News

Summer is almost gone - Welcome back to The Age of Aurora

Saturday, Aug 28 2010

Almost always in life - one good thing leads to another. .

This year is no different - Such has definitely been the case for us for some time living in South Iceland and working at Hotel Ranga. On March 20th we were awakened to hear that a volcano had erupted on The Fimmvörðuháls pass between the Eyjafjalljökull & Mýrdalsjökull glaciers only a short distance from Hotel Ranga. A spectacular show of nature emerged with stunning waterfalls of lava gushing 800 meters into the Þórsmörk Valley below. On April 12th, we were a bit sad when this unique display of flowing molten lava ceased to exist. But only 2 days later another eruption occured. This time natures forces showed another side when the volcano erupted inside the glacier as lava instantly became pulverized ash. The volcano spewed as much as 300 tons of a ash per second into the atmosphere causing huge problems for air-traffic all over the world and creating delays for millions of people on the move. This was but an indirect effect of a natural event on an island remotely located in the North Atlantic - yet it had worldwide reprecussions. Hotel Ranga was for a short moment shining in the sublime spotlight as The Worlds Volcano Base - as much of the international media was staying here and reporting about this hot news item from our doorstep.

After about month (May 15th - although steam still rises daily from the volcanos caldera and we had great helicopter tours up there today!), the volcano subsided and the cleaning began. The effects of cancellations and the uncertainty that the volcano put into everyone squandered the optimism that was flourishing in the industry before the Eyjafjallajökull eruption. But we were not to be put down that easily. By unifying forces within the industry and launching a marketing campaign to calm the general public that Iceland is still a safe and wonderful destination for travel - the movement Inspired by Iceland took form and was launched. Our great partners here & abroad and ourselves also did what we could to ensure people that all was good and the "coast was clear" here in the South and in Iceland in general. This proceded smoothly despite inaccurate and outrageous contradictory reports given in the media both here and abroad (including: "all that remains is a ravaged desolate wasteland" and that we are in "a contaminated area not to be entered"...). This objective information we all presented gave astounding results and we can now determine the summer by just noting that we in fact have had an increase in room nights for 2010 compared to our record summer the year before. This is great news for both us, our working partners and all the hopefully happy returning tourists who got to visit us here this summer!

Summarizing the summer of 2010 would be difficult but here goes: Welcome to the Westman Isles!! (the new ferry opened in July to get there conveniently), great salmon & trout fishing in the highlands and South Iceland in general, multiple helicopter rides, hiking, rafting, diving and superjeeping. We have also had some high profile guests this year - but hopefully everyone that stayed with us felt like royalty. I caught my largest salmon ever this summer by fly in Iceland - (19 lbs) and also a beautiful 14 lb brown trout by fly. I guided a gentleman that caught a whooping 25 lb monster brown trout this past week.

As we now head back into the evenings of darkness and we gradually slip from summers green into autumns kaleidescope of colours, I can happily inform you that the aurora has been consistently appearing again for the past few nights. Like a long lost friend. We had a wonderful display 4 nights ago when His Majesty Carl XVI Gustaf guested the hotel here. Green, purple, pink and orange lights dashed around towards Mount Hekla & lit up the heavens - really magnificent stuff. "The Age of Aurora" is really picking up (according to predicted schedule), sunspot activity is on the increase and we expect many great auroras this coming winter. I have a small prediction (will be offering a fullscale one soon for the 1st half of winter) - September 2-4 should be real good. As will September 27 to October 4. More to come on this real soon.

Hope you can make it here to Hotel Ranga this winter to view the aurora!

Greetings

Bob Borealis - back in business

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