9th of January Reykjavik via London Gatwick and Keflavic.

 9th of January Reykjavik via London Gatwick and Keflavic.

I was torn, I needed to be at Gatwick by 8am Friday and it is a 4 hour drive from home, do I get home from work at 11 Thursday night, go to bed, get up 4 hours later and drive to Gatwick with the potential of ending up on the M25 at around 7am.....or....do I drive straight up after work and get some sleep in the terminal but giving myself not only plenty of time but also a traffic free journey ?

 I finally made the decision to drive up after work, as it turns out it was the right choice, heavy rain and the M3 being shut would have hampered the journey to almost flight missing proportions. I arrived at the long stay parking with a full 4 hours in which to get my head down, remarkably easy in the Navara, a great truck that has replaced the beloved Granvia that served me so well on my jaunt across France last summer. I woke almost refreshed and if I'm honest a little excited as I boarded the bus that took me an embarrassing 500 yards to the terminal.

 So, Iceland, in January. I've already had the comments, "Won't it be cold ?" "You know it's going to be dark all the time right ?" "Beer is really expensive there....like 15 pounds a pint" and "how long will it take you to drive there ?". My replies have be as concise as ever, yes, yes, Jesus I hope not and a long time, it's an island dumb ass. I want to go to Iceland for one reason, the same way that I wanted to go to Pamplona for one reason and I'm not naive enough to think that the journey and the destination won't give me more reasons along the way.

 It's all about personal goals for me or "bucket list" items if you prefer and this time it's the Northern lights or Arora Borealis that I'm chasing in a rather restricted 4 days and 3 nights in what I'm hoping will be a precursor to a longer trip to the Abrisko national park in northern Sweden next winter.

 Both of you that read my blog of the France/Spain trip will know that I have a slight disdain for the common Brit abroad and again I hope to immerse myself in the local culture and even if the root cause of the trip is one of the most touristy of all I hope the rest of the trip won't be.

 Wow travel, not a company I'd ever heard of before, not surprisingly as they have only been in existence for 2 years flying from various destinations in Europe and the US exclusively to Keflavic in Iceland a small airport some 100km south of Reykjavik. The check in, departure and all the bits in between were as smooth as can be expected from a travel company who paint their planes purple with big smiley faces on the front. There was a fire alarm that forced the whole of the south terminal of Gatwick outside, everybody coped well, which surprised me and the last thing before I left was a phone call which ended with me not only smiling but promising not to eat a puffin, not something I'd ever said before.

A buffety three hour flight into a strong headwind saw us finally descend from warming winter sun, through clouds and into a snowstorm,  from what I could see of the ground we were about to touch down somewhere just north of "the wall".

 The immigration officer refused to stamp my passport, clearly he was bullied as a child.

 The bus transfer was very efficient and easy to use, dropping at the hotel cabin with a couple of hours to spare before my first outing to find the lights.

 It hit me, I didn't have my bike. How was I to embark on the as of yet still not in common usage cytour ? Guess I'll be walking then. It wasn't far to the centre of town, the walk was level, the footpaths were generally free of too much snow and traffic respected pedestrians in a very civilised manner, taxis seemed almost non existent and the bus seemed to be king in the absence of a rail system.

 I didn’t have long to spend on my first foray, it was soon to be properly dark and time to searching for the lights but I did manage to find a foot/cycle path that ran the length of the bay from the edge of the city right around to the fishing docks that afforded some pretty spectacular views even in the dwindling “daylight”. It was easy to familiarise myself enough on this first outing to have a good idea of where I wanted to go tomorrow and what I wanted to see. It’s always nice to have a plan even if it’s only something to judge how wrong things have gone against.

 Again the efficiency of the local company Reykjavik excursions was impressive, they effectively pick you up from your hotel and dump you in the middle of nowhere about 90 minutes drive from the centre of town where it will certainly be dark, away from the orange sodium light pollution that any urban area offers and if you're lucky the sky will be clear and the solar winds will be blowing and you will be treated to a luminescent display that previous generations believed to be the gods coming to take the dead to sit alongside Odin in Valhalla or the gods coming to help fend off the trolls depending on your denomination. I was not lucky and after 3 hours in an exposed environment in air temperatures of minus 9 and a wind chill factor taking it down to nearly minus 20 I really wasn't feeling lucky. Time to call it a night. The only plus side is that if you don't see anything they won't charge for the bus ride should you wish to try again.

Time to hit the sack, the room is small but clean and importantly, warm. I had decided that I could survive on only hand luggage for the trip and it was all I could do to unpack it before I crashed out.