An Icelandic Adventure

Rebecca Newman talks to Kaye Thompson about her photography and travels in Iceland. Rebecca is a freelance travel, advertising and editorial photographer.

Kaye: Hi Rebecca, I've had this thing about going to Iceland for sometime now and seeing your extraordinary images has made me even more determined to get there.
Rebecca: Thanks, I'm glad you like the images - Iceland is an amazing place.

Kaye: I must confess, it was those images you see of people in the hot springs in the snow, that first got me thinking about Iceland... and the interest grew from there.
Rebecca: Sorry, I haven't got any hot spring images but we did go to one.

Kaye: It's Ok, I forgive you about the hot spring images... but only because I'm loving these colours, the basketball court, the hills, the house. It looks like you were there there over Christmas?
Rebecca: I was there in August.
Kaye: Oh, I just assumed when I saw the Santa above?
Rebecca: I think they're garden gnomes - they are very popular in Iceland.

Kaye: Ok, I'm glad we've got that sorted... lets talk about the trip. Where did you fly into, where did you go and where did you stay?
Rebecca: We flew into Reykjavik and hired a car for 10 days and drove around the ring road, which hugs the coastline, while staying in camping grounds in the towns along the way.

Seljalandsfoss house. Green and yellow landscape.

Kaye: I love the photo of the green cliffs of Vik - it's somewhat other worldly. But I digress, what I wanted to ask was; what inspired you to go to Iceland?
Rebecca: A few photographer friends had travelled there and recommended it. The strange and spectacular landscapes were also very appealing.

Kaye: The landscapes are truly strange and spectacular. I couldn't even begin to dream them up. It must be the most amazing of places to go as a photographer. I guess you’d seen photos before you went but were you still surprised by what you saw?
Rebecca: The most surprising thing about Iceland was the constant change in landscape. Desolate black sand vistas turn into vivid green mossy waterfalls, eerie volcanoes rise out of the ground and enormous glaciers hang onto cliff edges.

Kaye: So, what sort of clothing do you need for an Icelandic Adventure?
Rebecca: Lots of layers, warm clothes and definitely waterproof clothes. If you’re camping or going hiking then you’ll need protective gear.

Kaye: Who did you travel with?
Rebecca: I travelled with my partner, Drew Echberg who is also a photographer, so we were constantly stopping to take photos.

Kaye: That sounds perfect. Imagine if you were travelling with someone who had no interest in photography and you just kept passing all these amazing landscapes on your way to somewhere else. That would be my idea of a nightmare.
Rebecca: That would be terrible...

Kaye: Can you tell us about some of the incredible places you visited?
Rebecca: There are so many beautiful waterfalls, glaciers and incredible vistas. Some highlights were Vattnajökull, Gígjökull and Sólheimajökull glaciers and Dettifoss, Skogafoss and Selfoss waterfalls.

Kaye: What do you think is the best way to get around?
Rebecca: Having a car was great. It gave us the freedom to explore Iceland at our own pace. There would be nothing worse than being on a bus and not being able to jump out every five minutes to take photos.

Kaye: Yes, as we said before - not having the freedom to capture these amazing landscapes would be so frustrating. I wouldn't want to be the one to stand between a photographer and this kind of imagery. Can you travel around in a regular car or do you need something more robust?
Rebecca: I’d recommend a four-wheel drive, which would allow you to explore some of the unsealed roads in the interior. Unfortunately, these were all off-limits in our little Hyundai Getz.

Kaye: You said before you were there in August. What season was that?
Rebecca: It was the end of the northern hemisphere summer, but even though it was summer, it was often only around 13 degrees. It's probably no surprise - but it’s not the warmest place to visit, nor the driest.

Kaye: I usually don't include so many images in a story but there are just so many great images and I didn't want any of my readers to miss out on any.
Rebecca: I'm very happy with more images and some more Icelandic banter.

Kaye: Great, lets get on with it then. By the way, do you sell prints of your images? I think I'd like to have photo's of Iceland on all my walls at home.
Rebecca: I do have an online shop on my website.
Kaye: Excellent.

Kaye: Ok, lets talk about the food - I saw a program recently where they rated the Icelandic diet as the healthiest in the world. What was the food actually like?
Rebecca: I saw that program as well and I was pretty surprised. I wasn’t overly impressed by the produce in the supermarkets - it’s expensive and most of it is imported.

Kaye: I guess that's understandable given the climate...
Rebecca: The local fish, lamb and dairy products are good though. They’re also famous for their yoghurt-like product called skyr, which is usually flavoured.

Kaye: Where did you eat? Or did you mostly cook your own food?
Rebecca: Like all of Scandinavia, Iceland is pretty expensive and our budget was fairly tight so we mostly cooked our own food. Most petrol stations have cafes attached to them but it can be pretty quiet in some towns. In Scandinavia they sell little disposable BBQ's, which are great - although they can be tricky to master, so be warned before you try to cook up a feast. We ate out at a few restaurants in Reykjavik, sampling their famous burgers and fish and chips. There were also some quite nice cafes in Reykjavik. We didn’t explore the more controversial options such as whale, puffin and seal!

Construction sheds and Clouds on a hill.

Kaye: What's the story with the aircraft?
Rebecca: Apparently a farmer in Hnjotur was gifted the old US Navy plane from the former base in Keflavik. So now there’s a big old plane just sitting there by the road in fairly out of the way place. We came across it on the way to some spectacular cliffs that we visited to see puffins.

Kaye: Amazing, well it makes for an intriging image. Did you say Puffins? I love Puffins!
Rebecca: They're coming a bit later...

Kaye: I love the rustic play equipment, the little white school house, the clouds over the hills. It looks desolate and abandoned but yet so peaceful at the same time. It's like the most picturesque of settings for the simplest of play equipment...

Kaye: Let's talk a bit more about the food. (I just realised I said that in front of the sheep - sorry, I meant no harm little Icelandic sheep.) What was the most delicious thing you had on the trip?
Rebecca: We stopped at a small farm and had some delicious homemade berry ice cream, which was a lot better than the popular Icelandic soft serve ice cream. Also, one night after we had cooked salmon for dinner on a little disposable BBQ we grilled some local flatbreads and ate them with butter and honey which was surprisingly good.
Kaye: Sometimes it's the simple things that end up being the most memorable.

Kaye: What was the worst or most unusual thing you had to eat?
Rebecca: The most disgusting thing on the trip was trying the tiniest piece of Hárkal. The Greenland shark is poisonous when fresh due to a high content of urea but is edible and considered a delicacy once fermented underground for 4 months. It’s not the taste that’s the main problem, but the overwhelming smell of ammonia which causes you to gag!
Kaye: Sounds terrible - I'm guessing you wont be rushing back for more...

Kaye: Talking about strange and spectacular landscapes as we were earlier, these landscapes are incredible too but in a completely different way to some of the others we've already seen.
Rebecca: We did a four-day hike from Landmannalaugar to Thórsmörk.

Kaye: Could you tell us a bit more about the hike?
Rebecca: On the first day we had 2 hours of dry weather with good visibility before the clouds, mist and heavy rain set in for the next 26 hours.

Kaye: How did you cope with all that wet weather?
Rebecca: Luckily there were huts at the campsites (and even though they were booked out) we could at least dry off some of our gear in their drying rooms. After the 26 hours of rain it cleared up for 12 hours or so, before the rain set in for another 16 hours.

Kaye: Do you think you could have chosen a better time of year to travel?
Rebecca: You can try to visit at the best time of year but I think it all comes down to luck.

Kaye: What was the most challenging experience you had?
Rebecca: Driving along a road through a spectacular black sand flood plain, we really wanted to pull over to take some photos. We’d seen a few people stopping quite dangerously on the road (there was no shoulder to pull over on so they’d just stopped on the road itself) and we didn’t want to follow their lead. So we carefully pulled over off the road. When we tried to start again we found that our car was stuck in the sand. After a few attempts to get out we’d only succeeded in making things worse. Eventually we were pulled out by a passing four wheel drive, while feeling rather silly…
Another dicey experience was driving through a single lane tunnel between Siglufjordur to Olafsfjodur. It was pitch black and there was no traffic light system or instructions as to what you should do if you were to meet someone in the middle of the tunnel. Luckily we didn’t meet anyone… so we still have no idea what the plan was?

Kaye: I absolutely love the images of Sólheimajökull and Langjokull glacier; the colours and textures are wonderful. What was the most memorable experience of your trip?
Rebecca: Watching thousands of puffins nesting on the cliffs of the western most point of Iceland at Latrabjarg. Despite the incredible winds, I could have stayed there all day and watched them prancing around. They were very entertaining.

Kaye: What are your top three places or things a traveller should see in Iceland?
Rebecca: Definitely see the puffins at Latrabarg, we looked for them elsewhere but had no success. The Myvatn region is a spectacular otherworldly landscape of bubbling mudpots, steaming fumaroles and volcanic craters. Despite the rain, the Landmannalaugar to Thórsmörk hike was incredible and I’d love to go back and see more of the area. Oh and make sure you check out the Icelandic horses. They all stand around looking beautiful and shaking their manes like they’re in a shampoo commercial.

Kaye: Those Puffins look so cute. The one on the right looks very cheeky and I love the one snuggled into the rockface in the photo above. Did you organise the trip yourselves or did you book through a travel company?
Rebecca: We organised it ourselves and received a few good tips from some Scandinavian friends who had been there before.

Kaye: Can you recommend a particular guidebook for a trip to Iceland?
Rebecca: I usually choose the most up to date travel guide, which in this case happened to be a Lonely Planet.

Kaye: Is there anything you missed doing that you really wished you had?
Rebecca: I wish we’d gone on a glacier expedition and walked through the ice caves. On the upside, at least I have a reason to return.

Kaye: I've absolutely loved seeing all these amazing landscapes, waterfalls and the Puffins of course, but I'm thinking there's one thing missing from the story.
Rebecca: What were you thinking?
Kaye: How about another spectacular waterfall and a photo of you in the Icelandic landscape. I'm thinking... Drew must have taken a photo?
Rebecca: I have a waterfall I think you'd like? And there is this photo - it's a bit unusual - it's the ultimate in high tech wet weather gear?

Kaye: Excellent - it's the perfect ending. Just what I was looking for actually. Thanks for the Q&A and especially for sharing your awesome travel images.
Rebecca: Thank you. It was fun.

Story by Kaye Thompson and Rebecca Newman.
All images copyright © Rebecca Newman
No reproduction of images allowed without express written permission. Images are available for purchase here