The Bathing Trolls - a photo on Flickriver

The Bathing Trolls

            I've decided to pause the recent theme and hop across the Norwegian Sea. Too much of a good thing and all that. Recently I've been fully occupied, catching up with the world after three successive autumn jaunts that started on the last day of balmy August and finished just before the arrival of November’s cold embrace.  There hasn't been much time to work on any more pictures recently, besides which my computer is buried under a pile of stuff that's been moved into the office while we redecorate the living room.  Don't ask.  I really don't like DIY.  Although apparently it's my fault; the uncomfortable side effect of a successful two year campaign to have a wood burning stove installed.  At least we won't freeze this winter for a change. 

So hopefully you'll understand and not be too disappointed by the fact that I've been rummaging through the filing cabinets to try and find an image worthy of your attention. To be honest the archivist could have dug out something from trips to Menorca, Madeira, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, North Wales, South Wales, The Peak District, Zakynthos, Ireland, Dartmoor, Dartmoor again, The South Hams, Dorset, The New Forest, Exmoor, Dartmoor one more time, or Somerset.  Never mind Iceland.  As random a selection as are my excuses for all of this procrastination, and all from adventures over the past four or five years where I haven't finished what I started.  In some cases I've barely got off the ground in fact.  And I've just come back from Rhodes with a surprising number of stories almost bursting out of the pipeline.  During that period, only the episodes in Scotland last year and a very limited output from Egypt at the start of this one in January are complete.  More or less they are anyway.  It's all getting a bit much now really.  I worked out recently that I could probably upload two posts a week for a year and a half without writing another word, taking another picture, or putting another gallon of diesel in the car.  I could manage almost three of those eighteen months regaling you with tales from the two journeys around Iceland alone.  The last of those was more than three years ago.  Of course it won't be happening because going out with the camera and covering a blank sheet with a literary rabbit run of meandering nonsense are the fun bits aren't they? 

We'll return to Norway soon, but for now let's pay a visit to the Icelandic trolls at Reynisfjara and a shot from even further back in time, more than six years and two camera bodies ago. At least I’ve kept things Nordic for now.  I was with Lee - you remember him don't you? - recently dumped in favour of Steve, although he may be back in pole position again soon as we plan the next caper at a top secret location to be announced later in the winter.  Lee and I were in Vik you see, lounging about in the open air geothermal swimming pool, the warmest one of course.  Forty degrees centigrade.  Lovely.  Just what was needed after a long drive west from the ice beach at Jokulsarlon.  We'd been living in a yellow VW camper called Brian for five days without access to the appropriate facilities and were beginning to hum a bit by the time we rolled into the small south coast oasis. And as we chattered on about the adventure so far and what was still ahead of us waiting to be photographed, we faced towards the west, where the view was completely taken up by the hulking eminence of Reynisfjall.  A quick jump into the ice barrel, a much longer visit to the sauna and a lazy flop back into the pool later, and the big lump of land was still where our eyes had left it. “Well I suppose we should go and climb it then!” one of us probably said.  Better have another shower first. It might just be the last one until we were back home in Cornwall. 

An hour later and Brian was parked by the last house in town, as far up the road that led to the start of the trail as possible.  It wasn't a long hike to the top but it was steep enough to shut us up for a while. And it was a good job that we were clean and fragrant at last, because as we hyperventilated our way up the slope we met a flaxen haired beauty who smiled like a fairytale princess as she floated past; a vision in brightly coloured lycra and running shoes. If she'd approached us a couple of hours earlier the smile might have been something more like a grimace.  We giggled like schoolboys, from somewhere summoning up a fresh burst of life as we marched to the top, arriving on a broad plateau that hung like a hidden world in the clouds above the North Atlantic. 

Of course there was a plan. You’d hope there might be a good reason for yomping up the side of a ruddy great hill, and this was all about the bathing trolls and a slightly different point of view. Of course we had every intention of photographing them from all the usual places, but while we were here, why not have a look at them from the top?  And so we reached the point where the famous sea stacks were directly beneath us, at which point we crept towards the precipice above the secret beach, cameras mounted on tripods and pointing straight down towards the sea eleven hundred feet below.  I posted an image here a few months later and thought I was done.  But what I’d forgotten until much more recently was that a while before this I’d chanced across another vantage point towards the west side of Reynisfjall from which to photograph the bathing trolls.  Why did I never share this image before?  Don’t ask, because I really have no idea.  Blame it on the backlog if you like.

As I sit here writing this tale I’m wondering what else I missed from this trip.  Dare I rattle that filing cabinet again and add yet more to the pile?

Taken in: Iceland / South / Vik (show map)

Taken on: July 18, 2019

Tags:

Iceland

Reynisdrangar

Reynisfjall

Vik

Island

long exposure

seascape

sea stack

sea stacks

trolls

Atlantic

Ocean

Canon

Water

landscape

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Sets appears in: • Iceland 2019 • Explored

Groups appears in: • Outdoor Photographer Magazine (Unofficial) • Golden Landscape, Only The Best ! (Post 1, Comment 1) more » • Photo Infos • in explore • WONDERS OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN GENERAL NO IA NO SECON LIVE.MARAVILLAS • A kind of minimalism • "H₂O: Water" • LANDSCAPES OF PLANET EARTH.PAISAJES DEL PLANETA TIERRA. « less

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, f/20.0, 46 sec, 70mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Lens:	EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM
Aperture:	f/20.0
Exposure Time:	46
Focal Length:	70mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Bulb
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 14.1.1 (Macintosh)
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