Iceland Part  I 2024

There had been considerable media hype over a live volcanic fissure and flowing lava near the airport before our trip. Our AirBnb host even suggested sitting on the right hand side of the aircraft for a better view. We landed with low clouds and our flight path was no where near the Sundhnúkur  fissure. We had an early arrival at 8:30am, so after collecting our car rental we had lots of time before our 3;00pm check-in. Naturally, we gravitated towards the live fissure (we did know that the roads were all closed in the area). We got a text alert on my phone about not going into the live volcanic area, but that was about all the excitement we had relating to the Sundhnúkur  eruptions. 

We drove out to nearby Garður and that turned out to be a slow start to our trip. Further south along the Rekyanes peninsula, we stopped in at Hafnir to look at a lightly visited foundation of an early Viking longhouse that has been dated back to somewhere in the 800's.  After that little bit of history, we drove to the "Bridge Between Continents" for our first experience with the Icelandic marketing of the continental intersection. Clearly the surface cracks are not the actual tectonic plates but it is a cool notion that a bridge could reach between EuroAsia and the Americas.  We pushed onto our first geothermal hot springs at Gunnuhver; look but don't touch! Perhaps the highlight of the day were the cliffs at Valahnúkamöl, the first of many bird cliffs and unpronounceable Icelandic places that we would visit. Nesting sea birds in Iceland are big thing in Icelandic summers. Earlier in the day, we had passed an eider duck colony and we would come across many of them throughout Iceland.

It was our first day and after our overnight flight, we were looking forward to checking in to our apartment. We headed  back to Keflavik and the Bónus supermarket. Our AirBnb host messaged me at 2:00pm to cancel our booking. I talked to her, she said that AirBnb had double booked us and said she would see about an alternative, but she only came up with a guesthouse room and we wanted an apartment for our first 2 nights. I found a place on Booking.com that had no reviews and booked it. After buying supplies, we drove to the edge of town and we found our place. It had been recently renovated and it was located in what was once the US air force base (built in WWII). What a surprise!

The weather was miserable on our second day. Our program was to take it easy, while we adjusted to the time zone. In the morning, we drove to the Seltún Geothermal Area and made a short walk in the rain. We carried on to Reykjavík for a brief look around and now we can say that we have been there, done that. We wouldn't call  Reykjavík  the highlight of our Icelandic trip. We did buy some white gas at a sporting store (Fjallakofinn) and scrounged some free butane cartridges at the Reykjavík "Eco-campsite". We walked a few of the main tourist streets and saw the famous Hallgrims church. We dropped in at Costco  and a large Bónus on the edge of the city and stocked up for our month long trip. The liquor stores are a good source of cardboard boxes that allowed us to organize our groceries in the hatchback of the Dacia Duster. 

We had more rain on the third day, our first day on the road.  We put the rain jackets and trousers on and pressed through the day visiting areas that had less rain in the forecast.  By the afternoon, the rain eased. We did a 5km hike in the Hengil area, which is only 40km outside of the capital, but we found it surprisingly quiet. Despite good intentions of avoiding the Golden Circle altogether, Thingvellir National Park  was our next stop.  We walked between two continents, then about half a kilometre away there is a parallel  inlet of the Þingvallavatn lake where a spring flows between two rock walls and guided groups snorkel between two continents. Two parallel rifts in tectonic plates might be a little confusing to the reader, but it is explained by marketing. The original Icelandic parliament met nearby for centuries  between 930 - 1798, and those are years not times. Once we had seen our first name waterfall, Öxarárfoss, we moved  a few kilometres further north,, away from the tourist mobs, to more fissures that didn't attract touristic attention.

On the map, it appeared that the #52 could bring us to our desired destination, so we put our Duster out on gravel and it drove well out to the #50 and the Rock & Troll campground.  With the cool wet conditions, we delayed our first Icelandic tenting by a day and we booked a cozy little cabin and used the shared kitchen to prepare meals in . The campground has a troll walk and we were introduced to troll life and it helped us recognize troll environments later in our trip. 

There was fresh snow in the mountains on the mostly sunny day that followed. We fueled up in Borgarnes. The Duster ran diesel and was efficient; 5litres/100km on most terrain. The maximum speed on Icelandic highways is 90kmh so the lower speed also helped with fuel economy. The Eldborg Crater walk was 7km return and we found it was about 5km too long. I refer to the flat approach walk to reach the crater that is not particularly remarkable by Icelandic standards. It was difficult to stand up straight on the volcano rim in the howling wind.

We entered the "off the beaten track" Snaefellsnes Peninsula. We later concluded that it is more of "a well used track". Our first stop was at Ytri Tunga Beach. There were about 20 cars in the parking lot. There was a ISK 750 ($7.50CDN) parking fee to see seals resting on rocks off the beach. Where we come from, we have plenty of seals resting on rocks off of beaches, so the beach description wasn't overly appealing. We drove through the parking lot and out again. Further along the #54, we drove down to the  smart looking Búðir  church and went for a mossy lava hike of 3km in the early afternoon. We don't have mossy lava where we live.

Back on the #54, we pulled off the road for a truly "off-the beaten-track" Búðir summit wander of 2kms.  I picked up a few items (milk, skyr and bread) at the Kassin grocery store in Ólafsvík. We somehow overlooked the Rif wetlands on the way to the Hellissandur campground up in the NW end of Snaefellsnes. It was blowing hard and we managed to put the tent up. The campground was pleasant with a nice, but small common kitchen. The kitchen area filled up in the evening.  The campground money collector was Icelandic and he wanted to talk hockey when he discovered we were Canadian (the NHL playoffs were in progress and Edmonton was playing Florida). Sheila crashed out, still feeling the effects of jet lag while I went for a wander through the nearby town of  Hellissandur. The car did not offer much of a screen from the wind at our camp. Tenting would have been most enjoyable without the howling wind that rattled the tent while we attempted sleep.  Our first Icelandic tent night was not a huge success.

We were on the road before 8:00am and walking up the Saxhóll Crater soon after. You can drive right up to the base of the crater and thus it offered immediate gratification. The main Snaefellsnes Peninsula road is paved, but the side roads are gravel, and soon after, we were bumping along the Djúpalónssandur beach road and on the trail before 9:00am. It was about a 3.5km walk to visit the Dritvik and Djúpalónssandur beaches characterized by lava flows on the approach walk with the looming Snæfellsjökull glacier behind us. The 700,000 year old glacier reaches 1450m. As it was still early, we encountered a handful of other tourists on the walk.

Further along the peninsula, we reached Helnar for a look around at the steep cliffs and the bird life there. It turned out to be about 2km return to the sea stacks at Lóndrager. The scenery and the tourist numbers seemed to increase at Arnarstapi. We walked 5km out and back along the impressive coastline, often stopping to watch the birdlife. We were done by 2:00pm and drove through the centre of the peninsula back to the north coast. When we reached the Kirkjufellsfossar fee parking lot, it looked busy and we opted to return to it the following day. We checked into the comfortable Kirkjufell Guesthouse and relaxed some before dinner. I slipped out in the evening for a local drive and walkabout.

We had the kitchen to ourselves in the morning and we were off and running before most visitors. We cheaped out and drove the Duster down a steep embankment to a small pull-out rather than pay for parking for Kirkjufellsfossar. It is an iconic, Instagram location with the falls and conical hill as a backdrop and just a short walk from the main road. Further east, we drove gravel roads through the Berserkjahraun lava fields, passing a number of obvious free camping spots. A walk up one of the cones offered interesting an overview of the area. We reached the #56 and stopped at an unsigned paved parking lot to amble down to Selvallafoss, a waterfall that you can walk behind. the daily tourist flow was starting to increase with even a tour bus in the parking lot when we left. Further south on the #56, we pulled off onto a dirt track. It was cold and windy (2C by the early afternoon) and Sheila opted to sit it out and I walked up to a small summit of Horn at 420m for quite an interesting walk over a bleak volcanic environment. Somehow, the summit was protected from the ferocious wind, but when I returned from the 5km walk, to the car, it was rocking and it took Sheila a while to warm up once we got the heat going.

Stykkishólmur was a detour off the main road. It featured some quaint houses with a harbour to match. We went for a pleasant, albeit windy, walk above the marina at the edge of a peninsula. While most tourists catch the ferry across the Breidafjordur bay, we topped up our groceries and fuel and drove east along the #54. The road quickly turned to gravel and away from the coast and we were happy to reach the #60 highway.  We went back onto a smooth gravel road along Haukadalsvatn lake then sheep pastures to reach Eiríksstaðir. This was a recreated Viking longhouse that would have belonged to “Erik the Red”. The foundation of the original house is a short distance away. The two animators with British accents were closing up for the day but we were able to look around the exterior.  Most Canadians remember from their school history lessons that Erik was the father of Leif Erickson who sailed across to present day Newfoundland. We had visited L’Anse a l’Orme, Newfoundland nine years earlier, so this visit connected history for us. We had booked a splendid cabin at Stóra-Vatnshorn,  less than a kilometre away from the longhouse where we were greeted by an energetic Italian gal who was managing the units.  We would later realize that foreign (mostly from the EU) seasonal workers staffed many of the Icelandic campgrounds and accommodations. In any case, we appreciated the well equipped cabin, especially the washer/dryer that gave our clothes a fresh start.