Iceland: The "Magic Box"

As a kid, I loved reading and hearing stories that involved magic  – one that always fascinated me was how the magicians pulled out stuff one after the other from a rather seemingly small box, I always wondered how could so much be packed  into that tiny box! But then that was just fiction, or was it? As we continued our road trip through Iceland, it kept fascinating me with beautiful surprises one after the other - waterfalls, geysers, glaciers, mountains, valleys, volcanoes, fjords, beaches, lake, canyons and what not - and I couldn’t help comparing it with that little old trick, for the magic seemed to be unfolding before me, this time only for real!

Magical Iceland!

As we continued further on our journey, we stopped by a geothermal area with boiling mud pits, exploding geysers and the lively Strokkur which spouts up to 30m into the air every few minutes. 

Waiting for The Strokkur to erupt

Exploding Strokkur!

Over the next two days, we witnessed umpteen waterfalls and stopped by a few of them – each one distinctly different from the other but all breathtakingly beautiful. One of these, Seljalandfoss is unique in that you can walk behind the waterfall, with all that mists spraying on your face as you make your way through – it was amazing. Another one walkable from Seljalandfoss is Gljúfrabúi waterfall - hidden behind a cliff, it is simply marvellous. It can be seen in all its splendour by wading through the stream into a narrow opening in the cliff. Given that one needs to put in some effort to reach here, it is not as frequented by tourists adding to the charm of it! 

Stunning Seljalandfoss

As we make our way behind the waterfall

Gljúfrabúi - the hidden gem

The other two we visited were Gulfoss and Skogafoss – both looked splendid with bright rainbow shimmering over them.

View of "Gulfoss" from the viewpoint

Shimmering rainbow over Gulfoss

Sights like this take all your tiredness away - Lovely Skogafoss!

A short hike to view the stunning Skogafoss from the top

We visited two different glaciers – Solheimajokull and Vatnajokull. Solheimajokull, we saw from a distance admiring its rugged beauty. There is an evident blackish tinge on the glacier - well, the glacier is not "dirty" but this is owing to ash from the "infamous" Eyjafjallajokull eruption in 2010. The massive glacier, with its surroundings and varied formations looked simply stunning. 

The massive Solheimajokull - Happily Stunned!

We went for a glacier hike on one of the tongues of the Vatnajokull glacier. We were blessed to have, as our guide put it, the best weather one can have for doing a glacier hike – It was bright and sunny with clear blue skies over us. The duration of the entire hike (end to end) for us was about 6 hours – with close to 4 hours on ice. Well, it was a truly exhilarating experience for us – learning to walk with crampons, learning to use the ice axe, passing through the various crevasses, drinking right from the small streams of water flowing through, walking around on the blue ice and realizing how small we were compared to the enormity of the ice structures around us – we loved it all! 

First view of the glacier tongue we were going to hike

"I will conquer you!"

Our trek group

Returning back after the exhilarating experience

Descending back

In the course of our journey, we visited a lot of other interesting places – the gorgeous Fjadrargljufur canyon, the famous plane wreck on the black sand beach of Solheimasandur, the beautiful Dyrhoaley that provided us some awesome views, the Reyinsfjara black sand beach famous for the basalt rock formations – I will let pictures do the talking here.

Walked about 5kms  one way to spot this Plane wreck:)

The famous Dyrhoaley Rock arch 

Amazing view from Dyrhoaley - Left me mesmerized!

View of the Reyinsfjara black sand beach from Dyrhoaley

The famous basalt columns at Reyinfjara beach

Nature's marvel - Gorgeous Fjadrargljufur canyon  

Another gem that we explored in south Iceland – in fact, one of the most stunning places I have ever seen - is the Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon and the adjacent Diamond beach. With chunks of iceberg floating on the crystal clear water and white glacial blanket cover in the background - all this against the clear blue skies – it looked simply breathtaking. I was literally dumbstruck by the awesomeness that surrounded me. As if this were not enough, beach adjacent to the glacier lagoon had chunks of ice that had washed on to the black sand beach – with the sun rays falling on this, these chunks of ice looked literally like shining “diamonds”!

 

The glacial lagoon - my favourite:)

Amidst the surreal landscape

The "diamond" beach

 Ah my "solitaire" !!:)

For the first part of the Iceland road-trip visit Iceland-ultimate-road-trip

Iceland: An ultimate road trip

It was July end –both me and Prateek tired of our monotonous work lives longed to take a break, breathe in some fresh air – we were getting restless. As we sat down to decide where to go, the first place that came to both our minds was Iceland; our eyes lit up at the mere mention of this beautiful country – but then was it feasible? The major concern was that the tickets might have become very costly by now, as we had decided to go for our holiday in mid September which was just a month and half away! We immediately checked the ticket prices and as expected, it was costly...my heart sank...I sighed deeply; and then suddenly, Prateek said that if we delayed our plan by a week, we might still get a reasonable deal!

 It was decided, we were going to Iceland! I was ecstatic.

 (We had wanted to visit Iceland for long, but because of some or the other reason it had never worked out – so now that we were finally going, imagine how elated I was!)

We had landed at Reykjavik airport – my excitement knew no bounds. It is correct that I was extremely excited but at the same time was feeling damn nervous as Prateek hasn’t really driven around much in India – And after hearing so much about the unpredictable weather in Iceland, couldn’t help wondering if we will be able complete our planned drive around the ring road!

We picked up our car and started our journey towards the Golden circle route. Iceland is breathtakingly beautiful right from the word “Go”; Enormous lava fields, covered in stunning autumn colours of green, yellow and red lined the roads on both sides – Oh what a lovely sight it was! 

Beautiful play of clouds and sun rays!

We traversed through the beautiful surroundings, soaking in the surreal sights, to reach our first stop, Thingvellir National Park. Thingvellir National Park is located in an active volcanic area and is considered as a UNESCO World Heritage site - surrounded by varied mountains, featuring the beautiful lava fields with autumn colours in full bloom, streams flowing through, waterfalls – it was all an amazing spectacle!

OOooo - What a view!!! How many colours do you see??

Beautiful stream flowing through

Curiosity taking me towards the mist - what is it?

Oh there it is! - Beautiful "Oxarafoss"

The Autumn hues!

The most interesting feature of the park – continental drift between the North American and Eurasian Plates can be clearly seen in the cracks or faults which traverse the region. We visited one such fissure i.e. Silfra fissure. The amazing feeling of being able to witness this geological wonder is inexplicable!

Which continent am I in?

We hiked through the park, absolutely thrilled by the amazing views and features we got to witness. What a wonderful beginning of our journey to this stunning land of fire and ice!

Wish I could go back!

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Lammerklamm - A walk to remember!

We left Gosau in the morning for our next destination – the pretty musical city of Salzburg. We decided not to take the highway, but rather a route that passed through mountains and small villages - green meadows, small cottages with smoke billowing out of chimneys, mountains covered with lush green trees – it was magical! As we were moving, we saw some 4-5 cars parked in an area; we decided to stop and check-out what it was – we were at Lammerklamm.

We decided to go and explore it – and thank god we did! It was a beautiful gorge - an impressive spectacle of light, thundering waters, and shade; I had never seen something like this before. The entire klamm was about 2 kms long. As we were about to start our journey, it started drizzling; but we decided to go ahead, descending into the gorge over secured walk ways and stairs hugging the cliff. The walk along this klamm put a smile to our faces, refreshed us, sound of the water gushing soothed our soul and senses. As if this were not enough, the winds blowing - strong but not the least bit ill intentioned, rather coltish and carefree - ensured that the tiny droplets of water pouring around sprayed on our faces; wow what a feeling it was – inexplicable! It made this walk all the more amazing! 

"cliffed" - pretty gorge

Meandering pathway!

clear gushing water

We finished this “walk” on the marked paths but did not stop here – there was a small wooden bridge that took us to the other side of the klamm- we continued ahead, passing some cafes and cottages. As we moved further, we reached a narrow path lined with trees on both sides, we could see the mountains at a distance covered with fog, the sky was cloudy with rains pouring - the confluence of all this resulted in a sight that was spectacular; I was dazed! We clicked as many pictures as we could, knowing seemingly well that we will not be able to capture what we were witnessing! It was time for us to go back now and resume our travel to Salzburg.

crossing over to the "other" side

green green!

enchanting view on the "other" side

A visit to Plitvice - nature's marvel!

I was lying on my bed, a slow smile curving over my face, as I painted a picture of myself wandering through the park along the beautiful turquoise lakes and umpteen waterfalls – the thought of being in this stunning place in less than 12 hours had led to an inexplicable excitement that was net letting me sleep; I was getting impatient – why was the time moving so slow? I had first read about this place a few months back while browsing through the internet – it featured in this list of “100 places to visit before you die”. I showed it to Prateek and told him that would definitely visit this place someday - little did I know that this “someday” would come so soon!

Of lakes and waterfalls..

Finally, it was morning, and time for us to start our journey towards the park. I was brimming with excitement. We reached the Park around 10 - 10:30, and bought our tickets. There are a bunch of different trails to choose from depending on the amount of time one would want to spend in the park. We had the entire day and hence chose a trail that would let us explore the upper as well as the lower lakes, taking about 5-6 hours to complete. 

All set for the trek..

As we were about to start our trek through the park, it started raining – Though we were prepared for it with our umbrellas and raincoats, we were not able to take many pictures; Also, as the rain intensified, we got soaked and were almost shivering – not allowing us to enjoy the beauty that surrounded us as much as we would have wanted to! Thankfully, a couple of hours later, the sky started clearing out;  the turquoise lakes glistened as the sunrays fell on it – changing its colour from turquoise to emerald to dark blue depending on the intensity of sunlight. The walk through meandering wooden pathways over the streams, the umpteen waterfalls, the crystal clear lakes, the different shades of yellow and green on the trees that surrounded us - all seemed straight out of a fairy tale – Nothing we read or saw on the internet could prepare us for the ethereal beauty that we were confronted with.

Shades of Green and Yellow..

Walking through the rains..

One of the many waterfalls..

Pretty pretty!

Over the streams..

Crystal clear water..

Oh so beautiful!

Shades of emerald..

The "Big" waterfall

As we made our way back, covering the last stretch of this amazing journey, we were greeted by some spectacular views of lakes cascading into each other; And before we knew, it was time for us to leave this place – a place that could be best described as “nature’s masterpiece”.

Nature's masterpiece!