Tag Archives: Landscapes

nature, Photography

Home from Iceland …

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… but we brought a very unattractive souvenir with us in the form of an award-winning case of flu (we have tested negative for Covid).

I literally have every symptom and am feeling extremely miserable. M is somewhat better but also quite ill; at least we can be sick at home though.

I might not be around much over the next day or two as I recover from this nasty bug.

Happy Monday and see you soon.

nature, Photography

Northern Icelandic Weather, Part I

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We spent a few days enjoying the benefits of the Icelandic hot springs and could easily see visiting one of them regularly if we lived here. The waters are extremely soothing, especially if you have any skin conditions, and the effects of the warm water very relaxing.

Mývatn Lake with an old magma field in the foreground.

However, as we enjoyed the Mývatn Lake hot springs near Reykjahlið in the north, we began to realise that bad weather was on the way.

After spending a comfortable night at a hotel in Reykjahlið, the next morning an employee warned us of an impending storm that was expected to arrive in the north during the course of the day, bringing freezing rain, ice pellets, gale force winds and possibly … snow.

Those white spots? Large, fluffy snowflakes!

We got going right away to our next stop, a hot springs spa in Húsavík, a town on the Greenland Sea, but the storm was beginning to settle in.

By the time we arrived for our appointment, the management of Geosea was considering closing because of the high winds, but decided to stay open when a lull occurred. Because we were within easy reach of our stop for the night in Akureyri, we stayed for our appointment.

This is what we saw when we arrived in Húsavik: an overcast and stormy view of the Greenland Sea with snow capped mountains across the fjord.

The break in the storm meant that after our hot springs appointment, our short drive to Akureyri was fairly uneventful and lead us to believe that the storm might be abating, but we were in for a bit of a surprise.

Stay tuned for part two.

nature, Photography

Volcanic Sand Beach

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We stopped to brave the cold, rain and extremely windy conditions of Dyrhólaey bird sanctuary and viewpoint on Iceland’s south coast. This sanctuary is on a high cliff overlooking the beaches far below.

This is the North Atlantic ocean and there is nothing between Iceland and the Horn of Africa – more precisely, the Horn’s interference is minor, so there’s not much between Iceland and Antarctica – stopping that wind, so it really gets up to incredible speeds.

M and I had a hard time keeping our feet, as did others; the wind literally almost sent me flying since it was about 65 kph (40 mph). There were few birds about; most were sheltering in the cliff crevices.

The beach is comprised of black volcanic sand, and we would have loved to take a walk along the trail to the beach, but the wind was just too strong. We opted to get back in the car – literally without breaking the door hinges – to admire the view in dry comfort as we ate our lunch. But what an incredibly picturesque view, even if the weather was terrible!