Beilby’s Saga. A winter Iceland road trip.

In January 2025 I travelled to Iceland and spent 3 weeks exploring the island in a fairly unconventional manner. This video is my Saga.

As an obsessive nerd photographer this place was always on my bucket list. But a long overdue catch up with my Icelandic colleague and friend, since vet school 1985, brought me the perfect opportunity. Thanks Bjarni ❤️
– And once I considered, for aurora activity, we were right on the solar maximum (an 11 year cycle)
– PLUS that there was even a chance of seeing actual lava with the recent volcanic activity on the Reykjanes peninsula, the decision was done.

So I journeyed on a rambling road trip around the country, sometimes with, and guided by, Bjarni, sometimes on my own. Please come along for the ride.

Gear list:
1. Canon R5, 24-240mm, 50mm 1.8, Laowa 14mm 2.0, L series 100-400mm
2. DJI Air3S (DJI Mini 3 Pro along as back up. Iceland eats drones)
3. DJI Action 5 Pro (GoPro Hero 9 as backup. I lose cameras)
4. Insta360 X4 (Yep, Insta360 X3 as backup. See above)
5. Samsung S22 Ultra (No shit, I brought an S20 as backup also. I’ve never had so much redundancy. Guess I never had so many old spares either)

Music:
All tracks by the incredible Heilung. My thanks and love for your sensible YouTube IP practices. I went and saw these guys at Red Hill Auditorium, Perth Australia 2024-10-30.
They blew my mind and I knew their vibe fit this video so well, as did their Danish / Northern European origins and culture.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction and flight over
02:42 Reykjavik trail
04:39 Pre dawn in the burbs
07:58 Road trip to Akureyri
10:38 Akureyri
14:04 Planet cold
17:34 Night trek to the farm
22:04 Road trip back to Reykjavik
24:55 Golden Circle road trip
28:39 Hiding from the storms
29:53 The rental, Pt 1
32:18 The rental, Pt 2
34:39 Diamond Beach
36:51 Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon
38:13 Road trip back North
39:25 Vik and Reynisdrangar
41:00 Katla Volcano Ice Cave Tour
43:03 Lava Show
44:04 Akranes lighthouse
45:22 Road trip Hvalfjarður & Thingvellir
49:06 All good things…

explode. That was my concern. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You never know what’s going to happen. [Music] [Music] We hope you enjoy the play with us. Thank you for watching. Yeah. 60s and 70s. I remember there was just always snow. Well, here I am in Iceland going for a little wander. Temperature is about 2°. There has been a reasonable amount of snow falling. Not reasonable actually. It’s quite a small amount of snow really. It’s everything. All the rocks look like they’re uh Christmas puddings with a dusting of icing sugar on them. foreign. [Music] [Music] through your good [Music] strong through the sha. I [Music] don’t [Music] care. Heat up [Applause] [Music] here. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] war. I know. [Music] I do. I know. [Music] I know. I told you I told you. [Music] So, it’s time to go for a little wander in magical Iceland and try not to slip over. [Music] Biani is uh going to dig his car out from under the snow. [Applause] Hi. You got [Music] Hey, hey, hey, hey. [Music] I [Music] am so [Music] must be [Music] my belong. [Music] I take a [Music] hearty roar Who come here? [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Ooh. Hey. Hey. Woo! That’s awesome. [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] I’m down. [Music] [Music] Better heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] in he [Music] Oh honey. Oh, oh, God. I’m [Music] [Music] heart there for the heart and there [Music] Oh, from What I love you This time most of my heart I [Music] know there’s nothing at I will swing my fingers alive cuz fingers aren’t alive at the moment. They’re dead. Dead fingers walk. I thought these gloves were warm. hell. And if I want to make you understand my future to cover the language of the soul. If I want to tell you to leave me ever, but you only understand the language of the soul. I let the talk. My tongue shall become [Music] my boo. [Music] Noo [Music] meies. There it is. Emergency. [Applause] [Music] I really [Music] s All right. Woohoo! We did it. Heat. Heat. I [Music] still doing his his mighty snow creature efforts. The snow doesn’t want him to win. But Bioni says, “Fuck you. I’m better.” And he plows on, literally. Meanwhile, the Aurora is kind of going off up ahead. [Music] A time break. Eh, 28th of January, we’re in a 1926 Icelandic farmhouse. So meant it was hard to keep the whole house warm basically. So grandparents in here and all the smallest kids in the bedroom with them. Yep. And then the a lot of the older ones were just on the all over the floor. There was no electricity, no running water, no heat. Cuz of course there’s no wood out there to try at all. That’s right. I guess there was no railing across here. Oh my god. Even if you’re not going to make it back on the road again, I like we’ll make it back. Just going to lift the car up and turn it around. Pretty profoundly bogged in here, but we have the snow chains on the wheels. Now the reverse is pretty crap. [Music] Oh, there [Music] you are. No holding scaling [Music] must have been crazy. [Music] [Music] Not bad. I [Music] don’t Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh, run. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] Fal. Hallelujah. Hey [Music] lab and sculp. But I’ve And boy, I awesome [Music] Best [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] ramen for now. Now the glo [Music] sing [Music] [Music] [Music] The goal [Music] [Music] the last [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Go. Hey. Hey. [Music] So, I booked a uh a car to hire today. Not sure if my timing [Music] [Laughter] is over me The melee lump [Music] me rented my car abandons me here. Get lost. Ah, here it is. This is That’s a That’s a Toyota. This is my car. Duster. Dust it off. All right. All right. Studded. Studded. Studded. They’re studded cuz I’m a stud. That’s I was going to say that wrong side. Wrong side. Let’s Let’s try the driver’s side. I think it just locked itself. It now is familiar with me now. So all [Music] right. Oh, and there’s some sunlight. I’m driving up to um where there’s a nice lighthouse that I’m hoping to get pictures of. And there is the first step of sunlight I have seen all day. It’s very pretty down [Music] there. Oh. Oh. [Music] Oh, and the whole world has turned to hail storm outside. I’m in for a fun night. I think a man is here. Don’t worry I’m going to be going anywhere. So [Music] yeah, it’s all a bit hopeless. Guy turns up, sticks his head under the car, tries to start it a couple of times. Now he’s loading it onto his F truck to cart it back to. What a day. What fun. Off goes my uh Darcia duster. Half an hour’s driving. And it’s All right, so attempt number two. I have the next car and the journey is about to begin again. Time to hit the road. Just amazing driving in this whiteness. Yeah, I’m loving it. Driving in the white out. I’m driving in the white house, but I’m warm and cozy in my Kia Sportage. I’m [Music] driving mean I Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh. Oh. Wow. [Music] Oh. Oh. Oh. Hey, I’m here. Arrived at my abomination. And there’s even a restaurant. Fabulous. I’m hungry. This rock’s talking to me. Sentient rocks. Who knew? It’s pre-dawn, 8:30, and I am I’m at the Diamond Beach trying to get beautiful photos of the amazing, seriously amazing icy birds that just wash up here and sit here. There comes one. Don’t know how that worked. I think that might have been a bit of a fail. Yeah, I didn’t blur it. I obviously lifted him away. I am very impressed with my boots so far. Still have dry socks. I don’t quite really know how, honestly. It can be the team [Music] I got to do not [Music] know my Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Okay. Spent the morning at Jokelson Glacia Lagoon. Bangladesh nearly out of fuel. Can’t believe these one lane bridges. Crazy Why you do that? Is it not so hard to build second lane when you build first one? [Music] [Music] Y come over the I not for is not happy with life. That moves [Music] it. I’m in the little town of Vick. What a beautiful town really. Um, I’m staying here the night doing a a glacia tour ice cave tour tomorrow morning. That’s pretty exciting. We’ve got a time lapse running of what I think are the the trolls, the spires that were considered to be trolls that stayed there and got hit by the morning sun and turned to stone. He be able. Go and give you [Music] [Music] [Applause] Even that’s all I [Music] got. And now I’m thinking [Music] The world journey is creat. Further [Music] inwards I love to give it up. I give you [Music] nothing. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] That should be danger. Now these will be called pale hair stairs. They form a nature when lava falls off an edge and is picked up by the wind and pulled into these thin strands of lava. They’re called palace hairs because of the Hawaiian goddess of volcano. But in Iceland, many times we call these hairs or ronah because in Iceland there’s no Hawaiian goddess. Now this only has a few millm of insulation around the top. This little cube of [Music] love. What speed? [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Come out song. [Music] [Music] Don’t [Music] mess your hood. You in the [Music] sen the soul. [Music] Oh, in the soul. Come the song maybe the seat I [Music] know the [Music] [Music] going under and the [Music] Dr. D. [Music] The soul in the left [Music] the song. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Oh, it’s on video. Yeah. audio the the works. Oh, fabulous. These people are lovely. I’ve just been having a chat with them and uh and and yeah, [Music] tried to decision to he had fallen into long. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. [Music] bit of farmland. [Music] Bales of hay look a little white.