Today was our first day "on tour" so we were packed, breakfasted, checked out and into the vans by 8am.
It snowed steadily last night and there was 6 inches of fresh snow. If you'd asked me last week I would have said no way would I be out in these conditions, but there we were in 0 degrees (real feel -10) with horizontal driving snow photographing happily - ok maybe happily is not exactly the right word. We started off in the sun but within 15 minutes the snow became pretty heavy. I wanted to take a pic of us all huddled like sheep with our backs to the wind & snow. But the camera on the tripod was set up for a shot and under a storm cover and there was no way I was going to open my camera bag. The bad bits never last too long and in 10-15 minutes it stopped until the next sweep through.
This is how you manage these conditions: before leaving the van you put plastic rain pants over warm pants. Crampons go over rubber insulated boots, add hats, neck gaiter/scarf, gloves and a sturdy water & windproof coat over 2-3 layers of merino. I was totally warm except my hands which got wet and therefore cold.
First we went to Oxarafoss. Foss means waterfall and Iceland is fairly littered with them (I think there are more waterfalls than people) and each one is different.
The next stop was the thermal area called Geysir (Icelandic spelling & pronounced Ghee-sir) and lastly the famous Gullfoss (pronounced Ghoul-foss). The geysir was hilarious; there were bus loads of tourists (many wearing jeans and sneakers… go figure) who all rushed up the hill to stand waiting for the geyser to blow, which it did every 10 minutes or so. They failed to notice which way the wind was blowing and when the geyser dutifully did its thing there were howls and shrieks as people copped a good drenching of sulphur water.
Today was tough, I have been awake since 3am so my brain was not seeing the images and not computing the technical requirements at all well.
To illustrate how changeable the weather here is - when we arrived at Gullfoss you wouldn't even know there was a waterfall let alone a massive one. I was tired and quite prepared to wait in the van, but when the cloud/rain/fog cleared 15 minutes later there in front of us was this most amazing sight.
The weather is set to get worse tomorrow...
It snowed steadily last night and there was 6 inches of fresh snow. If you'd asked me last week I would have said no way would I be out in these conditions, but there we were in 0 degrees (real feel -10) with horizontal driving snow photographing happily - ok maybe happily is not exactly the right word. We started off in the sun but within 15 minutes the snow became pretty heavy. I wanted to take a pic of us all huddled like sheep with our backs to the wind & snow. But the camera on the tripod was set up for a shot and under a storm cover and there was no way I was going to open my camera bag. The bad bits never last too long and in 10-15 minutes it stopped until the next sweep through.
This is how you manage these conditions: before leaving the van you put plastic rain pants over warm pants. Crampons go over rubber insulated boots, add hats, neck gaiter/scarf, gloves and a sturdy water & windproof coat over 2-3 layers of merino. I was totally warm except my hands which got wet and therefore cold.
First we went to Oxarafoss. Foss means waterfall and Iceland is fairly littered with them (I think there are more waterfalls than people) and each one is different.
The next stop was the thermal area called Geysir (Icelandic spelling & pronounced Ghee-sir) and lastly the famous Gullfoss (pronounced Ghoul-foss). The geysir was hilarious; there were bus loads of tourists (many wearing jeans and sneakers… go figure) who all rushed up the hill to stand waiting for the geyser to blow, which it did every 10 minutes or so. They failed to notice which way the wind was blowing and when the geyser dutifully did its thing there were howls and shrieks as people copped a good drenching of sulphur water.
Today was tough, I have been awake since 3am so my brain was not seeing the images and not computing the technical requirements at all well.
To illustrate how changeable the weather here is - when we arrived at Gullfoss you wouldn't even know there was a waterfall let alone a massive one. I was tired and quite prepared to wait in the van, but when the cloud/rain/fog cleared 15 minutes later there in front of us was this most amazing sight.
The weather is set to get worse tomorrow...
 Oxarafoss below the waterfall  Gullfoss |  The first stage of the geyser eruption is the "bubble"  Gullfoss |
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