Iceland 2022 Auroras

One reason for visiting Iceland in the winter was the hope to see the Aurora Borealis / Northern Lights; Margaret had an app reporting good solar activity so we were hopeful, though we something like 300 cloudy days per year in Iceland, we were gambling a little. We figured maybe we’d have to drive a long ways but with ten days to try, there was a hope at least …

Our first chance was November 26 after driving maybe 15 minutes from our hotel to get to somewhere with no street lights. But then the next night was better, and the night after that was better still – all we had to do that night was step outside from our hotel room!

So here’s a selection of the better aurora photos (all of them just using iPhone 12 handheld!):

I also took a couple videos again with iPhone 12; for this first video I used the timelapse feature over a couple minutes and was amazed just how good it came out for handheld!

On the last night from the hotel patio, the aurora brightness was so good and movement so rapid that I took a realtime video (again handheld iPhone) … while sometimes the aurora seems to be stationary but changes if you check every minute or so, in this moment the movement was changing continuously and obviously!

Iceland 2022 Ice

From Vik it’s about another two hours to drive to Glacier Lagoon and Diamond Beach; we weren’t going to bother as we’d heard there were no icebergs, but then Margaret saw a recent photo from someone that confirmed it was worth the trip … there were a lot of icebergs in the lagoon but not too many had made it to the beach, but we got some good views:

Iceland 2022 beaches

I think my favorite place in Iceland is the Black Beach near Vik (“Reynisfjara”) and we stayed three nights at the nearby Black Beach Suites; here are photos from both Reynisfjara and the other Black Beach in Vik on the other side of Reynisdranger – the same rock formation is seen in the water from both sides, though the different angles make it look different.

The final pictures are returning to Reynisfjara when the wind was wild and stirring up very aggressive waves (as well as throwing hail pellets at us!), and views of Reynisfjara from Dyrhólaey