Iceland
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East fjords and end of the trip…
We are Tuesday, the ferry leaves tomorrow, so I have to end the route to the East.
1. A farm and its small church in the plain.
2. These plains are actually alluvial deltas (gravel bars) down the mountains that form the eastern fjords.
3. Short stop at the powerful Nykurhylsfoss waterfall, sometimes also called Sveinsstekksfoss.
4. VivaLaVida makes a small detour through the valley from which she falls, on a track that looks more like a river in places 🙂
5. This valley is a magnificent basalt staircase, each step of which creates a waterfall. Gorgeous ! Too bad not to have time to explore it longer…
6. With autumn colors now very present, it’s beautiful.
7. A little further, on a small pass, the fall of Folaldafoss.
8. VLV will take a chaotic path to find a beautiful Icelandic camp near a small lake, 2100 feet above sea level.
9. The night will be particularly turbulent, with winds to almost 70 mph and heavy rain. In the morning, the rain gives me some respite while the wind maintained.
10. As I have a few hours left before boarding, I decided to take the F936 trail and was surprised to discover it perfectly leveled, without washboard or potholes. After ten miles, I understand why..! I do not take the risk to pass and turn around.
11. So, VLV goes up to do a small exploration towards North…
12. … discover the beautiful church of Kirkjubaejarkirkja.
13. Details of door shutters.
14. Climbing a small pass, a large beach exposed to the Arctic Ocean revealed.
15. Small stop in a colorful side valley, obstructed by a wall of basalt.
16. Mineral colors.
17. Last picture of a rainy heath…
18. VivaLaVida finds back the Nöronna ferry for the return crossing cruise.
In conclusion of these few weeks in Iceland, I have some mixed feeling. The island is home to a wealth of incredible natural treasures for whom, like me, love desolate and wild Nordic landscapes. Combined with the omnipresence of sustained and often extremely recent volcanic activity, the cocktail is often breathtaking. On the other hand, because of tour operators eager to make money, this destination has become so touristy that the consequences of this mass tourism become visible almost everywhere. More and more frequent access bans, legislation seeking to limit the impact on the fragile nature, sites with often developed unsightly infrastructure and invaded by dozens of buses, mini-commercial campers rented by hundreds and, probably corollary, Icelandic not very affable and often even unfriendly with foreigners… Not to mention a exorbitant life costs : filling VLV was more than 400.- USD..!
Apart from the few indoor tracks that VivaLaVida allowed us to access off the beaten path, the pressure of this tourism really bothered me. And we were there at the end of the season, with significantly fewer people than in July or early August. Of course, I understand everyone’s desire to discover this raw nature. Yet there are other places on the planet, equally spectacular but less exploited by tour operators who still know how to preserve their country and are in my eyes much more pleasant to visit.
No regrets, however, to have had the opportunity to make discover to Isabelle – Emile is probably still too small to remember of later – this large island and its beautiful and so changing landscapes!
While the Nöronna ferry made a stopover in Torshávn on the way back, I was lucky enough to have some nice weather to offer you some new pictures of the capital of the Faroes.
19. This small town offers dozens of narrow streets with pretty houses that denote with the American-style pavilions of Iceland.
20. View on the city.
21. Marina.
22. The crossing to Denmark will be somewhat turbulent, with strong winds up to 80 mph and 18-21 feet waves.
23. Venting sinset…
The return to Switzerland was normal except for a turbo hose that dislodged, forcing VLV to drag on the last 350 miles…
Thanks to you for having followed the story of this Icelandic journey of VivaLaVida which will now be rebuilding a small health (axle simmering to change, kneecaps to replace, and complete frame check after more than 6000 miles traveled, of which probably more than a thousand on the various tracks borrowed. You can also view the route on the map “Europe” of this blog… 😉
And see you soon for following VivaLaVida’s new adventures! 😀
South-East coast
The ferry is waiting for VivaLaVida in two days and I still have several hundred miles to get to Seydisfjordur, so it’s time for me to move on. Without forgetting to stop at some new spots.
1. Same place same hour three weeks later and same rainbow… 😉
2. Short stop on another spot of Jökulsárlón Lake.
3. And another stop at Diamond Beach to shot some pictures especially for Isabelle! 😉
4. Further East, shortly before the Vestrahorn, another gravel bar in the rain.
The Vestrahorn Mountain, so often photographed, turns out to be a real tourist scam. In addition to the fact that it is next to a hugly military satellite antena, it has been appropriated by the owner of a camping-bar that charges for access! He even installed an automatic highway toll style barrier to control access. I am quite shocked by the fact that somebody can appropriate a piece of nature belonging to the state and refuses to lend me to this practice, preferring to go elsewhere. Travelers, keep away of that place, there are enough other beautiful sites in Iceland.
5. I sleep on a small pass along the old road. After a steady rain during most of the night, the morning offers me a nice sky.
6. And here is the Vestrahorn from the North-East, a less “conventional” view. 🙂
7. An example of the large sheep farms of the South coast.
8.After my disappointment at Vestrahorn, I spotted another less known site (but for how long ..?). The weather was not pleasant and I decided to explore the coast in search of cool compositions until it improves. Here is one first with this cove in the rocks.
9. The showers succeed one another, created by the strong wind that condenses the clouds on the mountain.
10. I take the opportunity to observe some ducks who hiding from strong wind behind the cape. Here a female.
11. And there a male who has just caught a crustacean.
12. He rinses it a little…
13. Before swallowing it!
14. In the foam…
15. I also go discover the large beach that runs to the West.
16. Vestrahorn in the distance.
17. Survival…
18. Finally, after 5 1/2 hours of waiting, a brief sunray of just a few minutes allows me to show you another composition.
Last article of this trip coming soon. 😉
F210 – F232
Before continuing the journey, it is time to wish you all Happy New Year 2019! full of new informative and rewarding adventures, beautiful encounters, unexpected discoveries. A special thought to a close friend who has been battling a serious cancer for many months without being able to overcome it yet and who I wish to see soon the end of the tunnel…
But let’s continue the story. II enjoyed some light at sunrise… 😀
1. First glow…
2. Mýrdalsjökull is really close.
3. There was some snow fall tonight.
4. Iron oxide colors some hills in red.
5. One of the many fords crossed.
6. Sand / foam / ice contrast.
7. At the end of the F210, I decide to take some height on the Maelifell, an old volcano in the middle of the plain. VivaLaVida stays down. 😉
8. As I go up, the immensity slowly reveals itself.
9. A flight of wild geese begining their migration goes through the sky…
10. I take the opportunity to show you a small sample of the main plants of these arid regions, starting with this sometimes almost fluorescent foam.
11. It shares the space with other species, creating colorful beds at this fall period.
12. …
13. …
14. …
15. Arrived at the top, the panorama is breathtaking! (panoramic assembly of 9 bracketed images –> 27 images for this softblending!)
16. View from above…
17. The mountain I just climbed.
18. Still contrasts…
19. VLV follows the less traveled F232 road now.
20. As we descend gradually towards the south coast, greenery becomes more present again.
21. The colors of autumn are also more and more present, for my greatest pleasure.
22. How beautiful ! I am in permanent contemplation…
23. A ford just above a waterfall
Here is the link of a short video of this ford for those who want to discover it… 😉
24. One of the glacial rivers, meltwater from the ice cap, digs its canyon.
25. Further down the trail, other waterfalls that look like small and less touristy “Godafoss”.
26. Backlight at the end of F232.
To be followed soon… 😉
Mýrdalsjökull – F261 / F210
As previously announced, to go back to East, VivaLaVida left the pavement to discover the back of the Mýrdalsjökul ice cap .
1. “Gravel Bar”.
2. The sky is clogging as I move away from the coast.
3. Backlight…
4. Last blue hole before the rain. In fact, these ice caps create their own micro-climate; the air passing over cools down and condenses “downwind” in rain or snow .
5. Surprise at a turn of the trail: the magnificent Markafljótsgljúfur Canyon (the first one that pronounces this right wins a sweet ! 😀 )…
6. … and the beautiful fall of the same name.
7. Sheep stable…
8. In places, the rivers must make their way through the basalt.
9. F210 trail.
10. VivaLaVida enters in another black sand desert.
11. Little canyon.
12. Volcanic desert in the rain…
13. …
14. The trail directly on the lava in places.
15. …
16. …
17. Wild camp in the middle of nowhere at nightfall…
Next to come about F210 and F232 in a few days…
Merry Christmas!
Before the rest of the previous article, here are some Isabelle’s pictures, memories of the journey with my little family…
1. Emile and his mom well wrapped up.
2. A beautiful hot spring…
3. … in which we had a good time of relaxation.
4. Picnic…
5. … at the edge of a river…
6. … or a beach.
7. Emile alone on the moon 😉
8. And as it is time: Merry Christmas to all of you from us three ! 😀
Following with VivaLaVida’s way back to East Iceland in a few days…
“Golden Circle” and South Reykjaness
Thursday, September 13th, the last day of my family’s trip before flying back home, leaving me alone to bring VivaLaVida back to Switzerland.
We leave to visit some spots of the Golden Circle, not far from Reykjavik.
1. Stop at Þingvellir, historic site of the first Icelandic parliament founded in year 930. It has the particularity of being exactly on the divide between the European and the North American tectonic plates. A river flows there on a few hundred yards.
2. Souvenir: Emile is in Europe and Isabelle in America ! 😉
3. On the road to another must-see spot for anyone who has never seen a geyser…
4. Anecdote of the day: we are stopped by two Texan tourists who, having stopped on the aisle to take a picture, got bogged down with their rental Renault and ask VLV to pull them from this bad not. Thank you to Isabelle for the picture! 😉
5. NWe arrive at the Geysir site at the end of the day.
6. This is my version of so photographed Stokkur Gesyr.
7. …
8. We boondock along the F333 trail, away from the crowd to be quiet in nature…
9. Short morning visit in Gullfoss already invaded by mass tourism.
10. Returning to Reykjavik for the return flight of Isa and Emile, short climb of the beginning of the F337 trail to admire the view on the plains.
11. In action!
The next morning, we wake up early to go to the airport where the return flight takes off at 7:20. No picture in the rush of an already crowded airport at dawn. The weather being rainy, I took advantage of my Saturday to write several articles of the blog and postprocess some images. The next day, I hit the road toward East where the ferry will wait for VivaLaVida a few days later for bring her back to the mainland. Path through South of Reykjaness, the peninsula on which Keflavik International Airport is located.
12. Short stop at the pretty Strandakirkja church.
13. Almost all Icelandic churches have a small entrance hall separated of the main nave.
14. Colorful nave.
15. On the coast, I enjoy the contrasts between the black lava and the algae that develop there.
VivaLaVida then took a series of F roads to discover the back of the Myrdálsjökull ice cap. Coming soon in the next article.
Snæfellsness
While there are only four days left before Isabelle and Emile go back, VivaLaVida hits the road to the touristic Snæfellsness peninsula and its various natural attractions.
1. Lava flows in the ocean.
2. Recent volcanic geology…
3. … interspersed with a few small fjords.
4. The famous Kirkjufell mountain, so photographed but invaded by mass tourism. I chose a different perspective, not doing the same as everyone else… 😉
5. To escape the crowd, VivaLaVida climbs to the Snæfellsjökull ice cap for the night.
6. Camp at the crossroads of two deserted trails. Do you see VLV all the way down? 😀
7. Wind clouds while many snowfields persist even if we are only about 2,000 feet above sea level.
8. The next morning, the cap is hidden in the clouds, to the chagrin of Isabelle.
9. But the surroundings are worth seeing…
10. … and the view of the beach, 1,800 feet lower under the clouds, is beautiful.
11. Peninsula South coast.
12. Another highly visited spot, the lava cliffs of Londrangar.
13. The cute little church of Búdir.
14. From the South Coast Road.
15. Stop near a spectacular wall of basalt columns.
16. These pillars, which have a penta- and hexagonal shape of approx. 3-5 feet in diameter, are between 20 and 60 feet high for their visible part.
17. We walk to a pretty little church nestled at the bottom of a crater.
18. Wild camp at the edge of a small river…
19. At 23:00, while I go out to do some natural needs, surprise, I discover a sky adorned with Northern lights…
20. … as much in the Northeast as in the Southeast.
21. I hurry up to get camera and tripod. First of limited intensity, aurora intensifies while I frame VLV in the field.
22. Then without warning, in a few moments, it becomes incredibly intense!
23. Colorful purple fringes appear.
24. And the trails swirl at full speed throughout the sky.
25. Even with an ultra wide angle lens mounted, I can only encompass part of it…
26. I constantly shoot to immortalize this moment of intense contemplative emotion…
27. I feel so small under so much cosmic energy.
28. Then after a few minutes, the show calms down…
29. …
30. I had never been able to see a dawn so bright and dynamic aurora until then.
After more than two hours enjoying this beautiful surprise in the cold, frozen, I go back to bed and look forward to the heating in VivaLaVida…
Fjords of North West
1. Great weather in the morning!
2. Icebergs are still there.
3. Stop on our way to observe seals.
4. When some rest, others seem to play in the water.
5. Under the eyes of ubiquitous and placid sheeps.
6. Small lighthouse on the coast.
7. I draw the portrait to one of these famous Icelandic small horses with long manes.
8. Small church along a fjord. There are many, always small and often with only one house around.
9. As VivaLaVida crosses a small pass between two fjords, the horizon deepens.
10. …
11. To reach a large beach far west of the fjords, the road is endless: while in a straight line, the GPS indicates 55 miles, it will take 125 miles of winding road to get there!
12. The end of day light is spectacular.
13. Rauðarsandur beach is behind this point…
14. VivaLaVida will finally reach it at sunset, enjoying last sun rays on its pretty black church.
15. Calm morning on the inlet.
16. Rauðarsandur beach is Iceland’s largest and its color denotes with omnipresent black elsewhere. Wonder where does this colorful sand come from.
17. Refelction behind the beach.
18. Patchwork at rising tide.
19. Marine atmosphere…
20. In a nearby bay, stop near a ship wreck.
21. These fjords are beautiful and constitute the least visited part of Iceland and let us enjoy more solitude.
22. We camp on the bank of a fjord sheltering hundreds of swans.
Discovery of Snæfellsness Peninsula coming soon. 😉
North Coast and traditional habitat
1. The Ásbyrgi Canyon is amazing with its high basalt cliffs.
2. Beautiful bay on Arctic Ocean North of Husavik.
3. We stop there for the lunch…
4. … the opportunity for Emile to play on the beach.
5. The small harbor town of Husavik still has some old houses.
6. Its small harbor is famous for whale watching.
7. Old houses on the harbor.
8. We return to the bay to spend the night.
9. Sunset is gorgeous!
10. Deformed sun on the horizon. We even had two sunsets, the first on the cliff then, the race of the sun being almost tangent to the horizon, the second on the ocean.
11. Iceland is not that famous for offering colorful sunsets but this one was an exception.
12. On the road to Akureyi, the big city of the North.
13. Interesting feature: in Akureyri, to support the morale of the population during the last financial crash, the red lights are heart shaped… 😉
14. At the end of the day, we go to visit the historic Glaumbær farm, one of the few unspoiled which is now a museum.
15. House from the beginning of the last century.
16. The windows often had candles, supposed to limit the heat loss of the little insulated glass…
17. The farm, older, is partially buried for better insulation. Buildings are contiguous to limit areas exposed to cold.
18. Built in peat and covered with peat and moss, it was the best way to protect oneself from the cold for poor people.
19. Not far away, the beautiful old church of Vidimyrarkirkia.
20. Continuing our journey on the north coast, we come across this curious road going directly into the ocean!
21. Arrival at the end of the day on the site of Hvítserkur Rock.
22. A spectacular lava block that rises on the ocean and evokes a troll or some extinct dinosaur grazing algae…
23. Húnafjordur Bay.
24. We camp near this little house…
25. … and discover large icebergs far on the horizon.
Next coming soon in the Northwest fjords.
Lava and waterfalls of North-East
1. In the Lake Mývatn area, a pond along the trail leading to some lava tunnel.
2. Isabelle exceeds her fear and descends into the tunnel entrance.
3. Here, the lava textures are pretty incredible.
4. Flanks of Hverfjall crater.
5. Lake Mývatn and its lava concretions in the rain.
6. …
7. Rainwear, with smile. 😉
8. Rainwear again.
9. Wild camp in some grassland South of the lake.
10. Light beam…
11. Sunset sky.
12. …
13. The next day, we seek to reach Aldeyjarfoss waterfall by a little used trail and, after about 35 miles and some pretty wet swamps, VivaLaVida arrives in front of this powerful river. The abandoned ford doesn’t inspire me much and I give up attempting its crossing, especially as even with binoculars, I cannot distinguish the trail on the other side…
14. Lunch time.
15. Moor to infinity…
16. Here is the spectacular Aldeyjarfoss !
17. The river dives into a deep canyon with basalt organs.
18. I go down in the canyon for a less classic composition.
19. Not far upstream, we discover another waterfall: Hrafnabjargafoss. What a pronunciation! 😉
20. Secondary falls at sunset…
21. Skjálfandafljót River downstream from Aldeyjarfossen.
22. Further downstream, the famous Godafoss, the falls of God, such touristic because located along the road nb1, the paved road that goes around Iceland.
23. A few miles eastward, we visit another waterfall: Detifoss. It is said to be the most powerful waterfall in Europe.
24. Selfoss, a few hundred yards upstream.
We finish the day at the very neat Ásbyrgi campground where the shower is welcomed! The next article will be in a more maritime atmosphere… 🙂
D5 Creation