It’s been a little late in coming, but it’s past time to provide an update about my last trip to Iceland. Back in November, I helped out Aurorahunters, guiding for them during a tour to southern Iceland, in combination with Alexander Keen. As usual, the tour had an astronomical theme, but instead of just trying to search out the Northern Lights, we were also looking for the Leonid meteor showers.
Just to make it interesting, we also had to keep one eye on the volcanic eruption, associated with the largest of the Icelandic Volcanoes, Bardabunga. Since mid-August, the volcano had been showing signs of unrest and in September erupted quite a distance to the north of the main cone, in Holuhraun. Even now, it is still continuously erupting. Just before we travelled, some parts of Iceland were experiencing high levels of pollution, so we had to keep a careful watch on the wind direction. Luckily, there weren’t any issues and the tour went without any major hitches.
We arrived a couple of days before the clients, so that we could do some last-minute scouting and make any necessary adjustments to the programme. We had a number of meetings with providers we were working with to make sure things ran smoothly and also visited some of the locations we would be taking the clients to, to ensure there weren’t any hitches. The weather wasn’t looking the best, but then we were in Iceland, so in true Aurorhunters style, the programme was going to be an advisory, rather than a solid plan. Largely though, we did stick to the programme we made in the last days prior to the tour starting. Also, we didn’t have any of the major storms that Iceland is renowned for.
We were staying in Keflavik, not far from the airport and it was therefore a quick trip to collect the VW Transporter before meeting the clients on the day of arrival. After time to settle in, we did the usual welcome meeting with information on the Aurora and Leonids.
The clients had a good taste of Southern Iceland, including geysers and waterfalls. We were also lucky enough to experience the best Aurora display I’ve seen, with movement and pulsing so fast, it was impossible to capture in stills. It literally covered the whole sky and was very spectacular.
A combination of problems with my main camera body and making sure the clients were able to photograph what they wanted, meant I didn’t get many shots myself, but it was an enjoyable experience and the tour was a success, despite working in a largely unfamiliar location, despite the scouting trip in the previous August, without backup from other members of the team over in Norway.
It’s already been a spectacular start to the Aurora season, with bright and fast-moving displays up at 70 degrees North. Andy and the Aurorahunters team have been able to capture some more memorable shots and have been able to find the “Tricky Lady” on five occasions in the first week.
Northern Norway, has its own charm and remarkable scenery, but if you want drama, then look no further than Iceland, with its dramatic scenery, combining volcanic mountains, geysers and of course the Atlantic Ocean.
In the southwest, you have the capital, Reykjavik, with its cultural charm and landmarks, such as Hallgrimskirkja and “Sun Voyager”, as well as boat trips from its harbour. A bit further afield, there are the delights of the Golden Circle, including the natural spectacles of Strökkur, Gulfoss and Thingvellir. But may be you fancy a bit of relaxation? Then try the trip to the Blue Lagoon, with its soothing pools.
Jökulsárlón and Vatnajökull.
In the southeast, you have Vatnajökull and Jökulsárlón, the glacial lagoon. Vatnajökull is the largest glacier in Europe and to say it is big, would be a vast understatement. The sheer scale of it is staggering. Underneath, it hides some of the highest mountain peaks in Iceland, including the huge volcano Bardarbunga.
Why not visit some of these fascinating locations, along with many more, with the Aurorahunters team. Also on offer are a boat trip, hunting for the Aurora – Aurorahunting with a difference, and a hunt for the Leonid Meterors. There will also of course, be the obligatory standard Aurorahunt, if anything in Iceland can be descrived as standard of course. A chance to see a natural phenomenon, one on the bucket list of many, against one of the most dramatic landscapes on Earth.
The tour is on the 13-18th November, with the Aurora Borealis and Leonid meteor shower as the highlights. See the Aurorahunters website for the full itinerary.
A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit Iceland. I travelled with Andy Keen, founder and Director of Aurorahunters, a company who has made it their business to chase the “Tricky Lady” in northern Scandinavia, as well as the company of his son, Alex and three fellow travellers. I first travelled with them to Finland around 18 months ago, then I visted the Lofoten Islands and Finnmark with them in March this year.
This trip was more of a scouting trip, a way of putting out feelers for the potential of Iceland. Also, the primary target wasn’t the Northern Lights this time, but the Perseid meteor shower. Of course, who could pass up the chance of Aurora also, even if the hours of darkness were limited? After an early morning flight, we arrived at Keflavik and just had enough time to travel to our apartment in the suburban area of Reyjavkik and a quick cuppa, before we headed out on our first trip. Unusually, we were going to be doing some tours with a local agency, instead of making our own way, mainly because we were a little clueless about Iceland. To be honest, we weren’t even sure it would live up to the hype. It’s one of those destinations that everyone talks about and there is always a slight niggling concern that it isn’t going to live up to expectations.
We hadn’t realised, quite how large the company that was helping us was. They were called Reykjavik Excursions and it seems they are pretty much the largest tourist company in Iceland. Despite that though, they went out of their way to collect us from our apartment (which we later found out was very unusual).
I’m not normally one for cities, but Reykjavik was quite interesting and the quick tour helped us to orientate ourselves to some degree, visiting a number of attractions, such as Perlan (The Pearl), the Sun Voyager sculpture, Hallgrimskirkja and a number of other places.
That evening, we visited the Blue Lagoon and yes, it is very blue. It is also in a geothermally active area (just like much of Iceland), with many smaller pools outside the main complex and many volcanic features. The rocks, intermingled with the pools, some of which are quite large, make for a very dramatic landscape.
Probably one of the more dramatic areas we visited, was the glacial lagoon of Jökulsárlón, in the southeast of Iceland. Vatnajökull is the largest glacier in the country and also in Europe and the lagoon has a large number of icebergs, which have calved from the glacier. Also, many seabirds, such as skua and terns were flying around, with common seals swimming amongst the icebergs, while observing all the visitors.
We spent several nights looking and trying to photograph the Perseid meteors, but they were more than a little shy, we did however strike lucky with a faint (but visible) aurora, which is almost certainly the first sighting of the season, a full week before the locals would have expected. Then again, they probably weren’t mad enough to be out at some ridiculous hour, when there was barely two hours of darkness.
The final day, we decided to forego the coach (partly due to camera issues – they don’t like volcanic lakes) and strike out on our own to pick and choose what we wanted to see on the Golden Circle. Our first stop was Thingvellir, the site of the old parliament and visible rift gorge. This is a site where the theory of plate tectonics, becomes reality and the forces of nature are clearly visible. The perfect site for a seat of power. Next stop was the awesome power of the Gulfoss falls (Golden Falls), before finally finishing off the daylight hours at the site of Geysir, in the company of geothermally active, bioluminescent pools and the might of the geyser of Strokkur (churn). Not quite the same power of Geysir, when it is active, but then Geysir isn’t currently active.
Iceland certainly lived up to expectations and we will almost certainly visit again, that is if a certain volcano by the name of Bárðarbunga allows. Two days after we left the island, Bárðarbunga started showing signs of unrest and at the time of writing, has opened up a dyke more than 40 km long and has possibly had some small eruptions under Vatnajokull. If events progress how they could, then it could put on a spectacular display, that could have the potential for much disruption, not just in Iceland, but also in Europe. I can thoroughly recommend Iceland as a travel destination and if you want to chase the Northern Lights, then there is no-one better than Aurorahunters. Also, look out for more nature-based excursions in the coming months and not just the hunt for the “Tricky Lady”.
Last week I was able to hunt for the Northern Lights. I had seen them previously near to Tromsø in Northern Norway in December 2011 and more fortuitously near to Inverness in October 2012, but I was in search of a more spectacular display. While the previous views were an experience to remember, I wanted to be able to see the colours with my naked eye, not just in the resulting photographs.
After some searching, I had decided to opt for Northern Finland, as while I have liked Norway since living in Oslo and had a certain affinity for the country, Finland offered better weather, which can be the enemy of the Aurora hunter, with a much better chance of clear weather, than Tromsø could offer, due to its assault by the gulf stream weather systems. I also decided to travel with a company called Aurorahunters.
While Aurorahunters is a fairly new company, having been established just two years ago, they are fast growing in their reputation. The company is owned by Andy Keen, with support from Marti Rikkonen, a nature photographer with many years experience photographing the nature of Finland, including the Aurora Borealis. Operations are ably managed by Andy’s son Alex and they have the support of other seasoned aurora hunters.
One thing that struck me on the first night, was the enthusiasm that they all showed. It was obvious that they would do everything possible not just ta find the Aurora, but also the gaps in the cloud cover. And therein lay the problem. We arrived from our over night stop in Helsinki to see heavy cloud cover with constant snow. The plan was to hunt for the Aurora on three of our four nights and the decision was made by Andy to call it a night, which meant everything was resting on the only three nights remaining. Of course, that was also the best night for predicted Aurora, but there simply wasn’t any chance of finding a gap in the cloud cover.
Aurora near Suolisjärvi.
The second night also didn’t look promising at first glance, as it was snowing yet again in Inari. However, the weather forecasts were suggesting that clearer weather was coming from the east, across the Russian border, so our team headed northeast, towards the Norwegian border south of Kirkenes. After a few brief glimpses of activity, just south of the border and some tantalising glimpses of cloud-free skies, we continued north, eventually crossing the border into Norway. However, as we got closer to Kirkenes, it became obvious that the clouds weren’t going to clear, so we headed back to our original location in Finland. Just before we reached our destination, a fox crossed the road in front of us, which excited Alex, as previous sightings had preceded good views of the Aurora. There us a Saami legend that Aurora is produced by the snow that is flung up by the tail of the fox and the Finnish name for the Aurora, Revontulet, actually means Tail of the Fox. It did indeed seem like an omen too, as when we approached our chosen spot, the clouds started to clear and an Auroral band became visible. It wasn’t the most spectacular of displays, but it was as strong as anything I’d seen and it had some structure to it. The Tricky Lady had made her appearance at last.
Northern shore of Lake Inari.
The third night also looked less than promising. Not only had the cloud returned after clearing for a time during the day, it had started snowing again and the temperature plummeted from around -8 C to -14 C. This time we headed east with Andy, towards the Russian border, as again it looked like the skies may be clearing from the east. As we drove, the temperature dropped further to -22.5 C until we reached the border post, after a slight detour to visit the Saami church at Nellim. We stopped for some hot cranberry juice, courtesy of Marti and his family and some biscuits, until we got a call that Aurora had been spotted on a nearby bridge across the Paatsjoki river, which forms the border between Norway and Russia after leaving Finland. While the temperature rose near the river, a mist had started to form, making the atmosphere damp and bitterly cold. It also masked the Aurora, making it difficult to see, even though it was just about visible.
Aurora near Inari.
I spent the final day photographing the landscape around the western end of Lake Inari, as the skies had cleared, producing a beautiful dawn light on the snow-covered lake. It was still -16 C outside and I needed something to cover my face, so went shopping ready for the final night, which was set to be even colder. Yet again, the snow came in, in the afternoon around Inari, but it looked like it would be clearer at the Norwegian border. We started off heading north, this time guided by Marti, but after travelling a short distance, Marti changed his mind. After a quick phone call to a friend, he told us the skies had cleared, so we headed northwest instead. Along the way, he regaled us with some stories of his time as a nature story, including a story of a beautiful bear, which had us in stitches. In fact we were concentrating so much on the stories, we almost missed the main event. One of the fellow guests nudged me and asked if it was an Aurora to the right. I had a look and thought that it was an Aurora just poking out over a hill. We frantically tried to get Marti’s attention, who found a clearing in the trees to next to the road, switched off the car lights and we were met with one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. Not only was it an Aurora, what I thought had been a hill, was in fact the sky, with a huge arc. As we watched, the arc was moving quite quickly, making the perfect subject for a timelapse movie. We viewed the same arc from two more locations along the road, before heading back to the hotel, ready for our early start to the airport the next morning. Marti had another surprise for us though. When we were about 20 kilometres from Inari, he decided to head off on a small side road. By this time the temperature had dropped to -28.5 C, but the display we saw was well worth the extreme temperature, which even challenged our thermal suits. We didn’t really feel the cold though, as the adrenaline was rushing through our veins. The arc was forming right across the road, almost above our heads, in a beautiful curve and the movement and changing forms were otherworldly. The Tricky Lady had done us proud.
For anyone who wants to see the Northern Lights, then I can thoroughly recommend Aurorahunters. The whole team exudes enthusiasm and is willing to go that extra mile to find the Aurora. That is probably why they still have a 100% record in finding the Aurora for each group.
