ICELAND- the last trip before Covid-19 lockdown

It’s been over 5 months since we returned from Iceland and it seems to be really high time to post a few lines and some pictures. I have to say that Iceland was love at first sight and remained so despite all the difficulties we had encountered.

When we landed there was a heavy snow fall and at the car rental they told us to drive to our accommodation immediately before the road gets closed. Our initial idea was to visit the Blue Lagoon but the road to it had already been closed, so we started heading to where our first hotel was- 120km from Reykjavik airport in heavy wind and snow and incredibly poor visibility.

Our first day went according to the plan, despite the weather changing all the time we managed to tick off all the things on the list. We saw the Great Geysir and Skogafoss Waterfall and Reynisfjara Black Beach.

On the second day we made it to the Vatnajokull National Park area and saw the Diamond Beach and did the biggest highlight of our trip: Ice Cave Tour and Glacier Walk. I mean the highlight almost didn’t take place due to extremely severe weather conditions. For two days already the wind had been blowing with the speed of almost 200km/h and all the roads in the country got closed. So we were kind of sure the tour would be cancelled as well. But the guide from Glacier Adventure met us in the morning as scheduled and with a lot of hesitation decided to take us and give it a go in those unbearably windy conditions. When we got to the Cave car park it turned out that we were the only group visiting on that day. We were the only 5 people in the cave, while normally there are about 200 visitors in the cave at any given time. Believe me, the weather was incredibly harsh and we had to learn how to move and how to turn and when to stop not to be blown off our feet by the wind. Indeed it was cold and slippery and with frost-bitten hands it was really difficult to put the crampons on and to hold onto the ropes while walking on the glacier, but by all means the Crystal Cave is one of the most amazing places I’ve ever seen in my life. A dream come true.

Once the tour was finished we were supposed to start driving towards Reykjavik airport ( 6-hour drive) in order to get there before midnight and catch a morning flight back to Dublin. But the roads were still closed and we were stuck. So we booked a night at a hotel right by Glacier Adventure office and decided to wait for the weather to change and then book another flight, hopefully in tow day’s time. The weather forecast said that the wind should drop by next day morning and luckily it did and they started opening the roads but many of them had the status of: open but not passable. So sometimes we had to wait for the road services to push the snow off the roads first before we could keep going. In the end, slowly but surely we made it back to Reykjavik and even had the chance to see the Blue Lagoon.

We’re hoping to visit Iceland again, perhaps at a different time of year.