The very first thing I ever wrote on my bucket list – long before it made it onto the internet – was “see the northern lights”. And when I visited Iceland in 2012, that was my goal. It didn’t happen on that trip, but I still fell in love with Iceland’s incredible icebergs, volcanoes and waterfalls (read about it here).
So when it came time to plan my Thanksgiving trip, I couldn’t get past the idea of making good on my original goal, and I returned to Iceland. Here’s the story, in photos…
Seljalandsfoss Waterfall, which used to tumble off the side of the country until an eruption extended the coastlineHalfway up Skogafoss WaterfallFrom the top of SkogafossThe black sand beach at Reynisfjara, with rock formations reminiscent of the Giants Causeway in Northern IrelandOn our first night, there was no cloud cover and conditions were clear. It began with a faint line the north westThen grew until it was unmistakeably the aurora, though it was less impressive to the naked eyeWhen the rare shades of purple appeared, I finally felt like I could tick “see the northern lights” off my bucket listIn the Icelandic winter, sunrise lasts for hours because the sun never rises very far past the horizonThe highlight of day two was meant to be an ice cave, but unfortunately recent rainfall had turned the main cave into a river, so we had to make do with this small – but still enchanting – archwayJökulsárlón Glacial LagoonThis is where the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier begins to reach waterThe ice caps of Vatnajökull are visible in the distanceIt’s always sunriseLess than a kilometre away, the tide washes the escaped ice back up onto a black sand beachIt felt like standing on another planetIt’s uncanny watching the waves splash up over the smaller icebergs
The twisted remains of a steel bridge in Skeiðarársandur that was destroyed during a glacial flood following a volcanic eruption in 1996Most of the south coast landscape resembles a moonscapeBack in Reykjavik, walking to the bus station, it was sunset
