Viktoria is the “new girl” – here at What’s On and in Iceland. She comes from Hungary, studies Viking Stuff at the University and loves photography, so we’re sending her on ALL the tours to get a fresh perspective on what they’re like. As the old Icelandic saying goes “perceptive is the eye of the visitor.”
Northern Lights by Super Jeep
I went out to try and catch the Northern Lights. I decided to go on the trip when the aurora forecast was incredibly good and thought my chances were pretty great since it wasn’t too cloudy. Luckily, I got on the Northern Lights by Super Jeep tour and was very excited about the huge vehicle!
Our driver picked us up at the hotel, and then we drove towards the Reykjanes Peninsula. The forecast said that the sky would be clearest there. We drove towards Keflavik and stopped at Hvalsnes, where we briefly inspected the beautifully lit Hvalsneskirkja, the town’s church. After that, we drove out of the town but stayed in the area.
The lights came almost instantly. It was like they were waiting for us to stop and look at them!
Halldór, our amazing driver, asked whether we knew how to photograph the Northern Lights, and we of course unanimously said no. After he took pictures of us standing in front of the lights, he explained how to set up our cameras and let the shooting begin! Never in my life would I have thought (even though I had a DSLR camera for years) that you can make such amazing pictures of the night sky.
As the weather was changing very quickly – which is the case in Iceland most or all of the time – we had to stop admiring the lights at that location and moved on to the lighthouse Reykjanesviti, where we stopped very close to the cliffs.
It was pitch black and very cold and windy, but the lights were very beautiful there, changing colours and dancing in the sky. This is something that I haven’t seen before, and all I can say is that it really is very beautiful and mesmerizing.
We finished our Northern Lights gazing at the lighthouse very soon since it started to rain and we were heading towards the Blue Lagoon. At the Lagoon, we stopped yet again to admire the lights. There they were a bit fainter, and it was still very cold, but we had so much fun already that this didn’t detain us from trying to make some more pictures of them when we weren’t just staring up at the sky.
We got some hot chocolate on the way as well, to warm ourselves up, and Halldór explained to us everything we asked and a lot more. Upon arriving back in the city an hour after the official “ending time” of the Northern Lights by Super Jeep tour, we were all asked our opinion before prolonging the tour and happily agreed since we were glad for the extra time.
The Northern Lights by Super Jeep tour was great and going that day was the best decision I could have made!
Photos by Ágnes Viktória Jávorszky
