I have been dreaming about visiting Iceland for years, the dramatic moody landscapes are always on my mind. Finally, the time had come. Camera in-hand, I boarded a flight headed for Keflavik Airport, but it didn’t feel real, the excitement hadn’t set in yet. Not until I stepped off the plane onto a small runway surrounded by snow covered mountains. That is when I realised, finally, I am here.

The travel day was a blur, I tried to recall our arrival, whilst making my first coffee of the day. I was harshly reminded of where we were from an ice cold breeze hitting my face, from a window we carelessly forgot to shut the previous night. After a quick breakfast, warm shower and another coffee, we gathered all the gear and loaded it into the car, ready for our drive into the unknown.

The plan was to drive a full loop around Iceland seeing as much as possible in the few days we had. We had set out a route and planned various locations, to maximise the time we could spend exploring.

We arrived at Kirkjufel, our first location, and as soon as we got out of the car we instantly realised that we were truly in the wild, as a powerful bitter wind pushed us back into the car. We grabbed our gear and fought the elements to get to the base of Kirkjufel. This was the most touristy spot on our list, regardless, we still wanted to see it for ourselves. It did not disappoint. After a few hours in awe, we set off again, as we had a lot of driving to do to reach our destination.

It became hard to stay in the car, we were truly spoilt for places to stop and photograph. An attempt to save us time on the drive, we tried to be smart and take a short cut down an icy-gravel single track road, until after an hour, when we came across a sign that said “impassable” so we decided it was best, not to test our off-roading skills and turned back to find an alternative route. This was a big setback on the trip as we were very aware of the limited time we had to get to the next location. Nevertheless moments like that are what make a trip, it’s when you make mistakes and when things don’t go to plan, that true adventure happens and when you create amazing memories that you’ll never forget.

The next day I awoke to a view of mountains out of the cabin window we stayed in that night, it definitely beats the London skyline and the noise of traffic I normally wake to. Again though, no time to stop, we had to load the car and set off. On our way towards Myvatn Lake, we encountered every weather condition imaginable, from sunshine to a complete white-out, which to say the least made the long drive interesting. Once we arrived in Myvatn, we were greeted by a completely frozen lake surrounded by black sand, a surreal view. We ate our lunch sitting on the sand and reviewed some of the images from the previous days.

After again arriving late to the accommodation, which was a beautiful cabin in the middle of nowhere (Definitely my favourite accommodation of the trip). That evening we had a BBQ in -1 degrees celsius which was followed by our nightly image backup and a spontaneous night hike photoshoot. Although a lot of the trip was meticulously planned due to the short amount of time we had, those spontaneous moments created some of my favourite images and moments of the trip.

The Next day we awoke. Drank coffee. Gathered gear. Then hit the road for another day packed full of exploring and driving. We visited Jökulsárlón an epic lake full of icebergs, again we were reminded of the true harshness of the Icelandic weather with gail force winds blowing ice off the lake at us. It became difficult to stand but we kept going to capture as much as possible. After a couple of hours of getting blown around we went back to the car to get a coffee and regain the feeling in our face and hands.

That evening we spent sunset at Solheimasandur Plane Wreck. After the sun went down all the tourists had left and we spent a few hours capturing the stars. The next day was a travel day, and we felt like that location would be the perfect way to end the trip. I mean how could it be better? Sitting on the beach in Iceland, no one around and a sky full of stars above us. We arrived at the final accommodation late that night, we cooked some dinner and went to sleep. We awoke the next day and spent the whole day travelling back to London.

On the plane home, whilst writing in my travel journal, I tried to recall what had happened over the last few days. It was truly a blur. It didn’t feel real, that I had just journeyed around a country I had been dreaming about for years. It will be a trip I never forget, full of amazing memories. I hope to return in the not too distant future! Next stop…The West Fjords!

Forget the Plan - The Story of my trip to Iceland