Iceland, or in my opinion should be the land of elements due to us having to endure all elements on a daily basis from wind, water (rain), fire (lava) and earth.

 

Every year we try to go to one new country, whenever possible of course. This year we decided to go to the remote island of Iceland for a period of 2 weeks. Some of people who we spoke to thought we were a bit crazy but we thought that going somewhere isolated and so untouched would make it truly a unique trip. The trip was planned to go in a loop around the island starting from the capital and going anti-clockwise across, there has been some discussed on whether which direction is best.

In the end, the route that we followed was over 3,000km, which was just driving but we also did some hikes and excursions that are harder to map here, so we will have to describe them. The map above shows you the route for the first week, part two will show you the remainder of the trip.

So our trip started with us, of course, flying and arriving to Reykjavik at around 10am, fortunately we had a direct flight from London and the trip was only about 2.5 hours, surprisingly if you think about it. So we arrived and proceeded to collect our car which we will get very familiar with over the next two weeks. We had hired a 4×4, although we asked for a Range Rover Discovery we landed up with a Toyota Land Cruiser which turned out to be a good thing as it was slightly bigger and perhaps more powerful, something that we ended up appreciating on some of the ‘F’ roads.

After taking the car (nicknamed ‘the whale hunter’ for no particular reason) and driving from the airport we were impressed how good the roads were as we thought that there wasn’t going to much going on. So after a pleasant 30 minute drive or so, we arrived at the hotel which was modest but of course for the price we paid we expected more.

Overall it wasn’t that bad but it looked more like a apartment block then a hotel. We drove up and enquired about the room, however we were told that we had to wait until 4pm so essentially we had the day to kill so we decided to explore the city a bit. I had a bit of a hard time as the night before in London, I had hurt my toe after some blind railings fell directly on my big toe, therefore my toe was pretty swollen and still in a quite a lot of pain. This made our walk around Reykjavik a bit harder but at least we were lucky that the weather was good. In hindsight, the only 2 days of sun we had while we were in Reykjavik.

So we stumbled around town, being very tired as we didn’t sleep well from the night before (due to my toe incident and the flight being early in the morning) but we managed to do some good exploration of the town and the centre seeing some of the main sights including the Hallgrímskirkja, which looks like a cathedral but is in fact a church.

It is aimed to represent a volcano with hexagonal shaped columns representing basalt formations. It is also the tallest building in Iceland at 73 metres, excluding antennas, etc…

 

 

 

We then proceeded into town to see the centre and to get some coffee. The coffee scene in Reykjavik is pretty strong, with many cafes and specialised coffee shops all over the place. We didn’t manage to get much more good quality coffee in the rest of Iceland.

 

 

The rest of the day we walked and explored some more where we finally managed to get back to the hotel at 5pm to check-in. We pretty much proceeded to have a siesta which was much needed where we only woke up at 9:30pm.

 

Fortunately for us the weather forecast appeared to be good, so we decided to chance it and go for a midnight drive outside of the centre to see the Northern Lights. We definitely were rewarded as just past midnight we started to see the faint smoky outlines of some the Auras Borealis. It grew stronger but were still pretty faint and apparently it starts to develop more towards winter so we were lucky have seen it at all, as it was still autumn.

This also turned out to be our three year wedding anniversary so, again, pretty good timing and of course, romantic.

The next day, we had another day in Reykjavik where we decided to explore the rest of the town, including the Harpa conference centre and the docks. We proceeded to do a lot of duplication from the day before, just to ensure we saw everything throughly – we did. We also took the opportunity to buy one or two last minute items such as a jacket for me and some gloves for Izaskun, as well as some basic camping equipment such as plastic forks.

We decided that we also needed to rent some camping gas in case we got stuck in a storm or something, as we plan to perhaps sleep in the car if needed, partially being inspired by the fact that it is legal to sleep anywhere in Iceland, assuming you have permission from the land owner however in practise I am not sure how that really works. As mentioned my toe was pretty painful so it was relatively good that I wasn’t hiking anywhere yet, but I was somewhat dreading a huge hike in the next day or two.

That evening thou we decided to go to the local swimming pool, every town in Iceland has a public pool which is essentially like their local gathering spot. We had read that you needed to shower naked in front of people where to make things worse there are actual ‘shower police’ assigned to watch that you actually shower and scrub before putting on your bathing suit for swimming.

This put us off so we decided that we will be more brave to do this later in the trip especially as there are better pools across the country. We decided to take a scenic walk along the bay ensuring we captured the lovely sunset.

The next day was a Tuesday, and we were ready to actually start driving. We were really lucky as it was sunny so we were motivated to start heading north-ish firstly out of town and then through a valley called Kaldidalur (Cold Valley), which is known as ‘highlands for beginners’ as it consists 40km of off road track, making it one of the shortest trips to get through the highlands. However after a couple of hours driving we discovered a river, although it was frozen.

We were confused as we though as it was cold but we didn’t think that it was cold enough to actually freeze moving water. It was very cloudy and visibility was very low. After a while we eventually discovered why the water was frozen, it was part of a massive glacier which we hadn’t been able to see due to the thick cloud. The landscape was bare and barren, if you had told us we were on the moon we would probably believed you. So, of course this was the first glacier that we had seen so we were naturally pretty impressed with it all. We drove up as close as we could and then decided to walk up to the edge of the rocky exterior and the ice. There was free flowing ice, which we assumed must be melting from the glacier itself.

We had been told that all rivers are drinkable so we decided to try it… it was good and refreshing but pretty cold. The water flowed gray due to the cold and probably the volcanic sand around.

After a few minutes of walking around and admiring the scenery, we decided to get back in the  warmth of the car and continue on our trip up or northwards. However, we needed to get back onto the main route which headed to Borgnarnes, which we drove through with not much to really report on while we drove through. Continuing onwards we headed to the destination where we were planning to spend the night, Stykkisholmur.

Stykkisholmer sits at the edge of Snæfellsnes peninsula and was a trading town from the 16th century. Today it is mostly used for fishing and tourism in which it has a daily ferry going to the Westfjords, something that we were planning to take but decided not too in the end. Anyways, after a long drive we eventually arrived to Stykkisholmer passing through a very unique, harsh and barren landscape of rocks. A landscape with a story, apparently a local wished to marry the daughter of another local. The father seeing an opportunity said that he could only marry his daughter if he cleared a path through the rocky landscape. The man did after a while and returned to the father to ask for his daughter’s hand. The father denied him and murdered him, from this day the land is supposedly cursed as a result.

That night we checked in the hostel where we were staying, again, very expensive for what we received but the hostel was alright in terms of facilities and comfort. We managed to take a short stroll around the town but it was not too long as it is not a very big town at all, in fact I would say there were only around 6 to 8 houses in town itself. It was cold outside so we were happy to move inside and get some rest for the night.

The next morning we woke up and determined the best route for us, we eventually decided that taking the ferry would take too much time out of our day as it only left at 3pm in the afternoon and we wanted to see everything that we could. We decided to go Westwards from Stykkisholmer and explore the pensinsula more before heading northwards to the Westfjords, so we left the hostel and headed towards Hellissandur which followed much of the coastline, after that we started heading southwards to Hellnar cutting through the land to see some great caters, landscape and caves.

Although throughout our drive we were essentially driving around Snæfellsjökull, a 700,000 year old stratovolcano. We were surprised how many other cars were around on the only road around the volcano, especially when we stopped at a few interesting sights, namely a crater named Saxholl that you can walk up and get a good view of the surrounding of … ‘nothingness’ which is humbling and very interesting at the same time.

Although we were surprised by the number of cars on the road, which there is only one, and there number of cars that shared it. It appeared that every rock or hill was a tourist attraction with cars rushing ahead and stopping suddenly in order to take vast amounts of photos, to be fair we were probably within this category too.

After some touristy driving and photo taking we decided to go see the Vatnshellir Cave, which was the inspiration for the ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth‘, written by Jules Verne in 1864. Upon arriving we bought our tickets and waiting for a few minutes, at first we thought it would be quiet which we were happy about after the number of cars on the road but as if prompted, people started to arrive in droves as if summoned. Of course, we being grumpy folk, we were disgruntled but decided to make the most of it.

The tour guide turned out to be pretty good and the tour itself pretty interesting who informed us that the caves were created through various lava flows, in which created the lava tubes due to the different lavas moving at different speeds and heat, carving out a tube that is around 200m long and 35m deep. It was amazing how dark it was inside, it was impossible to see anything at all without a light. It was also very silent, the only noise we could hear inside, apart from people walking, was the slow dropping of water from above. This made it even more amazing to discover that something actually did live in the caves, apart from the mythical trolls that we were told about. In fact a type of bacteria grows and when you shine your light on it, it shimmers.

After our more courageous adventuring underground it was time now to venture to higher ground, we proceed to drive on the ‘F’ road up the glacier, stopping briefly to see an interesting black beach along the way. The road signs were a bit ominous due  to the fact that they were not clear on which time of year you can drive on the road, but luckily for us we saw one other car in the distance descending towards us, we determined that it would be fine if they managed. So, we proceeded up the long windy road up the glacier when the weather suddenly changed from a cloudy day into a foggy day, followed by heavy rains. As we approached the top we could see much apart from the ground near us and clouds. Then the weather cleared up for a while in which we decided to prepare some lunch, on the side of the road with our gas cooker and our assortment of food that we had imported. However, just as we started to boil some water, it started rain and then hail intensely. We quickly abandoned the cooking, ran to the car and worried that the weather would damage the car. This took about an hour before it calmed down. We were looking forward to eating something warm but, as in life, we had to resort to the standard chorizo, bread and cheese. At least we were warm in the car.

 

After all  this, we still had to get back to Stykkisholmer to take the ferry that goes to the the Westfjords, only running once a day at 3pm. We, of course, weren’t going to make it – so we decided to drive the way instead. This was a long drive, which turned out to the second longest single drive on our trip – random fact. The road was narrow and windy, especially when we were zig zagging across the fjords. Fortunately we had light for most of the way but when it started to rain and when the sun starting to dip it became harder especially as it was unfamiliar terrain, despite this the roads were in good condition and we didn’t have as many tourist on the road as he had before.

 

It appears that not many people go to the Westfjords, perhaps as they are a bit out of the way with only a single road connect them to the rest of the island (and of course the ferry). Eventually we arrived to the hotel, in

Patreksfjörður, that we had booked the day before, it was new so we were hoping it would be modern an clean, etc… It turned out to be a nice place to stay but at first glance it simply looked like someone’s house, which was a bit strange. Additionally, it appears to be mostly booked out. Again, surprisingly for us, as we were  literally in a town with two roads. Perhaps that is why it was busy, being one of 2 hotels in the area. Regardless, we arrived to the hotel and proceed to check-in and go to bed pretty much immediately.

The next morning we woke up relatively early, it was gray and rainy, but we were determined to see some puffins who allegedly nest on some cliffs not too far from where we are. However, what appears to be close on the map was over an hour in the car going on dirt roads up and down rolling hills and driving around fjords. The scenery was quiet and vast which is more or less what we expected from Iceland. Along the way we didn’t see much apart from rock, grass and water.

Eventually we arrived to our destination, Látrabjarg, which is the most western point of Iceland and boats a huge habitat for various species of birds, including puffins. So after we set off for our walk up the hill, in the rain, it became clear that there we no puffins. Later research found that they had left about a month ago, but at least we enjoyed the hike and managed to see the amazing views of the rocks and water colliding below.

After about an hour or two of hiking we decided to walk back mainly due to the cold and wind.

Later we drove around the cliffs to another set of cliffs but this time from the bottom of the cliffs, as opposed to the top. Below was a lovely beach which if it has been a nice day could rival many popular tourist destinations, however the only catch was that it was freezing, windy and raining. We were hoping to see seals and other wild animals but turned out only the sheep were left behind. So it turned out to be a ‘nice’ walk in which it was scenic but very windy. We then decided to head back as it was getting late and, of course, I was getting hungry.

 

 

 

We returned back to the hotel and enquired around a restaurant where we could eat. The hotel owner was surprised that we may consider more than one option as there was only one in the town which means we didn’t really have a choice in the end. Fortunately the restaurant was a 5 minute walk from the hotel, so we decided to walk and get some food. When we arrived we were asked if we had a reservation, erm… no. They were shocked we didn’t book but fortunately we managed a small table. We saw why we had to reserve later, in about 30 minutes from arriving the place filled up with mostly American tourists. We were surprised how quickly and busy it got and how much the Americans were spending. We spend over £70 on three courses (no drinks) while they were drinking bottles of wine (which were around £50 – £100 per bottle!). Overall the food was good but small and very expensive. That was the last time we ate out in Iceland as the prices were just too ridiculous.

 

The next morning we had a very long drive, we had to drive across the entire country from the Westfjords to Akureyri, the largest town of northern Iceland. We needed to drive back down to connect to the main island and then proceed eastwards along the coast on the north. It was a long driving taking us around 5/6 hours, where we managed to see Blönduós and Sauðárkrókur (small towns) along the way which was interesting but not much to write about.

We arrived to Akureyri at around 5pm in the evening and proceeded to check-in into the Airbnb that we reserved the night before. The lady who owned was pretty dry but overall kind and friendly. We proceeded to get food and rest before proceeding further along the next morning.

 

 

 

This marks the mid point of the trip, keep posted for the second part.