Travel logistics

Working out how to travel to Iceland from England was an interesting challenge. Icelandair flew once a week from London to Reykjavik, but could not carry our kayaks. Until late in 1976 the shipping company that sometimes ran a service to Iceland did not know whether they would operate a ferry service in 1977 summer season or not. It was December 1976 before I knew we would be able to travel by ferry, when I received a brochure and the confirmation below that we could carry our kayaks as personal baggage. The ferry would sail once every two weeks, until early September.

Letter from P&O Ferries informing us that we could carry our kayaks on the ferry as personal baggage.

With this piece of information, we were able to plan the rest. We would leave from the south of England in Geoff's Austin Mini van with the kayaks on the roof, and drive to the north coast of Scotland, to the small port of Scrabster. Leaving the car at Scrabster in the Harbor Master's shed for the summer, a kindness for which we were very grateful, we carried our kayaks, together with a storage chest, onto the first ferry of the season to the Faeroe Islands.

Disembarking at Thorshavn on Faeroe, we planned to camp for four days until the ferry arrived to take us to Iceland. We camped in the harbor fort by the lighthouse, stored our kayaks in the P&O warehouse on the quay, explored and went kayaking.

On arrival in Seyðisfjörður, on the east coast of Iceland we carried our kayaks through customs to the nearest suitable beach to launch. The Harbor Master in Seyðisfjörður kindly looked after Geoff's storage chest for the summer. Inside were substantial fiberglass repair materials. In event of a badly broken kayak we reasonably thought it would be easier to hitch-hike back to collect repair materials than find them for sale in Iceland. We also left a clean change of clothes for our return.

On completing our paddling trip we caught the penultimate ferry of the season back to Faeroe, and from there to Scrabster, loaded the car and returned south by road to England.

The distance between the south of England and Seyðisfjörður is about 1,200 miles.