Iceland

“Land of Fire and Ice” they say… I was really looking forward to seeing some red hot molten lava. We ended up with a few days of rain showers and no sign of “fire” … so a bit disappointing in that respect but man, what awesome scenery! I’ve seen plenty of mountains before, but Iceland was definitely different.

Huge, flat plains ring the mountainous highlands in the centre island; we saw two distinct types. One; solidified lava flows which look like a monstrous, cracking tarmac road, and the other; miles of desolate volcanic gravel washed down epic rivers fed by ice and snow melt. Out of these plains rise vertical cliffs and steep, black crags. More often than not the tops were in cloud which gave a distinct feeling of us existing in a thin slice of planet between the underground and the sky. You can almost believe the Icelanders’ stories of trolls and elves in the distant, inaccessible mountains.

There’s one main road which runs all the way around the island. It’s called road number 1, and narrows from two lanes down to single lane to cross many of the bridges. Iceland’s population is only 350,000 and two thirds of that is in Reykjavik, so I can’t see road number 2 coming along any time soon. The rest of the island is rugged, inhospitable mountains, plus a bit of farmland. We spent our first day in Reykjavik, and then rented a 4×4 for a couple of days so we could explore.

Day 1

Headed east along road number 1 with the goal of getting to Skaftafell. It was pouring with rain for most of the morning, so although we passed a bunch of interesting sights (which in Iceland is usually waterfall, geothermal vent or hot spring) we didn’t stop. We had the car for two days and figured that as it was light all the way through the night, we could check them out on the way back if the weather improved.

The road wound over the plains, the sea to our right and the mountains to the left. Generally we were quite a way inland so we didn’t get to see the ocean. The lava was covered in a deep, soft layer of moss – we had to stop and get out to feel it – such a surreal landscape.

In between the rain squalls we had views for miles and miles. The air is so clear. Reminds me of the skies in northern Scotland and the Isle of Skye.

After a good few hours of driving the weather improved and the views opened up even more.

We parked up near the snout of the Skaftafellsjökull glacier and tucked into lunch. I’d read in our guidebook that a typical Icelander’s lunch is made up of rye bread, some Harðfiskur (hard, dried fish) and some Skil yoghurt, so that’s what we’d brought along. Rye bread, fine, we can deal with that – I quite like it. But boy the Harðfiskur was horrible. I tried a few pieces to see if it was a taste that grew on me but nope, it wasn’t happening. The rest of it went in the bin. Other Icelandic staples include rotten shark. No wonder the american style hot dog stand in Reykjavik is so popular.

We wandered over to the glacier to have a poke around. It feels a bit tired. A load of dirty ice. Glaciers get more impressive higher up the mountain; down here in the melt zone it’s still impressive, but lacks grandeur. Reminds me of a climbing trip in the Alps with buddies from Sheffield – we tramped across a glacier high in the mountains on our way to climb a route, bivvying out at night on the side of the ice in a small cave.

Late afternoon we hopped back in the car for the mission drive back to Reykjavik, stopping off at Gullfoss, a large waterfall, on the way. We also picked up a Canadian hitch hiker who was also heading the same way. There were quite a few hitch hikers – I guess partly because there’s only one road, and partly the laid back casual attitude of the Icelanders. Rose said he was a bit smelly.

Day 2

Most tourists to Iceland spend a day doing the “Golden Circle” which is a bunch of sights in a loop not far from Reykjavik. Since we were there, it made sense to take a look. First we stopped by þingvellir – an impressive fissure in the bottom of a rift valley which sits between the European and American tectonic plates. Further south, this same join between the plates forms the mid Atlantic ridge. The plates are moving apart at about 18mm per year, and while there’s no active volcanic excitement at the surface (like the hot molten lava I came all this way to see…), the valley is full of geothermic centres and hot spots.

We also stopped in at Gullfoss (another waterfall) which is an impressive two-level beast.

And then Geysir, which itself doesn’t erupt unless there’s just been an earthquake. Just a few yards away is Strokkur, a slightly smaller but much more reliable geyser which pops its top every few minutes. We dropped into see a geyser in California with Ant and Anna – so this is our second set of geysers this year. Hopefully we’ll get to swing by Yellowstone and Old Faithful later in the summer. The Grand Geyser Tour of 2104.

Heading back towards þingvellir we picked up more hitch hikers – this time a couple from Czech republic and Macedonia. He was in Iceland for a conference and she came out to join him for a few days’ holiday at the end of his work week.

We’d rented a 4×4 because we wanted to get off road and explore deeper into Iceland. We didn’t really know what to expect, and explored up a couple of gravel tracks. On the first we were thwarted by a river that we weren’t confident to cross. It would probably have been fine but we were a little short on time, needing to get the car back by 4pm – and we had no idea whether the rest of the route over the mountains was clear. Making our way back to the main road we were passed by one of the huge Icelandic “super-jeeps” with monster tyres, blasting his way along the small track like it was the main highway. Next time that’s how we’re going to see Iceland!

A bit further down the road we did find a track over the mountains that looked a bit of fun, and just about doable in the time we had left.

Flying over Greenland on the way back to the USA was pretty cool. Plenty of icebergs, mountains and snow. Definitely need to get there at some point. I spotted an advert in a sailing magazine a couple of days ago; “Crew wanted for expedition to Greenland and Arctic in old wooden Bristol pilot cutter” … now that would be an adventure. One day I want to buy a steel hulled boat and spend some time north of the Arctic circle. Greenland, Canada, Norway …

The flight went via Seattle, where we got an awesome view of Mount Rainer as we came into land. I never knew it even existed. We’re going to be coming back up this way in just a couple of weeks, so that’s now on the list of places to see.