Day 1
I flew into Iceland sometime around midnight. I picked up a SIM card at the airport convenience store after baggage claim, caught a shuttle to my rental vehicle and drove to the closest campsite, Happy Campsite Keflavik. By the time I set up my sleeping bag in the back end of the small SUV, it was around 2:30 am.
I woke up around 7 am with the original plan to do some grocery shopping at Bonus to save some money but didn’t know it was Commerce Day, a holiday similar to Labor Day when most places would be closed. I started driving towards my first hike and hoped I would find another place to buy some food. After driving around Grindavik for a bit, I found a small restaurant open and ordered a wrap and picked up a few chocolate bars for the hike. There was a grocery store there but it wouldn’t be open for some time so I made my way to Fagraddalsfjall. I paid the parking fee and started hiking. The volcano had been active up until just a couple weeks before I arrived. The hike was easy and beautiful despite not seeing red hot lava like I had wanted.
Afterwards, I drove back into town and picked up groceries. They were expensive! I started moving toward Kerid Crater and Silfra Pond, both on my list to visit. I pulled over at some point and looked into Silfra more and booked a snorkeling tour for the next morning. I made my way to the overly crowded Kerid Crater and walked both the inner and outer loops after finding a parking place. I might be a hard sell but I would actually recommend skipping this one if you are tight on time. There was nothing wrong with it but I just found it very underwhelming.
After that, I made my way toward Silfra and found a campsite, Sydney Leirar at Thingvellir.
Day 2
I woke up early, took a hot shower in a heated room at the campsite (which was amazing) then made my way to Silfra Fissure to go snorkeling. Silfra is part of Pingvallavatn Lake and is between the North American and Euroasian tectonic plates. As the plates drift about 2 cm apart each year, this region expands. This was my first time in a drysuit and to be honest, it wasn’t the most comfortable thing. This was a fun experience but it was quite pricey for my budget. If you have extra cash to spend, I would say it’s worth doing but be prepared to be cold and a tad bit uncomfortable.
Once I was finished snorkeling and enjoyed a hot chocolate, I made my way to Strokkur and Geysir geysers. Strokkur is smaller than Old Faithful (Yellowstone) but erupts every 8-10 minutes while Old Faithful is every 30-100 minutes. Geysir is larger than Old Faithful but considered dormant and typically only erupts after seismic activity. This area was pretty crowded by the time I arrived but if you’ve never seen a geyser, it’s worth the stop!
Next stop was Gullfoss Waterfall. This was an impressive waterfall that attracted quite the gathering. It was a sunny afternoon and I enjoyed walking the short walkways.
I looked at my itinerary and decided to make the drive to my first adventure for tomorrow. This was my first F-Road experience and the views did not disappoint as I drove the F-35 and F-347 to Kerlingarfjoll. The F-roads are mountain roads in Iceland where the F is for Fjall which means mountain in Icelandic. They are typically dirt roads where a 4×4 vehicle is required. The mountains took their place on the horizons and glaciers reached to the sky as the rivers scattered the valley and a storm rolled through as I navigated the dirt roads. I think part of the reason Iceland is so beautiful is because of the moody skies. The clouds always appear to be churning giving so much depth and soft light to any photograph taken. Oh! And there was another surprise waterfall, Gygjarfoss, that I stopped at off of F-35 that wasn’t even on my radar.
No Camping was posted at that trail head so I backtracked a couple of kilometers to Asgardur and got comfortable for a cold evening after dinner.
The hike tomorrow looks AMAZING! And the forecast looks beautiful too! My only stressor is I probably should have fueled up before driving this far into the mountains! Fingers crossed that I make it to a petrol station. That’s tomorrow Jaci’s problem.
Day 3
It was a cold night. When I woke up and got moving, the car said it was 3 degrees celsius (37 degrees fahrenheit). I used the toilets at the campground, ate breakfast, and brushed my teeth. I headed to the trailhead and started hiking around 6:30 am. I had the whole trail to myself. I could see the trailhead most of the hike and I don’t think another joined me until around 8 am. I don’t understand everyone’s late starts but I appreciate them because I’ve had the first trail of the day to myself each morning. I didn’t realize it until I started hiking but I actually went to the wrong trailhead. Or at least, not the one I had intended when I originally researched this area. The one I went to did intersect the loop that I originally planned to do so I proceeded with just doing Hveradalir Circle. This is the most impressive view I’ve seen in Iceland so far! I loved every minute of that trail and took an embarrassing amount of photos.
Yesterday, I started to form the opinion that a large portion of Iceland’s beauty was in its churning clouds but this morning proved me wrong with clear blue skies! I finished hiking fairly early because I didn’t do the ascent part of the trail with the trailhead mix up. When I left Gullfoss yesterday, I had half a tank of fuel and the car read that I should be able to go 300 km. From Gullfoss to Kerlingerfjoll was only 65 km so I figured I would be good. For some reason (probably the steep climbs) the range on the car when I started to head down the mountain was 75 km and the nearest petrol station was 85 km away… There was a lot of downhill so I made it back to a fuel station and filled up. It was expensive!
Next, I drove to Haifoss Waterfalls. I walked around and took some photos. It was relatively uncrowded for an Icelandic waterfall. I relaxed in the back of my car for a bit before deciding to make the drive to Landmannalauger.
Landmannalauger is a zoo! There are so many camper vans, tents and people. It was a bit overwhelming. I used the toilets and walked over to the hot springs where 50 or so people were soaking, then walked back to my car to eat dinner and crawled into the back end. I am not sure how I’m going to make friends avoiding people but it was just too crowded for my liking. Am I a hermit? I want to connect with people but in super small doses. Like the two guys from the Netherlands who flagged me down on the drive in and asked if I had spare water because they were out and making a distance trek. I loved being able to help others and I had packed 8 liters of water with me so I gave them 2 liters.
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