Iceland – Part 2 off to the Artic Circle

Our goal was to see how far north we could go…the first town that we got to was Vopnafjörður. We knew that fishing was a big industry here, and this town was definitely evidence of that, as it is known for its salmon rivers. This town used to have a larger population, but over half the town emigrated to the America’s. Food Safety Jill also loved googling the fish processors to make sure they were compliant. We did a walk through town, read all the plaques and took pictures before we decided to keep moving northerly. The next destination was Þórshöfn – we stopped for diesel here (we learned that when the opportunity arises to get diesel, you get it….you don’t know where your next opportunity will be…this may be forshadowing). We did another walk around town, checked out the fish processor here and then carried on. The next town was Kopasker, but we got sidetracked when Logan said, we could go to Raufarhofn instead, its farther north… It was a 25 km detour, there was no one else on the highway the entire drive. When we got up there, we realized we were looking at the Norwegian Sea, which is now the furthest north we have never been…for reals this time! Not quite the Arctic Circle (66.5 degrees, but the closest we would be at 66.46 degrees)! This town’s claim to fame is that it used to have the largest export harbor in Iceland for herring. It was almost dark when we go there but managed to see the Arctic Henge; a large, stone monument and sundial designed to capture and align with the sun’s rays, especially the midnight sun. We were the first ones at the campground for the night, and it was a very rainy and windy night. Week-2-photos.html

We left the next morning, heading west towards Kópasker then south down to Vatnajokulsthjodgardur – which is the National park. There was a Gljúfrastofa – Ásbyrgi visitor centre there and we usually find out some good things from those places. We were early, as the centre didn’t open until 10, so we took the opportunity to drive down the road where we found a place to park, walk and check out this beautiful spot, Botnstjörn, that highlighted the fall scenery.

The visitor information girl gave us a handful of ideas for places to stop enroute down to Myvatn (pronounced “me-vatn”). We loaded into Frida and headed south. It wasn’t to far down the road that we saw snow on the highway and have we mentioned the wind here in Iceland? We were spoiled the first few days with no wind, but now its all day everyday. The wind can be so strong and gusting that depending on the vehicle you are driving, can push the vehicle over. Like Frida the Fiat for example…..Driving an RV in Iceland with wind requires constant awareness of forecasts, with extreme caution and stopping suggested for winds above 15-20 m/s (33-44 mph) due to the risk of being blown off the road or damaged. Todd is an excellent driver, but he also stated more often than not, that he has white knuckles and flat fingers from gripping the steering wheel so hard! Week-2-video.html

I digress….we were on a very windy and snowy highway to Hljóðaklettar; a cool overlook with tonnes of hiking trails at the bottom. The drive to get there though was interesting as it was another 17% grade on pavement this time, but Frida didn’t have winter tires, they were well worn summers at best! The wind and rain/snow were factors in deciding that hiking was not an option today! A short stop at Holmatunger (I called it Hold my tongue) before we trekked a half hour down the highway to a huge double waterfall stop; first was Selfoss then to Dettifoss; both incredibly gorgeous waterfalls! To get to both falls, it was a trek across lava fields covered in snow and ice. Detti-and-selfoss.html

As we headed towards the Myvatn area, we checked out the power station and Hevrir sulphur ponds ( Sulpher-moon.html ) and went looking for a hot spring grotto, only to find it had been caged and locked up! Our first epic-fail on a tourism stop.

We had a quick look at the map to see where best to lay our heads that night. We had only 5 days left and according to the google, were exactly half way around the Island! So figured it was best to make some miles and head towards the city of Akureyri, but first one more waterfall called Godafoss! This was also so gorgeous and this area seemed like the mountain carpet got even more beautiful. We arrived at dusk to the Hamar campground, just outside of the city of Akureyri. This campground had a small house with a kitchen and eating area in it, so we opted to cook inside the house this time. Good thing we got there when we did, it got very busy around 8 pm with other campers trying to also cook. This was probably one of the windiest locations we were at.

We spent the whole next day touring through this very cute, European city. Logan said if he moved to Iceland he would want to live here! There was lots of things to see and we finally stopped to eat in a restaurant for the first time on this trip…. And in total “lunch” was $260 CA! We picked up a few groceries and headed out towards Fosslaug – this was a natural hotspring pool in the river leading to the waterfall. It was a hike to get down from the parking lot, we all changed into our bathing suits in case it was an option to get it. Logan was the only one that went in; it was pretty small and seemed muddy. But the waterfall was gorgeous! We didn’t go far that night, maybe 10 km down the road to Lamberyi to camp – this is the first campground we have stayed at with geothermal heated pool and a BBQ! Two big factors that get us out of the RV at night. They also had free laundry, so we took advantage. Pics-and-godafoss.html

We had to do a bit of research the next morning to see how/if we could fit in the west peninsula into the ring road route and still have time to see the city of Reykjavik. It was determined we can make the west peninsula fit into the timeframe, so we headed west. A stop at Pristapar for a historical lesson of the country’s last execution, a double beheading that occurred on January 12, 1830. The plaques along the trail explained quite a crazy story, that probably deserves a movie to be made about it! Here is the official link to read all about it: https://www.northiceland.is/en/place/thristapar

Of course a day is not complete in Iceland without stopping for a waterfall…this one was called Kolugljafur. Then on to Hvammstangi to see the Icelandic Seal Museum. The last tourist stop of the day was at Eiríksstaðir – Viking Longhouse; this is a reconstructed longhouse that is based on Erik the Red’s longhouse. It was a cool place, the staff dress in Viking clothing and tell stories (or as they say in Iceland “sagas”) of Viking times. Here are a few tidbits we learned:

• Vikings didn’t wear helmets, and they didn’t have horns either
• Their main weapon was rocks
• The women had a lot of power and could divorce their husbands for any reason like exposing their nipples
• They slept sitting up so they wouldn’t die in their sleep (due to poor air quality)

After the Viking museum, we had to get diesel which was a 15 km trek in the opposite direction…..but we weren’t going to make it to our camping destination if we didn’t stop (because we didn’t fuel up at the last possible place)! Once we were gassed up, headed south then west on highway 54, which according to google, was a paved highway…..nope it wasn’t. Remember how loud it was in the RV on that gravel road video I posted in Iceland part 1? Yes, this was the same but for 45 km! IT. WAS. BRUTAL. The only saving grace was that the scenery was absolutely breathtaking! The mountain carpet was green, gold and red of various shades and around every corner it just kept getting more breathtaking. And 45 km later we finally hit pavement, and Frida was black with mud! We overnighted at Grundarfjörður – this was probably the cheapest campground ($67) we had and it was across the street from the public pool. We did walk across to the pool that night and they were giving free admission, so our lucky night! It poured all night, which was a great way to clean Frida, she was white again in the morning!

We had a early start to the west peninsula; there was a lot to see, and we didn’t want to miss anything. I nicknamed this the Japanese Driving Tour day  Japanese-driving-tour.html – get in the car, drive for 2 mins, get outta the car, take a picture and repeat! While we made our way through non-stop lava fields, this is what we saw:

• 3 waterfalls
• A crater you walked up to see and a
• Crater we drove through
• Lighthouse
• Basalt lava columns
• Rainbows
• Stone bridges

The entire route was only about 35 km, Todd was getting annoyed that he was only driving 5 km then stopping.  We chose to camp in the city of Borganes; and I think this was THE windiest overnight stop we had. Although we were facing the ocean and it was gorgeous, the wind shook the RV all night…it was crazy! We left the next morning, heading up highway 50 to Deildarfungunver to go see the steam and bubbling water. We had to drive back down this highway and around the west coast to get to the underwater tunnel! I feel like this was probably one of the windiest drives we had the entire time; Todd had white knuckles and flat fingertips. The tunnel was a welcome relief to all things related to wind. ( Crater-falls-hot-tunnel.html)

Todd picked one last waterfall on the edge of the city, before we headed downtown Reykjavik to go check out a few cool sites. We saw a very fun Volcano show at the convention centre. It was like a short Disney ride – our chair lifted off the floor, with our feet dangling and randomly blew hot and cold air at your face depending on what was on the screen (volcano or waterfall). It was a drone ride around Reykjavik, some gorgeous waterfalls and the volcano and I loved this, I think the boys liked it too! Then went walking around the marina where we saw some fancy boats, a tall ship (check out greatexped.com) and a cool church. We were meeting up with our whole travel group at the Blue Lagoon at 7 pm. So we headed down to Grindavik to checkout the town, campground and have dinner. The town of Grindavik is only 5 km from the Blue Lagoon. In November 2023, a state of emergency was declared due too seismic activity and the town evacuated. On December 18, 2023, the Sundhnúkur volcano erupted threatening the town’s existence. At one point in time there were > 10,000 people living here, but currently only 100 people live here. Driving through the town is so bizarre, it’s like a ghost town.  As we were driving around town, we saw our sister RV at Papa’s Restaurant and had to stop in to see the other half! We had our last family dinner at Papa’s Restaurant (Todd and Logan shared a pizza topped with Dorito’s). While driving to the Blue lagoon, you can see where the lava covered the highway and where they had to rebuild the highway. ( Final-days.html )   We stayed at the Blue Lagoon until it closed at 10pm. It was a cool experience, as it was sleety/rainy but we were warm in the hot springs. The worse thing about the Blue Lagoon was the close proximity of the power plant next door…it sounded like a jet engine taking off every 5 minutes.  By 10:15 we were checked into our very last campground in Grindavik; again very windy the RV was shaking….I won’t miss that.

We dropped the RV off the next day by noon, as we said our goodbyes and went separate ways. Todd and I rented a hotel room in Keflavik by the airport, while the rest of the group rented cars, an airbnb and headed into Reykjavik for 2 more days. We walked through downtown Keflavik, had a drink at a pub and then dinner before we called it a night. It was a 6 am wakeup call to catch the taxi to the airport!

Even though we complained about wind and snow and clothing layers…WE. LOVED. THIS. COUNTRY.

Here is our list of things:

• Nobody speeds, rule followers: we found out there are speed camera’s everywhere without warning
• No homelessness, no begging or panhandling that we saw
• Hardly any power lines, everything is underground
• Grocery and eating out is VERY expensive, actually in general things are expensive!
  • We bought a dozen eggs and a loaf of bread in Þórshöfn and it was $17 CA
  • We had a lunch for 3 in Akureyri and it was $260 CA
  • Our shawarma dinner for 2 was $60 CA
  • The taxi ride 7 mins to the airport was $42 CA
• Gravel pits everywhere, like everywhere…what are they using it all for?
• Free water everywhere including for car washes at the gas station….FREE!
• So much wind…never witnessed wind like this before it makes Lethbridge, AB look like kindergarten wind
• Lack of public safety:
  • During road construction: no notice and no barriers, drive at your own risk
  • Waterfall lookouts, sulphur hot spews or any lookout: very common to not have a fence to protect people from falling or getting real close
  • Hand rails on stairs do not exist

After thoughts:

• Todd found the waterfalls to be cleansing for his soul
• Logan has never RV’d before, let alone for 14 days. This is not an easy thing to do, especially with his parents. I think it would have been harder for all of us if Todd and I didn’t already live in a bus
• This is not a vacation destination for the wimpy….this is a full on adventure destination…be prepared people!
• The beauty of the country is almost indescribable
• Overall the people of Iceland were unbelievable nice and friendly (putting Canada to shame here….)
• We were surprised how many rainbows appeared (almost daily) and they were so bright and boldly colored
• Iceland is the farthest north Jill & Logan have ever been AND the deepest below sea level we have all been