Advanced Iceland Photo Tour

With photographer Haukur Snorrason

Price

Double room: ISK 416.000 per person

Single room: ISK 433.000 per person

Departures

Available: from July 6th - 12th 2013

Details

Number of participants: 2 - 8 people

Duration: 7 days / 6 nights

Level of activity: participants need to be good on foot as it is sometimes necessary to make short hikes with steep slopes to the photo locations.

Included in price:
Accommodation: farmhouse Hrífunes with made-up beds.

Meals: breakfast: day 2 – day 7. Picnic lunch: day 1 – day 7. Dinner: day 1 – day 6.

Transportation & guiding: professional English-speaking photo guide and transportation in a 4x4 super van.

Activities and fees: visitor fees in the highlands.

Itinerary

Day 1: Into the Southern Interior (Fjallabak Syðra)

Haukur  will pick you up between 08:00  hours and 08:30 hours from your accommodation in Reykjavik. We head out of town towards the Southern Interior passing Fljótshlið. Here  you have fantastic views over to the volcano area of Eyjafjallajökull and over Mýrdalsjökull glacier. We visit beautiful  canyons and valleys and not to forget the black outwash plain Mælifellsandur. Get the cameras ready! Over the track Öldufellsleid we arrive at the farm Hrífunes, the ideal base for our photo tour. Here we meet Hadda (Haukur‘s wife) who is waiting for us with one of her first delicious home-made meals.

Accommodation: Hrífunes

Day 2: Fire gorge Eldgja and lake Langisjor

We spend the day in the eastern part of the Southern Interior. We visit the fire gorge Eldgjá, a volcanic fissure, 30 kilometers in length, which is believed to have erupted in 934. The most spectacular part of the fissure is adjacent to the Fjallabaksvegur road, where it reaches a width of 600 meters and a depth of 150 meters. At this point the Nyðri-Ófæra river falls into the ravine in two waterfalls. A beautiful natural rock arch that lay across the lower cascade was swept away by the river a few years ago.  Another photo spot today is lake Langisjór – a breathtaking place in the remote highlands. The blue water lined with the green mountains on its shore ask for plenty of film. After photographing we return to Hrífunes.

Accommodation: Hrífunes

Day 3: Hrafntinnusker – a highland secret 

Over the track Öldufellsleið passing Mælifellsandur, Hvanngil Álftavatn and Laufafell we reach Hrafntinnusker where we plan to spend 3-4 hours of photographing. Ice caves,  green moss and colorful rhyolite mountains provide us an excellent photo location Haukur will show you his secret hidden favourite photo spot. We return to Hrifunes the same way we came, which will give us the opportunity to revisit some sights but in totally different light conditions.

Accommodation: Hrífunes

Day 4: NP Skaftafell and glacier lagoon Jökulsárlón

We take a longer rest today as we arrived quite late the night before. We visit the must see photo sights along the ring road. Our first stop is National Park Skaftafell. The Skaftafell National Park lies between high mountains, Lómagnúpur and the Öræfajökull glacier, an extinct volcano whose peak, Hvannadalhnjúkur, is Iceland‘s highest point, 2,119 meters high. Skaftafell is a wooded area surrounded by expanses of sand desert deposited by glacial rivers. The Skeiðará river floods massively from time to time, when melt water bursts out Skaftafell boasts varied natural beauty, with thriving vegetation, wooded slopes, and waterfalls plunging into gorges. Next stop is the famous glacier lagoon Jökulsárlón. Since 1950 the glacier tong Breiðamerkurjökull glacier has retreated and a lagoon, gradually increasing in area, was created. The edge of the glacier calves into the lagoon and icebergs of different sizes are created. The lagoon is very deep, at least 190 meters. It is an unforgettable adventure to take a boat trip between the icebergs to admire the natural ice sculptures and the blue 4 green color of the ice. After photographing we return to Hrífunes.

Accommodation: Hrífunes

Day 5: Landmannalaugar and surroundings 

We drive on the northern Fjallabak road to Landmannalaugar. At the edge of a geothermal area, Landmannalaugar is surrounded by colorful rhyolite mountains, and both hot and cold springs emerge from the earth to provide excellent natural bathing pools. Driving back on Nyðra Fjallabak will provide us with more opportunities in different light.

Accommodation: Hrífunes

Day 6: Open Day 08.08.2012

This day will be used to travel back to one of the places you visited before or see something new. We choose to keep one open day on this tour, where you can decide together with your photo guide where to go. It is also good to have this additional day if the weather has not been in your favor on one of the previous days. When we return to Hrífunes we celebrate the last evening in the highlands with a campfire.

Accommodation: Hrífunes

Day 7: South coast: Vik, Skógafoss, Seljalandsfoss

We leave Hrífunes behind and visit the major sights of the South coast, like the cliffs of Dyrholaey with the basalt formations of Reynisdrangar, as well as the amazing waterfalls Skógafoss and Seljalandsfoss. In the early evening Haukur will drop you off at your accommodation in Reykjavik.

Comments from our photo guide Haukur

"This particular interior route of South Iceland is in my opinion among the most varied and most spectacular landscapes to be found in Iceland. The young land (only 3 million years old) is the main reason that this area is so unique. Here we find just a few cottages used by hikers and farmers, gravel roads and the occasional bridge - not much else is affected by man.

To base accommodation at Hrífunes all the time will increase the time we can actually photograph. From my experience about 1-2 hours per day get lost only by changing accommodation, which I thought could be better spent behind the camera.

On our photo tour we will see a mixture of volcanic landscapes; black volcanic sands, mountains, clay, lava, light colors of rhyolite, moss, streams, rivers and geothermal heat that mixes with the ice and snow e.g. at Hrafntinnusker. So basically this whole area is a fiesta for the camera and that is why I always like to go back there. In addition, the ever-changing weather conditions provide us with sheer endless photo opportunities."

My experience in the interior:
- When traveling in the interior you usually wave or say hello to the ones you meet.
That means there is not a lot of traffic :)
- Peaceful, we have an expression for it : Fjallakyrrd - silence of the mountains
- The day is not predictable in any term
- Being there somehow brings things back to basics

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