As much as I love planning my adventures, I’m a huge fan of the unexpected. Sometimes things happen while you’re travelling and at first it may seem like a set back, but rolling with the punches can lead to the most extraordinary experiences.

So it was I found myself in Iceland, bogged in the snow in what was supposed to be a snow-worthy superjeep with gale force winds howling all around and our window of opportunity to get to the glacier rapidly dwindling.

We had spent a magical day touring the famous ‘Golden Circle’, marvelling at stunning waterfalls,

waiting for exploding geysers

and learning about the app that Icelanders check to make sure they’re not too closely related (there’s only 320,000 of them after all) before, well, you know.

The high point of the tour was set to be walking on one of Iceland’s largest glaciers. And then we got bogged.

Twice.

The struggle to free ourselves involved our poor guide Sven (his real name) trying to let down tyres with bare hands and only a fleece against the elements. Oh and 3 other jeeps-full of tourists taking photos.

No sooner were we free, then we stopped to inflate the tyres….and got stuck again. We had to give up all hope of making it to the glacier.

And then the magic happened.

As the wind howled and blew snow in snaking lines, the sun sank low on the horizon and turned the snow bright orange. It glowed and I was mesmerised.

But it didn’t stop there. As the sun sank lower, the colours in the sky intensified and a spectacular sunset unfolded.

While Sven inflated our tyres one more time, we were able to brave the wind and quietly enjoy an incredible moment in an incredibly unique location.

Had all gone to plan, we would have been staring wistfully out of the window of our jeep speeding back to Reykjavik. Sometimes these little flies in our ointment really can turn out to be currants in our custard.