Chasing the elusive Northern Lights

I'll be the first to admit that despite all there is to see in Iceland, Aurora Borealis was one of my main reasons for this trip. Hence you can imagine my excitement on our first night out. First let me provide some details on how these tours work. Since Aurora is a natural occurring phenomena no one can really predict where or when it will show up. Hence the guides rely on local weather forecast which provides a rough guide as to how likely you will see it each night. Each tour is different and depending on the night and weather they will bring you to various spots outside of Reyjkavik to escape the light pollution of the city. Another thing to point out is that often they are seen first through our cameras. Hence what maybe invisible to the naked eye could actually be the start of it seen from a picture. On our first night of the search (yes there will be multiple nights) the jeep took us riding around on the outskirts of the city. The night was cloudy and despite our best efforts the most we saw was a slight patch of light green. After an hour standing outside in the freezing cold with wind chills that felt like icicles hitting your face we finally called it a night. This was one of my favorites from the batch.


Not easily defeated we tried again the next night. This time we booked with a big tour bus and joined a few hundred people in the search. We were escorted to a little town outside of the city where everyone stood perched on top of a hilltop waiting for this phenomena. Though the sky was perfectly clear with the Milky Way and thousands of other stars lighting up the night, Aurora was still no where to be found. Pretty soon only the most determined of us remained outside hoping to catch even a glimpse. At last it was not our night as the lights were extremely faint. Disappointed we packed up our gears and prepared to head back to the city. Of the night I liked this picture the most.


The tour company has a policy where if you don't see it the first night you are welcome to a second trip free. Now that's pretty good services and we decided to take advantage of it as a last hail Mary. Hence the final night we went we drove further than any other times and arrive an hour and half later near a small waterfall. Again people waited anxiously, gears set up and ready to go. Although it wasn't extremely windy that night, standing outside for a long period of time was still uncomfortable. Just when everyone was about to give up that's when it happened. The light though faint to the naked eye shone as a streak across the whole sky. As pictures were snapped left and right, people that managed to see it on their screens were ecstatic. I couldn't believe my luck and like a giggly little school girl I tried to contained my excitement as I furiously shot away, trying to capture it all. Though the light were "lazy" as the locals called it, for they did not dance around in the sky I was perfectly content to have been able to see it at all!