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The aurora borealis spotting team spent hours staring at the sky in the freezing cold before darting back in for cups of hot chocolate. I eventually put my name on the wake up list and went to bed at 1:30. I wasn't in bed even 25 minutes before I got the knock. Mother nature played nice and at 2:00 we saw faint streaks of green rising over the glaciers. Within minutes all of us were standing in a field discussing camera settings for the best shots, cheering on the lights in the middle of the sparsly populated east.
We spent about an hour taking shots, testing varying long exposure settings and admiring the tiny peaks of purple and orange that would join the green swirls.
After only a couple of hours of sleep we were all drowsily discussing the events of the night before and swping email addresses to share pictures over breakfast.
After breakfast we went to the black sand coast to watch the sun rise over the glacier lagoon, filled with bright blue icebergs and seals swimming in the cove, hiding from the wind.
After a quick lunch we traded in our little crampons for the new y duty glacier spikes, grabbed ice axes and made our way to the famous Jokulsarlon glacier to hike the glaciers that have been moving and drifting there for the last 12,000 years, since the last ice age ended. We peered into deep crevaces, climbed hills and walked. Etween ice caves and other glacial formations for a few memorable hours before starting the 800 km trip back to Reykjavik.
Our guide Tietur used to be a newscaster on Iceland's biggest news program for 7 years before doing humanitarian work during the civil war in Sri Lanka for the foreign ministry. As a result he is somewhat famous and recognizable. When we stopped for dinner and to refuel we got a a chance to see him meet his fans. It was pretty funny. We also love to give him a hard time about the magazine cover of him we found on Google where he has a cat sitting around his neck. The guy has a great sense of humour!
We got back to the city around 10:00 and were just starting to drop people off at hotels when one of the guys in our group pointed out faint aurora shimmers on the horizon. Tietur redirected the remaining group to the beach outside the city and we spent another hour chasing auroras with our cameras. I had less luck this time and didn't figure out why until we had left... I adjusted every setting but ISO. Oops. Rookie mistake. Its ok, one guy in our group got a picture of most of the rest of the group with auroras in the background which he will share when he gets back to Singapore.
By midnight I had to say goodbye to all but a few of Nature's Children as Tietur calls our happy go lucky, try anything grouup.
I will see the other 3 women who are traveling solo again tomorrow. I conviced the Single Ladies Travel Collective to join me tomorrow for one last adventure. See what it is tomorrow!
- comments
Mom I am so hoping I can talk I to doing this or some other similar trip. It sounds fantastic. Can't wait to hear what's on for tomorrow.
Dad Can't wait to here what the SLTC has in store tomorrow. Sounds like a wonderful trip.