EYJAFJALLAJOKULL HERE WE COME

In a goofy little post from last year, I paid unlikely tribute to an Icelandic volcano that was giving the world a bit of a fit.

Well I guess irony rules.

On the 22nd of this month, Collette and I will be leaving for an 11 day tour of the country of Iceland. They wanted to give us a three hour tour and I said no way, I remember what happened to Gilligan ..

Anyway, yes we're going to be off to Iceland. We've booked a trip that will take us around the Ring Road where we'll get to see a good chunk of the country. Ice bergs, glaciers, volcaones, hot springs, whale watching, Icelandic ponies, some Viking stuff .. may I have a hoo-rah?

Thank you

If anyone who stumbles across this blog (and I apologize up front) who has been to Iceland, I would love to hear from you, any tips or suggestions warnings etc

So we are well into our preparations, which for Collette and I means, firstly, getting our electronics gear together. This past Christmas Collette bought new lenses and I bought my little Sony HD Handycam. We have also bought a new laptop, a 13 inch screen, flatter and lighter than our 15 incher. We will not be camping or doing vigorous hiking but we will be travelling from lodge to lodge and walking a fair bit so something small will be essential. Something that we can store and edit images and from which, perhaps, I will blog.

My original intent was to bring not only the Sony but my beloved Canon XL1 3-chip mini DV cam. I love this camera. It has a real SLR style film lens and many manual options. The image quality is excellent and the amount of control it gives me quite versatile. But it's a big old beast, cumbersome and not at all indiscreet.

I've been quite pleased with the image quality of the Sony, especially when recording in HD. It does not have the lens of the Canon nor the amount of manual control but the images are quite good and it fits in the palm of my hand. So the X will be left behind for this trip.

The other concern we've had is making sure that the girls are going to be taken care of while we're away. Hayley is not feeling terribly well and I really was kind of dreading boarding her. Luckily, Theresa, Jeff's girlfriend, has agreed to look after the dogs right here at the house. She is very knowledgeable about dogs and particularly border collies. Being able to have the girls here is a definite plus and gives us some peace of mind.

We bought other kinds of gear as well, good walking shoes and a rain shell for me, hiking boots and shoes for Collette. I have good boots now but not a real good pair of shoes and with my wonky ankle, it will be worthwhile. Not to mention, as I've tested them out already, they are kick as ball kicking shoes ...

So, unless my buddy Eyjafjallajokull decides to kick our ass .. Iceland here we come