After a surprisingly lovely first night’s sleep in the Hotel, we had the knock on the door from Barry & Ellie at 8am to take the short walk into Breakfast. I wasn’t expecting too much but it was rather good with lots of choice.
Because of our latitude it was still dark yet already the outside of the hotel already resembled a bus station at times as buses constantly pulled up to collect people for whatever tours they had booked. We had deliberately taken a different approach by hiring the car for the time we are here. Not only had the cost almost justified itself with just getting us from the airport but it also meant we were not beholden to the tour operators to visit places.
This morning we were off to the Blue Lagoon a place I had long wanted to visit. It had only reopened in the past few days after the lava flow from the volcanic explosion meant that the access route had been blocked. I had managed to book our tickets after a fashion last week by calling them direct from home.
It was about a 50-minute drive to the Blue Lagoon which was easy enough even with using the manual gear stick with my right hand. We were most excited once we were close to find we had to drive across the lava flow which seemed to be still steaming in places and then along a new section of road which seemed to have been built out of lava. We also got our first glimpse of the bright blue milky water which in parts were next to the road.
The weather was bitterly cold as we walked from the car to the entrance. There was typical Icelandic efficiency in getting us in and how it was all organised. At one point they said that if the volcano erupted again, they would sound sirens and we would have to evacuate immediately. We smiled and hoped they were joking.
Barry & I headed to the Men’s changing area and then made our way down to the waters entrance to wait for Karen & Ellie. It was freezing waiting for them so I got partly into the water to stop icicles forming on me.
The entrance to the water was down a gentle slope whilst still inside and then through a door to the Lagoon itself. The further we got in the warmer the water got. In fact, it was steaming as the geo thermal plant blasted water from below at 38c across all the lagoon.
We loved every minute of it. At times we had snow, hail and rain but it mattered not. We were all chilled and relaxed. I’m not sure any of us could believe we were here and all loving it.
After a while we made our way over to the booth to get our free sulphuric face mask. We all partook and looked as much like idiots with white silica smeared over faces for ten minutes as everybody else. The worst bit was using the freezing cold water to wipe it all off.
Then we made our way slowly to the opposite booth to get our free drink. Karen & I both had the Strawberry Fizzy Wine whilst Barry had a local beer and Ellie the fresh lemonade. We found a very hot stream in the lagoon to stand for a long while whilst drinking them.
We explored more of the lagoon. Karen was concerned that the lagoon may be deeper in parts but in truth it never got above her shoulder height.
It was all I had hoped for and more.
After 2 hours of soaking, we slowly made our way out and after changing all met up in the café overlooking the lagoon to have a drink, in particular a coffee for Karen.
We took more photos on the way out and then headed back in the car. We stopped at a large supermarket to have a wander around and get something for lunch to eat back in our rooms.
Whilst eating our late lunch I found on You Tube some reports from the last 24 hours about how the experts are predicting another volcanic eruption this week and how stupid in their opinion it was to allow people back into the Blue Lagoon as they would only have up to 30 minutes to get everyout and away to safety. Karen said if she had known beforehand, they she wouldn’t have gone there today, so just as well she hadn’t known.
For a quick dinner we headed back to the Hlemmur Food market where I just had to have the pizza again. No one else was that hungry as we had not had lunch until late and so they all had smaller food choices – Karen some garlic bread whilst Barry & Ellie went Vietnamese with their choices.
After a quick refresh back in our rooms we went outside the hotel to wait at bus stop 12 for our small bus tour pickup to see the Northern Lights. We had decided to pay for this tour as it had a guide who would be using constantly updating information as to the best location to hopefully see them tonight. We also paid slightly more for a smaller group trip as the smaller buses can divert to places where the larger coaches could not reach.
The bus stop outside the hotel was a bitterly cold wind tunnel with little places to shelter from it. It felt like the coldest place on earth at that time. There were dozens of other people also waiting around for their pickups. I was very glad of the thermals I had been bought for Christmas and was well wrapped up.
The first bus arrived and took us to the terminus where we got straight on our actual tour bus for the night. We drove for around 50-minutes easterly with a couple of stops whilst the driver picked up the latest atmospheric conditions and forecast. He said he was cautiously optimistic that we would see some ‘activity’. We were given lots of background and stories about the Northern Lights as we were driven along.
We ended up about 24 miles East of Reykjavik on some remote pull off from a quiet road. We were all excited especially as there was a break in the clouds overhead and we could see the stars. Then we witnessed some arcs in the sky as the ‘activity’ started.
However, it was all a bit of an anti-climax as the clouds then rolled in and covered what could be seen by the naked eye. All that was visible was a band lightness across the sky. If we hadn’t been told what it was, we would not have realised that this was indeed the Northern Lights.
On the journey we had been given instructions how to adjust our camera settings on our phones. When we looked at our photos as we took them, they did indeed show the green hue and lights that we were all familiar in seeing from other photos. But had we seen them ourselves as such? I’m not sure.
To me it all had a feeling of a technology driven Emperors New Clothes, or the sound a tree makes or doesn’t make when it falls in a deserted forest. I recalled that when they have been ‘seen’ in Norfolk recently that again they were also not visible to the naked eye but just through camera lens and exposure. I wonder how many of the spectacular photos we are all familiar with were as seen with the naked eye?
So, we had seen the Northern Lights. Not as spectacular as I would have wanted, but we had seen them. Another thing we can tick off and we know we were lucky to see what we did as many others we know who have tried were nowhere near as lucky.
It was about 12.30pm when we were dropped off back outside our hotel. We were tired but very happy at our long but successful day.
