Iceland 2017: Diamond Beach and Northern lights

25 Oct 2017, today we had breakfast at Katla Hofdabrekka before starting our journey towards Jokulsarlon. As we drove along the south coast towards east, the landscape started changing from mountains to barren volcanic land. There were no signs of human occupancy. Only flat land till the sight can reach. Rather than explaining the landscape in words I would let the pictures explain what we saw.

After crossing the village Kirkjubæjarklaustur, we came across some farms. Our accommodation Fosshotel Glacier Lagoon was somewhere near the village Hof. We wanted to visit Jokulsarlon Glacier lagoon before checking in to the hotel.

When we Reached Jokulsarlon glacier, it was around 11am and we wanted to go for the amphibian boat ride in the glacier lagoon.

We bought the tickets and waited for 12pm trip utilising the time to admire the beauty of the glacier lagoon. Weather was good. We were given orange coloured safety floating jackets to wear. We got in to the boat and made some space to sit. The amphibian boats can float in the water and also have wheels to drive on land. It was nice to go around the big Iceberg which are floating in water. The tour guide told us that what we see from outside is just 25% of the real iceberg. rest 75% will be inside the water. What we were seeing was itself so huge.

One of the Iceberg had turned upside down and was looking like a carved sculpture. It was totally blue and the guide was explaining that once it gets in touch with atmospheric oxygen, it starts turning white.

After finishing the boat trip, we drove to the other side of Jokulsarlon Glacier lagoon, to the diamond beach.

And it was the most amazing thing we witnessed in Iceland this time. The melted ice cubes flow to the Ocean and the waves bring them to the seashore. It was looking as if someone has kept different sized diamonds on the black sand of the beach. Diamonds of all sizes and shapes. Some with geometrical shapes while others with carvings. We could touch, lift and taste some of these.

We witnessed several funny moments in the diamond beach. Once a lady photographer was literally lying down on an ice cube and trying to focus on moving waves. And a big wave came and hit her. Though she was completely in water, her hand with camera was in air. And another photographer nearby was running away from the tide taking her camera bag to safety. I did not have the required accessory for slow shutter photography of waves and so did not get into any such situations.

We spent almost 2-3 hours just watching those icebergs on the beach while kids started building some monument with smaller icebergs. We made Sohum sit on a bigger iceberg and were taking pictures. Suddenly a giant wave came and we had to run. It was not big enough to reach her, but we would have been completely drenched if we would have stayed in same place.

After the diamond beach, we wanted to visit another small glacier lagoon named Fjallsárlón Glacial Lagoon which is around 10km from Jokulsarlon. We were so tired, we hardly had any patience to go near the lagoon. We just took some pics from far before driving to our hotel.

One of the farms at Hof.

After reaching our hotel, we had our ready to eat pasta and went out for a walk. There was a small waterfall which is around 300 meters from our hotel. We met a German Family from Koeln who spoke to us as they heard us speaking German. Crossing a fence, we went up to see the waterfall from near, even though it was getting darker.Many people had written that this four star hotel is in the middle of nowhere, and they were right.

As we had our lunch very late, we did not want to have dinner, rather have some fruits which we had packed. Before all of them went to bed, I kept an unconditional request with all 3 of them. Rather 2 requests. 1. to go back to diamond beach again before driving back to Reykjavik next day. 2. To climb up the Skogafoss again to walk on the Fimmvörduhals Trail. One can find more information about this trail at ” https://guidetoiceland.is/connect-with-locals/jorunnsg/the-fimmvoruhals-pass-southern-iceland “. Swasti agreed in exchange for permission to stay with a family friend who have a dog. Sohum was reluctant all the while. Infact that day she had exclaimed before “I had a beautiful day today”, when we asked why, she said “I did not have to climb up anywhere today”. At last request 1 was accepted by all, while request 2 was still hanging in air.

Hotel room had a big window from which one could see the mountain behind. And around 9:30pm first signs of northern lights appeared. And we went down and picked up my tripod. As I had collected some practical experience about how to photograph northern lights in my trip to lofoten, did not have to struggle much. The Aurora was bit weaker in the beginning, so even using shutter speed of 30 seconds did not yield good pics in the beginning.

Whenever the lights were stronger, a drone owner started experimenting with his drone. And the moving drone with its small lights started spoiling my pictures. Switching off all the lights in the room and having the torch on my handy on helped me set up my camera to take pics from inside the hotel room. Other three were totally tired and were sleeping. Harish got up in between and tried to take some pics using iPhone. Though it was not impossible, the pics were darker compared to the ones taken using long exposure in SLR. So, after sometime he decided to go back to bed while I kept on clicking. I was tired too, but kept pushing myself to the extent that was possible only to realise next morning that all my energy was drained.

26th Oct 2017: Today as decided we went back again to Jokulsarlon diamond beach. There were several photographers with their tripods trying to capture the pis of icebergs with flowing water waves. As the sun started rising above the horizon, the icebergs started to shine and look like real diamonds.