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After checking if everyone of our family is available, we fixed the time slot 26.03.18-04.04.18 for our journey.
I will get in contact with Vinzenz and Kerstin, who are living in Shanghai for a few years now, to arrange some meetings or maybe if they will have time, to spend some days together.]]>
We have to give back our rented car until Saturday afternoon so we have some time to visit a view highlights of the city.
At first we walk trough the city and passed a lot of nice colored houses, the Sólfar a dreamboat and a Ode to the sun, the Hallgrimskierkja and the concert house Harpa, which have a very nice architecture with the usage of a lot of glass. Also impressive for me was the hot water reservoir Perla, which have also a great architecture and I can play with some long exposure.
But the time was running and we have to drive to the car rental to bring back our home for the last 12 days. After last check of the car they brought us to our Hotel...unbelievable a bed, a room and a hot shower ...
So in the evening we prepare our luggage because we have to be at the airport very early at 6 am in the morning and finish the day with the last drink out of our bottle Captain Morgan.
We didn´t spend the complete bottle of Captain Morgan to the Trolls and Elves, but it seem that they where happy with our donation and they present to us very nice shows of the Aurora borealis => Cheers !
Reykjavik with a lot of nice colored houses.
Inside of the Hallgrimskierkj
Solfar
Solfar
Harpa
Harpa
Harpa
Perla Hot water reservoir
It seems that we have a small chance to have a clear sky in the southern coast region close to Seljanlandsfoss. So we drive into the night and drive and drive...and a little second sleep by touching the road boundaries convinced us to take a break and found a place to sleep close to an winter sport area.
At the next morning we go on driving and make our next stop at Skogafoss waterfall. It was terrible how many bus tourists were carried to the sightseeing points. Of course we are also tourists, but sometimes it shock´s what happened with all the nice places.
Also the area with the air plane wreck Douglas DC3 at the coast, where 2 years before we can drive an off road direct to the air plane (only the GPS Datas were known) now it only can be reached by feet and you have to park the car close to the ring road on a signed parking place. I think it will help to get no further uncontrolled spectacle at the wreck. Some tourist have leave graffities at the airplane...unbelievable.
At the Skogafoss waterfall we make a walk above to the view point. The weather gets worst but we walk further trough the closed area the Laugavegur trekking route for a while. That was a good decision because the valley is very nice, also if it rains. But later on the rain stops and I also can start my drone to capture some nice shoots. In summer it is possible to walk this trekking route for 45 km.
What for us still is missing, is an flight over an glacier so we stop at the 8km long Solheimajökull, which is not the nicest one, but easy to reach. That it is easy to reach we recognize also when we see the lot of people which were dropped off out of the busses to make their glacier tour. Hopefully they learn a lot of the sensitivity and the importance of the conservation of the glaciers for the future.
Our camp ground for the night. A nice awaking as we see that it was n great winter-sport area.
Behind the Skogafoss waterfall a nice valley with several small waterfalls, invite to go for a walk
The Laugavegur trekking route should be in summer a very nice adventure
Skogafoss
Skogafoss
Skogafoss
Solheimajökull from above
Solheimajökull
Solheimajökull
Solheimajökull
Solheimajökull with the lot of glacier trekking tourists
Solheimajökull
And we have luck! We choose the view point close to the hill with some water in the foreground, to get also some nice reflections.
The Aurora starts very early in the evening. It was still the blue hour as we heard the screaming of some tourist when they see the light. The show has begun and it was great !
Some illumination of the foreground from passing cars at the road
On our tour we driving round these peninsula and there a some nice view points where we have a great look to the rough sea and the coast line. We stop at the black beach at Djúpalónssandur, where rough lava stones on the black stone beach and in the background the white shining cap of the Snaefellsjökul...what a scenery!
And Yes, later when we drove over the mountain pass road to go to the south side we stop at an side way in the mountains when then the show begins. So the forecast was right and we get an new show of the green light we were hunting the most time for. It was amazing show because it was really strong and the colors changes from green to purple and the beams are directly above our heads. We are the only one at that area and it was a wonderful feeling again.
Later on we drove with a good feeling to the beach on the south side and found a nice area for sleeping close to an church. There was still some Aurora light in the sky which illuminate also wonderful the church and due to the coast side a nice noise of the surf was the background sound.
At the next morning we take a little walk into the dunes and have a very nice sunrise with a great view to the Snaefellsjökul glacier which were illuminated of the rising sun.
Now we can drive to the north of Snaefellsnes again by driving along the western coast circle..another good weather forecast is visible and we want to catch the Kirkjufell with Aurora. Let see if we can trust the forecast.
The sky is burning in different colors
View above
Small church with Aurora
But unfortunately the clouds came earlier than expected and no polar lights were visible.
The journey to that place at the peninsula Vatnsnes, was a very nice trip through phantastic landscape and only reachable with 45 min drive on off road street.
The stop over was a little bit extended because I forgot to switch off the car parking light for the night...So we have a little pimped wake up on this Saturday morning, when we want to start the car for warming us up.
Because we have parked our car for sleeping outside of the village at an composting ground, we have to take a little walk to the village. But it seems that the complete village is still sleeping at these morning 7:00 o´clock...And also no bakery was found.
So it takes some time to catch an old man who was driving through the village and who fortunately have a starting cable in his car. He drove with us together to our car and I think it was a little bit strange for him that 2 German guys standing at the street and stopped him to help us with some starting power for the car. But it works and we didn't stop the engine in the next hours.
Reaching Mytvan lake in the afternoon we decide to go to an camp ground, because we have heard that at that area the police are looking strictly for wild campers. Wild camping is not allowed anymore in iceland and in our point of view it will destroy one part of the specialities for tourist who will travel by there own and be free as much as they want.
Mytvan Lake is an very nice area with a high volcanic system of around 100km and with the 880 m high volcanic center and we spend at least 3 night at the camp ground.
Also for Ralf who have big cold since the 2nd day of our journey it was an opportunity to relax and get healthy.
It was a great time at the campground to meet also a lot of other traveller and it was a very relaxed atmosphere at the nice building at that camp ground.
On daytime after our long breakfast we visit some waterfalls the Godafoss and Dettifoss. I test also my Drohne at the volcano and due to the strong wind the drone didn't come back and has landed anywhere in the lava field, where we only roughly recognized where she goes down.
My feeling was that we lost her, but fortunately we found her in good condition and we were happy to get minimum the captured film of the flight around the volcano on the SD card at the drone. The same was happened on the after noon when I try to let the drone go up again at the lake. She also didn't react to any signal and flew away in one direction. But when she got back, after she get the GPS again, she has to works very hard again the strong wind and found the way back...phuu !!!
And yeah...we have three nights with visible Aurora and one of the nights a group of Hungarian people have a lot of fun, when they also see their first Aurora borealis. A great show !
]]>Few minutes driving at a off road from the ring road No1. we reach the parking place in front of a small cafe and an old viking museum village, where we have to pay a few Euros for parking.
We walk to the nice dunes which were spotted by the setting sun and set the gras at the top of the dunes in a wonderful light.
This place is also well known by a lot of photographers and a lot of these species are standing at the dunes with their tripos...like we are doing. Sometimes it is difficult to get a picture with out my photo friends.
Depending on the time this place will be visit, the tide is different and if you have luck you can get some nice mirror effect on some little lakes at the dunes.
]]>We started 9 pm at the Hali Country Hotel and drive in a typical Off-road glacier car with very big wheels and a lot of space unter the car in direction Vatnajökull glacier. Europe´s largest ice cap.
It goes for the first 1/2 hour over a dirty road close to the glacier so that we have to walk for an other 1/2 hour to get to the cave entrance.
There we have 2 different caves. One with the nice blue ice structure and the other one with more water movement into the cave.
Ingi told us during our tour in the car a lot of background information and also at the small tracking tour he often makes a break and explains a lot of interesting things about the glacier and the changes we will get, if the global warming will go on...
The route to Jökulsarlon was mostly at the ring road No.1. So we passed the nice coast line at the Sneafellsess, some very nice Iceland pony and I made my first lessons in Iceland with my drone at the waterfall Hraunfossar.
Hraunfossar
Hraunfossar
Checking the route
Jökulsarlon Glacier Lagune
Jökulsarlon Glacier Lagune
Link to my visit at Jökulsarlon Diamond Beach in 2015]]>
And we have had luck ! It was not a very high Aurora Intensity, but for the first night it was great for us and also some Japans traveller who cried out loud when the first light occur. What a great night.
We slept very well at our small car at the Kirkjufell area looking forward for some nice sunrise at the morning and we get it. Fantastic weather with a nice light.
]]>We added 4 more days until 2nd of April, because from 28 of March the Aurora forecast is 2x KP6 and 2x KP5...Hopefully we can trust the forecast and some other conditions, like the clouds coverage is also fine.
4 days more...puuhh, what do I have to take additional with me. Only some T-shirts, undertrousers and socks...Hopefully everything could find the right place in my bag.
I have also decided to take my drone phantom 3 prof with me, so it will be little tricky with our luggage, because the drone box is an additional bag pack and I have to split my photo equipment to get it transported. 2 lenses will be carried by Ralf and I will use an additional little hand baggage, so it will work.
After meeting Ralf at our departure day he told me that he have arranged a 2nd luggage for the flight, so it seems that we have enough capacity for our gear.
]]>Wir (Ralf Schneider und ich) haben schon einige male im letzten Jahr drüber gesprochen, aber so richtig konkret wurde es dann Ende Januar diesen Jahres, wo wir es dann recht schnell fest gemacht haben. So haben wir den Flug, ein Mietauto und auch den Besuch einer Eishöhle rasch gebucht und sind nun in der Vorbereitungsphase. ]]>
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Der heutige Tag fing prickelnd an. Nach einer kalten Nacht (Heizung ausgefallen) wollten wir aufbrechen, aber nur ein "Klack" aus dem Motorraum zu Hören. Zu allem Übel war der sonst recht gut besuchte Platz am Jökulsarlon Gletscher See heute ziemlich verlassen. Etwas später konnte uns dann ein anders Wohnmobil Starthilfe geben und wir konnten endlich weiter. Nur war durch den Sturm das weiterfahren sehr mühselig, aber machbar. Immerhin war die Strecke nach Höfn nicht gesperrt, wie die Strecke in entgegengesetzter Richtung, wo wir eigentlich hin wollten.Höfn mussten wir anlaufen, da unser Autovermieter eine Werkstatt für einen Batteriecheck organisiert hatte.
Mal sehen welche Überraschung uns der morgige Tag bringt.
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]]>Danach ging es über Pingvellir, wo aber nicht viel zu sehen war, zum Gullfoss. Nachts angekommen haben wir dort unsere erste Nacht beim Wasserfall verbracht.
Der Gullfoss ist ein beeindruckender Wasserfall, der in 2 Stufen 11m und 21m die fast rechtwinklig zueinander liegen, in die Tiefe stürzt.
Der Wasserfall gehört neben Pingvellir und dem Geysir zum sogenannten "Golden circle" einer der berühmten Sehenswürdigkeiten.
Die ersten Vorbereitung wie Flug und Mietfahrzeug (F150 mit Campingaufbau) sind organisiert und nun geht es an die Zusammenstellung der
Packliste.
Gestern haben wir uns getroffen um die notwendigen Einkäufe, die wir vor Ort tätigen müssen, schon mal abzuklären und eine Einkaufsliste erstellt. Wir wollen ja schließlich keine Zeit im Supermarkt verlieren.
Auch haben wir die Route grob abgesteckt und wir müssen uns dann wenn wir angekommen sind, je nach Wettervorhersage, entscheiden ob wir
zuerst in den Norden (Reykjavik- Kirkjufell, über Pingvellir und Gullfoss) oder in den Süden (Reykjavik - die Küste entlang bis Vik) fahren.
Man(n) wird sehen.
Interessante links:
http://www.livefromiceland.is/de/
http://www.vegagerdin.is/english/web-cams/
http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/articles/nr/2947
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