Route 1: Driving around Iceland's ring road (Part 2)

This is part 2 of a blog about my journey around Iceland's ring road, which circles the edge of the country. (For part 1 see here: http://www.nordicadventurer.com/blog/2016/1/26/route-1-driving-around-icelands-ring-road). 

After a night spent at the HI hostel in Höfn (I recommend the HI hostels for their high commitment to sustainable practices), we continued our journey through the beautiful East Fjords. The road initially cuts through a short tunnel through some high mountains which protrude out into the sea north of the town. Once through the tunnel, Route 1 stretches out through alongside some wide coastal fjords which are more like lagoons, and then rises up to hug a dramatic headland right on the coast

There was a lingering grey light which enhanced the moodiness and drama of the coastline as we looked out across the sea, figuring out that the next dry land was Norway, over 1000 miles to the east.

A little further along the same stretch of road, we found a small turning which took us down to a hidden  beach enclosed on one end by a big wall of rock. 

The next "major town" (with a population of 470) is the fishing village of Djúpivogur. It is near here that the small island of Papey lies, where Celtic monks once prayed before Iceland was settled. The story goes that they were chased away by Viking invaders, with some taken as slaves. One day I hope to get on a boat and visit, but for now we had to be content with just seeing the island on the horizon from the mainland. The village of Djúpivogur is gathered around a small harbour

After a quick coffee and lunch stop in the village we continued around the long fjord called Berafjörður and found a striking lighthouse at the next headland. 

 

The roads through the East fjords wind through fjord after fjord, making a journey which is not far in direct distance a lot longer. My 1992 Suzuki Vitara began to struggle as we neared the pretty little village of Stöðvarfjörður. The gorgeous little church is unfortunately no longer used as a place of worship, but has been converted into a holiday home. We peered through the windows and saw the altar still intact and standing in the living room! 

The car began to shudder and something didn't feel right as I drove. Being stuck in the middle of nowhere I carried on until we reached the little village of Fáskrúðsfjörður, which used to be a base in East Iceland for French fishermen, and even the roadsigns there have a French translation. Something smelled odd in the town, and I assumed it must be something to do with fish or a factory. A few kilometers outside the village, however, the smell persisted. I pulled over into the entrance to a farm track and realised the smell was coming from my car, as smoke poured out from the back. 

Even in the summer, temparatures can drop fast as night approaches and we had to quickly come up with a plan. The car smelt strongly of gas and we couldn't stay in the car for fear of being overwhelmed by the fumes, so we opted to add as many layers as we could and sit by the side of the road. I called ahead to our friend Hafsteinn who was the manager of the guesthouse we were heading to in Egilsstaðir. After a short while and a few phonecalls later he managed to contact a mechanic in the next town of Reyðarfjörður, who told us that after another hour or so he could come and help us. In Iceland, you need to know people who know people. 

After a few hours of sitting by the road, and at one point running up and down and exercising and even dancing to keep warm, help arrived in terms of a couple of friendly mechanics. one of whom had his 10 year old son with him. As they took a look at the car, the 10 year old said "your car is really really terrible. Really terrible". They say the most truthful people in the world are children and drunks. Maybe he was being a bit harsh, the car is 23 years old and still going, right? That's not too terrible in my estimation. In a years time Cecil the Suzuki will be 25, and classed as a classic car, with no tax payable. I'm praying he makes it to this milestone birthday. 

The mechanics drove our car slowly through the long tunnel which awaited just a kilometre up the road, while driving us in a separate vehicle. They took the car into their workshop in Reyðarfjörður and our friend Hafsteinn very kindly picked us up to take us on a further 30 minutes to the guesthouse in Egilsstaðir. 

Our stay there turned from a planned stay of three or four days to over a week, while we waited for some new wheel bearings to be delivered from Reykjavik to the mechanic. Hafsteinn went out of his way to drive us from place to place and he took us to the stunning Hengifoss waterfall. 

 

Eventually, after a longer than scheduled stop in the beautiful East, we drove on to Dettifoss, Akureyri and the West Fjords (which will be the subject of the next blog!) 

If you are interested in purchasing any landscape shots featured in this blog or other shots of Iceland, please click here: 

http://www.nordicadventurer.com/ring-road/

Exploring the South West: Day trip in Iceland's overlooked Reykjanes peninsula

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I love Icelandic winters, especially when the snow starts falling, the four wheel drive is needed and we begin our long, drawn out battle with the forces of nature. But around January, one starts to long for the sun to stay a while longer, to feel just the faintest bit warmth on the face and to be able to get out and explore the Icelandic nature without needing extreme cold weather gear. Spring is often not keen to come, or makes an appearance before disappearing again, like a mysterious old friend with commitment issues. 

So, as the snowstorms rage and the darkness persists, I thought I would share some posts of brighter summer days from last year. 

As I recently waded though a backlog of around 2000 photos from last year, I began discovering memories and shots which I had forgotten about as my ageing laptop could not cope with the demand of an obsessive photographer. 

First up are photos from a trip with friends around the Reykjanes Peninsula last May. This wide, almost rectangular piece of land appears to have been smuggled in from another planet. Usually overlooked by visitors rushing from the airport to Reykjavik in express buses, it is a sci-fi film-maker's dream of sparse, moon-like lava rock, steam rising from ethereal hot springs and neon blue waters surrounding futuristic looking geothermal power stations. Around its edges lie dramatic cliffs, obstinate rock stacks, majestic soaring seabirds, furious crashing waves and lonely lighthouses. Trees are so few you could probably count them on your two hands. And, to top it all it is intensely volcanically active, with a volatile tectonic plate boundary running down its centre. 

As I have explored this area many times before I focussed my photographic attention on just a few locations that I had not photographed much before. 

Firstly, the pretty Hvalsneskirkja, just outside the village of Sandgerði and just a few kilometers from Keflavik Airport. The church was built in 1887 and has a distinctively painted steeple in primary colours.


 

After stopping here and enjoying the sunshine for a while, we continued to the most South-Westerly point of Iceland at Reykjanesviti. There is a lighthouse here set back from the coast a little way on a hill, from which the traveller can enjoy great views across the Atlantic ocean. The wildness of the seas and rocks is beautiful, although strong winds can often mean you don't want to linger for too long...

 

Not far from Reykjanesviti lighthouse is the hot spring Gunnuhver, It is named after the troublesome ghost of a local woman called Gunna, who murdered someone she had a dispute with at her own funeral. She finally met her end when a priest laid a trap for her and pushed her into the geysir. 



On the way back to Reykjavik, you can either relax for hours in the famous Blue Lagoon at Grindavik, or continue on the the Krysuvik geothermal area where you can witness boiling mud pools and sulphurous stream rising where the land is almost surrealistically brightly coloured, a result of all this restless geothermal activity. It really is other-wordly, and you feel a bit like this is a film-set, some kind of art installation rather than the incredible natural phenomenon it really is. 

Just after Krýsuvík, on the way back to Reykjavík, is the brooding blue lake called Kleifarvatn. It is gradually shrinking, after a few volcanic fissures opened up across the lake at the turn of this century, but there's still enough water in there to make it an impressive, if not erie, place to visit.

The long straight road home takes you through Hafnarfjörður, a town full of character and built on a lava field and now part of the capital area.

For some of these and more photos of the Reykjanes Peninsula, please see this page on my website! http://www.nordicadventurer.com/reykjanes-peninsula/ 
 

Suggested itinerary for Reykjanes trip

-Start early by driving through the harbour area Hafnafjörður and stop at the wonderful hidden gem, Pallett, for coffee. It is run by former Icelandic Barista champion Pálmar Þór Hlöðvarsson, who I would argue makes the best coffee right now in Iceland. 


-After your caffeine intake, drive towards Keflavík on the main airport road, but take a detour along the road marked "Vatnsleysuströnd" (literally "waterless beach"), and there is a picturesque church and some abandoned farmhouses which are great for photography. Re-join the main road by Vogar, and at Njarðvik, drive up the hill on the edge of town where you can walk a short distance to some incredible sea-cliffs with views back to Reykjavik. 

-If you have time, check out Viking World in Njarðvík, a small museum containing an impressive replica viking ship.

-Grab some food at one of Keflavik´s many cafés or get something to take away and then drive to the little village of Garður, where there are two lighthouses to explore and many seabirds to watch. 

-Continue around the end of the peninsula through Sandgerði, and stop at the pretty Hvalsneskirkja (see above).

-The road continues around the back of Keflavik Airport and head south and turn on to check out the "Bridge Between Continents", where you can walk across a fissure which marks the boundary of two tectonic plates, the North American and Eurasian.

-Continue down the road south and turn off to Reykjanesviti to see dramatic rock formations and roaring seas, and view the area where the last pair of Great Auks were sighted before it became extinct. Check out the hot spring Gunnuhver (see above). 

-Head through the fishing village Grindavik, and either relax at the Blue Lagoon or continue around the coast a little longer and turn north at Krýsuvik, where you should stop at the Seltún geothermal area to see some incredible colours and bubbling mud pools (see above). Finally head back to Reykjavik past the beautifully haunting Kleifurvatn lake and back through Hafnafjörður.