Iceland 1 - Day 2 (March 16, 2014)

Iceland continues to be cloudy, stormy and very windy. We planned of doing the Golden Circle route despite adverse weather conditions. On the way to Þingvellir we stopped at Mosfellsheiði (Mosfellsheidi in English).Þingvellir (Thingvellir in English) which is the is the National Park where the Althing, open-air parliament that represented all of Iceland, was convened in 930 and continued remained active until 1798. It became a national park in 1928 and has a special tectonic and volcanic environment as a rift valley. It is in this area that you can see the continental drift between the North American and Eurasian Plates particularly in the faults which traverse park. The largest of the fault cracks is the Almannagjá. Þingvellir is on the northern shore of Þingvallavatn, that is the largest natural lake in Iceland.As we walked along the fault cracks we noticed bus loads of tourists arriving so decided we would go ahead to the largest waterfall Gullfoss and beat the crowds that were bound to visit the famous Gyser before going to Gullfoss.For a change Gullfoss was not as windy so the group was able to get some excellent images from the various vantage points.Next stop was for lunch at the Geyser. Here again the crowds were impossible - it was school vacation week in England and hence the crowds.After lunch we headed out to photograph the Geyser. A few quick eruptions and then we are in the middle of one of the fastest developing snowstorms. No one outside was spared. A few (sensible) members of the group decided to stay back in the restaurant - smart move. By the time one could walk from the gyser to the concession store photographers, cameras and tripods all became one big white snow covered mass.Heading back around the Golden Circle we stopped and photographed a small church in Faxi called Haukadals Kirkja (Kirkja means Church - interesting that the Hindi word for church is Girja and sounds similar to Kirkja).Next stop was a coral of Icelandic horses on Route 35 before heading to another waterfall.

This is Faxafoss which is not very high but has some lovely form.With the weather continuing to be problematic we heads towards a potential Aurora location. As the sun was going down we stopped overlooking a valley with a lovely little church. This is the church at Lake Ulfljotsvatn that is south of the Thingvellir national part called Ulfljotsvatn Kirkja.  The original church or churches were was established 1200.  The current church was built in 1914 and will be 100 years old this year. The lake is frozen but it is deceptive.  It is believed that centuries ago the priest and people traveling to attend mass drowned on their way trying to cross the lake as a shortcut to church.

The church at Lake Ulfljotsvatn

The Aurora is always a waiting game so we waited and waited. All there was to photograph was the full moon.One can only have so much patience and with no signs of the skies clearing we returned to the hotel.