I'd set the alarm for 8.30am, and went to the window. There was a ruddy glow on the northern horizon, flickering like a forest fire, and on later reflection, this may have been a first glimpse of the Northern Lights. Dawn drew a pale blue line in the eastern sky, although the sun wasn't due to make an appearance until 10.48am. Iceland has long, slow dusks and dawns.
Lorraine asked the girl at the hotel reception to look into riding trips for us on Sunday. "Nothing shorter than three or four hours, and preferably with some dramatic scenery," she specified.
It was strange having breakfast at sunrise and made it feel a lot earlier than it actually was. By the time we left the hotel it was after 11, and the sun was turning the snow capped summit of Mount Hekla pink.
We drove up to Geysir, with Mrs SatNav giving impeccable directions. As there was very little traffic, it didn't really matter anyway. For the first time, I began to enjoy driving in Iceland. We stopped on the way to take pictures of rugged mountains dusted with snow and bitter chocolate coloured ponies with manes and tails looking as if sifted with icing sugar – Christmas Cake ponies, we later called them.
At Geysir we stopped and left the heated comfort of the Vitara. Outside was bitterly cold. The temperature gauge on the car said -2°C, but with the wind chill factor it was probably closer to -10. The steam from the geysers blew horizontally across the dried brown grass, freezing after just a few moments. Lorraine lost all feeling in her legs after about five minutes of waiting for Strokkur to erupt. I thought my nose would drop off.
When we got back to the car she uttered the immortal lines, "Iceland is very beautiful – from inside a car with heated seats."
It was only a short drive to Gulfoss, the famous falls in Iceland's Golden Circle. We dressed up extra warmly for the short walk down the wooden paths made slippery from frozen spray. Far below, people were sliding along the lower path that leads right up to the falls, covered in sheets of ice. We didn't fancy breaking our legs this early in the trip, so stayed at the top and took some pictures with numb fingers and frozen expressions.
"Maybe we shouldn't go riding for four hours tomorrow," said Lorraine. I totally agreed.
On returning to the hotel we sampled the excellent buffet again (this time we had to pay for it) and then Lorraine went to check her messages on Facebook and MySpace at the laptop in the reception while I wrote my diary and wondered if we would get to see the Aurora. She came back after about half an hour, looking strangely flushed.
"My hair just went up in flames," she said. She'd been leaning close to the window to see if she could catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights outside, and hadn't noticed that there was a tea light burning on the window sill. "There was a 'whoosh' and I had to bash out the flames," she said. "For a moment I thought the laptop had caught fire, then I realised it was me! People came out of the dining room to see what was happening – they could smell the burning. The man on reception seemed quite relieved to find out it was only a guest on fire, not the hotel or the polar bear."
After this experience, she decided to use the whirlpool bath. You don't have to feel guilty about using lots of hot water in Iceland as most of it is heated by volcanic activity. I tried turning on the jets before checking they were pointing downwards and got soaked by the resulting geyser.
As my jumper dried out over the radiator I looked out of the window and started to see faint blue-green patterns in the northern sky. At this stage I wasn't sure they were the famous lights – they didn't look as dramatic as most of the pictures I'd seen, but then they probably wouldn't bother to publish the pictures that were less colourful. I checked the NOAA website to see what the auroral activity was like – quiet – and looked out again. The blue light had moved a little and spread out. Some areas were a deeper blue, which dimmed and brightened over a few minutes.
After her bath, Lorraine braved the cold to go outside beyond the car park lights and reported she could also see a bit of pink at the top. We watched the lights until about 1am.
See some pictures of the Northern Lights