A Weekend Break To Iceland?!

Yup you read that right – I’m travelling to Iceland!

And what’s crazier is that I’m heading there rather spontaneously – on Thursday!

But you’re in Portugal surf coaching right?! 

Well…ummm…yeah that’s another story that I need to share with you next week and explain…but for now lets concentrate on my latest backpacking adventure – heading north, into the Arctic circle (well close enough for me to count it anyway!) to the island of Iceland!

 

Bucket List Tick

Iceland has actually been on my travel bucket list for a while now, many of my travel buddies and blogger friends have headed that way and to say I was jealous would be an understatement!

The place looks incredible!

With snow capped peaks, natural thermal pools, crystal clear glacier waters and cascading waterfalls it looks like the perfect place to explore and give my camera kit a serious work out!

And seeing as I haven’t actually ticked anything off my list for a few months I thing it’s about time to start cracking on with it again!

 

Adventurous Iceland

But it’s not just the standard Iceland activities like the Blue Lagoon and the waterfalls that really attracted my attention, nope it was something more…well…me.

Iceland is actually home to some incredible outdoor activities – the kind of activities I’m more at home spending my travel time doing.

The first – and my most anticipated – is the surf.

Yup Iceland has some crazy good surf breaks and I’m hoping to paddle out and enjoy some uncrowded, slightly chilly waves for a really unique Icelandic experience.

The fact it’s the height of the summer also means Icelands midnight sun is in full affect, meaning I can hopefully surf at any hour of the day – no sunset sessions for me this time around!

Secondly is more underwater based fun – Iceland has some of the worlds best scuba dive sites and the glacier waters regularly allow visibility of up to 100m…that’s seriously crystal clear water!

One of the main things I’m hoping to do during this trip is to dive at Silfra – the cravasse between the European and North American tectonic plates.

Which means I’ll be literally sandwiched between two continents!

No standing on northern and southern hemisphere lines for this backpacker – I’m taking it one step further!

How’s that for a travel bucket list tick?!

And of course where scuba diving is involved I’ll hopefully be able to indulge in my other underwater passion of free diving.

…so as if being between two continents wasn’t cool enough I’ll also be aiming to explore it whilst holding my breathe!

I’m pretty stoked for this as you might be able to tell!

 

Not Going Solo

But I’m not hitting up Iceland as a solo traveller this time – I’ll have my Kiwi/Irish (yeah that’s a fun mix hey?!) buddy Tara along for the ride…aka the Povester.

She’ll be exploring a slightly more ‘normal’ side of Iceland and blogging about it for me too.

Her first trip is to explore some of the gorgeous landscapes and geothermal pools that the mainland has to offer – trekking around parts of the national park on horseback no less. I would join her for this but I have to admit that despite my tendency towards extreme sports I’m pretty damn terrified of horses and the though of be sat on one for about 4 hours is my idea of a nightmare!

Second up she’ll be heading to some of the glaciers, exploring the waterfalls and other side of the island as she day trips over to the Jökulsárlón Lagoon which will hopefully produce some of the fantastic landscape images that Iceland is famous for – no pressure Tara!

 

It’s going to be a whirlwind tour – flying in on Thursday and back on Sunday – so keep a close eye on the Facebook Fanpage, Twitter feed and Instagram account to keep up with the adventure! You can also follow the hashtag #BPBIce

I’m pretty stoked for this rather random and slightly chillier turn of travel plans but hopefully it’ll give you some alternative banter and a refreshing (quite literally!) change of pace from beaches, hammock and mojitos!

Bring it on!