Iceland - more than just the Northern Lights!
I was lucky enough to visit Iceland and experience the amazing, spectacle of the Northern Lights but it wasn’t the only highlight of the trip. Iceland is also famous for its volcanoes (remember the Ash Cloud?), the Blue Lagoon, it’s many geysers and waterfalls. The Blue Lagoon is such an amazing, azure blue you think it must be a photographic illusion but it really is that colour. The geothermal waters are rich with three active ingredients; silica, algae and minerals. It’s very relaxing bathing in the silky, smooth water, like being in a giant hot tub!
One of Iceland’s most popular excursions is called “The Golden Circle” which includes visits to the following 3 attractions. The Unesco World Heritage site Pinggvellir, where you can see the Mid-Atlantic Continental Divide, the North American & Eurasian tectonic plates. The Great Geyser hot springs where you can view the original Geyser and the most spectacular geyser, Strokkur, which blasts boiling water up to 30m skywards every few minutes. It’s quite an incredible feeling to be walking over ground where literally, under your feet, the boiling, hot water is bubbling and bursting to explode! The third attraction is the Gullfoss Waterfall, one of Iceland’s most visited waterfalls, where you can see glacier meltwater thundering into a 70m deep basalt canyon. For me, the highlight of our trip had to be travelling by Super Jeep! It is possible to visit Iceland’s main attractions by coach or car but a lot of the interior, in the depth of the winter, can be inaccessible by anything other than the Super Jeeps. We were travelling in a modified 4x4 Mercedes Ice Truck, so high off the ground we needed steps to climb on board! As we drove to the Langjokull Glacier the road literally ended in front of us, but because we were in the Super Jeeps we were able to drive off road, climb the steep slopes of the glacier and race across the flat planes. It was like a scene from Top Gear! We then stopped in the middle of nowhere, to visit an Ice Cave, venturing deep into the glacier. Inside, there was even a simple Wedding Chapel and an Ice Bar!
It’s not every day that you have an opportunity to ride snowmobile either. I was a little bit apprehensive, but the guides gave us full instructions on how to operate them and assured us it was quite straight-forward. We set off in pairs, with the guides leading and following our group. The scenery was spectacular and it was an amazing experience so I’m glad I had a go!
We stayed at The Hotel Grimsborgir, a 5 star property approx. 70 miles from Reykjavik which is a complex of six houses and ten apartments, with a central building housing the main reception area & the excellent Grimsborgir Restaurant. Did you know that one of Icelander's favourite traditional dishes is Lamb. Another which is not quite so appealing is Hakari - fermented shark! Located in the heart of the Golden Circle the accommodation is ideal for families, offering a great base from which to explore Iceland away from the main cities.
Iceland has so much more to offer than just the amazing Northern Lights. There are opportunities for whale watching, glacier hiking, ice fishing, puffin watching, a visit to a Lava Tunnel and to hike inside a volcanic crater to name but a few. It’s time to start planning your next adventure!
