I was incredibly lucky and got to go to Iceland in 2019 on a photographic tour of the island. The trip was planned with my dad and my stepmom using the awesome Arctic Exposure company. We arrived in the morning of the first day in Reykjavik. The plan was to meet with the group for dinner and begin the tour in the morning. Due to an unlucky incident my dad and stepmom had to miss the first few days of the tour. I did have a lovely dinner with the guide and the other guest on the tour who was an artist from Australia.
In the morning, the three of us set out for our first stop was Pingvellir, a spot where the European and the North American tectonic plates meet. It is an absolutely beautiful spot, we had an amazing sunrise over the steaming waters kept warmish from the geothermal energy in the area. We also had a random moment when we stopped in a parking lot to find a couple of stranded tourists. They had stopped to take some pictures and locked their keys in the rental car. With their jackets. So we loaded them with handwarmers, our guide helped call the rental car company, and we dropped them off at a little cafe to wait for someone to bring spare keys.
We drove around the area that is part of the Golden Circle, and stopped at a couple waterfalls to take more pictures. We also stopped in a field to meet some of the local Icelandic horses. It was wonderful to have a local guide who knows where one can go. I do suspect that the farmer for these horses must have had a red coat as well, as one of the horse took a shine to me!
The tour we were on was to loop south by east around the ring road of Iceland. We spent the first night near Vik, and then in the morning photographed Dyrhólaey, the southern most tip of Iceland. Apparently that had changed a couple times recently when some volcanic activity had added some landmass near by too. It was an amazing spot, though our sunrise was a little overcast that day.
Next we drove along to Reynisfjara Beach. Sadly, this year I learned the gorgeous beach has been washed away by rough waves. This formerly iconic black sand beach featured basalt rock formations that made amazing backdrops for photos. It was always a bit of a dangerous spot, we were warned back in 2019 to be aware of the “sneaker waves” that would come along randomly and were known to sweep people into the ocean. One of them caught me unawares, though as I was paying attention it only washed up to mid shin. Luckily I had waterproof boots and gortex pants!
Our last stop for the morning was a little farm that was long abandoned. It was a classic example of an old turf roofed farm. When the last farmer died, the government was negotiating to buy the land as a heritage site. Unfortunately the farmers son and current owner decided in the end not to sell. The land was sitting vacant, so as we drove by our guide took us over for some photos.
We spent two nights in the same hotel, which ended up working out as we got new that the delay affecting my family was being managed and they would be driven to join the group tomorrow for the rest of the tour. We had plans to be up for sunrise again. My favourite part of Iceland was that meant meeting for breakfast at 8:30, as sunrise was 9:30am!
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