made our way into Pingvillier national park, where we hoped for a good show of the Northern Lights.

It started off quite weak at first, but it soon developed into the standard green arc across the sky, with a bit of other colours thrown in for good measure.

Northern Lights across the Lake at þingvellir

Northern Lights across the Lake at þingvellir

Northern Lights across the Lake at þingvellir

Northern Lights across the Lake at þingvellir

Northern Lights across the Lake at þingvellir

Northern Lights across the night sky

Northern Lights across the Lake at þingvellir

Northern Lights across the Lake at þingvellir

To finish off the night we stopped by yet another church. However due to it's location it was heavily affected by light pollution. This is the best shot I got in the time we had.

Church with Northern Lights

.... and that was it. Our nine days in Iceland had come to an end. Its 4:17am in the morning and I have to stay up as I don't want a repeat of last year when I overslept and almost missed the transfer back to the airport.

It's been a great trip. Wouldn't have missed it for the world. Every single person who was involved in this trip have been so fantastic and I can't thank them all enough for the wonderful time they gave me. We've had a good few laughs and drunken experiences, but I think its safe to say, a good time was had by all.

Special thanks to Agust Karason for all the safe driving he did and getting to all the various places over the course of the nine days.

Special thanks also to Hrefna Osk Benediktsdottir & Ymir Bjorgvin Arthursson for being our ever faithful guides and gourmet providers.

Big massive special thanks to Richie Roberts & Kris Williams for doing all the leg work and Aurora predicting.

Also Big massive special thanks to Lee Iggulden and Eifion Williams for dreaming up Welshot and providing us with great adventures.

I promise to do day 3.5 soon !!

Day 8 – Iceland Trip 2014

Today was a bit more of a relaxed affair. We set off pretty early to capture a sunrise, as we had not really captured one so far on our trips. Our day was described as the blue lagoon trip, as that is where we would eventually end up later in the day. We made quite a few stops on the way.

First stop was the frozen lake Kleifarvatn. The shore of the lake was thick volcanic sand (black), however the shoreline was completely frozen. Some of the ice platforms had cracked and formed various shapes and structures, that the unfrozen water either flowed underneath or moved the platforms around.

Frozen lake, Kleifarvatn

A beautiful place to stop. I normally would stick around the group in these areas however for some reason I just had the urge to go off and do my own thing. Alan Santillo would have been proud of me today, very few HDR shots taken here, they just didn't work too well so I used my Lee filters.

We moved from the shore to a little bay around the corner where it was evident just how cold the water and temperatures must have been recently. The waves on the lake had actually frozen...

Frozen waves, Kleifarvatn

We took a minute or two to take a few shots of the frozen waves and then made our next stop at Seltun, a bubbling area of hot mud pools and steam vents etc. When the steam rose from these pools the taste of sulphur was pretty foul. I was unlucky enough to yawn just at the wrong moment.

Bubbling pools at Seltun

From Seltun, we made our way around to a small fishing harbour called Grindavik. We made a quick comfort break and then proceeded to drive along a coastal road following the harbour wall defences. Here we were shown the remains of various fishing vessels that had been damaged in storms. the force of the water had driven the boats right over on to the shore.

Boat remains at Grindavik

Boat remains at Grindavik

Boat remains at Grindavik

We wandered around the coastal path looking at the wreckages and trying not to stumble over on the large rocks around the them. The walk eventually took us to the lighthouse.

Lighthouse, Grindavik

Apologies for not getting a better image of the lighthouse, but some TWONK actually parked his car right in front of the building (the large rock hides it). Given he was also a photographer and saw all the Welshot crew taking shots didn't bother him. 

After the lighthouse we drove a little more down the coastal road / path to where the remains of old houses are located. At first we didn't think it would be a place of too much interest, but we were wrong we could have spent a good few hours.

Old houses, near Grindavik

Old houses, near Grindavik

Old houses, near Grindavik

Old houses, near Grindavik

The TWONK also followed us to this location. The cheeky git even followed us around to see what shots we were getting. So I just very calmly walked in front of his shot on more than one occasion, and I just may have had my fingers in the reverse 'V' sign in one of them!!

From here we left Grindavik and headed over to the Blue Lagoon. One of Iceland's most popular tourist spots and probably one of the most expensive. I didn't relish the thought of paying to swim / bathe in the expelled water of the nearby power station. A few others also didn't, so we headed for the bar and had a few pints of Gull to finish off the trip on a happy ending.

Blue Lagoon

Gaynor, Phil, Sue, Gill, Rob, Joan and Ted did do their bit for the group. They all looked very healthy and a good few years younger after smearing the clay over their faces.

Final day tomorrow, hopefully a good chance of the Aurora as well.

Day 7 – Iceland Trip 2014

Yet another early start, we had to be on the bus and off for 7:45 am. I wasn't bothered as we were going to be re-visiting some of the locations we had visited last year.

First stop was Geysir, we wanted to get there before the morauding crowds of tourists arrived. I was frustrated with my images from Geysir last year. I was so in awe of the spectacle in front of the camera, that I didn't notice the background of the images (basically it looked like a geyser sitting in front of a housing estate). This year I was determined to do it right.....

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The sheer force of this piece of nature is unbelievable.

Second stop of the day was Gullfoss. A large waterfall. We visited this place last year. Fortunately last year it wasn't too windy, this year .... flipping heck it was cold. The wind was so strong at times, that the tripods had to be ditched for the fear of the camera being blown over.

Gullfoss

Gullfoss

Gullfoss

From Gullfoss we moved across to þingvellir national park.

Gullfoss

þingvellir

þingvellir

þingvellir

þingvellir

þingvellir

When we visited this location last year, one of our entourage decided to reveal just a bit more of a crack than what was already evident in þingvellir. Dave was high off the copious amounts of skittles he had consumed. Welshot monkey who is now known as 'Spank', decided to pay homage to Dave and recreate the fateful day Julie Steele got more than an eyeful (Scarred for life!!)

Welshot monkey pays homage to Dave Handley at þingvellir

Another early start tomorrow, so only a short update today.

Day 5 – Iceland Trip 2014

We ventured out to the Snaefellsnes peninsular. This was a popular activity on last years trip, most notably due to the most amazing Aurora show that greeted us on our final night in Iceland for 2013. With this in our minds we looked forward to returning this year.

It was an early start, and a very long drive. Lee very kindly gave me the task of looking after Welshot monkey (and a little later Welshot Man).  She wanted me to blog about these shots today.

We started our photography for the day in a Lava field, but not before our trusted guide Ymir treated us all to an Icelandic delicacy of fermented shark meat and a shot of Brennivin (Icelandic Vodka). I tried the shark meat last year so I kind of knew what to expect. Ymir gave me a piece which also had a softer piece attached. My word it was rank, the taste of ammonia hit the back of my throat and the softer piece erupted (it must have been roe or something similar) as this most awful taste hit my mouth and I almost gagged. Suffice to say I took a swig of Brennivin to wash away the taste.

Lava field, Snaefellsnes

So after the tasting, I got to work with Welshot monkey. Knowing only too well what I was like, Lee must have thought Welshot monkey would come to no harm, how wrong she was!!

First I let Welshot monkey have a nice picture.....

Welshot Monkey in a Lava Field

Then Welshot monkey started to play up a bit when he saw the snow, the little beggar ran off and started sliding down miniature ice flows.....

Welshot Monkey sliding down the Snow / Ice drifts

He then spotted the Brennivin and must have taken a few swigs whilst nobody was watching....

Welshot Monkey steals the Brennivin

He must have drank quite a bit as the next time we saw him he'd fallen into a snow hole.....

Welshot monkey falls into a snow hole

Once released, the little beggar ran off again and started to climb some of the trickier boulders.....

Welshot monkey climbs the rocks

He eventually began to slow down after all his shenanigans......

Chilling out in the Lava rock

After which a tired little Welshot monkey went to sleep between the photography bags....

ZZZZzzzzzzz

After the Lava field, we went for lunch at a Horse farm.....

Horse Farm

Welshot monkey tried his hand at driving a tractor....

Welshot Monkey tries to steal the tractor

Checking his mirror

Whilst Monkey had beggared off, I had a wander around the farm and took a few shots....

Horse farm

Horse Farm

From the Horse farm we travelled to the small port of Arnarstapavegur....

Arnarstapevegur

Welshot monkey did a spot of sunbathing....

Sunbathing monkey

Welshot Monkey in Arnarstapevegur

Welshot Man at Arnarstapevegur

From here we ventured back to the 'Energy beach' at Djúpalón...

Trawler wreckage at Djúpalón

That was that for Day 5. When we got back to the horse farm, we were asked if some of us would like to go to the festival that was happening that night. Five of us decided to stay, suffice to say we got very drunk. I thought I had lost Welshot Man and didn't want to tell Lee. Turns out we never had him anyway !!

The rest of the group sensibly went back to the hotel, they stopped off though as a spectacular Aurora display turned out. Which was excellent really as it was Rachel and Alan's last night, so that must have made their trip.

The five (Richie, Danni, Rob, James and myself) who stayed on at the farm watched the aurora on our backs in one of the fields at the farm. Once it was over we attended the festival and got very merry on yet more Brennivin and Red Wine. Our heads really did hurt in the morning!!

Day 4 – Iceland Trip 2014

Its very late, after 1am and we have to be up and ready by 9:15 tomorrow, so I'll keep it short.

Now before you have a go, I know I said I would do a Day 3.5 update. Today disaster struck one of my memory cards. I haven't lost any images, they are backed up - but I have lost access to them temporarily (well until I get a CF card reader). So I'll have to do a 3.5 update when we have returned.

Again due to the above, I can't show any images from the first stop of our day today at Urridafoss. I'll include these in the 3.5 update.

Our second stop is where my memory card actually failed. We re-visited Skógafoss, one of the more famous waterfalls in Iceland. Luckily I took a picture for Facebook, so I'll put it in here.....

Skógafoss

Third stop was a visit to the plane wreckage at Sólheimasandur.....

Dakota plane wreckage, Sólheimasandur

It's a surreal experience really. You can't help thinking that someone must have lost their lives in this wreckage, but apparently not. All the crew survived and lived to tell the tale.

Inside the Dakota wreckage, with Welshot Man!

Fourth stop of the day was at Vik, a beach town. Very busy place, as were most places we visited today - damn kids holidays!!

The black sand at Vik, looking out towards the sea stacks

Fifth stop was Dyrhólaey, just round the corner from Vik. In the photos above and below, you see both sides of the headland between the two locations.

Looking back towards Vik, Dyrhólaey

We waited for sunset here and experienced the most amazing sight as the Sun slowly sank beneath the horizon. Some of the waves reaching the shoreline were lit up by the orangey/red colour of the setting sun.....

Water on fire, Dyrhólaey

Finally we went back to a location which we were lucky enough to visit last year, Seljalandsfoss. One of Iceland's most iconic waterfalls. The difference this time, it was at night....

Seljalandsfoss by night

We eventually reached our hotels at around 00:10am, after being out since 7:45-ish.

Another long day tomorrow, Snæfellsnes is on the cards. Last year when we visited we had the most spectacular Aurora show, so fingers crossed tomorrow is THE day for the light show!!

Off to bed now!!

Day 3 – Iceland Trip 2014 – Monster Truck outing

I promise to update this as soon as possible, but I did the typically un-Welshot thing of forgetting to take out the right memory card out of my camera which my laptop will accept!! So expect a Day 3.5 update before the Day 4 one tomorrow!! (it'll be a late night tomorrow anyway as we have all been warned by Lee to expect so!)

We set off today from the base camp in these massive trucks, like a Range Rover Vogue but on steroids. Lee has already posted pics of the day, so I'll leave mine until the 3.5 update. Typically though, Lee arranged our group, which consisted of Joan & Ted, Rachel, James, Richie, Lee and myself to be in one truck, the others in the other truck........... Guess whose truck started making funny noises and then proceeded to bank into a 3 foot (plus) hole in the ice! Yep, OURS !!

The Ice Hole !

Luckily our trusted driver Ágúst knew what to do ! He arranged a replacement vehicle and got us out of the pit.

Taken whilst waiting for the Truck to get out of the hole

Its been another fantastic outing today. All the Welshot crew were in their element - We visited Geo-thermal steam vents, Geo-thermal power plant (for Tea, Coffee and beer for me - I am on my holidays!), Off road snow driving and finally a visit to the beach !! The beach was a typically Volcanic beach with black sand - people really had a go at me when I described Iceland as being like Tenerife but colder - I think its actually fair to say Iceland is really like Tenerife, its an Island, its volcanic, its got a volcano, its got black sand, it has the same time line as Britain, and you can still get a tan! (although here its caused by the wind and snow). The one thing Iceland hasn't got (and in my opinion) in its favour, are all the typical Brit bars and dirty cheap beer. The National beer here is Gull and it knocks spots off Dorada! - I should know I drank enough of both in my time!!

I'll do a 3.5 update tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have some Aurora pictures tomorrow for Day 4 update as we're off to the South shore. We have decided to stay out late if its favourable for an Aurora show.

Fingers crossed.

Apologies for the lack of pics today .... I will remedy this tomorrow!

Day 2 – Iceland Trip 2014 – 19th February 2014

I think Lee Iggulden (our trustee Welshot leader!!) summed it up when she posted on Facebook, "absolutely shattered dot com" - To be fair I would have put it a lot stronger than that. Iceland is one of those places that you just never know what kind of weather is around the corner. Yes, its cold,  probably colder than we experienced last year, but at least this time it has been dry (-ish).

The complicated system of micro climates adds to the mystery of this beautiful island, you could be in perfect dry (yet cold) weather only to turn a corner and a full scale tornado hits you right in the face. Today was one of those days.

We ventured off to the Whale Fjords today. Its just about 1/2 hour out of Reykjavik, but its a hidden gem now due mainly to the construction of the road tunnel which saves motorists the 3-4 hour round trip journey. This area is a photographers dream with an abundance of Water, Abandoned Farms, Abandoned Factories, Waterfalls, Wildlife, Changing skies, Changing weather (OMG!) and loads of Ice.

You'll have to forgive me for the lack of place names in this post, but the wind was that strong the map blew out of my coat pocket and fell to the mercy of Thor - well the Whale Fjord anyway and there was no way I was risking falling on my backside when it flew across a frozen river and lodged on one of the rocks in the middle!! I'd already done a not so brilliant impersonation of Robin Cousins slipping on thick ice and falling on my backside.

First stop was Laxa i Kjos ....

Frozen river at Laxa i Kjos

Eifion was really impressed that I actually used my Lee graduated filters, the image above is out of camera with not one bit of Photoshop wizardry.

Stop 2, Frozen Waterfall - Hvalfjarðarvegur region gps co-ordinates 64.353039,-21.451991.....

Frozen Waterfall, Hvalfjarðarvegur region

Stop 3 was Lunch and hunger had hit in so no photos taken (sorry)

Stop 4, Abandoned Whale processing Factory (?). This would have been a photographers dream if it wasn't for the hammering wind which seemed to appear from nowhere. At this point, the tripod was ditched and I went hand held. The force of the wind was so strong that it actually blew my fully laden camera bag across the ground, thankfully it was completely zipped up.

Abandoned Whale Processing Plant

Rachel gets battered by the wind and almost blown back across the beach

Whale Bone (?) on the beach

Whaling Ships

When we left the Whaling area, the wind had become so strong it was very difficult to walk or stand up in it. I'd almost abandoned the idea of leaving the tour bus again as it looked like we weren't going to get the sunset we had been waiting for. Thor must have listened to us though and worked his magic as the setting sun cast a warm glow over the fjord.....

Final Pic of the day

However Thor sorted the clouds but ignored the wind, he left that in place with full force. The above pic was all I could manage to take (its very soft in some areas of the image).

Come on Thor, sort your magic out again for tomorrow ...... but this time make all of the nastiness for photographers go away!! (...and if you could switch on the Northern Lights for us we'd be eternally grateful!!)