We made the plan to go with Wildphoto to Greenland as our last photo expedition before the pandemic. Everything was all set for our September 2023 trip, but I broke my left wrist playing pickle ball and had to cancel the entire trip! …. The disappointment/regret I felt could not be expressed in words. I tried to book another Greenland trip with Wildphoto, unfortunately they have no plan for Greenland even in 2025, and because of our age, we really cannot wait for beyond 2025. Kirstie gave me a few other companies to try, SecretAtlas was one of them. They have the Greenland trip this year (2024)! And they fly us from Iceland to Greenland (with a cost of course), and their ship was a renovated one - from the pictures, it seemed to be with much better human comfort than all the other expedition ships we’ve been on, so we decided to give it a try. Even though their logistics handling has left quite a bit to be desired (improved), and I’m pretty sure they are not as photographer centric as WildPhoto, we decided to try.
The expedition date is Sept 18 - 27, 2024. We decided to explore Iceland before the expedition for two weeks, so we left home on September 2, 2024, Labor Day Monday.
September 2, Monday - Left Home, Arrived in Iceland.
Our flight to Keflavik, Iceland was at 12:35pm on Monday, 9/2 and we booked an Uber pickup for 8:30. We like to be at the airport way ahead of schedule. Once the luggage are checked in and we get through security, we can relax. Early Monday morning we received a msg that our flight was delayed to departure at 1:10pm. Did not like it, but no big deal. We were up shortly after 6am and got the last bit of things taken care of, such as taking all the water drop RO system containers out, store in the frig and turn off the system. Our Uber driver was very punctual. A nice older man. We got to the airport before 9:30am. Being Labor Day, the traffic was non-existent. The airport was also not that crowded. From AmEx Platinum Bob got us access to French Airlines’ lounge (just like last time), so we stayed a couple of hours there and had a pleasant breakfast. We were in terminal E and we had gate E6 which was rather close to the French Airlines’ lounge. But we waited and waited, did not board until almost 1pm and the plane took off around 1:50pm. Fortunately it did not delay our arrival too much -we touched down around 10pm local time.
I was rather amazed that our flight was not full at all. Bob and I had aisle and window seats (14D and 14F), and the middle seat remained empty, so did many other seats. So relieved and pleased!! Unlike American, Iceland Air gave us enough leg room. So the economy seats for 4 hours were not that bad at all!! Even though the airline did not give us any snacks, I was happy!
After we got to Keflavik, picked up the luggage, got the rental car, it was almost 11pm. We also got a Wifi device for the car so we could use both our phones for navigation. Another good thing was my esim actually worked. Big relief. But I found that the esim was not as responsive and the $10/day verizon, at times. I’ll take it - cannot afford the Verizon price especially for long travel.
Through hotels.com I booked hotel Duus which is about 10 minutes drive from the airport. I thought for $200/night it should be OK, probably like a holiday express …. WRONG!! The entry way was dingy, which made me feel depressed. Then we got to our room (#303). It was quite small. The room was passably clean. But it felt very stuffy and had some unpleasant smell. The bathroom had a shower and a toilet. The tiny wash sink was in the bedroom. Then I noticed the towels - only two bath towels, one dark blue the other brown. They were so stiff that I would not want them to touch my skin even IF they are clean. No hand towel or wash cloth. My heart already sank below the floor ….I asked Bob to go ask for more towels, he came back with two more stiff dark blue bath towels…..
Well, it is what it is and we had nowhere else to go at midnight. We washed and I used my disposable towel (thank goodness I brought two). We went to bed after 1am. Bob quickly fell asleep and it did not take me too long after. We’re both too tired, having had very little sleep the night before. Oh, for dinner, we bought a couple of warm sandwiches at the airport - not too bad.
Oh, as bad as hotel Duus was, it did have one good thing: the water pressure of the shower was decent, even though it was a rain shower which we both hate. Also, that hotel had enough USB ports!
September 3, Tuesday - Checked into the Budir Hotel
I woke up around 5:30am and could not fall back to sleep. We both got up before 8 then went down to check to see what kind of breakfast the hotel’s restaurant offers. They offered cold breakfast buffet, at $14 each. I really did not like their cold buffet so we decided to try the hotel Keflavik which was a few minutes drive. They offered breakfast buffet which looked better than Duus, but at around $24 each. We bit the bullet. The breakfast was not that great, but better than the cold one. Hotel Keflavik looked like a much bigger and better hotel, but of course more expensive. If I did not want to save $, I could have booked Aurora hotel at $350/night which was within walking distance from the airport. Oh well ….
We left hotel Duus after 9am - our destination today was Hotel Budir in Snaefellsnes. A direct drive would take 3+ hours. But I really wanted to go into Reykjavik to take a look - the last time we were there was 8 years ago! Bob unwillingly agreed. So we ended up walking through a few streets in Reykjavik, went to that famous church and tried a couple of pictures. I poked into a few stores including 66 degrees North. I was quite shocked at how expensive things are in Iceland!! I liked their cold weather clothing, but who would want to spend that kind of $?!
I really wanted to find and walk the street that we walked almost daily 8 years ago, but did not find it. Sigh … Don’t think we will have to chance to come back to Iceland again after this trip. Oh well! We left Reykjavik after 1pm and drove directly towards hotel Budir. We got to the hotel around 4:30, after stopping a few times to rest or to try taking a few photos.
Hotel Budir does not look anything special (certainly does not look like a place that would charge $500+/night. But after we stepped inside, it felt like a real hotel and I started to feel relieved. The receptionist was professional and friendly. We got room 215 and I confirmed that it is a room with a view of the black church.
I felt quite happy when we went into our room - it was bright, with a decent size, and looked and felt clean. Good white towels. Room was tastefully arranged. Even though it was a king bed with only one comforter, I’ll deal with it. One thing that disappointed me was that the room attendant did not wipe off the coffee stains from the drawers under the coffee machine …. sigh ….
Looking out of the window, I see the black church! But the window is facing south west so afternoon is not the right time to take pictures from the room. Since we’re staying here 3 nights (a really splurge ….), I was able to take stuff out of the suitcases which was so much more pleasant than last night ….
We decided to have dinner at the hotel’s restaurant. This hotel is in the middle of nowhere and we did not feel like driving to another place, so we decided to try it tonight. We ate at 6. The dinner was good, but not good enough to be worth $200 or so. I had roasted cabbage salad and baked scrod; Bob had a different salad and lamb. He really enjoyed the lamb. We shared a dessert which was lemon and rhubarb, very refreshing. It was “find dining”, very small amount and the wait staff all tried to act properly.
After dinner, we went to shoot the church. Not a very encouraging experience. I could not find a good angle or a good composition. At first I used the 100-500 lens which was very inadequate so I came back and changed to the shorter lens. The sunset tonight was nothing special. What’s worse - it will rain for the next two days! This ruins our plan to go to that Flatey island or doing any meaningful shooting! At the information center, the guy said there is a chance for northern light tonight! I was so excited to hear that!! It’s almost 11pm now - no sign of anything. Bob went down to ask and was told it could happen between now and 3 am …. I guess we will probably miss it….
Our plan for tomorrow is to drive (in the rain, but hopefully not thunder storm!) to the Snaefellsjokull Pjoogarour National Park and then to the opposite side of the peninsular, to the town Stykkisholmur where we would have taken the ferry to Flatey island....
Going to bed now - already past midnight!
September 4, Wednesday - To Stykkisholmur in the Rain....
Had the best sleep last night in god-knows-how long - I first woke up around 6 then went back to sleep. The next time I opened my eyes it was 9:30! Quickly got up to catch the breakfast which would end at 10am.
We left the hotel before 11am in the rain. It was really raining, not just drizzling. And it was very foggy - visibility was about 10 - 20 meters ahead. I was quite nervous, especially the road is quite narrow with hardly any shoulder, and there were trucks and large buses on the road .... But Bob was not nervous at all! He was quite good at using the standard shift. I had to try not to affect him with my worries ....
Despite the bad driving condition, the rain, fog, dark clouds made the scenery so much more interesting!! I really LOVE the Iceland ruaral landscape!! With the mountains and the ocean! I can't find the right words to express my feeling and admiration for this place, and I am not able to express through my photography either! Once on the road, we realized how very windy it was. WOW!! I felt we were back in Punta Arenas where we experienced the strongest wind. And this was almost even worse!! I ventured out of the car once or twice to take photos, and I felt I was literally being blown away and had to hold on to some cement block to steady myself. Later on, this was what caused us a bad trouble ....
We stopped at one stopping point across from the mountain near Grundarfjordur by the ocean. It was so pretty, so I opened the car door. OMG!! The strong wind came from behind and slammed the car door forward, almost took it off. I held onto the car door with all my strength and screamed for Bob to come help! He was able to struggle over and helped to cloes the door. But the damage was done!!..... We will have a lot to deal with Avis and AmEx insurance ..... My heart sank ..... It is still down but there is nothing we can do now. I learned a heavy lesson. Now I do not dare to open that car door and ask Bob to open it for me every time ....
There was a silver lining to the bad weather - the sun once in a while peaked out briefly from behind the dark clouds and created beautiful rainbows!! I tried to catch them but was barely successful. I also missed shots at some beautiful spots, including good spots for some lovely sheep! Oh well ....
Our plan was to drive to the national park at the tip of the peninsular but somehow we missed the road and cut over to Stykkisholmur before we realized it. So we decided to do the national park tomorrow and hope the weather is better, and drove to Stykkisholmur directly. It was the town for the ferry and there were quite some residents. We did a little grocery shopping, bought Bob a pair of slippers that I forgot to pack, a couple of Iceland electric plugs with USB ports - again I did not pack adequately .... Then we had a fish and chips lunch/dinner at a local place called "Skipper". Food was adequate. Then we started driving back, got to the hotel around 5:30. Over all it was a great day! Except that I broke the car door ....
It's almost 7 now and rain seems to have eased off - only drizzles. From our window I can see there are still cars driving to the black church - there were 6 or 7 cars there an hour ago! Unfortunately the window facing the church in our room does not open. Three sheep were walking up that road and I could only take the pictures through the window, with much light reflections .... I would love to walk there to take more photos, but the sky is a very boring light gray so it does not make too much sense .... Oh well! Hope for tomorrow!
September 5, Thursday - Snaefellsjorkull National Park
I did not fall asleep until after 3am this morning and we were up around 8:30. Had breakfast downstairs (does not seem to have other feasible options) and left the hotel before 10.
It is another rainy and windy day, even worse than yesterday. I was worried if Bob could handle driving in such windy condition on the narrow roads, but he said no problem, so we headed towards the Snaefellsjorkull National Park. The road situation was certainly pretty risky so Bob drove slowly to be safe. Our first stop was Malarrif where there is an information center. We looked at the various maps there and chatted with the lady who was from this area and lives in the town Olafsvik. Got some tips from her.
Our second stop was Hellisandur. We drove around the small settlement town, stopped here nd there trying to take some photos. Aside from the waterfall on the mountain by the town and the ocean front in the rain/wind, the interesting thing about this town was wall arts - there were quite a lot of colorful wall arts in parts of the town. And there was a rainbow street, just like the one in downtown Reykjavik!
The next stop we made was Olafsvik which turned out to be the best town we've been to in Snaefellsnes. It was a beautiful small town, with colorfully painted houses. Some of the houses on the hillside overlooking the ocean seemed rather large and quite nice! We walked into the grocery store which had large pictures on the outside wall showing fresh meat and produce. But inside it was quite small, and it sold much more than just food - it felt like a mini wallmart .... I was hoping to get some fresh fruits but could not find any that appealed to me.
The lady at the information center said the restaurant Sker was good. We found it esily so we ate our lunch/dinner there. Again fish and chips for me, and a hamburger for Bob. Food was fine. This trip we have not had the chance to try any of Mike's recommendations yet because the timing just has not worked out. Aside from the expensive dinner at Hotel Budir, all we had were local quick food. Hopefully things will get better!
After Olafsvik we decided to head back to the hotel, and visit Arnarstapi on our way. And we did that. The rain and wind when we got to Arnarstapi suddenly got very bad! Bob and I held onto each other and walked to that famous statue of Bardur Snaefellsas and took a couple of pictures. I would have loved to walk further towards the ocean and see some of the interesting rock formations, but really could not brave the rain and wind. We got back to the hotel around 5:30.
Another pretty good day, despite the awful weather. Now, at 6pm, the rain seems to have eased off a bit. From our window, I can see at least 6 cars at the black little church, and people taking photos. I wonder if the sheep will be coming soon - really love them! The lights inside the church are on - maybe it's because today is Friday? .... Will try to go take a last look before we take off tomorrow. The hotel I booked for tomorrow and the night after is North West Hotel and Restaurant - only a 2-star hotel ..... My heart is already sinking, not quite sure how we'll survive the 2 nights .... Too late to change now ....
September 6, Friday - We Ended up in Akureyri
We woke up to an unexpected beautiful day!! NO rain, the sun was out, and the sky was filled with beautiful clouds! Finally the little black church had a nice background!! I quickly rolled out of bed and took some pictures from inside the window by my bed! Then we quickly washed and went down for breakfast, but first went out and took a few photos of the surrounding mountains shrouded in dark and light grey clouds. I was ecstatic!! The $2k we splurged these 2.5 days here are well worth it! I liked our hotel more and more - it really was a very classy hotel - like an old mansion with quite a few sitting rooms where people could gather and chat. Even though the room was "sparten" - aside from the nice white towels and 2 nice robes, there was not much else. No tissue box, now toiletry such as shower cap, , no USB ports, etc. but we were satisfied. It was a joy staying there three nights. We were happy and comfortable. Well worth the splurge!
We left the hotel after 10am. Originally Bob wanted to take the northern route to get to our next hotel, the North West Restaurant & Guesthouse in the Laugarbakki/Hvammstangi area. The idea was we could visit the "Vestfirdir" area. That would be taking Rt 54 then another smaller road to join the ring road. But that section of 54 is unpaved gravel road. We felt it would be faster and safer to join the ring road at Borgarnes, and that's what we did, sacrificing the scenery that we had not seen .... But with the sun out and all the nice clouds, the drive all along the way was simply eye candy for us!! My biggest regret was we were not able to stop to take photos of the sheep, and the horses!! .... Not sure, but keep hoping, that we might have the chance later!!....
Googlemap said the drive to the hotel would be around 2 hours and 45 minutes straight. The further we drove, the more I sensed that this hotel woud be in the middle of nowhere. And we finally got there, after 2pm. And it was worse than we imagined .... It was a crappy looking two story building, with the first level being the restaurant. There were trucks and a big tour bus parked in the front, plus a lot of cars. The buildings next to the hotel were even worse and the one next to is was having something done to its sewage or something and it smelt god-awful. We went into the door and saw a staircase and another door. Pusing open the door we saw a crowded restaurant. We asked the lady behind the counter who was busy serving guests where was the hotel. Her answer was the hotel is on the 2nd floor but we would need to checkin at the restaurant. She found our booking. I asked if we could see the room, she said yes. And she took us upstairs. The rooms were not ready yet and are being cleaned. They were SO SMALL - aside from the bed there was nothing else and we would have no place to put the suitecases, not to say anything else. Of course there was no elevator. Bob immediately mouthed "no"to me. I was kind glad he said that. I think we woud rather sleep in the car than in this place. To cancel we would need to pay for one night which was abut 160 euro. Hated to do that, but to be miserable would be worse. So we apologized and canceled. The lady was very graceful and did not take offense at all.
So what now? Bob suggested we go directly to Akureyri which was 2.5 hours away. As we were driving, I realized that staying in Akureyri meant that we might not be able to visit that entire west area of Vestfirdir which was a big disappointment. So we thought perhaps we could look for another real hotel nearby. We tried, and looked into a hotel nearby. But it had no openings except for an apartment. We were shown the place. It had a small queen bed, with a small bathroom, small sitting area and a kitchen. The building was in front of the ocean. But the price was $460-ish/night. No no.
We decided to just go to Akureyri. Mike msged me and recommended Hotel Akureyri or Hotel Kea - the former was sold out and Kea still had opening, so we booked Kea. It was the hotel we booked for the Greenland expedition with Wildphoto in 2023 which we had to cancel because of my broken wrist.
We arrived at the hotel before 6pm. The room we had was 508. The room was not big but the bed looked decent. Small bathroom with a shower the size of a cruiseship room. There is a desk, with a stool. Very little storage space. .... But it is a real hotel room. The only offensive thing is the bathroom has a sewage smell, like the old Chinese hotels in the 1990s .... Oh wel!
I would have really liked to go visit the area around Laugarbakki and Hvammstangi, but that means we need to drive 5+ hours round trip ....Bob is hesitant and I am giving up ..... So tomorrow we will just drive along the"Eyjafjordur fjord"where Akureyri is on and explore, hoping for some interesting scenery.
10pm now. Going to bed.
September 7, Saturday - Drove Around the Vatnsnes Peninsula
The shower of our hotel room is pretty awful - the worst of this trip so far. Even the shower in Hotel Duus was so much better than this one. ugh!! So I did not have a good shower which did not make my sleep better. I slept less than 6 hours. We left the hotel after breakfast (which was rather random) after 9:30.
We drove along 82 mainly and our first destination was Dalvik, which is the place Mike and Anne go every year to take the ferry over to Grimsey island. It's a small village. Aside from the ferry terminal, we saw a few restaurants and signs for whale watching trips. We parked by the office of one of such whale watching trips and I asked about the details. It was before 11am and there was a trip at 11. People all came in, got on their overall waterproof suits (red!). The guide told me the small boat is actually much more stable than the bigger ship, especially for people who get seasick. I really really would LOVE to go, but I was really really scared ..... Bob and I were not prepared and did not have the right clothing and he did not take seasick meds. And I was simply scared ..... We thought about going back tomorrow, but I don't think we will ..... We walked with the group to where they got into the boat and then watched the boat sail away .....
I needed to go pee and we had a hard time finding a bathroom. Finally asked someone who pointed to a red roofed building across the street, which turned out to be an interesting cafe. Its name seems to be Gisli Eirikur Helgi Kaffihus Bakkabraedra. And the lady inside was very nice. I did my thing and Bob had a cup of espresso. I took a bunch of pictures - I simply could not pronounce the name of this little cafe ....
After Dalvik we drove towards Siglufjordur which is at the tip of the peninsula. The drive was quite scary for me because it was on the narrow winding mountain road. Some sections were by the cliff above the vast ocean ..... But Bob did not seem to be nervous at all and he just drove more slowly than usual. There were also tunnels through the mountains and the tunnels were not only long, some had only one single lane, with the pull-out points marked "M". That was rather nerve wracking!
Siglufjordur was a colorful pretty town, at the foot of the mountain by the ocean. We visited the Herring museum and learned about the herring industry which actually funded a lot of the industries later. The nordic countries such as Norway, Denmark, and Iceland fished SO MUCH until the herrings were almost extinguished! Just like what happened to the whales. I felt so bad about the animals!!!!.....Humans are indeed the most cruel and evil species!!
After Siglufjordur we had to make the decision on what road to take coming back to Akureyri. Bob decided to take the road on the opposite of the peninsula and explore the other side. The drive was a bit more difficult at times because the road was not paved. Fortunately there were not too many of such sections. It took us more than doubled the time. We were back to the hotel shortly before 6pm.
We had scouted out the asian food restaurants last night and definitely wanted to have one of them today. After reading the reviews I chose the Thai restaurant Krua Siam which had 350 reviews with 4+ stars. The Chinese restaurant had only a few reviews, all vegetarian. We ordered fresh rolls, a tum yom soup, and three dishes. Aside from the fresh rolls which were refreshing, the other three were so-so. They all had sort of a curry flavor and did not have the Thai taste we expected. But they were ok, at least they were Asian food.
Tomorrow we will leave Akureyri and head to Myvatn. We will be staying at the Sel hotel for two nights. I'm quite apprehensive ..... We'er not looking for luxury, but it must be clean and allow us a comfortable rest. Such things seem to be hard to find below $400 ....
September 8, Sunday - To Lake Myvatn
We took a short walk out of the hotel to see a couple of the stores in town. The Icewear store had a few things reasonably priced but I decided to consider them when we get to Vik - I learned from FB that they have a big Icewear store there. I really wanted to go int 66 degree north, but the store was not open, even though it says open all 7 days 10am. Oh well ....
We checked out of the hotel shortly before 11am. Before we drove out of town, we paid a quick visit to the botanical garden which was actually just a few minutes walk away. Maybe because of the late season, the garden did not have too much colors or blossoms, but it was tranquil nice little place. I am sure it would be much more attractive in the summer and fall.
The drive to Myvatn was supposed to take a little more than 1 hour. We stopped at various spots hoping to capture some photos. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous, as the sky had interesting clouds and the sun was out, no rain! There was a rather long tunnel through the mountains, as Anne had mentioned before. But it had two lanes so not too scary. We got to the information center of Lake Myavatn after noon time. That's when I first saw the lake - it was simply stunning!!! We went in to chat with the young lady at the center and learned that we had yellow weather warning! She said the snow storm will start tonight around midnight through tomorrow night, then it will change into rain or sleet or even hail. Without snow tires it would be impossible to drive. We were stunned.... This means we would not be able to drive out tomorrow and we will not be able to make the trip to the Arctic Hendge and it means we will need to cancel the 2-night hotel at that Nordurljos hotel. But the deadline for free cancellation was 6pm yesterday, which means we will lose the first night's fee again, another $200+ ....
We came to our hotel the "Sel Hotel" which turned out to be right across the street from the information center! It was around 2pm and our room was ready! We asked the receptionist to hold our room for 2 more nights, allowing us to check the situaion with the Nordurljos hotel. He very gracefully agreed.
We have room 307 on the third floor. It was actualy okay!! Decent sized room, furniture showed its age but we have all the necessary furniture - a desk, a chair, a kingbed with separate comforters, a tall bureau to hang clothes, etc. The bathroom was very small, with a tiny sink like the one at hotel Duus (but in the bathroom). The shower had a hand-held - unsure what the water pressure would be like. I am satisfied. Phew!
Since tomorrow is likely a no-activity day, we needed to take advantage of the rest of today and survey the lake. The clouds started to become heavier and darker as we drove, and the sun stayed behind the clouds most of the time. We first drove to the Myvatn natural baths geothermal bath place and found out the basics of it - it opens 12-10pm daily and we can either bring our own swimming suits/towels or rent theirs. People usually stay 2 or 3 hours. We decided we would try it tonight after supper. By that time we were quite hungry already. We finished driving around the lake and did not stop at any other spots - hope we will have the chance to do them ....
Returning to the hotel, it was already after 4pm. The hotel restaurant was open so we had dinner there. A rather casual dining experience but food was fine - we both had lamb chops. Nothing fancy but good enough. We were hungry. Waiting staff was friendly.
After dinner, around 6:20pm, we decided to go do the geothermal bath. It turned out to be an interesting experience - we both really enjoyed the nice hot mineral water. First experience for both of us. Bob said since it feels so good, we should try the one in Japan next year. Sure! The only thing I did not like was we did not bring our slippers and it was very uncomfortable for me. Plus the process of washing and changing .... Oh well. I had to wash the swimming suits, etc. and there was no where to hang things in this small room .... Btw Mike told me before to try get the updated room but I forgot. Our room, 307, is definitely the old one ... I booked through hotels.com so of course we got the old room ....
The snow will start after midnight. We will see what it is like. Most likely we will need to cancel the trip north and stay 4 nights here. Hate to waste the $200+ but safety is much more important.
If we stay here the storm should be over and the roads drivable by Wednesday, I hope. We will definitely need to see those pseudo craters and the famous Godafoss and Dettifoss. If we cannot get out tomorrow, we will try to do a better planning for the next week.
Now I need to wash my hair, take my shower and call it a night.
September 9, Monday - Stay Put in Myvatn
It did snow last night, but apparently not as bad as forecasted. I did not fall asleep for a long time until probably 2 or 3am and woke up after 7, then got up. Opened the curtain and saw a dust of snow on the ground and a gray sky .... The weather forecast now says the snow is coming tonight, followed by more rain/sleet plus bad wind .... We must cancel the trip north - cannot take that risk!
Canceled the reservation at hotel Nordurljos, loss $250, then booked two additional nights at the current Sel hotel. The only good thing was, I was able to change our room to the updated room 322 which is so much better!!! The lady at the front desk who is the manager I believe was very nice! We packed our stuff, waited for 322 to be ready and then moved over. I had to re-do my cleanup. The weather looked ok - windy, drizzling rain, cloudy, but manageable. We went out of the hotel to explore the pseudo craters which turned out to be right across the street from our hotel! And we were actually on one of them yesterday! Duh!! The photos I saw of them were taken from a higher spot than what I could find, which was probably why I did not recognize them. Very embarrassing! Today we walked up the path as Mike mentioned and went up to the few higher points among the craters and took some photos using my phone, in the rain and wind (we both put on our rain pants and I changed into my hiking boots). It was good exercise, but it was quite cold.
We came back to the hotel - it was around noon time, there were at least two tour bus loads of people outside the hotel. I beieve one had its tourists having lunch at the cafe by our hotel, another were having lunch at our hotel. We were a bit hungry and wanted to have some pizza, but the electricity was scheduled to be out between 1:30 and 3pm, so we went across to the cafe and each had a piece of semi cold pizza. Now I wonder why we did that?? I think it must be out of boredem ....
We sat in our "new" room and rested for a little before going out again. We wanted to see the two waterfalls - Godafoss and Dettifoss. I thought (from the tour map) that these two water falls were around the lake. Bob then said they would be one after the other. We wanted to find out from the Information center the condition of the road to them. But then we found out that these two waterfalls are on two oppsite sides of the hotel; to drive to both of them would take three hours in good weather! Again they told us now the weather is on yellow and orange warning, depending the exact location and she strongly suggested we do not go today. Now that we will be staying here until Thursday, I hope we can see at least one of them when we leave.
Bob's eye glasses were broken - the nose piece fell off because of the loose screw. He can no longer use those glasses ..... Even though he said he could drive with his sunglasses, I'm worried..... But there is absolutely no chance of getting the glasses fixed around here - the only possible place is either Akureyri or perhaps Eglsstadir which is our next destination. He was hoping maybe in the little grocery store not far from us they would have a little kit he ould use to fix it. I see no possibility but went with his will. Of course there was no luck.
The lady at the information center recommended that we visit Dimmuborgir which was nearby. It was a site with volcanic rocks from 2000 years ago which had formed into different shapes. We drove there. It was like a park with paths through the volcanic structures and it was below the land surface. We looked at them from above and took some photos, but did not really go down there. It was drizzling and windy, somehow we just did not feel like going - those black volcanic rock formation was not really our thing.
I had seen somewhere that there is a restaurant at Vogafjos Farm Resort and the pictures of the food looked good. It turned out that this place is quite close to us, so we drove there, thinking of taking a look at the menu and the place. It was actually a very pleasant looking place! Looked a lot more upper scale than all the other places we had eaten lately. So we decided to go have our early "dinner" there! I ordered the slow cooked lamb shank; Bob had the special, sliced roast lamb with potatos etc. Both were quite good. One unique thing about this place was through the large glass windows in the restaurant you can see the stable with cows!! Milk cows with large boobs and calves! We can go to pet them going through the door from outside. We did that. Somehow I felt very sad for the cows .... They were all tied and each had only a small space enough to eat in front of them and lie down. Their udders were SO huge and each had a bag holding it .... I think it must be too heavy for them ..... They don't seem to get to wonder around in the field ....We humans are really cruel! ....
After the meal we came back to the hotel. The snow had started while we were driving - flakes, sleets .... It became more intense just a few minutes ago, but ow it appears to have mostly stopped. I can see the wind blowing outside the window, with rain drizzle or sleet ... It is 6:20pm now.
Quite boring, and such a waste of $ .... But there's nothing we can do about it.
September 10, Tuesday - 2nd Full Day at Sel Hotel, Myvatn
It did not snow as hard as forecasted last night. We got up around 8am today. Looking out of the window, I could see a thin layer of snow in the fields and on the roof - the green grass could still be seen. The road looked slushy. Rain/sleet was still falling. Canceling our trip north was definitely correct despite the financial loss - driving on the road today would be very risky at best.
We came back to the room after breakfast, around 9:30. I think I will download the photos from the R5 and do some Lightroom work - I have not been using the R5 much, most photos were taken with the iPhone.
It turned out that I was not able to do my photos at all - I made the mistake of bringing the wrong memory card reader - it has all the slots except for the CFexpress type B card reader! Darn!!!! In addition my old Apple Macpro laptop does not seem to be able to recognize my SSD USB drive .... So nothing is working ..... It's high time I get a new Mac laptop as mine is from 2015 .... It no longer upgrades to the latest OS. I tested my new Lacie SSD drive at home on my iMac (which is also old) and it worked, but I did not try it on this macpro ..... Sigh .... If I can get the right reader in Reykjavik I will need to do that, even if to import the photos to my macpro harddisk.
It was snowing and/or raining outside. But the temperature was above freezing so we decided to go for a drive - another round the lake. Bob drove slowly so it was manageable. The remote big crater (do not know its name) looked nice in the snow so Bob managed to stop at the spots so I could take some photos from inside the car, with my window down. We stopped at that Vogafjos restaurant and had their soup and Geysir bread. Soup was not as hearty as we expected and the Geysir bread (baked underground using the Geysir heat) was worth the try. Did not go into the barn to see the cows again but took another look from inside the restaurant. Those big cows lying on the ground in their small slot made me sad ....
We drove back to the hotel after lunch/dinner. Bob found out he left is glasses in the restaurant so we drove back and retieved them. It's almost 4pm now - we will be at the hotel until tomorrow morning - no where to go and not much else to do ....
September 11, Wednesday - Godafoss, Husavik, Dettifoss (almost)
The snow/rain stopped!! We woke up today to a bright day - even though there were still dark menacing clouds but the sun was peaking through at spots and no more precipitation!! looking out of the window, the horses and sheep were all out, grazing - but they did that even yesterday in the foul weather. Love the tranquil scene!
We wanted to drive north to the Arctic Henge - since that was our original plan, and it was only 2-3 hours drive away. The weather seemed ok now, if the road was drivable, then we go! The lady at the front desk did not know the road condition and asked us to inquire at the information center. She said her friends just wen to a rock concert a couple of days ago at the Arctic Henge - more than 1500 people were there! There was the concert and the northern light!
We went to the information center. The same lady who helped us the first day we arrived was there today. She checked the road and told us the road was paved and it looked fine, but there were a couple of roads that might be icy. We could possibly take other roads around. We decided to go and see.
Our first intermediate destination would be Husavik. But before that we wanted to see Godafoss which was sort of on the way. That was a very worthwhile stop. The fall was quite impressive. And it was easy to walk to as the paths to the fall were paved. We visited both sides of the fall. I'm usually not a waterfall person. Having seen the Niagra Falls, Victoria Falls, and Iguazu Falls, I have found it hard to get excited with small waterfalls. But the Godafalls were quite nice, enough water volume and power. I liked it.
Then we got to Husavik. We thought it might be a small town like Dalvik, but it turned out to be much better! It's a pretty town with colored roofs, with mountains and oceans around it. There was a hardware store where we found a set of small crew drivers which might be able to repair Bob's glasses!!! I checked my notes - Mike had mentioned something like "Geosea" but I did not note down what it was. Then we found it accidentally. It was by the ocean and its entrance was below ground! We went in (oh the wind was SO STRONG!!) and found out it is actually a geo thermal bath place! But the bath was an infinity pool right out by the ocean, looking at the ocean and the snowy mountains! Unbelievable!!! I regret so much that we did not bring out swimming suits and were unprepared!!! I wanted to come back again just to enjoy that infinity swimming pool! .... Sigh .... I took a video from inside, through the all fogged-up windows ....
The guy at Geosea recommended a couple of restaurants for us - Naustid and Salka. We decided to try Naustid. It was a small seafood restaurant. The food was really good! Fish was so fresh and the dishes tasted great. Bob had fish and chips, very good. I had fish of the day - grilled cod. Very good also.
It was after 3pm when we finished our meal and left Husavik. We decided to visit the other waterfall - Dettifoss. It woud be about one hour drive. The road was fine until maybe 10km from the destination. There were suddenly snow/ice grooves on the road, which made me nervous. We would have turned back if there was a safe way. Fortunately the stretch did not last too long before we got to the parking lot of Dettifoss. Then we realized this place was not like Godafoss - there were no paved paths towards the waterfall, which apparently was below the ground surface that we could see. And the path was among volcanic rocks. In addition the path was littered with snow/slush mud puddles. My heart sank .... We tried holding each other and walked maybe 100 meters, then we decided NOT to attempt forward. I simply cannot trust my legs and my balance, and I do not quite dare to risk it - this would be much harder than playing pickle ball which I had been avoiding .... So we turned back. In the car I googled the access of Dettifoss and found out the walk would be about 10 minutes, but involved some steep spots. I am sorry to have missed this fall, but also glad we did not try.
The drive back to the hotel was about one hour. We stopped at a geothermal spot named "Namafjall Hverir" where we could see steam coming out of ground somewhere. Bob stayed in the car and I walked to where the steam came out. Did not see much of anything. It was not like Yellow stone where you could see bubbles .... The sulfur smell was quite strong.
We came back to the hotel a little after 6pm. When the sun was out, this place looks simply gorgeous!! Now that the mountains are all covered with snow, they look beautiful! The horses and the ship were happily grazing on the pasture .... SO nice!
Tomorrow we will leave this place and head to Egilsstadir. Need to read my notes from Mike and google the places we want to visit in the next couple of days. Our Iceland journey has only 7 more days before we start the Greenland expedition.
September 12, Thursday - Egilsstadir
Wow what a gorgeous sunny day!! Our window faced the east and I could not even open the curtains - it was way too bright and worm! I was up early, around 6:30, and started packing up. Bob was up after 8. We ate breakfast, finished packing up, and checked out of the hotel at 10am. Over all a very nice 4-night stay at the Sel Hotel.
The drive to Egilsstadir was only a little more than 2 hours. The day was so sunny - the sky was so blue it was almost boring. Only a little cloud at the edge of the sky. Even though the blue sky was a bit boring, the surrounding mountains were really pretty after the snow. When we came here, the mountains were the normal dark color far away. Now with the snow they all seemed to have popped out! Very pretty!
We enjoyed such sunny weather for half of our way, then we we somehow got into the higher altitude, the weather started to change. The sky turned dark, with lead colored clouds covering almost the entire sky. Then the flurries - not sure if they were blown from the surrounding mountains or if it was snowing. I got so scared and nervous. The road was windy and narrow - it frightend me when there was on coming traffic, especially trucks or big buses .... Thankfully Bob was not scared and very calm, and he drove very cautiously. I had to bite my tongue not to show my nervousness. So it snowed, then rained, and the wind .... Such bad weather lasted about 1/3 of our way then finally we were getting closer to Egilsstadir! Phew!!
The hotel we're staying for tonight and tomorrow night was Herad - Berjaya Iceland Hotels. It was a 3-star hotel, same as Sel. It took us a little to find out where the front entrance was - its parking lot was on the ground floor, reception was on the first floor, and there was fenced-in construction area around. But once inside, it was very pleasant. The hotel looked new, rather contemporary, and clean. We arrived earlier than the checkin time - we got here around 1pm. But luckily the room was ready - we have room 304, with two single beds. The room was nice! Clean, simple, hardwood floors, has a desk, two chairs, two very simple nightstands and a tall bureau with shelves. The bathroom was not big, but adequate. If the shower water pressure was good, I would have no complaint! It had a real shower with glass enclosure, but no door :-)
After getting stuff settled in the hotel room, we drove out to find the restaurant Mike recommended - Nielsen restaurant. It took us three rounds driving around the same area, finally found it after asking a local. It looked like a very pleasant restaurant, but it was closed. The sign on the door said they open 6/1-8/31. Oh well ....
I was hoping we would drive around the town a bit but it turned out there was really not a town per se ....The area where our hotel was was basically the town "center" ....
Then we decided to go explore the place Mike recommended - Seydisfjordur. The map said it's only less than half an hour drive. So we went. Then we realized we're likely to drive over to the other side of the snow covered big mountain! I was messaging with Mike, he told us when they went in May, there was still a foot of snow on the side of the road! I was quite scared and wanted to go back. But Bob was not concerned, so we went forward. Oh the road was really quite intimidating - narrow, very windy with a few very dangerous looking zigzag turning points. Plus the wind! Thankfully the wind was NOT the worst - Mike checked and said it's about 24mph .... I had my heart in the throat the entire time .... But we made it there and it was well worth it!! The scenery along the way was simply stunningly gorgeous!! I cannot find the right words to describe it! The austere snow covered mountains, the beautiful valleys, with the narrow road winding through them .... I tried to take photos from within the car but simply was not abe to capture even 10% of the beauty! We finally got to the town. It was really a beautiful and quaint little town! Gaily colored as well. Nestled in the huge surrounding mountains, so cute! We were hoping to find a cafe so Bob can get a coffee before driving back. He took a short nap in the car while I got out and took some photos. Later while chatting with Mike over text msg, I learned that the road was not completely paved until a few years ago. There would be no way we could have gone there if the road was not paved! Very glad we went! The drive back somehow seemed a lot easier. We came back to the hotel probably around or before 4.
We were both very hungry. Really did not feel like going out to search for restaurants, so we decided to just eat at the hotel. The restaurant in the hotel is Lyng. At the early hour we wanted to eat, we could only order from the bar menu. We ordered spring rolls and salad to share, plus a Lyng burger each. They were good, also quite expensive (almost $100). The sweet potato fries were the best.
The one down side of the room is lack of electric outlets. I was hoping the hotel would have some multi-outlet plugs we could borrow but they did not have them. There was a hardware store nearby so we went and got an extension cord with three outlets. That would come in handy.
The weather is supposed to remain good tomorrow. We plan to visit the town Mike mentioned - Faskrudsfjordur. Another fjord town. This area of Iceland has a lot of fjords, like fingers! We will explore and hope the road is not as tricky!!
September 13, Friday - Faskrudsfjordur, the French Project, etc.
We were up rather late, almost 9am. I was awake at 4am till after 5, then went back to sleep - really hate waking up in the middle of night and could not fall back to sleep ....
Another gorgeous sunny day! Our room window faces the east. The blinding sunshine floods in making it hard to keep the curtain open ....
We left the hotel around 10am and drove towards Faskrudsfjordur. Googlemap said the drive was about half an hour. The road was much easier than the ones yesterday and we got there smoothly. Scenery along the way was nice, but not as stunningly beautiful as what we experienced yesterday. Clear sky, bright sunshine, very mild wind. Could not have asked for a better weather.
The Faskrudsfjordur town did not seem to have too much to offer especially at this time of year. We drove around and stopped at a family cafe. Bob had a double espresso and we chatted with the pleasant owner. We asked about the couple of nearby towns we were thinking of driving to, and the road condition. Then he told us about the Foss Hotel and the museum across from it, and the story about the French fishermen. We went back into town and visited the hotel and museum. Absolutely stunning story!! Because of the Catholic religion in France which mandated 166 days of the year that meat was now allowed, fishing was a big industry. French ships fisked extensively for 400 years since the 16th century off the coast of Iceland. This peaked in the 1860s through early 1900s. Many French fishermen left northern France in March and were on the sea for 7 months fishing. The hardship they went through and the appalling conditions they lived in on the ship were unbelievable. So many of these French fishermen perished. At the end of the 19th century, the French built three hospitals in Iceland. One of them was in Faskrudfjordur. This hospital was used for different purposes in the following 100 years but was part of the hotel, which used to be the doctor's house. An underground tunnel was built as part of the exhibition. We watched the video and went through the museum. Very very impressive!! We had never enjoyed a museum this much and learned this much about history!
After Faskrudsfjordur, we drove through a couple of nearby towns, Reydarfjordur and Eskifjordur. There was not much to each but we enjoyed going through them. We were back at the hotel around 3:30pm
We googled for restaurants we could go for dinner but could not find anything that appealed to us. I really wanted to just have pizza and a salad. Finally we decided on the pizzaria "Askur Pizzarea" which was about 3 minutes drive from us (close to the Nielsen resturant"). It turned out to be just what we wanted, except no salad. Their pizza was delicious!! Thin crust, with various toppings. We originally ordered only one (12") but added another one of the same. We consumed both and left fully stuffed. Need to leave them a good review!
Back to the hotel around 6 and will not go out until we leave here tomorrow morning. Unfortunately here people do not seem to take walks outside, maybe because of the weather.
Tomorrow I will be one year older - turning 76. We will be spending 2 nights in Hotel Hofn. It will be raining both days, yuk! We plan to visit the following while staying in Hofn:
Eystrahorn (part of the Krossasnesfjall mountain range, located halfway between the settlements of Hofn and Djupivogur on Hvalnes Peninsula)
Djupivogur (eggshell sculpture)
September 14, Saturday - To Hofn
As the weather forecast predicted, the rain started around 9am - it is a gray and miserable day, unfortunate for my birthday. We had breakfast, packed up, and left the hotel around 9:30am. Googlemap gave us a route to Hofn which was not the ring road. Bob did not want to take that inside road so he took mainly Rt 1, the ring road, which mainly went by the ocean.
The rain was for real, not just drizzling. And when the road went up the mountains, the rain became snow flurries. At places the wind was quite bad! My hope for capturing some nice scenery all but went out the window. I tried to take a few pictures from inside the car which of course did not come out well. We stopped in a few spots and I ventured out to snap a few photos. I kept lamenting what it would be like if the weather cooperated ....
We drove by Djupivogur where there were the stone eggs on short posts (these stone egged were given by China, I read somewhere). They were by a beach area, with non-descript objects all around. Really not worth looking or taking pictures, but I took some for documentary purposes.
Really wanted to capture the Eystrahorn mountains which was between Djpivogur and Hofn. We stopped at a pull-out area. It was gravel road with lots of big potholes which led up to the orange colored light house. It must be the most boring lighthouse I've seen - I took its picture as a proof. The rain was so hard and the wind so strong! We waited and hoped the rain and wind will give us a break but they did not. Bob parked the car in the position that I could open my window and snap some pictures of the Eystrahorn (or we thought that was it). If it were a good day, we could walk down to the beach and get some really good shots with the real camera! But it was not to be .....
One other thing I really really regret that we could not do was to take pictures of the white swans by the ocean!! There were so many of them!!!! But we could not stop and had no way of getting close to them in this weather ..... I'm SO pissed!!...... I pray it won't continue to rain tomorrow, maybe we still have a chance ....
Around 3pm we got to the hotel - Hotel Hofn. It was more than $300 a night so I thought it should be good. When we saw the front of the hotel, my heart jumped for joy, thinking I made the right choice! It was raining very hard, so we first went to the reception to inquire. The checkin was 4pm - unlike all the others. So we sat in the reception area and chatted with another couple from the US, also waiting for their room.
When our room was ready, it turned out it was NOT in the nice building, but in another building, building 5, which is a 2-story dingy looking plain building. We have room 509 which is on the 2nd floor, and there is NO elevator! I could not believe it! But the worse was yet to come .... We went into our room - it was very small! Absolutely NO storage anywhere. And there is only 1 chair, with a tiny desk. The the shower in the bathroom was just a curtain separating it from rest of the room ..... OMG! This must be the worst hotel we stayed in this trip so far, on par with that hotel Duus in Keflavik which was at least cheaper than this one. How dare they call themselves a 3-star hotel and charge this price??!! I will definitely leave an appropriate review! I asked the room maid for an extra chair. She was quite accommodating and brought us the chair and extra towels I asked for. So what can I say that's good about this hotel? 1. the room has hardwood floors (not the dirty carpet in the hallway); 2. the buttons to flush the toilet were above the toilet cover (so you are able to flush the toilet without putting the cover down). I guess those are the two good things I could think of. Sigh ..... And today is my birthday! And we have to stay here two nights!....
We had dinner at the restaurant Pakkhus Veitingar - it was rated very high. Food was good, but expensive as expected, $150. Tomorrow we will have pizza.
Rain had significantly eased off when we finished our dinner but the wind was still strong. We came back to this miserable little hotel room, feeling cheated ....
The weather forecast says tomorrow has no rain, just windy and cloudy. We will try to accomplish the following:
Vestrahorn
Svartifoss
Glacier lagoon (Jokulsarlon )
Hofskirkja (little church)
Dyrholaey lighthouse and the cliff (after Vik)
September 15, Sunday - Jokulsarlon, Jofskirkja, and Vestrahorn
Weather gave us a break today! The sun was shining when we got up and stayed relatively sunny through breakfast. We left the hotel before 10am. It was so pleasant to drive on the dry road under the clear sky (of some clouds of course).
We drove in the direction of Vik, the same as what we will do tomorrow when we leave this place. We will have a long drive tomorrow - 5 hours to Selfoss, so we wanted to cover some of the sights today even if we had to drive on the same road again.
Our first target was the Glacier Lagoon - Jokulsarlon. We both thought Paol took us there 8 years ago, but we wanted to revisit it. But we were so very disappointed - not only we did not find the spots Paol took us to, the glacier was so dirty and there were so many people! Sigh ....
The second place made up for the first one - the little church, Hofskirkja. It was so pretty and quaint! When we got there there was a tour bus load of people there, but they left soon, so there were just the two of us for a few minutes, and even a few people came later, I had the chance to take a few undisturbed photos. I did not have the chance to read the history of this church (which seemed to be half below the ground level and its roof was covered by grass/weeds). The surrounding place was also very nice. Besides, I was able to take photos of a few sheep at relatively close range. I was so very happy!!
Our third target was the Svartifoss waterfall. We got there. It has a rather huge parking lot, full of cars. And the waterfall was nowhere in sight, which meant there would be a walk. I googled images of this fall and really did not feel that much interest, as did Bob, so we gave up and drove on.
Our final target was the view of Vestrahorn - the famous austere looking mountain. To go there we needed to turn around and drove towards Hofn. After googling, we learned it is beyond Hofn for a few kilometers, through some unmarked gravel road. Bob got us there after 3pm. It was some sort of camp site and you need to pay a fee to get into the gate to get a good view of the mountain. The campsite office was right at the foot of the mountain. The fee for taking photos was only 1000isk for the two of us. It was actually not that easy to find a spot to take the picture of the entire mountain, because of the parked cars, etc. But I managed to take some shots - not sure how good they're.
We came back to the hotel shortly before 6. After washing up, we immediately headed out for supper - pizza tonight! Had pizza at the place called Ishusid pizzaeria restaurant, which was next to the restaurant we went to last night. We had two 12" pizzas and beer. They were not as good as the ones at Askur Egilsstardir, but not bad.
Back to the hotel, write my diary then relax and call it a night. Tomorrow is a long driving day for Bob. I definitely want to visit Vik, then we want to visit the following:
Blacksand beach (Reynisfjara, near Vik)
Dyrholaey lighthouse and the cliff (after Vik)
The drive from Vik to Selfoss is another 2 hours. Here to Vik is more than 2 hours.
The hotel we're staying next is Hotel Selfoss - I am worried not knowing what we might get into ..... Will it be as bad as this one??....
September 16, Monday - To Selfoss via Vik
We woke up to a damp and gray day. By the time we checked out of the hotel, it started raining.
The drive today to Selfoss was about 5 hours but we wanted to stop at Vik. The two sites we wanted to visit were all a short distance to the south west of Vik. In this kind of weather when the sky was all gray and non-stop rain, I had no chance of taking any photos. Attempted a few with no success. We got to Vik around or after noon time. Drove into the parking lot of Icewear which was a large store, with many shoppers. Its clothing seems of reasonable prices compared to stores such as 66 Degrees North. Connected to the store, there was a cafe and there were other stores. I bought a sweater jacket. Bob and I had coffee and he had a snack. The wind was so strong and the rain was quite hard. Coming into and out of the store were not pleasant.
There was a nice red top church on top of a hill right there. We drove up and I tried a coupld of shots in the wind and rain by opening my side of the car window, then we continued on. By that time, we had decided not to pursue the two places planned - the black sand beach and the cliff lighthouse, very reluctantly. It was just too dangerous! The wind was simply unbelievable!!! A short while later we drove by some scenery spot across from a bakery. We ventured out of the car. OMG!!! The wind!!!! I felt like I was being blown away and did not dare to walk towards the bakery building ..... Finally I braced myself and walked to the building (I had to use the bathroom!!). Later Bob manouvered the car over to be right outside the bakery. From inside the bakery, we could see the parked cars rocking in the wind which was truly scary!! We were very thankful for our decision NOT to visit the two scenery spots!! Life is more important!!
There was a brief moment though the sun almost peeked out and we actually saw patches of blue in the far away sky. A rainbow showed up too! But it was so brief. That was just shortly before we stopped at that bakery. The weather here is truly amazing!!!
We arrived at Hotel Selfoss around 5pm. It was right around a roundabout and it took us a while to figure out how to get to the entrance of the hotel, as there was quite a bit of constructions going on around.
We have room 422 on the 4th floor. We went up to our room without moving our lugggage and were very pleased! It was a REAL hotel room!! Quite spacious! with a sofa and two comfy chairs! A desk and chair, adequate storge and a decent sized bathroom, with a real shower and a vanity! Wow what a difference from the past two nights!!! We both felt SO relieved!!
We had supper at the food hall across the street, which actually has Asian food! We had Thai and I also ordered shaomai from the next stall. Food was ok but it's Asian food which we had not had for quite a few days now! Mike recommended a more upscale place called Tryggvaskali - we'll probably try it tomorrow which will be the last dinner we pay on our own before the expedition.
The weather forecast says the rain won't start until early afternoon tomorrow, so our plan is to start early, drive to the golden circle. Three main things to see at the golden circle: the Gullfoss waterfall, the Geysir Geothermal area, and the Thingvellir national park. Won't be any in-depth visit, because we also have a lunch reservation at 1pm at Firdheimar - I want to visit their horse stable!
September 17, Tuesday - the Golden Circle and Firdheimar Lunch
I was up before 7 this morning. Looking out of the winow - it was gorgeous! No rain, colorful sunrise, bright and pleasant. I washed and took a short walk outside - the little church in the morning sun was quite pretty! Even though the constructions outside the hotel made the surroundings quite messy, the lake/river is there and if I shoot upwords all the bottom mess was kind of eliminated. It would have been quite pretty without all that mess.
There were at least two bus loads of tourists in this hotel and the breakfast room was crowded as expected. Usual breakfast like all the previous hotels. By the time we finished breakfast and came up to the room, the sky was clouded all over - don't know if the rain would hold off until 5pm as the forecast said .... Our last full day of Iceland tour, pray for decent weather!!
We left the hotel around 9am. Our first target was the geysir. Both the geysir and the parking for it were free and it was an easy walk to the site. A lot of "smoke"/steam coming out of the ground around that area. The one that shoots up every few minutes was called Strokkur and it was situated within a roped off area. We watched it shoot out 4 or 5 times, and I only caught the moment of it starting once. And I mostly used the phone video. The weather was damp and cold, even though not raining, yet.
After the geysir, we hit the Gullfoss waterfall. It was rather close to the geysir. We walked to both the upper and lower view points. It was quite an impressive waterfall!! On par with the Godafoss.
It was around noon when we lef the waterfall. We decided to head for Fridheimar even though we would be early for our 1pm reservation. Fridheimar was actually on the golden circle. I was quite surprised when we stepped into the restaurant, even though Mike described some for me. All the tables were set inside the greenhouse, between the tomato growths. That specific greenhouse had one kind of tomato, like the cherry tomatos. The place was quite crowded - multiple tour buses were there and while we were waiting a big group from Gate 1 got in. We did not wait for too long and were seated in a 2-person table. Our waiter was new but he was very attentive. We ordered the tomato soup which came with bread and a salad each - really did not want to have a too substantial meal. Everything was good and I loved the bread!! They baked these BIG bread and cut into thick pieces. So fresh and tasted so good!! I am never a tomato soup fan but I liked the soup! Salad was very refreshing - all from their own garden. The waiter briefly told us about the history of this place. It was really very amazing!! The grow tomato all year around, in Iceland!! And they produce a ton of tomato a day!!! All are grown inside green houses of course. All the energy they use are renewable energy and most are from the geothermal source - heating, electricity, etc. They grow 4 kinds of tomatoes - I cannot remember their names. The cherry tomatos in our salad were sweet and tasty! I am really impressed! This family business started in the 1950s! I remember hearing about China had similar kind of large scale greenhouse projects that produce vegetables, etc. I'm thinking they really should learn from this place and set up restaurants inside their greenhouse to provide tasty clean organic food. I am sure they can be profitable!
I asked about the horse show event and the waiter went to inquire. Then he told us yes they can do it - I was not sure if it were just for us or for us to participate in some already scheduled event. It would cost us 21000isk, not cheap. We said OK and it turned out the lady did it just for the two of us. She showed us the stable and the horses - not many. She briefly instroduced the history of Iclandic horses and then demonstrated the 5 kind of horse movements. Aside from the usual walk, trot and canter, the two special Iclandic horse moments are tolt and something else which was kind of a fast paced run. The specific foot work of the tolt was unique and people riding could hold a full glass of bear and not spill.
The lady who demonstrated all this was a nice middle aged lady. But the less than half hour show was really a rip off ..... Oh well .... we learned a little something.
Leaving Fridheimar we headed towards the Thingveillir national park - we just wanted to drive around and see what it was like. It was not that far. We visited that little church and the area around it (could not remember all the names). Took some pictures. The park has Iceland's largest lake. Apparently people like to camp there and I can see why. I just don't know that the bug situation would be like in nice warm weathers .... It was so cold and raw today so we did not linger.
Back to the hotel around 5. As forecasted, it started raining quite hard when we arrived at the hotel. After resting for a bit we needed to decide where to have dinner. After the lunch at Fridheimar we were not hungry and did not feel like splurging at the Tryggvaskali Mike recommended. Wanted to find a more casual and simple place. The reviews raved about Froken Selfoss Icelandic Food & Drinks, so we decided to go there. It was raining pretty hard but since it was supposed to be within walking distance, we did not know what the parking situation might be, so we walked out in the rain. It turned out the place was right behind the food hall, in the so called city center which was a square surrounded by buildings/stores/restaurants. The place was very pleasant, casual but tasteful, and the service was good. From the online reviews I learned about the dish slow cooked lamb hip. I would have loved to have it, but my stomach was not feeling 100% so I ordered the pan fried char and Bob ordered the lamb. Both were quite good! Bob said it was the 2nd best lamb he had (first being the lamb at hotel Budir).
We walked back to the hotel in the rain - really hate the rain! We got so many rain/snow days this trip .... It will be raining again tomorrow. Moving stuff to the car will be a pain ....
September 18, Wednesday - To Kevflavik via Reykjavik, Joining the Greenland Team.
Another rainy day from the get-go. We checked out of the hotel a little after 10am and headed towards Reykjavik. First the Beco camera store - 8 years ago we went there and bought my first set of filter lenses. This time I was hoping to get a memory card reader for my R5 - I want a reader that reads both the CFexpress type B card and the SD card. But they only had the reader for CFexpress so I did not get it - I just won't download the photos and I have enough spare memory cards. I was also looking for a waterproof bag because my Lowpro waterproof bag is broken - the glued seams all split open! But Beco did not have any such bags .... There was a hard case which was quite nice and not too expensive (around $300 USD), made in Italy. My stuff would fit, but it's really not the kind I was looking for, to use in the zodiac rides .... The staff there was extremely nice! They helped me to explore various ways to accomplish what I wanted to do, and finally suggested we try a sports store not far away who had water proof duffles.
The store was named Ellingsen. It's a sports good store, had clothing, bags, etc. but all brands were foreign, not much Icelandic stuff. I was able to find an OSPREY 40L water proof bag so that was quickly solved. Then we went to the drug store next to it and got the miscellaneous items we needed. The pharmacist lady was very very nice and helpful! Hope the stuff she recommended and we got would really benefit us!
Next was the optometrist to repair Bob's broken glasses. The one nearby did not work -they did not have the parts. We drove to another one which got very good reviews. In a few minutes, Bob came out smiling with a thumb up - all set! Phew!!
Final target was 66 degrees north - I wated to get a fanny pack for my phone. Saw it at one of tourists attractions but they ran out. I got it from the store that I went into 16 days ago. Then I went into the next door and got a pair of wind resistent leggings which turned out to be from Icewear and it was more affordable.
All errands successfully done, then we headed towards the Aurora hotel in Keflavik. It was about 1:30. The drive was about 45 minutes. Aurora is a nice hotel - a real hotel, the kind we're used to. Feeling pleased!! We got room 502. Nothing to complain!
After clearing everything out of the car into the hotel room and ahey fter I did my basic sanitization of the room, we headed out to return the car, and to face my dreaded door damage issue ....
Avis car return was a minute drive away. We were there for maybe less than one hour - he looked at the car damage, took pictures, explaining things to us, and had us filling out the form. We need to pay now, then submit the paper work to AmEx to get reimbursed. The cost came to $2500 USD. Our rental for the past 2+ weeks plus the tunnel fee (and they fined us $20 extra because we did not pay the fee in advance - who would have known?? And the sign was NOT in English!) came to about $1500. An expensive trip for sure, especially counting the hotel fee we forfeited in addition to the legitimate hotel charge which is way out of budget. Oh well ....
The Greenland expedition team will meet in the hotel lobby at 6pm then go to dinner. Now we have a WhatsApp group for this expedition. Just learned the plan for tomorrow, 9/19:
9:15am: flight confirmation by airline;
10:00: meeting in lobby of Aurora hotel
10:15: airport checkin, flight number Fl1005
11:30: scheduled departure
13:20: Expected arrival at Constable Point/Nerlerit Inaat Airport (CNP)
Not sure if I get to write anything tomorrow morning before we checkout of the hotel room. If not, my next entry will be in Greenland, on the ship, on Notes. Then will have to transcribe to my blog when we return from Greenland.
September 19, Thursday - To Greenland
It is almost 9am now - we're waiting to hear our flight status, whether or not it will fly. It is sunny now in Keflavik and also supposed to be sunny in Scoresbysund Greenland where we're headed. The time there is one hour behind us, so it should be almost 8am.
We met the team last night. We have two leads: Bob and Virgil. Bob is specialist in rocks, ice, etc. (cannot remember the term for it) and he is from Colorado, US. Virgil is the photography lead and he is from Italy/France. There is another photography guide, John, who is from Italy. I cannot remember all the team members and their names, but here is what I can remember: Judy and her husband (?) from the UK; Jean (?) and her husband from Oregon; Katie and her husband from the Canary Island who were both teachers; a guy whose name I did not catch; a Chinese American (last name Kong) from Florida; Nickie who is a singer and photographer from the Netherlands (and Virgil's girlfriend). This is definitely a photography expedition because Virgil plays an important role on where we go when we do what, etc. I chatted briefly with him at dinner and hope/expect to learn a lot from him in shooting the moon and hopefully the nothern lights! He is a very passionate person and eager to teach. Great!
The welcome dinner last night was at the KEF restaurant, which was the restaurant at the Keflavik Hotel where we had our first breakfast the day after we arrived. Dinner was fine - I think they tried at least.
I'm almost all packed - had to leave a duffle bag full of stuff at the hotel (they charge 500isk a day but they only charged us for 3 days). We are meeting the team at the lobby at 10am. I will stop writing now and pack up my computer.
It is almost 11:30pm now and we're on the ship! And I'm online!! A very pleasant surprise!! Not sure if the wifi will last the entire trip, but we will see.
Quickly summarize today's experience: we checked out of the hotel at 10 and the team walked together, dragging our own luggages, to the airport. Thankfully the Aurora hotel is within easy walking distance to the airport and it was not raining! And there were a bunch of luggage carts outside the hotel so we could wheel our big suitecases to the airport. The checkin and seurity process were as usual and the team went through all that together. Our gate was C28. We boarded the plane before the scheduled time. It was a small plane and there were only us, and half the plane was empty. We sat at row 8 - there were a total of 9 rows, each row as 4 seats, two and two. The flight took about 1.5 hour. We arrived around 1pm local time which 1 hour behind Iceland.
The airport was just a hanger and the runway was packed dirt road. People from the last expedition was waiting there - I think they would be taking the same plane back to Keflavik. There was a bathroom but the line was long - Bob waited but did not get to go. Our lead Bob wanted us to get going quickly to avoid getting crowded for some reason. He had to carry a rifle for possible protection from bears.
Even though I brought up the issue of having the camera bags put on the truck and they all said that would be fine. But Bob said that cannot be done because the people may not take care of these fragile camera equipment .... I was disappointed, but what could I do?.... Fortunately the walk was not too long and it's all hard packed dirt road, so we all carried our bags and walked. I feel bad that Bob had to carry the heavier bag .... If I had known the road was like that, I could have used the wheeled camara bag ....
Two zodiacs carried all of us to the ship. Once we were on the ship, someone escorted each of us to our room - we first had to take off our shoes in the mudroom and walked in our socks to our rooms. Then in the room there were two pairs of felt sleepers. For us, one pair was wet .....
Our room was really really small!! Smaller than ALL the expedition ships we've been on. Even though the boat has been renovated, which was obvious, and the storage space was smartly designed. But the room was just too small - besides the two beds there was hardly any space. With the tiny desk and chair, one has to climb over the bed to get into ged. There were two towels on each bed - a bath and a hand towel. So the next 7 days will really be quite uncomfortable ....
We had lunch at around 2pm. Our chef made a nice soup with freshly baked bread, and some pasta salad. After lunch, Virgil talked about photography and schedules, etc. Tonight's plan was to shoot the new moon by the iceberg around 6, before dinner.
My Canon 1DX was like a dinosaur, so heavy! And the tripod. Plus I have not used it for a while so I had a hard time getting what I would like to do. Very frustrating! Now I need to seriously think about selling them and move to mirrorless .... But I may not get on another expedition again ..... These heavy equipment simply does not work for me any more - the older I get, the harder it is for me to handle them. Today Bob had to carry the tripod and help me - in such cold weather and going in and out of the heavy doors were quite challenging for me ....
We had a couple of hours free time so I unpacked and got the camera and tripod ready. Then around 6 we went out to prepare for the shoot. It was indeed gorgeous when the moon started to show up over the snowy mountains.... As it rose higher it moved closer to the icebergs. A lady from France/Germany was a good photographer. I saw her shots - amazing!! Virgil asked the captain sail the ship a few rounds at that location so we could get more shots. Very nice!!
Next activity was dinner. Josh our chef prepared lasagna and shredded red cabbage salad - both were delicious! I chatted with Josh briefly before dinner when I went to get some hot water. He is actually from Montana and has been living at Svalbard for 9 years!!
It was after 9 when we finished dinner. Virgil said he would be teaching people how to do night photography around 9:30 for anyone who wanted to learn. Also there would be a good chance for northern lights tonight between 10p and 1a.
I was so cold during the evening shoot and had not warmed back up even after dinner. So I went and put on all the bottom layers I have, then I went outside. Virgil was there and he pointed out to me that the northern lights started to show! It did, but was a rather boring one, no wild dancing colors. I tried a few shots but did not succeed and the lights were rather boring, so I came back.
Tomorrow breakfast will be at 7:30. Then we will zodiac on shore and visit the Inuit village. I must go to bed now.
September 20, Friday - Ittoqqortoormiit Visit, Puppies, Northern Lights!
I have never had as good a sleep as last nigit! Went to bed shortly after midnight, fell asleep probably in a few minutes, and woke up just before 6am! Breakfast was at 7:30 but we started before that as some other team mates did. We got on the zodiac around 8am to visit Ittoqqortoormiit which was a settlement of the indigenous people of east Greenland.
I still have not totally understand things about this settlement, but they speak English (most of them at least). Their "village" has all these different colored wooden houses. We first visited their tourist office which is also a little sourvinire store. We were warned that we should not buy anything that's made with animal things such as polar bear fur/skin, etc. We saw their display of pants and jackets made of polar bear fur - quite unbelievable. I was told that they hunt polar bears and whales, etc. as their food source ....
We were also warned that we should not pet their dogs who can be dangerous - the dogs were all working dogs (pulling sleds etc). Then a group of 6 or 7 puppies came to greet us - they were very friendly, some jumped on us, some licked the face of Katie. They followed us for a while but left disappointed because we did not have any treats for them ....
Then we we walked towards a higher elevation hoping to take better pictures of the village, we walked by a valley (sort of), where there were three groups of husky dogs, all chained, waiting for their breakfast. Some were howling, and there were a couple of groups of litters with their mothers. On our way back, an old man was about to feed the dogs at 10am. Then we saw puppies!! These were puppies who were only about 1 month old - cute as anything!! The old man was very kind and took the puppies out from their dog house and brought them over to the bench on whick there was a thick polar bear fur. He put the puppies on it and let us pet an even hold them. OMG the puppies were SO adorable!!! Katie, Nicky, and I all held them for a while - we wanted to bring them home!!! That was the first highlight of the day!!
After coming back to the ship, we rested for a while, then Virgil gave us a photography talk at noon, followed by lunch at 1-ish. Then many of us took a nap - I could hardly keep my eyes open! We slept till almost 3, then the captain Sergy (?) and his crew (total 7) met us and the second-in-command guy gave us a security talk (mandatory). Then at 4pm Virgil gave us another talk about shooting in zodiac. All his talks were quite educational, even though I already knew some of them.
Then around 6 we went out on the deck to try shooting the moonrise. Unfortunately today's moonrise was not as nice as yesterdays because the sky was hazy. Then dinner was at 8 - before that we went to the lounge and chatted with Judy and her husband. They have been to Antartica twice, we talked about penguins, etc. Later Bob our lead joined us, so did a few others, before dinner.
Tonight's dinner was arctic char - quite nice! Dessert was like flan with fruit sauce - delicious! After dinner Virgil told us we might have northern lights, and he was right! At first the lights were not that great - sort of like yesterdays. Bob helped me with the tripod etc and we stayed for a while then came back in. Then I saw Virgil's whatsapp msg saying the lights are cracy so I rushed out - oh wow!!! They were amazing!!! I still had not mastered how to manually focus my camera and I did not even take the camera with me when I went out again, so I used my phone which did a really good job!! The lights lasted for quite a while - really a treat for us!!!
Came back to the room after 10. Need to wash now as it is already 11pm. Hope to do some sunrise shoots tomorrow, if I can get up early.
September 21, Saturday - A Slow Day
About 11 am now - we're in kind of a lull of the day so I came bck to the room to write. I am not able to download the photos from the camera so I cannot do any editing .... I woke up once today around 4am and went back to sleep until about 5:30. I wanted so much to sleep more, then I opened the window shade a little and saw the sunrise glow and Virgil walking outside, I got up! Went to the lounge and saw nobody. Bob (our lead) walked by from the bridge and said they spotted polar bears! I rushed up but even with binoculars I could not see - must be a 1-pixdel bear. There were actually three, they said! Next thing I knew was they were all geared up to get on the zodiac. I was torn ..... would like to go but really hate to put on all that stuff and would not be able to get really good shots..... Since we had had the experience I really did not feel bundling up .... so I decided not to go. Bob was not even up yet.
So I carried my camera (R5 with 100-500) and tried a few shots here and there. Then I went to join Bob at the bridge and chatted with the captain. He told us that just a few days ago with the last expedition they saw in this area a lot of narwhals playing. WOW I have not heard of this animal before and googled to see what it's like. Amazing!!! I guess they only live in such arctic ocean. This little protected nook in the fjord might be the only place where there is the possibility of wild life. Captain said after this we would not be able to see anything live ....
I think there were only 4 of us who did not go on the zodiac trip - all older folks. The other two men's spouses all went on the zodiac. My hats off to them!!
Bob and I then went to breakfast. John the chef cooked scrambled eggs for us - very yummy! Not the kind in a large hotel restaurant - John made them from fresh eggs. Such a nice breakfast! When we just finished the breakfast the zodiacs returned. I spoke with Karine (the French lady, a good photographer) and saw a few of her photos. Nice! No close portrait shots of the polar bears but much better than I expected! She got some very good seal shots. Even if I went I probably would not be able to do what she did.
Just saw msg on whatsapp, Bob Gilmore (the lead) will give a presentation on glaciology. I'm going up to join Bob there now.
Bob gave a good lecture on glaciology - such as glacier ice vs sea ice, the various concepts such as ice sheet, ice tongue, ice berg, etc. etc. Very educational. I took pictures of his presentation hoping to take notes when I'm back homte. After lunch, we had time to take a good nap (which we did). At 3:30, Virgil gave us a talk about Aurora - again very educational! Even though I do not fully understand all involved, I did learn some basics.
After the talk, originally Virgil was hoping we might do a zodiac trip around icebergs in sunset/twilight, but it turned out the icebergs were spread out and it's much better to take photos from the ship. we sailed by a lot of icebergs, including some very very huge ones. I tried taking pictures of them using my phone at first later using the camera. So basically we did not do much. Dinner was at 8, then we came back to the room. It is cloudy out so I don't think there is much chance for northern lights ....
The plan tomorrow was voluntary sunrise shoot - sunrise is around 6:15 but Virgil will be up before 5. I will see what I can do. Breakfast at 7:30, prepare to zodiac landing starting 9am - we will go on shore at bear island and do some hiking.
Need to wash my hair tonight - a challenge using the bathroom .... Sigh! This room is the smallest of all the rooms on the expeditions we've taken. Can hardly turn aroud .... Very disappointed ....
September 22, Sunday - Surprising Wildlife Day around Bear Islands
It was already 6 when I woke up. Lifting up the curtain I saw the same kind of a narrow strip of sunrise color. I knew the light on the mountains would be great. I washed up as quickly as I could and went outside. Took a couple of shots but nothing that spectacular.
At breakfast Virgil announced the morning plan. We would get on the zodiac and try to shoot some wild life - they spotted polar bears on shore. We were at the bear islands. I debated whether or not I should do the zodiac ride and decided I would. Even though I knew I probably won't get any good shots even if there were bears. But wild life at the Greenland was prety rare, especially because bears and whales etc are being hunted and not protected so they're very scared of human.
Bob would not go so he helped me to put on the clumsy onsie and handed me the camera - I took the R5 with 100-500 lens. The zodiac ride was actually not bad at all - not as cold as I feared. And to my surprise and delight, we saw a bear and a fox!! I tried my best to shoot and did not try to look at the results, but hoping I would at least get a couple of sharp ones. So I only saw one bear and one fox - later people told me there was one bear and two foxes. And the bear was eating at a carcus of a seal. We were told not to talk - the bears here are not afraid of the engine noise but they would run if they hear human sounds - I hate human especially here!! They kill the bears!! Evil!
Our guide said perhaps we stayed a bit too long so the bear abandoned her carcus and ran. I saw the bear jumped into the water and swam away ..... I could not catch a shot .... :-(
So our zodiac turned back. With the onsie I felt toasted. We came back to the ship shortly before 10am. After we took off our onsies I looked at my shots - pretty BAD!! I don't know why for some of them my focus was right on their face but the picture was fuzzy!! So my camera setting was not done right .... I am very diasappointed with myself ....
At 11am, Bob gave us a presentation of geology 101. Again I learned something! Now we're waiting for lunch at 1:30. After lunch we will zodiac on shore and do a hike. I will bring the walking stick. I don't expect any whild life shots so I may not bring any camera ....
It turned out we missed Bob's whatsapp msg announcing lunch was at 12:30, so when we went there after 1pm, there was hardly much left. Oh well, we had some soup which was cold and some salad and a piece of bread each. Then zodiac on shore was at 2. We decided to go and I took my 5R and the 24-105mm lens. The zodiac trip was rather long and it was quite cold, as the sun was behind the clouds. Nobody had done the zodiac landing at the bear islands but the leads had figured out where they would land. The landing spot was far from the ones we had experienced before -there was not a gradual sloped beach, just a narrow rocky spot. Our leads managed to land both zodiacs and got us all on shore. Then they divided us into two teams. One team would hike up the rather steep rocky mountain to the top then around. the other team would remain at the area near the landing spot. John our guide who managed out zodiac led our group which consisted of 5 people: bob and me, Jean and Jim (from Oregon) who seem to be around our age or older, and Jasmin the Taiwan lady. John is a really nice man! He was very patient and caring with us.
Then the big surprise came: Bob spotted a white patch on the mountain across from where we were and said to me there is an animal there. I used my camera and zoomed in as much as I could and took a photo - it definitely was some animal. I quickly showed it to John who has a big lens and he said it was an arctic hare!! Then he corrected himself and said it was an arctic fox!!! The cute creature stayed on his spot almot motionless for a long time - John said it must be doing something. It turned out he was watching a lemming!! Later he jumped own trying to catch the lemming (and got it) - he actually tumbled down the rocks! Then he ran towards where wer were and did not seem to be afraid of us at all, just a little curious. He circled the area we were standing before and tried to tear away John's camera bag that he left there. It was simply amazing!! He ran past us, stopped to communicate with his partner who was across the water on the opposite mountain. It was the first time ever that I heard fox yelping at eah other!! Simply magical!! We watched this cute creature for a long time until he disappeared behing the rocks. Then we learned that the other team saw a group of muscots!! These are definitely highlights of our trip!! I am super glad that my photos of the little white fox actually came out well!! Most are sharp!! I really do not understand why my 100-500 lens did not work even though the settings were the same.....
We came back to the ship before 5. Really glad we made the zodiac trip!! We then had snacks and drinks in the lounge with some follow trip mates. By the way, Judy and her husband were really nice people!! I was really apprehensive on the walk after the zodiac landing and they offered to help .....I'm very touched!!
Dinner will be at 8 and it's 7:30 now. I think we will head there soon. There might be northern lights tonight!
Delicious dinner again - we'll definitely gain weight this expedition! Need to pay attention now!
Tonight we might see the northern lights again. I would really like to practice using my camera and tripod, just can't decide about the timing..... Will see!
Our boat will stay here tonight and sail all day tomorrow, so tomorrow mainly will be shooting from the ship. We're supposed to see lots of icebuergs and great landscape on both sides. Also want to try doing the sunrise shots between 6 and 7am.
September 23, Monday - Day of Sailing and Zodiac Sunset Shooting
It was 6:15am when I woke up. Lifting the window shade I screamed! It was the most gorgeous sunrise!! I crawled back on the bed to fetch my phone on the nightstand and quickly snapped a few pictures. Then I washed as quickly as I could and rushed out with my real camera. Caught a bunch of shots then came back - had to take my Monday meds. Then I went out again and came back around 7:10. Got Bob up and went to breakfast.
Then we went to the lounge and I went in and out to take photos of the mountains with all shapes and sizes of icebergs in the morning sunlight. There was not much else I could do - really regret not being able to download the photos to the computer to edit. Around 11am, Virgil gave an intro talk on Lightroom - I have not done it for so long, shame on me!! Both my iMac and my macpro laptop are so old they could not install the lastest OS and Lightroom - must invest to update both now! .....
Lunch was at 12:30 - delicious beef stroganoff and salad - I could have eaten double what I did, but had to control!! The way it is, we both must have gained quite a lot of weight .... Not good!
Don't know what the plan is for the afternoon yet - probably some more talks. John may talk about polar bears, etc. Will see. I will go back up to the lounge to see if there are more photo opportunities.
Nothing in particular so I came back to the room and took a nap. At around 3:30 John gave a talk about polar bear conservation (or the lack of) and about arctic foxes. Really enjoyed his talk! Then at 5:30 we did a zodiac sunset "cruise". I asked Virgil if I should bring the 70-200 or the 100-500 lens he suggested the longer one which turned out to be so wrong since I did not bring another short lens. The zodiac shooting was very disappointing. First because of the wrong lens, secondly because of the chaotic actions in the zodiac .... I'm not happy, don't think I will get in Virgil's zodiac again. I much prefer John's zodiac! I dressed appropriately this time so I was not cold! But I could hardly move ....
Back to the ship around 7:30. Dinner was at 8. We're staying at this spot tonight and the plan is to try zodiac landing and do another hike after breakfast. Tomorrow's sunrise is supposed to be good, so I will definitely try to get up before 6! Try!
September 24, Tuesday - Did Another Zodiac Landing Hike
I did not fall asleep until after 3am - my own fault as I was watching YouTube soap ..... I woke up around 5:30, pulled back the curtain and saw a cloudy sky with no sign of sunrise glory. Heart sinking.... But I got up at 6 anyway thinking the sun might break through. I went outside after washing - the morning looked a bit better. There was a little color and some of the mountain looked good. I took some pictures and came back around 7.
Breakfast was at 7:30 and we werer there a bit earlier. Zodiac landing and hike was planned for 9:30. It was quite windy out there. Virgil said fortunately where we plan to land would be in a protected area so less windy ..... I am apprehensive but we will bundle up as much as we could and go. Virgil said to bring wide angle lens for scenery. I will bring the 100-500 hoping for wild life ....
We were all bundled up by 9am then we got a whatsapp msg telling all to come to the lunge. It turned out the plan had changed - we were not going on shore at 9:30 because the wind had picked up to 20knots/hr so the risk of the zodiac ride would not be worth the rewards. The ship is now changing to a different location which should be more protected, then we will try again. Most likely around noon. So we came back and peeled back to our normal layers. And we wait and see.
So the plan was we would have lunch, then do the zodiac landing and hike at 2pm. Bob and I got all dressed up and I even had my big goggles on. It turned out that the ride was much shorter than the last two landings and the weather was really nice - sunny and warm! Bob and I definitely over dressed which added more burden to the hike. It was a rather mild slope but full of those vegetation and the ground was not even. Bob and I used the sticks and were able to walk to the first top where we actually saw the mascots!!! Unfortunately we were way behind and did not get to take any photos. I took 2 shots and did not expect to get anything (to my big surprise later after we returned, one shot actually got one mascot's face and one eye was quite sharp!!!). Later the mascots all ran away - they might have sensed our presence even though we kept very quiet. John was so nice and he really helped me to move around at the top otherwise I would not have gotten even one shot!
Then the group wanted to continue walking to the next top - Bob and I did not want to join, so we started walking back to join our lead Bob who was helping Jean and Jim and they stopped at 2/3 of the way. John escorted us down to join the three of them and then he ran back to lead the group. The 5 of us then walked to the zodiac. Bob drove us around the island a bit then back to the ship. I'm very thankful to John and Bob!!!
We were back on the ship after 3 and the team came back around 4. I was chatting with Jean and found out that Jim is 83 and she is 81. They are really doing super great!! Neither of them is that healthy - e.g. Jean also had strokes or TIAs, but I think we're all doing great at our age!!
John might be given a talk about Photoshop which I will go to listen and learn. Oh just saw bob's msg - we will meet at 5 for Bob to first present The Realm of Sea Ice, then John will give an intro to Photoshop. Great! I just need to stay awake!!
Both presentations were good and very educational! Learned more about sea ice and more about Photoshop - I need to try using it more which would be the only way to learn!
Dinner was at 8 as usual - John did a great job, as usual. Today it wa pork loin with rice pilaf and red cabbage salad, very tasty! He really is a great chef - he makes pretty much everything of the three meals! Very well organized!
Tomorrow will be our last full day here in Greenland - Thursday we will be flying back to Keflavik. We are sailing back to the Ofjord - kind of retracing our steps. Our plan is to try catching some glorious sunrise photos, then do a zodiac trip after breakfast. We will be again around the bear islands. I am debating if we should do the onshore trip ..... will see...
There will be more presentations tomorrow, and a "talent show" in the evening - I think Nikki will sing.
We just had some northern lights! I did not bother to try using the camera, and just took the iphone shots. The sky had so many starts!!! Gorgeous! I regret that I did not learn to shoot with my camera - just really did not feel like dragging the tripod and manual focus the lens .....
The most horifying thing today was I could not find my treasured white arctic fox shots!!! They just disappeared from my camera!! I checked both cameras even though I'm sure they were in the R5! I doubled checked three times - GONE!!!! The only hope is to download from both memory cards when I get home...... Those were my most treasured shots!!!!!.....
September 25, Wednesday - Last Full Day in Greenland
I was awake before 5. Pulled open the window shade and saw not much light. I went back to sleep but worried if I would miss the sunrise. Then I got up at 6 and went out with the camera. There was no glorious sunrise but the soft light at dawn did paint edthe sky/clouds/parts of the mountains nicely. I was out for about half an hour.
Breakfast was t 7:30 and zodiac tour (no landing) was at 9. We were in John's zodiac - I really wanted to be in his zodiac .... There were the two of us, Judy and her husband, Jean and Jim in John's zodiac. We were out there for more than 2 hours, touring the iceberg "graveyard" - really nice icebergs, big and small, all shapes. Just before we boarded the ship we saw a seal on a sea ice. Both zodiac stopped and everyone was trying to photograph that silly seal who was enjoying him/herself and did not get scared of us, of course we were being quiet.
After lunch Bob announced the schedule for the next 24 hours - we'll have some presentations this afternoon schedule to be announced. Tomorrow all the checked in luggages need to be put outside of our rooms when we go to breakfast at 7:30. Then all carryon bags need to be out of the rooms by 8am, then we can spend time in the lounge waiting to zodiac back on land to walk to the air strip. We hope to be back in Keflavik around 3pm but I'm not sure if that's right since we're 4 hours here ahead of Iceland ....
As soon as we came back to the room I started packing. Tomorrow we need to be up early so we can have our private bathroom before we head to the lounge ......
Don't think I will write much more here until we get back to Keflavik.
Well I came back to the room after Virgil's talk about polar bears - excellent presentation and learned so much about polar bear! Need to get on Disney Plus to watch "Ours Polaire" - a documentary made by his friend ?
Bob will do a talk about climate change at 6 then Virgil will talk about his special Aurora project and John will talk about our itinerary this trip which I've been looking forward to.
Oh my!!!! I never expected Virgil to be such a dare devil amazing adventurous person!!! Unbelievable!!!! And he really works very hard at what he does and he is passionate about his photography! The extent he goes to and the courague he has are simplay shocking! I was mesmerized with what he has done for the aurora project he has been persuing! WOW!!!
After dinner we had a party - I never thought Nikki would have such as powerful good voice! Amazing!! Judy was wild! I love her! Oh what a good way to end our Greenland trip!!
September 26, Thursday - Back in Keflavik on our Way Home
5:10pm Iceland time now and we're in the Aurora hotel, feeling somewhat relaxed and relieved even though also a bit sad to have ended the Greenland journey - probably our last exedition .....
I was up before 4:45 when the alarm went off and started finishing the packing. Bob was up shortly after and we were having breakfast before 7 like a lot of others. There was no glorious sunrise this morning. It was cloudy and a bit windy. We were notified that the flight today was a "GO" - phew!! We waited in the lounge for a bit. After they had all the checkin luggage zodiac'd on shore, it was our turn. It was a bit chilly since we did not have all our usual layers on. The best thing was, the guy who came to get all the checkin luggage to the airport had a spare cart and let us put our carryon bags on it and he drove them to the airport!!! What a RELIEF!!!!! Without the heavt camera bags the walk was a breeze!!!
We waited for about 2 hours at the "airport". It was almost funny how they conducted the security checks - first we had to go identify our checkin luggage and they let us open every piece for them to check. The nice guy who handled mine was almot apologetic and he had to do this. I asked if they had a scanner. He said yes but it has not been installed yet :-) After the checkin luggage was done, we waited again for them to check the carryon bags. Once that was done, we did not go back to the waiting room and went directly outside to board the plane which arrived a bit after 12pm, and it carried the next batch of guests which is the last Secret Atlas Greenland expedition of this season.
Bob and Virgil escorted us all the way. After our flight took off, I saw the new batch walking towards the zodiac, with Bob leading the way with his rifle and they waved to us. We waved back but not sure if they could see .... I DO like our expedition team a lot! A very nice bunch of people!! Chef John (or Josh?) cooked the best meals we've had on all these expeditions!
We landed in Keflavik around 3:30 local time. This Aurora hotel is truly very convenient! Got in our room (508 - a few doors down from 502 where we stayed 7 nights ago), I did my sanitization and repacked to get our clothes out for tomorrow. Then we went to the airport hoping to get the tax refund done. Unfortunately they can only do the refund on the same day of the flight. So tomorrow we'll be up early as our flight is at 10am. I want to be upat 4, have breakfast at 4:30 then walk over to the airport, get luggage checked in then wait.
Tonight's dinner will be at the restaurant in this hotel - good or bad, then call it a night early!
September 27, Friday - Home Sweet Home
It was an arduous journey, mainly because of the heavy carryon bags and my broken purse .... But the flight was punctual and smooth even though it was fully packed. We arrived at Logan around 11am and home before 1pm. It has been a great three weeks and we enjoyed it!!
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