Iceland - South Coast - Saturday - 2/25/12

Yesterday was included tour day (part of the Icelandair package). It was billed as glacier walk & northern lights hunt. I will end the suspense right now and say we did not see the northern lights, with that said it was a spectacular day. We didn't see the lights because It was rainy and then in one area we went through there had been a blizzard the hour before. That's right I said the hour before meaning that the bus we were on went through the mountains with a still sizable amount of snow on the road. the weather has been wild to say the least. It has been cloudy each night, so no lights on this trip. The conditions to see them are pretty specific, very clear, cold night, away from city lights, hours between 11pm-2am. Another time.

Our bus picked us up at our hotel and our guide Stefan gave us the run down of the ten hour day. It was to go something like this, drive, stop for a quick bite, visit a waterfall, walk the glacier, visit a second waterfall, drive to lobster soup dinner, northern lights or not.
For the amount of people on this tour, three buses in total, 140 people ( a personal nightmare) it went swimmingly. I never felt like there were that many people. The buses split, so one went to the glacier while our two went the waterfall etc. The guides did an amazing job and it was wonderfully organized.

The first waterfall was called Skogafoss. The amount of water coming over the top was unbelievable. A rainbow appeared in the mist while we were there and the rain held off even though the clouds were threatening. The pictures won't do any of these waterfalls justice. The sound of the pounding water and the feel of the spray on your face wonderfully memorable. 


Sawrah