With summer behind us….it was time to head out on the next adventure, this time without Ruby. We were going to Iceland for 2 weeks in an RV! This trip had been in discussion for a while, and on the books for at least a year. Before you get too committed to the story….here is the general gist of where we went, that covered approximately 1850 km.

We went to all places in Red. But doesn’t include every single place we went.

The departure day finally arrived…we boarded the plane with Todd’s youngest, Logan, and our group of 6 friends. A short 7 hours later, we landed at the Keflavik International Airport. It probably took over an hour to get thru the airport, customs and baggage and another 2 or 3 hours to get the RV’s, do the walk through and go back to the airport to pick everyone up and all things loaded before we got to the first stop Costco! It was an expensive grocery bill to fill 2 RV’s, but we managed and by 3:30 we headed down the highway about an hour drive to the first overnight camp spot called Thingvellir National Park. We were mentally prepared for all things here to be pricier than home and aside from the Costco shopping, the first night camping was a surprise! Here, you pay person, so for 3 people, with electricity and the mandatory vehicle camper charge, it was $75 for the night (which we learned over time was about average $). The campground was a grassy spot not far from the biggest lake in Iceland (Thingvallavatn); we were exhausted and hit the hay by 8:30.

Of course, our RV was awake by 6 am the next morning and while enjoying morning coffee Logan said Hey, this is the farthest north I have ever been! A short morning hike up a gulch was in order…before a hearty breakfast. The landscape has very little trees, although the volcanic rock was covered in a green moss which was absolutely gorgeous. We were eager to get moving and decided to head out ahead of the group. The day consisted of quit a few stops to places with hard to say names.

The first stop was to Bruarfoss, our first real waterfall and this is also the first place we had to pay to park. There is an app that Iceland uses to charge people to park to see the sites and they charge by vehicle seats in the vehicle you are driving and each parking location has a different fee. They also have camera’s at every parking lot entrance to scan your vehicle plate upon entry and exit. If you stay longer than 5 minutes, and don’t pay, then you get charged a fine.

For our very first waterfall stop this place was GORGEOUS and the water looked blue! The next stop was Gulfoss, which the Icelanders tote to be equally impressive as the American Niagara Falls. (although I thought it was better, considering I was literally in Niagara 10 days prior!) and the last stop of the day was to the Strukker Geyser. Somewhere along this drive, Todd decided at some point in the trip he needs to hug a sheep, there are so many of them EVERYWHERE! Todd also got distracted by all things geothermal; in case you didn’t know….one of the big things about Iceland is that they have all these geothermal wells they use for heating, electricity and they have an abundance of water (In fact potable water is free everywhere). The geothermal water is distributed to all houses and businesses for very cheap! (we met a fisherman a few days later that said his heat, electricity and water was $36/month). We got to see this geothermal at the Geyser stop. It blew hot water and steam (80-100C) up at least 100 feet in the air every 2 ½ to 5 minutes. (Sorry I’m mixing metric and imperial here…it’s how I roll) we were planning to stay at the Geyser campground that night and meet back up with our group, but it was so muddy, we didn’t want to park and get stuck. This very tourist location was also an expensive campground ($125 for 3 of us). A quick google search, we ended up 20 km down the road at Fludir campground….which was also muddy but had more asphalt options so we wouldn’t get stuck. Another side note on campgrounds:  most are grassy, they don’t usually number the sites and you don’t prebook them, you just show up. If you want electricity you go find a spot and plug into a pole. There might be 1 power poles with 6 outlets, so people just pull up to the outlet or if there is room on the pole but you can’t get that close, you can park on the road or wherever in the direction that you need and use your crazy long cord to plug-in (sometimes there are chords strewn everywhere!). Also, campfires are ILLEGAL in Iceland, so we didn’t have any! Here are some photo’s: Day-1-and-2.html And this will make you feel like you are there: Day-1-and-2-video.html

In our driving travels we did a lot of googling anytime we saw something different. On this day we saw white birds that looked like swans- turns out it’s a Whooper Swan. Also, the horse breed here is shorter and stalkier, they use them mostly for sheep herding. Lastly, dogs have been banned as pets for 60 years to prevent ringworm.

A rainy morning had us driving south down to the Kerid Crater for a quick walk around and picture taking event before we headed to the city of Selfoss. This city was very cute, very European. We parked; walked around, had lunch and a short stop at the Bobby Fischer museum. Apparently, he was a champion chess player in the 70’s who ended up playing some championship game in Iceland, became a citizen and they devoted a whole museum on the guy – Todd had heard of him, me and Logan had no idea.

A few hours later, we met up with the group and even added 2 more camper friends from Calgary while at the parking lot of the grocery store before we convoyed down highway 1, officially beginning the Iceland ring road route. The drive in the late afternoon, was amazing! A non-stop waterfall highway where we checked out Seljalandsfoss- and got to walk fully around the falls. A short 500m walk down the path and we checked out Gljufrabui where you had to walk thru a shallow river and around a rock to see the falls in all the glory (I didn’t go in but Todd and Logan did). As the sun was starting to go down, we travelled another 15 mins down the highway and ended up at the Skogafoss campground; the view here was stunning (even if the campground was not!) Day-3.html

It was a late dinner and we needed to have a mimosa celebration for Max and Erin’s engagement earlier in the day at Gulfoss, and then to bed…lights out by 10:30. We were up fairly early the next morning, as we were eager to climb the (537 ish) steps to the top of the Skogafoss waterfall before all the tour buses arrived at 9. This particular canyon has nonstop waterfalls for 24.5 km, after you climb the steps and get to the top, keep walking cause there are more falls down the path. We kept going once we got to the top and saw 3 more….but decided to quit when the next one was another 7 km away. We figured 4 falls on one river was a good number!

Our RV group was eager to move on the next morning, so we left around 11:15 to check out the town of Vik (pronounced Veek). There is a famous black sand beach called Reynisfjara Beach. This was a very cool spot to see the Basalt columns up close. We also stopped in at Víkurfjara Black Sand Beach where Logan launched his drone. It wasn’t long before it was attacked by an Icelandic Gull and it was a quick ABORT before any damage could happen. Got to town and found out there was a brewery, so we stopped in for a pint!

A bit farther down the road we found a very cool building, turned out to be the Information booth for the Vatnajokull National park. The Information lady told us about the big volcanic eruption in 1763/64 that ended up causing the French Revolution! Due to excess ash in Europe, the crops didn’t grow and people were starving and France revolted. She also told us to that there was a huge Icelandic emigration to Canada, specifically Manitoba after this French Revolution. Look at us learning history. Before we met backup with our crew, we had a short waterfall pit stop in (my favourite town) Kirkjubaejsrklaustri. Day 4-5-pics.html

We then stayed 2 nites at the Skaftafell Campground. This national park campground was awesome, not only did they have great services but they also had FREE laundry! We were up early the next day to do the glacier ridge hike by 9am; it was a 2 ½ hour hike and the view of the Skaftafell Glacier was beautiful. We had lunch and then headed out for another glacier hike, this time to see Svínafellsjökull Glacier. Skogafoss and glacier waterfall.html It was a 26,000 steps kind of day and Todd wasn’t feeling great, he had a sore throat. The whole crew departed the next morning and the first stop was the broken bridge piece…this had some thing to do with a volcano melting the glacier that caused a huge river that pushed a bridge 10 km down the road, ripping every thing in its path. We carried on to diamond beach – which was clear ice cubes on the beach from the glacier and also the Ice Lagoon, which is the larger ice cubes from the glacier that are floating in the lake before they break off to float down the river and become the ice cubes on the beach. The lake is the largest and deepest glacier lake in Iceland. The wind really started to pickup on this day, which we found out was the norm for Iceland and we learned that dressing in layers is VERY crucial to survival! Day 6-7.html

It was a busy day of driving and seeing sites. We pit stopped at a lighthouse for lunch. Logan and I got out to see the lighthouse and the wind was so strong we could hardly walk and our jackets made us look like the Michelin Man! Todd’s sickness seemed to be getting worse, so me and Logan started dropping vitamin C every 2 hours like they were tequila shot’s!  At some point we ended up at Hofn Campground, which is also the first time we went to a town pool. It was a short walk from the campground to the pool. They were geothermal heated outdoor pools that include heated lane swimming pool, at least 2 hot tub pools of various temps, a sauna and cold plunge pool. We also learned about the strict pool entry procedure which was described to us by the lifeguard: “a thorough washing of yourself without your suit prior to entry into the pools”. There was also a detailed sign saying “while naked wash all your dirty parts such as armpits, ass and frontal region, including hair and feet”. Us Canadians thought this was extreme BUT apparently, they don’t use chlorine type chemicals in the pool, so if you don’t clean yourself, it’s a cesspool of Pooh. We were quick to comply.

We all slept in the next day, probably due to sickness and how many steps we had been walking the last 2 days. The plan was to do our own thing and meet up at Egilisstador to camp. We headed to the town of Djupivogur for some site seeing, maybe had a beer and then at some point found another waterfall and then took the shortcut gravel road route (Hiway 939) to Egilisstador – possibly not the recommended route, since there were some pretty steep gravel roads…like 17% steep, that challenged Frida the Fiat but she was a trooper, and Todd is a pretty good driver! Here is how it went: Sketchy-road-and-waterfall.html   Egilsstadir-area.html  The town of Egilisstador reminded me of Canmore, AB (20 years ago). We were not happy to learn that the overnight temperature was expected to be -1C! The other campers were delayed and didn’t end up meeting up with us that night. While we setup camp and ate dinner, Logan said he wanted to go as far north as possible to the Arctic Circle..so stay tuned for part 2 on that adventure.