ICELAND - Where fire meets Ice !

As a little girl I was always fascinated by fairy tales and magic land. I remember reading about Arora Borealis and wondering how it would look in real life. Little did I know then that I would be travelling alone from literally one part of the earth to the other, to see and experience what I always read and imagined!

Iceland is a mountainous island nation in the north Atlantic ocean , located between Europe and North America.

What sets Iceland apart is the beautiful landscape, lava fields and volcanoes that gives a very picturesque texture to everything around you.

This is a country of sharp contrast, a place where fire and ice co-exist beautifully!

Northern Lights

One of the main reason people have Iceland on their bucket list is the ‘Northern Lights’.

Do make sure you check the aurora forecast , as you need a good forecast to be able to view the lights.
https://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/ - you can use this link to get the aurora forecast . It is pretty much accurate.

We were lucky to have got a good forecast for Northern Lights on the day we landed.

24 hrs of no sleep and no proper food was no longer a problem, we quickly geared up for the “Northern Lights hunt” as they call it. And boy was it truly a hunt in all sense. We drove out of the city into the wild through the night to 5 different spots looking for clear skies to get a good view ..…

It was freezing minus 2 degree and the strong winds made it even worse. There I was standing in the freezing night holding a glass of steaming hot chocolate, which by the way was a real life saver!

Make sure you are wearing very warm layers as the cold winds can actually numb your hands and legs if not properly protected. 

I must say it was a bit disappointing at first to see the white cloud band – that’s it! I expected a little more than this!! As I continued standing there with jittery jaws and frozen nose gazing in different directions and as the clouds slowly started clearing we could see a green wave of light and then there was more. The white band across the sky slowly started showing hint of magenta. In an instant , the sky just lit up with bands of white and green waves on the side. I put my camera down and was mesmerized. Now, I could see more than one green wave in the sky beneath the white band with slight hues of magenta…. I was looking at 'THE NORTHERN LIGHTS' !

Blurry image of aurora as it danced across the sky

It was a sight to behold….

The humbling feeling you get when you see something so profound and beautiful ….DIVINE!
This was a perfect beginning to a magical vacation.

The Golden Circle

I was in Iceland in October, which is the beginning of winter, and it can get really windy, especially when you are driving by the plains.The wind can be so fierce that it can topple a bus is what we heard from the locals. Summer, on the other hand might be a good time for you to rent a car and go on the golden circle drive. Either ways it is a beautiful drive across the plains, volcanoes and huge lava fields…

First stop on Golden Circle drive - Pingvellir National Park. For all the Game of Thrones fans, this is where some of the key episodes were shot.

But what fascinated me the most were the shifting tectonic plates ! Pingvellir lies in a rift valley that marks the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. You will clearly see the result of continental drift between the North American and Eurasian plates. This is one of the reasons for making Pingvellir a UNESCO world heritage site.

I also got to experience what Iceland is known for, the most volatile climate. What started with a bright sunny day, turned sultry and then started raining followed by fierce wind and immediately back to a very pleasant weather where the clouds suddenly cleared and it was all nice and bright again... All this in just 2 hours! 

Geothermal Fields 

The active geothermal field has several geysers. The main attraction here was the exploding geyser Storkkur which explodes every 7 minutes, shooting water and steam of 100 – 120 degree centigrade at a height of 30 meters !

Storkkur - Active Gyeser

There was a very strong odor around the entire field due to sulfur spewing out each time the geyser explodes.

For all the over enthusiastic photographers, watch your step. You are practically standing on top of shifting tectonic plates which can cause the ground to cave in. So keep your distance, respect the signs and enjoy Mother Nature’s live performance!

The Black Beach

The world famous Reynisfjara shore , near the village Vik in Myrdalur on Iceland's south coast, is widely regarded as the most impressive black sand beach . The US journal, Islands Magazine, counted this beach as one of the top ten most beautiful beaches on Earth !

Reynisfjara features an amazing cliff of regular basalt columns resembling a rocky step pyramid, which is called Gardar.

Who says everything beautiful should be colorful and bright! The black beach is one such hypnotic beauty!

The black sand, the angry white waves crashing on the shore looks scary at first, but as you stand there looking at the ocean you will see a perfect rhythm with which the water just swirls and slowly bends down to kiss the black shore and quietly retreats!

This is what I call dangerously beautiful!

Keep reading my blog for a part 2 of my Iceland adventures .....

Masinagudi.... Weekend in the Wild !

Masinagudi, is a small town set near Mudumalai forest . This place is about 30 km before Ooty.
Lovely weather, amazing food and best of all this is the closest i have got to nature in all my jungle trips so far.
The place we stayed was a huge 42 acre property and the best part was only about 3 - 4 acres of it was used for the property the remaining forest was left untouched.
This gave a feel of staying in the forest.. while technically it was not.
But for someone who has just resumed travelling with a toddler, ideal setup of a forest .

It is like heaven for photographers. Spotted a lot of different birds but could not capture them well as i did not equip myself well to capture good pictures.
Lesson learnt! i have to carry all my lens and accessories when i go on a trip next time.

We had to cross the Mudumalai reserve to reach Masinagudi. And Mudumalai is known for its elephants and endangered species  of Bengal Tiger. We were not fortunate enough to spot any of the tigers. But did manage to go to the Elephant feeding camp and got to see elephants being fed live in action.

It was an amazing sight to see a tiny person put a big ball of mixed rice, jagery and coconut, right into the mouth of the huge animal.

While this was definitely a great sight to see, i personally felt, this is not how it should be.
The Elephant , so majestic, the biggest living land animal is chained and fed based on a timetable.
They are supposed to be free in the wild, living their life their style; not dependent on a bell to eat lunch and dinner.
The interference of man with nature has got this huge animal to a very sorry state.

I too was one of the many people who bought a ticket to go watch the elephant being fed. But what was an awesome sight initially, changed to more of pity towards that gigantic helpless animal as i stood there and watched .

This is where i sometimes feel that we humans have started misusing the 'Top of the Food chain' status that we acquired.
Anyways, with this deep thought we left the elephant camp and headed back towards Masinagudi.


Evenings are the most beautiful when you are in and around the jungle. The golden rays of the setting sun trickling through the leaves is something that lifts your spirit in an instant.

As the sun slowly slid behind the trees and the mountains, the sky turned into a pallet of colors !
And in an instant it was dusk and out came the myriad stars of a cool summer night !

Time for me to head back into my cottage for a good nights sleep for my ride back home early tomorrow.