Arrive in Iceland where our guides will pick you up from Iceland’s International airport at Keflavík. It’s a 45min journey into the capital where our accommodation is right in the city centre and handy base from which to get out and explore the sights of Reykjavik before dinner. After dinner Rob, Richard and Berglind will outline the coming 2 weeks expedition and what is in-store photographically.
If you are travelling from New Zealand it is recommended that you arrive in Iceland a couple of days earlier to give yourself time to recover from jet-lag and spend a couple of days exploring the wonderful capital city of Reykjavík.
We leave Reykjavík after an early breakfast and head along the southern coast to the small town of Kirkubæjarklaustur. Along the way we’ll stop for a quick dip at one of Iceland’s most historic hot pools at the foot of the volcano Eyjafjallajökull before heading to our first photographic stop at Skógafoss. Just before we reach out final destination we’ll explore the Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon.
An early start sees us driving in along the F206 to the Laki Craters. We’ll spend all day exploring this amazing area, the scene of one of Icelands biggest eruptions in 1783. In the 230 years since the fissure and craters have been colonised by moss and small plants and are a surreal landscape for the photographers eye. We’ll return late in the day from here back down the same road and camp at Kirkubæjarklaustur.
We have all day to explore the glacier country at Skaftafell further along the south coast and walk up to Svartifoss waterfall and the surrounding alpine area. Late in the day we leave to travel along the coast to the Jökulsárlón Glacier area. We stay two nights here in our accomodation and get a chance to catch up on laundry and downloading and processing pictures from the previous few days.
The day begins again at 2.00am to photograph the sunrise at the Jökulsárlón and catch up on some rest or the option of a boat trip out onto the glacier. There is much to explore in this area with both the lagoon itself and the ever changing black sand beach where with certain weather conditions icebergs from the glacier are washed back up onto the beach.
After another morning at the glacier, we leave to drive up to Höfn where we do a small food shop before heading to the southern most of the eastern fiords and the small village of Djúpivogur. If weather conditions allow there is also the opportunity to stop and photograph the impressive coastal mountain of Stokksnes and later in the afternoon there is a chance of being able to photograph Reindeer that are often seen around the hillsides of this fiord.
An early start from Djúpivogur sees us leaving the South Coast and turning inland over the Oxi Saddle and heading inland behind the East Iceland mountains. Once across the saddle we’ll stop to photograph the impressive Hengifoss waterfall before heading to Borgarfjörður Eystri. Here we will stay for two nights and There will be plenty of time here to photograph the puffins and other birds on the coast as well as enjoying some of the many local walks.
We spend the whole day in Borgarfjörður Eystri and if weather allows will do one of the many day walks in the area. In the evening we get a further opportunity to photograph puffins out near the coast.
A mid-morning start sees us heading inland to the the north via the wonderland of Mývatn. Before reaching Mývatn we’ll make a detour to see Dettifoss. The most powerful waterfall in Europe, this awesome sight never fails to impress. After a short stop at the Námafjall Geothermal area we will head to our accomodation.
We start earl from Kiðagil and head into Akureyri, the second largest town in Iceland and spend the morning food shopping and fueling vehicles before heading into the highlands of Iceland. In the afternoon we begin the long journey through the desolate Springisander arriving late afternoon at a mountain hut on the edge of the Fjallabak Nature Reserve.
We head into the mountains of Landmannalaugar to camp for the night and photograph the famed ‘painted mountains’ and get a chance to relax in one of the finest natural hot pools in Iceland.
We head for the coast once more on the F208 4WD road. We’ll get the chance to explore more of the locations at the Fjallabak Nature Reserve before arriving at our campsite near the Eldgjá Canyon, the largest volcanic canyon in the world and the scene of a massive eruption over 1000 years ago.
After a mornings photography in the highlands we head down out of the highlands on the F208 to Vik. Here there is one of the most photogenic churches in Iceland as well as an incredible coastline and the chance to see Puffins one last time.
We will start early from Vík to give ourselves time to photograph more of the wonderfull coastal landscape around Vik and If time permits we will do a side trip out to a remote beach to see the slightly strange sight of an abandoned DC3 plane on a black sand beach. We’ll head back to Reykjavík via the historic site of Þingvellir National Park and our last night of the expedition.
Our guides will transport you to the Airport at Keflavík for international flights.