Northern Lights!

I think today had to be the best day of the holiday by far.

We started off getting up for sunrise, but as it was pouring down and foggy, nothing really came out of it. We left Vik and drove to the glacial lagoon - bad weather was forecast, however it was promised it would clear by around 5pm or so. We drove through rain, sleet and snow - and when we got to the glacial lake it was still snowing. Stopping for a coffee we waited for the snow to clear - when it started slowing down we popped out with our cameras to take a few shots.

Right enough, at about 5pm, the weather started to cheer up - and we got the most wonderful light on the mountains. It was almost some kind of alien landscape with the ice and the light on the mountains. I think I've lost a handful of the photos from this time, but I have a few so I'm not too upset - mainly because we got to see the northern lights later!

We almost didn't go out for dinner - it had been a long day, and it was about a 40 minute drive to the nearest restaurant with reasonable prices in Hofn. However, the three of us bit the bullet and went to the restaurant - which happened to be in a hotel. While we were waiting for our orders to arrive, the waiter came in and said that if anyone wanted to see the northern lights, we should go outside as they were displaying. You can probably imagine the turn of speed we took to go outside and them get our cameras! It was only a small display and after about 20 minutes we gave up and went back inside to get our food.

After the meal, we thought we'd go outside for a bit to see if the display was still going on - and it was. We set up our cameras and after a relocation to a new, darker spot away from the street-lights, then the magic happened. It was the most wonderful display - the dancing filaments of lights above our heads in shimmering green; the camera was capturing reds and pinks and purples that we couldn't see with our eyes. I was stunned; this was the first time I'd seen the northern lights and I was lost for words - it was so incredibly beautiful! What a display - even half the intensity would have been magical enough, but this was beyond expectations. We left at about 3am - and on the long drive to the hotel I couldn't keep my eyes open.

It was only the next day that I realised that we'd been lucky that we'd not unpacked our camera gear - imagine being 40 minutes away from our cameras when one our main aims had been to photograph the northern lights!