Trips and fun: Scenic and Surreal Iceland-II

Continuing from where we left. After covering the south of Iceland we headed towards the east and the north.(Please read the blog before this to appreciate the beauty of south of Iceland)

After it snowed for the first couple of days the third day was clear. We were driving east with sea on our right and a mountain range on our left and suddenly out of nowhere on a right turn we saw this out of the world lagoon called as Jökulsárlón. The lagoon originates from a melting glacier which "by the way" is right adjacent to the sea.

Unrealistically beautiful

The lagoon itself is nothing short of a paradise in itself. I will highly recommend everyone to take a boat ride in the lagoon, you won’t regret it. There are blue, white ,black (because of the ash from the volcanoes) Icebergs In the clean lagoon water. If you are patient enough you can see seals in the water. If you cross the bridge over the lagoon towards the sea you will see big ice bergs on the black beach. That is one of the weirdest thing I have ever seen(Icebergs on a beach)

Glacier and Sea side by side

The drive through the east is beautiful. Next we took a road through the highlands of the country. The highlands are in themselves a treat to watch but not that easily accessible. It feels like you have climbed a mountain of ice and there is sheet of white everywhere. It actually feels like you driving on top of a wall (the Game of thrones one).

Let me try to describe the drive: Driving on top of a flat mountain with snow on either side of the roads with a brook running along the road that has small waterfalls that are partially frozen. We were speechless and scared at the same time because if you are stuck there is no saving you.

The special east

The Highlands

The drive over the wall

After passing through the highlands we headed north. Now just imagine the odds:

Driving in the middle of the night with a clear sky, it had snowed heavily for the past two days to provide a perfect white cover around the black road, it was full moon night .

It was really cold outside (around -10 C). The moon light was being reflected from the white snow and mountains. To top it all there were hot Geysir on either side that were visible in the moonlight .Driving in the middle of the night at 50km/hr with no headlights(yeah without the headlights).The moonlight after being reflected from the ample of white snow was so bright that everything was visible.I was spellbound and in awe during the whole 50 km drive. It's one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

After that spectacular drive we reached Lake Mývatn and parked our car at the perfect spot to see northern lights. But alas we were unlucky, though we had a clear sky but there was no solar activity that day. We could see the northern lights in the camera, if you set it to a higher exposure. It was less than -15 degree Celsius outside and we decided to call it a day and slept in our car again.

Natural Jacuzzi in the middle of snow

Next we wanted to go to Dettifoss but the path had so much snow that we had to turn back*, we had been travelling for a couple of days we decided to rest a bit. There are many nature baths in Iceland and they are the best place you can relax in. The water is naturally hot and it is one of the most energizing experiences one can ever have. The hot pools are surrounded by snow . You can stay back as long as you want and if you willing to shed some wallet weight they serve beer and food in the bath.

Goðafoss is right behind us

We continued our journey towards north and stopped at Goðafoss and had the one of the best dinners ever. It was cold like hell and we stopped feeling our hands and ears after we were done cooking, but it was one of the most amazing places to have dinner. We reached Akureyri which is one of the biggest towns in north of Iceland and it is one of the most beautiful cities of Iceland.

Next we decided to explore the less popular Westfjords and see Dynjandi. The drive to that Dynjandi was a treat in itself. We saw many frozen lakes on our way to the waterfall and the waterfall in itself was majestic. We covered few other falls on our way back to Reykjavik and completed our amazing trip.

If you love horse riding, adventurous glacier walks and scuba dives then these are some other reason to go to Iceland. We didn't cover the whale watching and many other things that the country has to offer.

I am definitely going back

Overall I can assure you that you won't regret your trip to Iceland and will remember it for the rest of your life. The only downside is that the weather is very unpredictable and the country is slightly more expensive. Try bringing in a camera that shoots good images in night and have a portable camera ready (I-phone and Samsung Galaxy are pretty good).

Just leaving you with some of my favourite pics from the trip and thanks to google for this amazing video(use google photos)