Iceland 1 - Day 6 - March 20, 2014

An early morning wake-up call with the hope that we will get a sunrise and beautiful light on the icebergs at the black sand beach.  We drive to beach to see a host of large trucks and may sub’s, a horse trailer and security personal.  The guards asked me if we were a part of the photography crew, not completely understanding what he had said I said yes.  So he told us where to park, we did.  On getting out of our vehicles and setting up with our cameras we were informed that we could not go on the beach as they were getting ready to film a TV sow or a movie - I am not sure.  Not a very big disappointment as the could cover was still there and the likelihood of a good sunrise was nil.

Fortunately there is another similar beach on the other side of the lagoon so we plowed through a snow embankment and arrived at the alternate beach.Photography was decent at best till the sun peeked out.  No golden light as the sun was at a 25 degree or more elevation.  Even so the photography was good for the group.We went back to the hotel for breakfast and to check out before heading back to Vik and then on to Reykjavic.  We stopped at a few locations along the way and photographed despite poor weather conditions.The first was a small church (they are all usually small churches) at the base region of Havannadalshnukur glacier near Skaftafell.  We spent a little time here and took a group shot of the participants and Olgeir in his blue jumpsuit.  Walking to the rear of the church we spotted a ptarmigan but before one could get a shot it flew away.  It appears that the locals put out bird feed for these birds.  There aren't many trees in Iceland even though Iceland was mostly forested.  It is not the climate but mankind that completely deforested the land.  Not the country is doing its best to plant trees and recover the forestation.  A small copse of trees en route.The next stop was an odd shaped mountain that is usually reflected in a crystal clear lake.  Unfortunately this lake had a layer of ice and snow. Even so the scene was great as the skies had clear up by now with just some puffy clouds.

  Lunch at Vik and then an attempt to photograph the “Three Sisters” in the Vik Reynesdranger beach region.  The mist and the direction of the sun made this virtually impossible. We swung around to the west side.  This was not much better but we were able to get a few half decent images. Vik is the wettest town in Iceland. Average annual rainfall is about 90 inches.Next a quick trip to the Dyrhólaey peninsula that is a nature reserve at the southern-most point of Iceland. Here the puffins nest on the cliffs as do Fulmars and Kittiwakes.From here when you look east toward Vik you get a good view of the black lava sea stacks of Reynisdrangar called the “Three Sisters”.

Going further to the West we stopped at a few locations to get some more landscapes and reflections in small lakes and pools.Finally arriving at the hotel in Reykjavic..