While I’ve been travelling back across the world, I’ve had time to reflect on (& dream about) the 12 days I spent in Iceland.  A list of words & phrases is one way to capture this amazing place.  This remote island in the North Atlantic gets under your skin … in a good way. Photographically it is wonderful, and I suspect equally so in summer. The mythology adds another dimension, even for those who don’t believe in trolls 3-10 times the size of humans, or elves that call some large rocks their home.

Read More

What an amazing couple of days in northern Iceland, and what an extraordinary place this is.  Yesterday morning we left Akureyri for Lake Myvatn, a 2 hour drive south and into the mountains. We left Akureryi at a respectable hour, driving around the fjord that the town is built along. Once into the mountains we turned south to Lake Myvatn, arriving late morning. The lake is in an area of active volcanoes, and its surrounding wetlands have an exceptionally rich fauna of waterbirds, especially ducks and geese.

Read More

We woke to more rain on Monday although the clouds seemed to be breaking up a little. And once we were on our way north, it was starting to look better & better. In fact by noon we could see sunshine ahead!  The terrain was changing too, to wide open glacial valleys with semi-snow-covered mountains on each side.

Read More

On Saturday evening, 13 March we had a wonderful dinner at Vox to wrap up the photography course. When we came out of the restaurant there were few clouds and the setting moon looking crisp and clear. The Aurora forecast looked promising.  But Icelandic weather intervened, and clouds came over well before anything else became visible. With 5 consecutive days of rain, snow, sleet, wind and grey skies, this street art reflected my mood!

Read More

What a day to finish our touring with the photography course. Having returned to Reykjavik quite late on Thursday evening, we were up early for breakfast and our 3rd class at 8am.  The classes have been wonderfully instructive - each class we put forward 6 or 7 photos for critique. This particular morning was not overly good for me, but I knew that the photos I put forward had significant flaws. So I've taken the constructive comments on board and will learn from these.

Read More

On Wednesday we headed further east for a walk inside a glacier, but first we had to get to it by 4-wheel drive.  We were packed in tight into 3 different vehicles.  This had the benefit of ensuring that we couldn't move around very much as we drove across fields of soft, quite deep snow. It brought back memories of driving up the old roads at Mt Buller before they used to plow them!  Finally we arrived at the end of the road - a suspension bridge spanning a cliff and small stream.  Now you're probably thinking "did she really do this glacier walk?"

Read More