Iceland: Epilogue Part 2

Seeing the sights and sounds

In my 58 weeks in Iceland I tried to see as much of the country as was available to me, a disadvantage was that I do not possess a drivers license and so my independent travelling based around the availability of friends also travelling. Don't get me wrong this was a great way to see much of the country but of course not a regular opportunity. But a huge advantage to me was that as part of the tourist industry I was able to claim free travel with multiple companies! This meant I would have to travel fully as a tourist in large groups, but I must saved thousands of pounds (due to the extraordinary fees they charge) by going with these companies.

Ah Gullfoss (The Golden Waterfall), I managed to visit you in every single season of the year! But you looked at your best when covered in ice and snow. This was taken in November, I also visited in January and you were even prettier then! This was part of the Golden Circle tour mentioned in the first part, I ended up seeing the circle four times!

And of course part of the Golden Circle tour is the mighty geysir Strókkur! These pictures were taken on my final visit to the geysir. The first is a rather beautiful show of the eruption from distance. You can see how huge the eruption can be when compared to the tiny people around its base. And the second is the reason I visited 4 times! I final got my alien egg photo! Just as Strókkur erupts there is a brief moment when the water surface rises and the eruption builds underneath. It is a difficult but gorgeous shot to take.

Now this was my favourite destination in Iceland. If you know me well then you probably know I have an unhealthy fascination with ice. Well this is Jökulsárlon. The glacial lagoon, this lies at the base of the largest glacier in Europe, Vatnajökull, and is an area where icebergs break off this glacier then float out to sea.

You can get a boat ride through this lagoon so you can get up close with the icebergs, which was just sensational. I was so happy here!

There is also a surprise waiting at the lagoon, a nesting Arctic Tern colony. This is situated by the path, unfortunately if you go near a Tern nest they will attack with force. And because I was already in a giddy mood I decided to stand in the middle of the colony and get attacked in order to get terrifying pictures such as this! The good news is that I know they don't really hurt that much now.

My final big journey came in Vestmannaeyar, The Westman Islands.

The main island of the group is Heimaey (Home Island) and is dominated by the two volcanoes on the tiny island. The second, and one pictured, is very new as it was only created in 1973 when the first had a huge eruption. This devastated the island and created a huge new vent which became this volcano. A reminder to the the people that destruction is never far, but also that they have survived even the hardest times.

Now this is just a picture to further highlight my back luck with birds. I attempted to scale the new volcano but could not get past the base as this Oystercatcher began to attack my head. At first this was amusing as I could get great pictures (RED EYE OF DOOM!) and I had never heard of this behaviour from this bird before. But I soon backed off as this is a big bird with a very big beak, and I didn't fancy being impaled.

Vestmannaeyar is home to around 1.2 million Atlantic Puffins every summer. Climbing up a puffin nesting cliff I was able to get extremely close to many puffins and snap what are some of my best pictures I've ever taken. I got hundreds of puffin pictures in my time here but this one is just gorgeous.

And here is me at a few sights doing a pose. The first is a basalt column formation along the south coast much like the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. The second is me with my favourite Icelandic waterfall, Seljalandsfoss. This is my favourite because, as you can see, you can walk behind it! It is beyond beautiful there, especially as on the day I went we had complete sunshine!

So this was part 2! So far there has a conspicuous absence of whales, but that is because they deserve their own section. Part 3 coming up in 3.....2.....1.......

Thanks for reading!