Yesterday was an interesting day. We’re both now pretty exhausted. We feel like we’ve been in the car forever. Our food choice leaves a lot to be desired. Even the evening routine of getting all the tech charged back up feels like a drag. We were being powered by one thing, the Ice Cave tour. Oh, and maybe some tea.

We leave at 8 and drive ~3hrs east to Jokusarlon. It felt like a longer trek than normal. The night gave birth to the most glorious morning, possibly that we’d seen in Iceland. Thing is, we were too tight for time to get some photos. Our stop consisted of a high speed fuel fill up and driver swap. Neil wanted to fly the drone, I wanted to get the GoPro out. We just didn’t have time. It’s OK though, because we are going to an Ice Cave.

Well here it is. A 30m x 20m hole in the glacier with some ice in it and a ton of other tourists. I’m not going to say it wasn’t cool (pun intended), but, for 170€, we expected a whole lot more. We felt robbed, not only of our money, but also the photo opportunities we had in the car earlier on.

You win some and you lose some. Usually I’m lucky. That morning, I definitely was not. The highlight was riding in the big boy truck. In the snow they drop tyre pressures to 10PSi!

Jokusarlon Ice lagoon lake. Not as impressive as seeing it in summer, but a great place none the less.

Jokusarlon’s icebergs drift out into the sea and wash up onto Diamond beach. The sea washes the snow off for the icy shinyness.

We were still bitter about the days earlier events and decided it was proper meal time. We trek back to Vik with Bon Iver to soothe our souls, then, a quick glance at the Aurora Forecast app reveals a solar storm is on the way AND some clear sky! The burning desire to see the Northern lights returned with haste! Over dinner, we’re in full on, super duper Northern light investigation mode. Which way do we go? How far do we go? How committed are we?

Turns out very.

‘You’ve probably already seen them but didn’t realise’ says the lady next to us over dinner. Now; this couple were lovely and we really did appreciate people trying to help us, but, I would bloomin’ well know if I saw some dancing green shizzle in the sky. The lady, Jacqueline, suggested looking for whitish/greyish cloud and taking a shot with long exposure. Mentalism. You’d have to be off your rocker to start taking photos into the sky, in the snow, in the dark, in a car park somewhere in the south of Iceland because a random couple from Washington DC said it would be a good idea, and yet, here we are:

The couple drove off into the night leaving the two fools taking photos of nothing. Maybe they had a bet to see what stupid stuff they could get strangers to do. They really got us.

Is that the Northern lights? Nope it’s a car light in the distance.

Is that the Nort……. DUDEEEEE, ITS AURORA!!!

Yep, that’s right. Two cameras  shooting randomly into the darkness in different directions and we actually found the Northern lights. Who’d have thought it. That crazy couple, Jacqueline and Matt from Washington DC weren’t crazy. They were basically our heroes. Cheers guys.

We push further out into the unknown empty roads and take photo after photo, at random camera settings until probably about 2am.

You can’t say we weren’t committed to the cause.