Aurora borealis, waterfalls, glaciers, fairies & more in Iceland
The flight to Reykjavik from Amsterdam jumpstarted all the excitement when the pilot asked passengers to look out the window and watch out for the possible sighting of the Aurora borealis. His announcement, the plane captain explained, was based on a NASA report as the space agency tracks the appearances of the Northern Lights. A whiff of anticipation was felt when the lights in the cabin were dimmed. Passengers turned their gaze toward the windows from time to time throughout the three-hour journey. We touched down at the wintry Keflavic airport of Iceland at 9 p.m. without seeing the dancing lights in the sky.
“We still have six days in Iceland. That means we still have six days of chasing the Aurora,” my best friend Christine Dayrit told me as we waited by the carousel for our luggage. My body was tired from the 32-hour flight from Manila. But my spirit was excited. Outside the airport, it was pitch black. I craned my neck to in search of the Aurora but the cold only gave heaviness to my eyelashes.
“They say you don’t find the Aurora; it finds you,” Christine, who first saw the Northern Lights in Tromso, Norway years back, said. The Aurora can be elusive. I kept a prayer in my heart before I slept that night.
The following morning, Reykjavik, the capital city of Iceland, was festive because of the Tivoli lights that swirled around Laugavegur, the area where our hotel was located. Ghouls and giant spiders, freezing at -5 degree Celsius, adorned the neighboring shops because we were there a few days before the Halloween.
“There’s a lot to see in Iceland. The Aurora is just one — if we are lucky. There’s the Golden Circle, which we will hit today, just outside the city,” said Sno, our tour guide.
The Golden Circle tour is a route from Reykjavik to Thingvellir National Park, the Geyser geothermal area and the Gullfoss waterfalls then back to Reykjavik. All destinations form a circle and it’s a Golden Circle not only because Gullfoss means “golden” but because to experience the southwest part of Iceland is worth more than gold.
Iceland does not run short of natural attractions — geysers, waterfalls, lava fields, volcanic craters and Icelandic horses that can withstand the harsh winter weather as they neigh and gallop in the open fields. No wonder Iceland is called the land of fire and ice because in a country literally frozen by time, with 11 percent of the land area of the country covered by glaciers, volcanic eruptions and lava flows are also a certainty. One moment, you see steam coming from a natural hot spring. The next, you see ice streams. In between are grateful hearts that remember memories of a magical, mystical experience.
The Gullfoss waterfalls are a serene sight amidst the ferocity and fury of their cascades. They are arguably the most beautiful in the whole of Iceland, which is home to an estimated 10,000 falls. The Gullfoss waterfalls, cradled in a river canyon, remind one of the power of nature — what with their icy cascades and mists
Because waterfalls come aplenty in Iceland, it is almost impossible not to find one while on an excursion to any point of the country. The Hraunfossar waterfalls, for instance, are another spellbinding work of nature. Consisting of countless curtain-like springs of clear water that come from the edge of a lava field, the falls create a melody. There are wooden promontories built around the falls that, to a man of faith, become an instant worship site. God is found in the altar masquerading as waterfalls.
Many people in Iceland also believe in the existence of fairies and elves. The National Geographic reported that 54 percent of Iceland’s population of 300,000 people “believe in elves or say it’s possible they exist.”
In Iceland, everything works productively, progressively, peacefully. So peaceful it is in Reykjavik that though the country’s police force is in existence, there is barely any police visibility in any nook and cranny of the city. Crime is almost unheard of in Iceland, said to be one of the the three most expensive countries to live in. (The other two being Norway and Switzerland.)
Late night strolling in Reykjavik proved to be a safe activity and the dreamer in me wished to see the Aurora here or there. On our fourth night in Iceland, Sno brought us to open fields outside the city—to chase the Aurora borealis.
The first attempt seemed promising because the elements needed for the sighting were present. Darkness. A cloudless horizon. A starless sky. After some 25 minutes of waiting in the cold—it was -15 degrees Celsius according to the temperature meter in the van — the Northern Lights remained a dream. We abandoned the area and drove for another hour to another spot.
Online science journals say the appearance of the Northern Lights “is caused by the magnetic storms that have been triggered by solar activity, such as solar flares (explosions in the sun) or ejected gas bubbles.”
At 9:46 p.m., a long stretch of faint white clouds appeared in the sky. With the naked eye, they were just silhouettes of clouds. Sno taught us to view them first through our phone cameras. Excitement befell upon us as the faint presence on the horizon glowed green in our phone. (It is always best to bring a professional camera to take a good photo of the Northern Lights, I was told.) We waited for the clouds to expose themselves all the more but they were gone in a jiffy.
We drove for about two hours to another site. The wind factor in the open field contributed more to the chills. By 11:23 p.m., the vast darkness glowed in faint green until the Aurora showed itself to us, to our naked eye. There were humongous curtains of green lights above us—from dark to light to neon shades of green. Though they seemed steady, some ribbon-like lights on the edge did a slow dance. It was magical. It was an encounter with the sublime.
I thought I saw some fairies on the field dancing to the glorious scene. But of course, the fairies were just in my imagination. But the Aurora was real. That moment was an unfathomable connection to the divine. So profound was the feeling the experience evoked in me joy and awe.
The experience was brief, about 10 minutes of being exposed to the elements, but it lasted longer in the heart and mind. The cold seeped through my bones but witnessing the Aurora was electrifying.
Iceland — with its fairies and elves, geysers and glaciers, waterfalls and volcanoes and, of course, Aurora borealis — will always be my Post-it note about my existence in the vast universe. *
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