Vettas in Iceland

Its almost time, Iceland baby :), I have to admit Iceland hasn’t been on my bucket list very long, in fact it wasn’t even on my radar until late last year when I started making plans for WRC, New Zealand and Machu Pichu have been on my bucket list far longer (10+ years), anyway on November 17th I leave London for the famous island in the North Atlantic Ocean and part of the Norwegian Sea.

After months of planning a simple ‘why dont you come mate’ and now I wont be traveling alone, my good friend and fellow photographer Gilbert Romane from GirOPhoto has decided to come with me to double the adventure, we have 24 days to explore and create.

 

We have been lucky enough to join forces with a number of companies, first and foremost Olympus Australia (https://www.olympus.com.au/) is on board and has been for the entire year, and I cannot wait to share my images of this beautiful country using the OMD, secondly we will be working with the wonderful people at Lagoon Car Rental (http://www.lagooncarrental.is/) who are providing us with a brand new Toyota Rav4 4WD, during our adventure we will be jumping on 4×4 ATV’s and putting them through their paces thanks to the guys at Safari Quads (http://www.quad.is/) who have guaranteed us a day of extreme fun seeing some of Iceland we cannot otherwise go to, our power supply will come from none other than industry leader Goal Zero Australia (https://www.goalzero.com.au/) who have kindly kitted us out with all the essential items for such a trip including the Sherpa 100, Nomad 20 Solar Panels, Venture 30 portable USB charger and the new Rock Out 2 speakers for our tunes. GoEcco (http://goecco.com/) tour company in Iceland are taking us Ice-caving and their guides are actively searching out the best caves for this winter season, and with Ice Caving we need crampons, it just so happens an old friend of mine owns the Australian division of GripRox (http://griprox.com.au/) so we wont be slipping of any ice glaciers any time soon.

We have a number of other companies providing us with other equipment which we will have finalised by the time we leave Australia.

Iceland’s leading Magazine ‘Iceland Magazine’ (http://icelandmag.visir.is/) are also working with us on a few story ideas of our trip, there are also a number of magazines in Australia interested in our ‘expedition’ so stay tuned as we get more information.

Gil and I have been working extremely hard on the planning side of this adventure, 23 full days to cover as much of Iceland as possible.

Our journey starts in Reyjkavic the capital, we then head North West to the famous Snaefellsnes Peninsula where we get to visit arguably the most picturesque waterfall in Iceland, Kirkjufellisfoss and Mount Kirkjufell, if you haven’t already noticed I can now speak fluent Icelandic, it has been tough but in the end 🙂 I kid, it looks like a very complicated language to learn, I am not sure how much of it we will grasp, but we will give it a try.

From there we head south to the Golden Circle where we get to see the famous Geyser and a number of waterfalls.

I forgot to mention one thing 😉 we will be camping, not for the entire time but between 60-70%, every two days basically, so we have one night in a Hotel/B&B/Motel then 2 nights camping, the way we see it is when we see an amazing spot we will be better off camping and being at the ready for sunrise than having to drive then find the spot then get ready, it makes sense, well it does now, lets see how the weather is :), at the end of the day there is plenty of accommodation available, so if we really need to we will find somewhere for the night (dont worry mum :)).

So from the Golden Circle we head further south to a place called Vik and Cape Dyrholaey, there is way to much in this region to photograph, from amazing coastlines, to more Waterfalls including the famous Skogafoss, but high on our radar is the US Navy Plane wreck where we will more than likely camp for a night to capture star trails and the Northern Lights.

From here we start to head East along the ring road. Also known as Route 1, the Ring Road is the main road that circles the entire island, it is the most maintained road as well so during winter this is your main route, if you have a 4WD you can venture off in to what are called the F roads, unfortunately the majority of these roads are also closed during winter, thankfully so many of the locations we have researched are close to the main road, anyway our next stop is the base area of the Vatnajokull National Park which includes the famous Jokulsarlon Glacier lake,  most people know this from pictures, the blue ice blocks floating in the lake.

We then start to make our way north to the East Fjords, we have a number of days here and high on our list is shooting the Vesturhorn mountain, google it and you will understand why.

Our next stop and final destination is Myvatn, we have almost 6 days here, there is so much to see in this region including the Askja Lava Fields which have been used in the past by the NASA as part of their moon space training program, our only obstacle, the weather.

That is it, below is the GoogleMap I created for all the different locations we have researched, alongside Michael Levy’s International Photographer Iceland Map and Road Book they have been our bibles, so much time and planning has gone in to this trip and we both cannot wait to show you Iceland from two Aussies POV.

I will detail my gear in a later post with a little cool video so keep an eye out for that.

In the meantime make sure you are following both Gil and I on our Social Pages where we will be posting daily, along with blog entries and videos, make sure you are also following our supporters, all of which have helped make this all possible, I will list below all the important links and the important social hashtags for our trip.

Gil can be found below:

Gilbert Romane – Blog – http://www.girophoto.com/blog/

Gilbert Romane – Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/GiRoPhoto

Gilbert Romane – Instagram – http://instagram.com/giro_photo/ – #GiRoIceland

I have also been lucky enough to be allowed to post a few photos of Iceland to wet your appetite from the man who created the amazing Iceland Photogrphers Map, ‘International Photographer’ – Michaël Lévy, this is literally the bible for any photographer, actually anyone visiting Iceland, thanks again for the use of the photos mate.

Dont forget to support those supporting us also.

Goal Zero Australia solar products for recharging camera batteries and laptops. #SolarLife #GetOutStayOut #OfficeAnywhere
GoEcco tour company in Iceland are taking us Ice-caving and their guides are actively searching out the best caves for this winter season.
Lagoon Rental Cars have gratiously provided us with transportation for the entire 3weeks in Iceland, 4WD and studded tyres should prove to be fun.
Quad biking tour provided by Safari Quads taking out us out for a spin in the snow.
Iceland Magazine will be posting some images during the trip read about them here and when we return to Australia an article about the trip will be featured locally.
Keeping our feet on the ground and firmly gripped to the ice GripRox have provided use crampons that fit any boot ensuring we stay safe.

Don’t forget to check out my work on my social media pages, and if you need to contact me don’t be shy.

Check me out on 500px.com – http://500px.com/MichaelVettas
Follow me on Facebook – http://vettasmedia.com.au/facebook
Tweet me on Twitter – https://twitter.com/VettasMedia –@VettasMedia
Like my photos on Instagram –http://instagram.com/vettasm #VettasInIceland