Night fever in Iceland

Ugh. I didn’t want to get out of bed.

The night before had been a failure and our warm and cosy room in Reykjavik was, well, so warm. Whilst pulling on my insulated boots and rubbing the sleep from my eyes I thought, “If Bruce Wayne can do it, so can I”.

It was quiet on the coach; I could sense everyone was feeling hopeful. As we drove away from the twinkling of the city and into the wilderness the view began to change as if we were passing from one world to another. Here the darkness made everything more breathtaking than I could have imagined.

Mountains began to loom along the road, as black as black could be, and then I saw it, my eyes widened as my fatigue fell away. Stars. It was as if I had never seen them before. Millions of them crowned the inky peaks, in every space they hung and glittered. The wonder of a child returned to me as I leaned into the window to marvel at this otherworldly scene.

We got out at the visitor centre in Pingvellir and got told how to take the best pictures at night whilst we got ourselves some hot chocolate. The place was full of people from all walks of life, everyone was searching for the same thing and everyone was connected. It was time for us to brave the cold.
The backdrop for the evening was a solitary small mountain at the back of the centre, but wherever we stood, we were all basking in starlight. We were outside for what seemed like ages, everyone walking around slowly to keep warm, testing cameras, constantly searching.

It started to happen.

There were shouts for us to look up. We all scurried onto the field in front of the mountain and quiet descended. The wind was biting but suddenly i couldn’t feel it. A cattle bell was ringing as if to hail an arrival and a faint line appeared over the mountain like a rainbow but it was silver with a touch of green. It grew and formed and seemed to shimmer. The silent buzz of everyone there could be felt; they knew they were experiencing something incredible. As our euphoria rose, so did the glow of the Aurora.

We chased it through the night to a still lake. The world was silent and frozen as it moved across the sky like a fog coming in from the sea. It glided and swirled like a ribbon dancer, flickered and shone like a candle. As it moved in the most mysterious of ways I wondered if I was on a different planet.

As the light slowly subsided the show came to an end, I remembered I was tired; and never in my life had I been so glad that I had gotten out of bed.