travel log -...

TRAVEL LOG

Number 1 2010

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Log travel Number 001 2010

Sommaire

Editorial Page 3

Logbook: Iceland june 2008 Page 4

Before leaving: some advice Page 15

News Page 17


This world is full of beautiful wonders pushing me to discover each country and its way of life. From each trip, I bring experience and pictures that I would like to share with you. After the New Zealand web-site, I will offer you an account of my experiences and feelings with this travel log.

This travel log, will tell a story about France or abroad. This first issue is dedicated to Iceland. It was in June 2008. Iceland is a fantastic country, where you can feel so small in front of nature. A little bit lost in northern Europe, Icelanders have opened their gates quickly to tourists, these last years.

I will give you some useful advice to go there and also information about my job as a photographer. Pictures are included with the text from different parts of Iceland.

This is the first number, so if you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to contact me by e-mail at [email protected].

I wish you good reading!

Florence Morisson

Editorial3

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Iceland Map


Logbook: Iceland june 2008

In January 2008, it entered my head that a trip to Iceland would be an excellent idea. The sky was cloudy and Paris looked sad. I wan-ted to see the midnight sun, only visible the Northern Countries. Why did I choose Iceland? I had travelled there in 2002, but I hadn’t seen eve-rything. So I bought airplane tickets, and I had to choose an itinerary. Car rent was so expensive that I decided to use the bus. There are one or two buses a day each way, so I booked every accommodation to be sure to have somewhere to sleep.

The weather wasn’t good. As on every island it can change in several hours, so you have to bring warm clothes and light ones! Once my bag was packed, I went to the airport. The flight took 3h30 and with only one company: Iceland Air! As the flight arrived early in the morning, I could spend all day in Reykjavik before ta-king a bus and going to Akureyri.The weather was fine as the flight approached the is-land, I could see unusual shapes on the ground, rocks with an unnatural aspect, the soil, everything had a strange color and aspect.

When I arrived, I went to Reykjavik (130.000 inhabitants) with a bus, the capital, is situated around 40 kms from there. Still under a wonderful blue sky, I visited the city. I had discovered it seven years ago, and some aspects had changed. One sculpture had been replaced by another. One wall was full of pic-tures of children living in a village of Iceland, and the famous church was being restored. Reykjavik is also known for nightlife and restaurants..

Its city hall is close to a lake with ducks, waiting for food from tourists. It’s not a big city, one day is enough to visit it. Iceland is attraction is its wonderful landscape.

That’s why, after a day in Reyk-javik, I took a bus and went to Akureyri the second city of the country (15.000 inhabitants). When I arrived, it was 11 p.m, and it was still daylight. It was really pleasant to walk late at night with the light of sun.

When I arrived at the accommo-dation I had booked, I was surpri-sed to see a kid who explained to me I had to phone somebody to have the room key! I didn’t have a phone, so the kid did it for me. 5 minutes later a couple arrived, and gave me keys and took the money. I never saw them again. It’s a strange way of acting.

In Akureyri, I wanted to see the mid-

night sun that meant when the sun sank to the horizon and rose again. At the tourism office they showed me a place close to a cemetery. Unfortuna-tely, I couldn’t see the horizon. The city was in front of me. Anyway, it was really impressive to see this won-derful colour spread out over the mountains and the houses. But to take advantage of the midnight sun, I needed to have a car, go to the north and see a landscape without anything in front of me.

It was a wonderful experience to see the sun-set without an end.

Sculpture close to the Reykjavik harbour

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Sunset on Akureyri

Detail of a wall of whales museum at Husavik

In Akureyri, there was the best ice cream com-pany in the country. A large selection of flavours was offered with options such as pieces of chocolate. The ice cream was so big that I had a cup on top of cone. People went out of the shop with one kilo of ice cream! I sat down on bench just close to the shop, and every minute I saw a continual parade of people. It gave me the impression I was that witness to the neighbourhood attraction going in and coming out.

In Iceland, they were swimming-pools everywhere, they were incredible and magnificent. You have to take care to wash entirely naked before entering. It can be surprising, but Icelandic people care about this way of living. There was a basin to do laps, and around it there were smaller basins, all war-med with geothermic means where temperatures were between 37°C and 42°C. Nothing was better than relaxing there after a one day walk.

From Akureyri, I went to Husavik, one of the best places to see whales. The sky was wonderful, al-lowing to see the landscape and animals. After a half

hour trip, the boat reduced its speed, so we could see whales. We weren’t close to them, because, there is a distance to respect so as not to disturb them. You only see a tiny part of the animal, the most important part of the body is under water. Anyway, it’s really impres-sive to see a part of whales. A little further, I saw dol-phins, they were together and some of them jumped four at the same time. It was magnificent.

From Husavik, I went to Reykjahild, a village just in front of Mytvan Lake. The village was not really interesting, but it was close to places of great interest. The lake with its 40 km circumference and 50 islands scattered around was wonderful. Fauna and flora is diversified, you can see fish as well as birds.

One visit was organised by the tourist informa-tion tour of the different sites. To take advantage of the place, I took the first shuttle so as to have 3 hours to walk around Krafkla Mountain. I was the only one there when I arrived, I saw Viti crater, which was full of water. It was fine, but there was nothing exceptio-nal for the tourist guide to tell me.

The wind was very cold and froze my bones. Everything I saw was landscape wi-thout vegetation. I was 13 kms from Reykjahild and I took 3 hours to wait before the shuttle came back.

As I wanted to ask for help, I began to walk and look for somebo-

dy, but there was only a factory using geother-

mic head.The wind was so oppressive, that I began to have dif-ficulties opening my eyes and pushing on the button of the camera.

Leirhnjukur crater


Suddenly, I saw a camping-car site, it seemed lost in the middle of nowhere. So I ask someone to give me a lift back to the city. One woman accepted and said to go and get warm in the toilet. The idea seemed strange but in fact it was warmer inside this spacious toilet. As my hands got warmer, I felt better.

The woman came back and told me about a walkway, not far from the camping-car site, where the walk was wonderful. So I got up the courage, and went back into the cold weather. The wind had stopped blowing, and it was nice to go for a walk. Without knowing it, I found the path, the guide had spoke about, and it was true, that it was a wonderful path! The landscape was separated into two types of soil, one black composed of lava, and another with a strange colour : orange, white, brown... In the

middle, there was the path to follow. The ground is constantly moving, and it’s dangerous to walk off of the beaten track. Sure enough, Iceland is a country in the middle of two tectonic parts, that’s why there are volcanoes, lava, and geysers.

After a half an hour walk, I saw a magnificent scene full of vivid colours. It was Leirhnjukur, the re-mains of a series of explosion in 1975. It was a zone with high volcanic activity. And at any time there could be an explosion. It was a place where you can stay hours to see the movement of the earth. Lumps were formed on opaque water before blowing up and forming again.

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Between light and shadow, lava field on background, and Leirhnjukur crater on fore-

ground

Dettifoss waterfall


Smoke was coming of out the crater, and wa-ter was around 100°C. A little bit further, I saw the movements of the earth made up of lava landscape, everything was grey and black, and go up the path to get a good outlook over the wonderful valley. The crater and its smoke looked very strange in the middle of the color grey of the lava.

In spite of the efforts this excursion demanded of me, the walk was so beautiful that I forgot the cold and the wind of the surrounding area.

The shuttle came back and we followed a small road for 22 kms. It was large enough for one big car. In the parking I heard and saw nothing else but

rocks, so I followed the only visible path. At the end I heard a deafening noise of the waterfall Dettifoss, one of the biggest waterfalls of Europe!

Faced with this force of nature, you feel so small, so ridiculous. As I was high up above the waterfall, I could see the whole waterfall. There was so much force that I received droplets all the whole time on my camera lens, so I had to clean my camera lenses after each picture.

Very close to the cliff, there were two people filming.

They were so close, that I was afraid of seeing them fall in. In spite of everything, their presence allowed me to have an interesting foreground, and gave an idea of the size of waterfall. In fact, it’s really hard to realize the size of something without elements known by all of us to compare it.

The waterfall had an incredible force, eve-rything was wet. Droplets flew around in the air, it was a great moment to see this scene.

The time it took to see Dettifoss, it was already time to leave. It’s not a surprise that everybody can find happiness in Iceland, there are so many kinds of landscape!

Mud and smoke appeared at the surface of the earth

Orange color give to the ground a surrealist aspect


On the way, I met a couple of French people, and we exchanged information, and they told me about their bicycle tour around the lake, and how easy it was to do it. So I said to myself, why couldn’t I do it?

First I went to Namajfall, situated 5 kms from Reykjahild. It was a place full of colours, mud and cracks. It was 8 in the morning, and I was the first one there, so it made the place seem more mysterious to me. Smoke shoot out of the ground, a wooden walk was created so as not to keep people from adventu-ring into a dangerous place. The water was boiling, cracks forming on the ground. Hills were dangerous, and it was forbidden to climb up them.

One has a feeling everything can deteriorate at any moment. And yet, we, the tourists were here to see this hypnotising show of nature. Colours were so vivid, that they looked unreal.

Once I came back to the city, I rented a bike, with the hope of doing some sports. But, between the day my companions had done the tour and the day I rented a bike, the weather had changed. The wind was stronger, and weather was not so good. So when the wind had stopped blowing so much, I was attacked by gnats. So the bicycle walk was not really nice, but in spite of everything it was worth the effort.

Hverfell Mountain was a crater that appeared 2500 years ago after an eruption. With a height of 463 m high, it offered a marvellous panorama of the surroundings.

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I could see the geothermic factory close to Kafkla Mountain where the wind was icy. The lands-cape was going from a dark mass out of a brown co-lor without vegetation to hills covered with green and then rocks everywhere. Mytvan the Lake appeared in all its splendour, and making this part of the country seem alive, because around the lake, there are plenty of animals, fish, birds, horses, and fauna that gave an nice feeling to the place.

When I went south of Mytvan Lake, the lands-cape was more uniform with more shrubs and trees. Skutustadir, is a village in the south, where old volca-noes stood as islands. In one hour, you can do a tour with three hills close together, but not all are acces-sible on foot.

It was time to go back when grey clouds be-came more and more numerous. And it was also time to rest, because riding a bike the whole day was more tiring than I had expected.

My trip around Mytvan Lake was over.

In June, all roads were not open, because there is snow, so we had to make detours to get where I wanted. I went to Egillstadir the city in the East before going to the South. Even though the city has no real interest, the landscape was beautiful, luxu-rious, with waterways, hills and villages.

Although, it was not a place known by tou-rists, but it was worth a visit.

Mont Hverfell

Mont Hverfell panorama

Crater close to Skutustadir


As soon as I arrived in Hofn, I took another bus and went to Jokulsarlon. There, I was very close to Vatnajokull glacier, an icy huge masse, as big as Corsica. With the changing climate, the glacier has shrunk and left a lagoon full of icebergs.

The glacier was always there dominating the landscape, but when I saw icebergs going to the very sea nearby, I felt depressed. In the Northern Country, changing climate effects are visible. For one century, the glacier has shrunk from more than dozens of me-ters.

You can do a boat tour to see the landscape inside the lagoon. Sometimes, you just heard a “plouf”, and you saw an iceberg detach itself. It put me in a state of sadness, in spite of the landscape’s beauty, forcing human beings to face the damage caused by their actions.

Jökulsarlon Lagoon


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Icebergs looking

Svartifoss waterfall


When I came back to Hofn, I looked at the gla-cier again, still there, it numerous parts reaching the hills

The day after, in the morning the light was different and the Vatnajokull glacier seemed to stand up, to be brave and showed its splendour. It was time for another bus trip, and I saw Skaftafell National Park under my eyes.

Many hikers’ paths to be discovered from 30 minute walk to a day walk. When I arrived at the tou-rist office, they told me some information about the room I had booked : the first building after the camp-site. After a quick 10 minute walk, I quickly found two buildings, with nobody inside but with beds. It was

only 1p.m, and I thought, it was lunch time, but af-ter one hour, there was still nobody. The sky became more and more threatening, and at that moment, I saw a woman riding a bike and was astonished to see me. She told me, I was not in the right place that the room was on the top of the hill. I look up, and estimate the difference in level and left. After a 10 mi-nutes more of a hard walk, I saw a house and a wo-man walkeing with difficulty with a cane. She walked to me and showed the room. Around, there was only landscape of greenness and ice. The glacier was still there.

Less than 10 minutes from the room, there was Svartifoss, it was a waterfall pouring throught basalt columns formed on a layer of lava. Water has transformed the aspect of the waterfall little by little. It was one of the most visited sites in the park, and it was worth a visit.

Glacier at the end of the way

Sunset on the park


As I came back to the tourist information office, I took path and going close to the glacier. I couldn’t climb on it because it was dangerous wi-thout a guide. There were crevasse which were invisible to hiking tourists. A thin layer of ice covers them and the weight of a man can easily break this layer. That’s why tours were organised by the tourist centre. That evening, sunset was splendid. From the accomodation, the landscape was magnificent.

At this time, I appreciated to have climbed steep road to see it. Everything was calm, far from anything, without noise, and technology.

The next day, it was already time to leave. To go to Reykjavik, there were two possible roads. One, short passing by the south and another longer, going into the interior of the country. I chose the second way, because I wanted to see Landmannalaugar Moun-tains.

Landmannalaugar site was really exceptional. When I arrived, the bus had to cross a waterway to arrive at the car park. I saw a cottage and scattered tents. Mountains were all around me. It was impres-sive to see all these people in such a small lost area.

Not far from the car park, a hot natural water spring was visible because of the numbers of people swimming in it. It’s one of the Icelandic pleasures to swim in a spring with water around 38°C.

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Camp-site view from mountain

Blue lagoon’s stones


I walked a little bit further, towards a path going to the mountains, with snow on top of them.The walk is for 2 hours and went around mountains. When the bus left this place, I re-discovered all the activities of the city, shops, and red-lights. In Reykjavik, I asked for some information about the youth hostel I was staying in. At the moment, the woman spoke about a concert. I had stayed five days in nature wi-thout any communication, and she was talking to me about a concert without telling me who was playing. After a few more questions, I understood it was Björk, who was singing just a 5 minute walk from the youth hostel !

So I went to see her, there were a lot of tourists of course. Björk sang well known music.

My last day in Iceland was spent at the blue la-goon. Shuttles went from Reykjavik tp the blue lagoon and then to the airport and vice versa. Even if the blue lagoon is artificial, it’s a nice place to relax.

It can be the moment to have a massage or skin care.

Relaxing at the edge of the lagoon and loo-king at the sky, I told to myself that Iceland was a mar-vellous country.

Before leaving: some advice

Iceland is a country, starting to become well known by tourists. During my first trip in 2002, I had difficulty finding an interesting guide for this country. And, then suddenly it became one of the countries to visit. Not that people don’t still look for sun, but many are looking for another kind of trip, closer to natureSo, guided tours were created and agencies and tou-rist guides appeared. A lot of sensational trips were organised. You can climb to the top of a glacier, use a jeep in a lost place, be close to a volcano etc.One of the most interesting aspects of Iceland lies in perpetual change. There are somehow inaccessible, you just can see and admire them.

When is the best season to go?

One of the best seasons to take advantage of the country is summer. The days are long and tempe-ratures are mild (15°C in the afternoon). June is the best month of the year, lupinus (a flower) bloomed flourished everywhere, and there are not many tou-rists. But not all roads are accessible in July and Au-gust.

In Spring and Fall, the weather is fine, but it’s better to go with a guide, because the open roads are known by them.

In Winter, you can see the aurora borealis; take advantage of the Blue Lagoon with an enchanting atmosphere, and of course the night clubs or trendy pubs of Reykjavik.

What weather is it?

Iceland has a special feature. The Gulf Stream goes by the country, so the temperatures are never under 0°C. So at any season, you need warm and light clothes. Weather is very variable, so it’s possible to be very at 1p.m and to find a cold wind at 2 p.m.

How many times should you visit the island?

The surface of the island is 103.000 km², that is 1/6th of the surface of France. With only 330.00 inhabitants, the population is not very dense.To visit the island, one week is enough to visit the is-land, but two weeks is better to take advantage the paths.

The first time in 2002, I left for 2 weeks and only stayed in the South West without being bored!.

Lupinus, close to Husavik


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How much cost a trip in Iceland?

Iceland is a country where everything costs a lot, even if the financial crisis has had an effect on the inhabitants and the currency has been devalued by 30%.

For accommodation, there are hotels, but the economic way is youth hostels where you bring you own sleeping bag.There are also camping site, but nights are cold. People I met who slept on camping-sites told me they slept very badly because of cold. So they were tired during the day, and that’s a shame for holidays!

For example, for a trip of 10 days by bus, hos-tels, and my own food (I brought from France), the cost of the trip was 1300 Euros and I booked in ad-vance.

This is primary information about Iceland. The other things you have to discover by yourself.

Iceland horse

Clouds belowSkaftatell National Park


Water close to Höfn


News : This is the end of the first travel logbook. In or-der to show you another aspect of my trip, I would like to share my adventures with you.

I wanted to tell stories connected my pictures, the surprises, the discoveries, that I can see in a fo-reign country or even in France.

At the moment I am working on a web site to show all my work with black and white pictures, but all of that requires a lot of time.

Regards,

Florence Morisson

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Création : Florence MorissonWEB SitE: http://www.newzelandpictures.netE-mail: [email protected]

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