Iceland

Iceland is a very interesting place to visit, very scenic, great food and very friendly people. The country is very clean as well, the air is clear so you can see longer distances than you can at home. Also there was a surprising lack of trash on the side of the roads making the countryside much more scenic. When I mentioned this fact to our guide Magnús he said this was not always true, people used to throw trash out the car windows and there was a lot of abandon farm equipment in the farm regions. Then 10 to 12 years ago there was a concerted effort to clean all this up and it stuck. The countryside is quite clean Magnús said the influx of tourists in recent years has only reinforced to Icelanders what a special place they live in.

Iceland is also very different than other places we have visited, there is nothing that should impede a visit but you should keep them in mind as you plan your trip. First you are in or the Arctic region and the weather can change very rapidly. Be prepared for this. Understand what the conditions are going to be like at the time of year you are going to visit. We studied this and knew what to expect and were not caught off guard but not everyone does this. After we visited Seljalandsfoss Magnús told us that he had taken a group on a day trip out to the falls and they were disappointment with the trip commenting how cold, wet and dark it was. When I asked when this was he said last December. I had to laugh, what did they expect that time of I asked him and he said he was not sure. The only thing I could think of they were so excited that they were going to Iceland that they did not consider when they were going. So keep this in mind as you plan.

Another thing you should consider as you plan your trip is the how undeveloped Iceland really is when it comes for tourists especially if you decide to drive yourselves around. Yes there are roads but once you get out of Reykjavík the roads are two lanes with many one lane bridges (Einbreid Brú) crossing the waterways. The bridges can be dangerous and a certain amount of courtesy to other vehicles is needed crossing the bridges. There are signs marking where you are but they are small and may be easy to miss if the conditions are not ideal. And when you find you are at a place you wish to stop, there is lots of beautiful scenery and the impulse to stop is great, don’t cause an issue for the traffic behind you and stop on the road. Magnús said stopping in the road was a clear sign of tourist, please pull to the side.

You also need to plan for fuel consumption and food a bit better than on other trips once you get out of Reykjavík. The urban area ends quickly and about an hour outside the city we saw the last grocery store, beyond that not much. There are no rest-stops to pull over in and the towns are truly working towns for the industry they serve. There may be a gas station (a single one) that may have food but the food is not the best there Magnús said. Hotels are starting to be built, farmers are starting to pick up on the tourist trade but again they are few and far between. The hotels most certainly serve food, there is rarely another place for guests to go nearby but the kitchens will not be open all day, only for dinner. Breakfast is most likely only for guests. And since the hotels are few they are full so spontaneous trips into the countryside grabbing a hotel along the way will not work.

Another thing we heard from several people is tourists leaving the main road and getting themselves in trouble quickly. A couple we talked to in Vik told us the took a jeep tour into the interior and the guide had to pull a tourist’s rental car out of a river. The road had changed and they were unprepared. The car was a total loss and there is a hefty fine for this they said. We discussed this with Magnús, he said people sometimes decide to try what looks like a shortcut and find after a long drive on the road that it is not ideal, closed or the weather conditions have changed and now they have to turn around. And if they now get in any trouble help may be a long time coming if at all. So stick to the main roads and if you want to be adventurous hire a local.

Ok enough on this. I encourage you all to visit Iceland but please plan your trip with a little extra care than you would on other trips.

Time to start unwinding this one. We have to keep this trip relatively short as compared to others in order to meet Sydney when she returns on Friday. We have spent the last spent the last few days near Höfn, a fishing town in southeast Iceland. Our departure point is some 5 hours east, in Reykjavik which translates roughly as Smoke Cove. Apparently the first explorers of Iceland saw the steam from the geothermal vents and thought it was smoke and incorporated that fact when they named Reykjavik.

Not without a few stops along the way. The clouds have parted and we took advantage of that and revisited Jökulsárlón and Fjallsárlón Glacier Lagoons and the visit was a polar opposite of yesterday. Foggy yesterday, cloudy but bright today. The tide was coming in yesterday, going out with a vengeance today like someone pulled a plug causing the water to rush out. This caused the ice in the lagoon to flip and move like they were motorized. The plug at the outlet reformed in front of us with iceberg collisions and constantly changing water levels. Quite the site!

Alas the nice weather did not last. Driving the coast meant we dipped further south and after we passed through Vík, the southernmost village in Iceland the rain picked up a bit. We made the best of it during our visit to the Black Sand Beach a bit more wet than we would like. Quite the dramatic place, tall cliffs surrounded by a black sand beach make it quite a beautiful place to visit. On top of that the next landmass directly south of the beach is Antarctica meaning the full fury of the Atlantic Ocean is able to attack the land. This makes the shore here quite dangerous, many visitors have drowned here being swept out to sea by a sneaker wave so if you visit, which I encourage, do not turn your back on the Atlantic!

The weather got a bit better as we visited our last two stops, the waterfalls Skógafoss and Seljalandsfoss. However the pace of the the trip is starting to catch-up with us and we are looking forward to getting back to “Smoke Cove” and relaxing a bit before going out to dinner.