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The Fire Gorge — Eldgjá & Ófærufoss

by Marc 11/03/2023 | 1 IMAGE IN THE BLOG POST | No Comments

Eldgjá, the Fire Gorge, is an 8 km long and up to 150 m deep volcanic fissure. It erupted in the middle of the 10^th century, shortly after the first colonisation of Iceland. The Eldgjá is a wonderful place to hike. From the car park in the west, hike over two bridges and then climb up to the southern edge. After about 2 km of hiking you come to the point where you have a view across to Ófærufoss. During our hike, we saw the light coming in from the west under rain clouds.

We must have waited 10 to 15 minutes for the narrow band of light to pass over the waterfall and the land above, giving me the right light to set the scene for Ófærufoss. The mountains around it remained in shade, as did the end of the fire gorge. But we still wanted to hike there and see it up close.

Iceland Highlands — at Sunshine!

by Marc 10/31/2023 | 1 IMAGE IN THE BLOG POST | No Comments

The sky had been mostly cloudy so far, but when we arrived here, the clouds broke for half an hour. The southern highlands lay before us in glorious clarity, mountain ranges stretching across the landscape, rivers and lakes in the foreground.

Sveinstindur

by Marc 10/29/2023 | 1 IMAGE IN THE BLOG POST | No Comments

Sveinstindur on the banks of Langisjór. This mountain ridge rises majestically out of the black desert. On this day in late summer, its summit was covered with the first snow. It is 1,092 metres above sea level but only about 400 metres above the valley floor. I actually wanted to climb it, but with strong and especially gusty westerly winds and the snow on the summit, it was out of the question.

Neither was an overnight stay at the »campground« in the national park, which was no longer staffed by rangers at that time. We had found a modern washing and toilet house there, but we would have had to pitch the tent right in the windbreak. So it remained a short visit.

Alone in a Highland Valley

by Marc 10/26/2023 | 2 IMAGES IN THE BLOG POST | 2 Comments

A river winds undisturbed through the highland valley. We are alone on the road and drive over 30 km through this landscape. The F‑road is repeatedly interrupted by the course of the river, so that we are often invited to ford it.

Of course, it was appealing to be able to observe this landscape from a drone’s perspective. A little later, the opportunity arose when the sun came out again and the river lay wide in front of us. read more or write a comment …

Through thick layers of ash

by Marc 10/24/2023 | 1 BILD IM BLOGBEITRAG | No Comments

On the way through the southern highlands, you hop from one valley to the next, so to speak.

Almost always the valley floors are covered with moss, but always crossed by river courses. Since the entire Icelandic highlands were created by volcanoes, it is no wonder that the rivers have worked their way through thick layers of ash.

Spot on!

by Marc 10/22/2023 | 1 IMAGE IN THE BLOG POST | No Comments

The pictures in the previous blog posts showed all the rain clouds hanging over the Icelandic highlands that day. It was all the more beautiful when we passed this ridge and the sun suddenly broke through a small gap in the clouds.

»Spot on!« and the ridge’s peak shone in the sunlight.

I had had these mountains in front of my lens before, back then in low clouds and no sunshine, and I had opted for detail shots.

Like a grey scale — in 12 steps from black to white

by Marc 10/20/2023 | 1 IMAGE IN THE BLOG POST | No Comments

This image looks like a black and white picture, but it is really developed in color.

In the black desert in the Icelandic highlands there are at best a few red craters, but I didn’t have any of them in the picture here. The depth effect was created by the drizzle, which made the back rows of mountains fainter and fainter until at the end there was a white rainy sky above the mountains.

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