Today was our big trip out in the super jeeps. We were to visit the western side of Dettifoss which is never done in winter. We had 2 big jeeps plus one sort of like a 9 seater mini bus, all 3 had huge tractor like tyres.
The area that we went to was stunning; a huge valley (obviously carved out by some glacier in early times) all covered in snow with beautiful blue hues in the sky.
I was lucky and scored a front seat in one of the jeeps (largely because of car sickness) and as we got further into the valley the big jeep/bus got stuck. Much time was spent hauling it out and then it got stuck again - this time very seriously. To cut a long story short we waited 2 hours watching our drivers work very very hard trying to pull, winch & dig trying to extricate the vehicle. In the end they called up another monster truck to come and help. This was all a result of the warmer weather (despite it being -3 when we started out this morning) the past few days have meant that the snow underneath the top layer has softened and very heavy vehicles just sink.
It was another 20k to Dettifoss so obviously we weren't able to continue as things would just get worse. So we went back to where the road was closed to normal traffic and travelled around to the eastern side of the waterfall. At this point our drivers got out a whole load of snow shoes. I had been expected the old "tennis racket" style but these were modern jobs and we scuffed our way to the waterfall.
While much easier than walking without snow shoes it was still quite an effort and I was shattered by the time we had gone to the waterfall and back which was about 2km.
After dinner we could see a strong aurora with the naked eye as we drove back to the cottages. Everyone rushed out to photograph it but I had had enough for today. Unless its a red aurora I'm not interested. How's that for being fussy!!
There is a hex in Iceland. Weird things have been happening to the cameras & I initially put it down to jet lag/senior moment/operator error but it has been happening to other people. Todays glitch has been that the camera numbering system suddenly jumped several thousand which is causing me difficulty as it mirrors numbers already used. The assembled photographers do not have an answer. Marsel told me that weird things do happen when there is a high level of solar activity causing strong aurora phenomena.
The area that we went to was stunning; a huge valley (obviously carved out by some glacier in early times) all covered in snow with beautiful blue hues in the sky.
I was lucky and scored a front seat in one of the jeeps (largely because of car sickness) and as we got further into the valley the big jeep/bus got stuck. Much time was spent hauling it out and then it got stuck again - this time very seriously. To cut a long story short we waited 2 hours watching our drivers work very very hard trying to pull, winch & dig trying to extricate the vehicle. In the end they called up another monster truck to come and help. This was all a result of the warmer weather (despite it being -3 when we started out this morning) the past few days have meant that the snow underneath the top layer has softened and very heavy vehicles just sink.
It was another 20k to Dettifoss so obviously we weren't able to continue as things would just get worse. So we went back to where the road was closed to normal traffic and travelled around to the eastern side of the waterfall. At this point our drivers got out a whole load of snow shoes. I had been expected the old "tennis racket" style but these were modern jobs and we scuffed our way to the waterfall.
While much easier than walking without snow shoes it was still quite an effort and I was shattered by the time we had gone to the waterfall and back which was about 2km.
After dinner we could see a strong aurora with the naked eye as we drove back to the cottages. Everyone rushed out to photograph it but I had had enough for today. Unless its a red aurora I'm not interested. How's that for being fussy!!
There is a hex in Iceland. Weird things have been happening to the cameras & I initially put it down to jet lag/senior moment/operator error but it has been happening to other people. Todays glitch has been that the camera numbering system suddenly jumped several thousand which is causing me difficulty as it mirrors numbers already used. The assembled photographers do not have an answer. Marsel told me that weird things do happen when there is a high level of solar activity causing strong aurora phenomena.
  |  The stuck super jeep  |
 Snow shoe selfie |  The view downstream from the waterfall |
 Waterfall abstract |
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