The Journey

We arrived in Keflavík airport, at the extreme south west corner of Iceland, on Sunday 14th October 2007. Our route was to take us round the main ring road (route 1) that circumnavigates the island, to arrive back at the airport on Saturday 20th.

Day 1 took us through the Reykjanes peninsula where we stopped at Kleifarvatn lake and the hot springs at Krýsuvík. We passed through the capital, Reykjavík, and drove on to Þingvellir, the Parliament Plains, and then to Geysir, the site of the original Geyser, from which the name is derived. By the time we left Geysir it was pouring with rain and pitch black, so we drove to our first stop at a guesthouse near Vík Í Mýrdal, on the southern tip of Iceland.

Day 2 allowed us to retrace our steps a little so we could visit Skógafoss waterfall and Dyrhólaey, a natural arch in the rocks below a tall cliff with a lighthouse on top. Driving back through Vík we entered the Eldhraun lava fields, before reaching Kirkjubæjarklaustur and the Skeiðarársandur, the vast runoff area where meltwater from the Vatnajökull glacier runs off to the sea to the south. Past the tallest mountain on Iceland, Hvannadalshnjúkur, we reached Jökulsárlón, the ice lake, after which it began to get dark so we stopped at the small farm near Höfn which was to be our accommodation for the night.

On day 3 we stopped for supplies in Höfn (including earplugs – a must for shared accommodation!) and headed through the tunnel to the north east into the Austfirðir, the Eastern Fjords. After hugging the coast for a hundred or so kilometres, the road climbed up and over a snow-covered mountain ridge before descending and following the Lagarfljót lake to our next stop in Egilsstaðir.

Much of day 4 was spent driving through several feet of snow. A snowfall earlier in the week, around the time we arrived, had left much of the north of Iceland covered, but the weather had cleared by the time we got into the mountains. Temperatures were still well below zero, however, so the snow had survived. A short detour took us to Dettifoss, before we reached the hot springs at Namafjall and then the lake Mývatn (Midgewater). More snowy mountains led us to Rauðaskriði where a small farm with several cosy outhouses provided a bed for the night.

On day 5 we headed for Goðafoss, the Waterfall of the Gods, before passing through Akureyri, the capital of the north and Iceland’s second city. The road took us north from Akureyri and we were presented with the option of heading straight through the mountains or driving further up along the coast before passing through the mountains north of the ring road. We opted for the latter, which provided a greater variety of scenery, but added considerably to the drive, meaning we had to rush the last few tens of kilometers to the guesthouse at Staðarskáli, on the southern tip of Hrútafjörður.

Day 6 was our last day on the road before arriving back at Reykjavík, where luxurious accommodation in individual hotel rooms awaited. This was probably the least eventful of the six days on the road, though we did walk up an extinct volcano, Bifröst, before visiting the Lava Falls, Hraunfossar, and the adjacent Barnafoss (the Children’s falls). We arrived in Reykjavík quite early so took a detour to Gullfoss, the Golden Falls, which was rather crammed with tourists and very rainy. After returning to the capital via the south coast, we spent the evening sans cameras to taste the local nightlife – to the extent that our planned early departure for the airport the next day allowed.