Iceland Trip: Connecting with Nature

My partner and I have just come back from our long weekend trip to Iceland. We flew to Reykjavik and then rented a car and I drove us about 2 hours inland to Nesjavellir, where our adventure hotel was located. This area has the most active and the hottest geothermal energy (100C streams and geysers)!

We stayed off-grid to truly be in touch with nature and our surroundings. At the hotel, we enjoyed the geothermal pool and walking through the plains surrounding us. Since Iceland only has a population of 400,000, it was incredibly remote and rural. We loved being away from the city and being able to appreciate the raw beauty of this country. 

On Saturday morning, we went for a cross country horseback ride on the Icelandic horses. The sun doesn't rise until 11am, so we enjoyed the sunrise as we rode through the volcanic plains. The entire island remains in a state of perpetual sunrise and sunset in the winter. This golden light blankets the scenery in soft pastels. The Icelandic horses are incredibly smart, strong, and intuitive. My horse, Solka, knew I was a more experienced rider and certainly made the most of it! She was very affectionate, giving lots of appreciative nuzzles at the end of our ride. They are exceptionally fluffy and equipped for negative temperatures. This breed of horse was brought by the Vikings in their longboats over 1000 years ago, and have now been bred to retain the same qualities as when they first arrived in Iceland. 

Near Selfoss, we had dinner at a Viking restaurant which was built into the ground. Here my partner tried the shark with Brennavin, a traditional (and seriously smelly) Icelandic delicacy. The restaurant is on a large plot of farm land, at night the stars are so bright and unadulterated by artificial light it feels like you can see a million galaxies at once. We did not however see the Aurora lights due to the foggy weather.

As we were leaving, there was a volcanic eruption near Keflavik! Driving directly towards Keflavik, we watched the eruption cloud rising across the sky. These types of eruptions happen quite often so the locals were not concerned. We made it back to London on Sunday night, but will definitely be going back to Iceland in the future!