Best of Iceland: Great Memories To Cherish! (part 5)
We come to the final leg of our Icelandic adventure, the best finish one could ask for! — The Northern Lights! (and more)!
This a 5 part series, please read the earlier parts here
Part 1: Hello Reykjavik, and the plan
Part 4: Heavenly day and a broken key
Traveling — it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller” — Ibn Battuta
We continue from where we left off. As a young kid, it was fascinating to learn that Earth is a powerful magnet and shields us from harmful radiation. It was even more intriguing to know that you can see it in action in the Arctic region.
I was in awe of the magnificence all around Iceland, but I knew seeing the Northern Lights would be something else. We’d already been there for more than a week but hadn’t seen it yet. We were running out of time.
We were supposed to drive from Akureyri back to Reykjavik on our original plan. But we felt a little empty. We even went through a car issue in the middle of a snowstorm (read part 4 for the story). It felt like nature owed us something now.
We noticed something in the sky as we were driving through the evening. It was nothing spectacular, more like a misty sky reflecting the light from the town below. We didn’t want to get our hopes up and drive along when something happened. We drove past the small towns and there was no sign of any human activity, and yet the sky appeared the same. There was no light to reflect from the below. There must be something else going on.
We realized there was an opportunity here. We checked our apps and it mentioned that there was a possible sighting of the lights further north, and we drove that direction without thinking. And it all changed suddenly. In about less than 15 seconds, the sky turned into a giant screen and lit up as far as one could see.
I could try and explain how beautiful the dancing in the sky was, but there are times words do fail to explain what one thinks. Imagine all the adjectives about beauty in all of world’s languages, then multiply by 10. It is still not enough! You truly have to experience it to understand.
We parked on the side and began taking pictures. My friend attempted to take photos with his DSLR while wearing gloves, but he had to remove them frequently. He nearly lost his finger to frostbite due to trying to (don’t worry, nothing bad happened in the end). Did I not start the series by saying that we are crazy people?
After about 45 mins, the show was over. It was genuinely a high point in our lives. Nature is scary, powerful, infinite and beautiful — all simultaneously! It felt like only two hours had passed since we saw something unusual in the sky. Time passes at a different pace depending on what one is doing; it was almost 5 hours!
I suppose losing oneself in the moment is not difficult when so much beauty surrounds us!
Then it occurred to us: We’d strayed off course by about 175 kilometers or so. After discussing where to spend the night, we decided to go back to Reykjavik. It wasn’t an easy drive, we hadn’t noticed that the next coffee/toilet was about 130 kilometers away.
The next day, we traveled to Kirkjufell to get some photographs and enjoy the route. We drove the same way the previous day, but it was dark, and we were too distracted looking at the sky and missed everything on the ground.
We must thank Iceland for preserving its beauty! I wonder if my grandchildren will be able to enjoy the beauty as I did. I hope we do not screw up this planet and destroy all its beauty.
This is it. The series ends with this post.
Writing these stories has been a fantastic experience. I smiled as I typed, it was such a pleasant memory to recall. It’s impossible to remember every detail of a trip that happened two years ago, but the one thing I recall clearly is how astonished I was.
Dear Iceland — Thank you for allowing us to experience your stunning natural beauty. We look forward to seeing you again!
And a huge thanks to my crew! I am glad to have shared this adventure with you!
All pictures in the series are from us (credits added for a couple of exceptions). I have added a few more pictures that didn’t make it in the earlier posts.
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Bonus Pictures
