Father-daughter team Brad and Jennifer Diggens completed an ambitious hike in Iceland and raised more than $10,000 for our water projects in Zambia! They’ve generously agreed to share some of their photos, and want to say a huge ‘THANK YOU!’ to everyone who contributed to their fundraising. Let Jennifer tell you about their trip…
Here we are…ready for our seven-day, 90-something-kilometre trek across southern Iceland. (Click the photo to see a larger version)Landmannalaugar, about 180 kilometres east of Reykjavik, was the beginning of our adventure.Iceland’s landscape is unlike anything we’d seen. According to Icelandic folklore, these rocks transform into trolls when the sun goes down. Yikes… that’s a lot of trolls!Clouds of sulphur rise eerily from the ground, a pretty common sight along our hike. The island is highly geologically active with many volcanoes. In fact, we hiked between two of them. In spots, the ground was so hot that we worried it would melt our pants if we sat for too long!The colours in the rock along the trail were stunning.This is a neat shot because it shows so many elements of the landscape: mountains; clear, glacial streams; steam rising from a geyser (bottom left); endless skies; and patches of snow covered with volcanic ash on rolling hills.Look closely and you’ll see our first camp area. We took this photo around 8 or 9 p.m. It was still so bright out!A selfie from along the trail!A view of one of our camp areas – Alftavatn.Through the rain, we kept thinking the sun was shining on the hills… but it turned out they were just so vibrant that they looked as if the sun was on them.Very, very old carvings at Thorsmork.The glacier on Katla, Iceland’s most dangerous volcano.This was on the last day, and was part of the scariest part of our hike. It was a long way down!The end of the trail… so beautiful!
If Brad and Jennifer’s photos inspired you to challenge yourself while raising money for Operation Eyesight’s work, we’ve got more information for you here.
