Summer 2016 b

5
ICELAND - A
PHOTOGRAPHER’S
DREAM
Last year my husband and
I celebrated our tenth wedding
anniversary. As part
of that special event we
decided we would book a
holiday to Iceland.
We originally intended to travel there
for Christmas and New Year, however
we were thwarted by leaving it
too late to book, thus we could only
achieve 7 days. In hindsight this was
in our favour, even if a little disappointed
at the time. Travelling to Iceland
in March would be much better...longer
days for starters.
With much preparation, research
and general internet surfing, we were
ready to head off on our Icelandic adventure.
Full of anticipation, excitement
and just not knowing what to
expect once we arrived. We weren’t
disappointed with what awaited us...
I don’t want this article to become a
review or a blog entry/diary of our
time there, rather to share with you
what the country has to offer from a general
tourist and photographer’s experiences.
It’s difficult to know where to start, so
I’m just going to go for it. We hired a 4x4
as part of our package mainly because we
knew we didn’t want to be a part of a group
tour. We wanted the freedom to make our
own choices of the places we wanted to
visit. That was our choice but if you want
to be part of a group then there are plenty
to choose from. We had also booked a
whale watching excursion and snowmobile
ride on a glacier as part of our package
deal. Neither of which we did. Bad weather
and bad planning put paid to those two.
My advice is to wait until you arrive, you
just don’t know what the weather is going
to throw at you.
Right then, that’s the boring bit out of the
way, now to tell you about the holiday and
our experiences! What to say and where to
start? The country is amazing and the Icelanders
we met were friendly. Don’t worry
about any language barriers, English is
their second language. Yes that adds to the
English being lazy language learners theory
but...
We stayed in Rejkyavik for 6 nights, 2
nights in Vik and our last in Grindavik.
We wished we had stayed longer in Vik,
another mistake on our part when booking.
Hey, you live and learn! It wasn’t
such a bad decision we just didn’t know
that we were going to fall in love with the
area of Vik!
We drove and drove but the roads were
easy to traverse, no road rage, no endless
traffic jams, just long open roads. Sometimes
the scenery was a minimalist’s
dream, follow a bend and you’re in mountainous
terrain, then in amongst the moss
fields. Such diversity. Wide open spaces,
with scattered farming communities
with their traditional stone and grass huts
built into the base of mountains. The odd
church here and there with maybe just one
or two houses nearby to serve them. Huge
glacier faces that seem to go on for miles
and miles and miles. Are you starting to
get the visual picture yet?
Our eyes were treated to a veritable feast
of magnificent, epic landscapes and seascapes.
There were times when I just forgot
to use the camera, times when I just
wanted to take it all in and process what
I was seeing, the first time that has ever
happened to me. Mr B commented