Iceland road trip, October 2014 Holly Woodward and James Hearle
This was a bucket list trip: the chance to spend 12 days pottering around the coast of Iceland with my eldest son, enjoying the views, hoping to see the Northern Lights, and taking many, many photographs. James is the perfect travel companion, as we are both obsessed with photography. No-one else has the patience for our constant shrieks of "Stop! I need to photograph this", waiting while the perfect long exposure is tested again and again, and endlessly reviewing and discussing the ideal Lightroom edit for each image.
Iceland in October is on the cusp of winter. It is getting cold, and we risked being held up by snow. Sunrise is about 07.45 and sunset at 17.45, and the 'golden hour' lasts most of the day. We had a good chance of seeing the aurora and, as the tourist season was over, we hoped that living costs would be cheaper. We hired a 3 person motorhome, filled it with food, thick clothing and camera equipment, and set off to enjoy ourselves. The plan was to go anticlockwise round the island, stopping at as many iconic photography sites as we could, weather depending, and ending up in ReykavĂk, where my youngest son, William would join us for a few days.
Day 1 - Keflavík to Fljótshlíð
On arrival, and after we had picked up our motorhome, we headed out of Reykavík towards the N1. The weather was clear and warm as we drove south east on unpaved roads through a lava field of jumbled rocks, covered in lime green moss, stopping to take, some photos of the beautiful sunset. The landscape was utterly alien and bore no relationship to anything we had seen before. It took us quite a while to find somewhere to stay, in the dark and on unpaved roads, but we finally found a very nice campsite near Fljótshlíð. This area had apparently been evacuated during the Eyjafjallajökull eruption of 2010, but had fortunately been unscathed. While we were cooking our dinner, James popped outside and discovered that the Northern Lights were on show. It was a beautifully clear night, but we foolishly decided that we were more interested in dinner, and by the time we had finished, they had gone. No problem, we thought. They are obviously out every night here. How wrong we were!
Day 2 - Fljótshlíð to the middle of nowhere, near Dakgil
• Round the country in 12 days
We leapt up before the sunrise on our first full day, but did not take any photos, as there wasn't much to see. We were camped on a plain, but it had been dark when we arrived so we didn't know this before. We set off, and almost immediately stopped to take pics of a waterfall, unnamed.
Then, we meandered back towards the main road, and arrived at our first photography stop of the day - Seljandsfoss, which was no more than 200m from the ring road. This waterfall is one of the better known ones, as it is possible to walk behind the cataract and photograph it from behind. There were tourists aplenty here, and more cameras than one could shake a stick at.
Then, we continued on to Sk贸gafoss, another waterfall, but this time very tall and wide. The falls have a flat open area in front of them, where it is possible to take interesting pictures of multiple rainbows, weather permitting, which it did. We walked up the side of the waterfall to photograph it from the top, and to admire the view out to sea. All along the coast here, there is a series of cliffs, about 3 miles from the modern coastline, where a previous coastal zone has risen up over the aeons, to become several hundred feet higher. The plain in front is dead flat and featureless, at least at this point. It is thinly populated as it is constantly at risk of volcanic eruptions and associated heavy flash flooding. The coast road was only fully completed recently because of this.
Shortly after this, we came to the glacier tip of S贸lheimaj枚kull, where we walked down to the glacier edge to take some photos. Sadly, the weather had now become gloomy, and we did not stay long. We then drove down into Vik, where the electricity seemed to be out, so we decided to carry onto what is described as "the best campsite in Iceland" at Dakgil. This involved a long climb up into the mountains behind Vik, on a very steep and tortuous dirt road.
When we arrived at the campsite, it was shut and both electricity and water had been turned off. I am sure it is lovely in the summer, being completely surrounded by cliffs, but at dusk in mid-October it was about as bleak and lonely as you can imagine, and slightly spooky too. We decided to backtrack a little and camp somewhere more attractive. This might be a good point to say that Icelandic campsites are generally open only between May/June and September, and thereafter campers have to take pot luck. Some sites are shut, but have running water and electricity; others are completely closed down. One just has to hope for the best. The upside of this is that during our 10 days of camping, we only had to pay a campsite fee three times.
We drove slowly back along the track until we came to the Mýrdalssandur delta, a vast alluvial river plain with streams crisscrossing the boulder strewn ground, and not a blade of grass to be seen for miles. The wind was whistling down from the north, and there was no sign of human activity at all. It felt very, very isolated and lonely, and according to our guidebook, has a reputation being haunted.
Undeterred, we found a spot above the level of the river bed and set up camp. It was a beautiful starlit night, and after dinner, we practiced some night photography, and tried to capture the Northern Lights, which were not visible to the naked eye, but showed up clearly on James’s photographs.
Day 3 - Mýrdalssandur delta to HÜfn
We were up early again the next morning, to return to Vik for a shower and to charge the motorhome's battery in the campsite, where the electricity was now working. The church was looking very picturesque as we passed. Today we planned to motor along the south coast past the Vatnajรถkull Ice Cap.
Heading east, and crossing one of the many bridges across glacial rivers, we noticed the confluence of two rivers, one blue and one white. While they both came from the same ice sheet, the blue river stems from a lagoon, while the white one is full of “rock flour�, which is very fine eroded material from the glacier. The N1 is a paved, two lane road for almost all of its circuit around the country (although we did find one gravel section in the far north), but almost all the bridges are single track.
Carrying on, we soon arrived at Jรถkulsรกrlรณn, one of the classic Icelandic photography sites, and the last of the tourist sites which short term visitors to Iceland can realistically visit during their stay. It has starred in four movies, including Die Another Day, Tomb Raider and Batman Begins. The site is a lagoon, formed from the meltwater of the glacier behind, and filled with floating icebergs of all sizes, along with quite a few curious seals. It is possible to take a boat trip across to the glacier, and also to go walking on it, but we were too busy taking photos of the icebergs, and the glacier behind.
It was very cold and windy, and the light was not ideal. This is also the site of the shortest river in Iceland, which was probably 250m long from the glacial lake to the sea, but was, nonetheless, a solid body of water with icebergs floating in it.
Because of the cold, we eschewed the idea of photographing icebergs on the sea beach and headed on, across a beautiful orange and yellow plain, and around a large estuary to Hรถfn, where we stayed the night. We had an excellent dinner in a local restaurant, after shooting a lot of pictures of boats in the harbour, and finished off with some light painting, which produced the cover picture after quite a few attempts.
Day 4 - Hﾃｶfn to ﾃ《byrgi
From here on, tourists were few and far between, and we passed fewer and fewer vehicles on the road. Our first stop was a sea lagoon, full of whooper swans. The road was spectacular, winding past huge cliffs and with a black beach on the right. We paused in at DjĂşpivogur, but the shops were all shut, so we carried on, now heading north. After stocking up on food and gas canisters in EgilsstaĂ°ir we headed off the N1 towards Dettifoss. This road was much higher, unpaved and was covered in a light layer of snow. Stopping for lunch, we spent some time shooting macros of the beautiful lichens on the rocks of a very windswept moor. The weather was deteriorating and it was gradually getting more and more snowy underfoot.
Finally, we came off the moor and down into a valley, where most of the vegetation was red. We then took a truly dreadful road, to Dettifoss, the largest cataract in Europe. The landscape was brooding and very gloomy, with lots of basalt cliffs; it looked just like a film set for Mordor, from Lord of the Rings. It has in fact been used for a number of film locations, most recently for Prometheus. There were only four other people there, a single man perched perilously close to the edge of the cataract taking photos, and three young people, who set off on foot in the oncoming dusk towards a second cataract. (I do hope they got back ok). After taking quite a lot of pictures, we continued over the snow covered moors and down to the coastal region, camping at a closed campsite in ﾃ《byrgi, which was sheltered and a lot warmer.
Day 5 - ﾃ《byrgi to Vogar
ﾃ《byrgi is another place that has unusual cliff formations. Before setting off, we drove a couple of miles up a dirt track to a horseshoe cliff, very similar to the one with "the best campsite in Iceland". This one was wooded, with bronzing birch trees and had a much more appealing aspect. We then drove up the coast and around a headland to Hﾃｺsavﾃｭk, a very nice little town. We stocked up with food again and drove on after photographing a lot of sea birds and deciding not to wait till 13.30 to go on a whale watching trip. This was probably as far north as we got on the trip, as we now started south towards Lake Mﾃｽvatn.
The Mývatn area is usually only visited in the summer. It is a magnet for huge numbers of different birds, and being a geothermal area, there is plenty to see and do. The weather was deteriorating and the roads were snowy and a bit icy. Arriving at the lake, we decided to visit the volcanic crater first at Krafla, past an enormous geothermal plant. We got hopelessly stuck going up a very steep road to the crater, and had to be helped out by some passing Icelanders and an American. With the road dropping down on either side, and the car slewed across the middle, it was a bit scary trying to coax it backwards downhill to an area where we could turn around. Happily, we were successful. Leaving the car at the bottom, we then walked back up and round the calderas, which were very still and deep, with beautiful reflections in the crystal clear water, and a brooding sense of danger.
Then it was off to Hverir, a short drive away, to see the mud pools and steam vents. The vents were particularly impressive, noisily gushing out steam at a great rate. We finished the day off with a wonderfully relaxing swim at Jarðböðin Nature Baths – a thermally heated outdoor swimming pool, with milky blue water and so much steam it seemed as if the small number of people there were in a psychedelic dream, looming in and out of the mist, with everyone moving in slow motion. We camped just down the road at Vogar and had salmon with rösti potatoes and spinach for dinner - a nice change from pasta.
Day 6 - Vogar to Hvammstangi
This was a long driving day. First stop was at Dimmuborgir, scene of Game of Thrones, to see the lava deposits, full of holes where giant bubbles had popped in the molten lava. Then we went on to Gooifloss, a heavy cataract near Myvatn. I had a shopping accident and bought an Icelandic sweater in the shop there. We had a couple of stops to take photos of the ridiculously photogenic Icelandic horses, and paid a quick visit to the supermarket in Akureyri, Iceland's second largest town. Then, we journeyed on across the north through broad glens with flat topped, snow covered peaks behind. We stopped for the night at Hvammstangi, which appears to have no social life; it had no cafe or restaurant, but did have a swimming pool, as does every settlement in Iceland, from the tiniest village up. The campsite had no electricity so we were under our own steam for the night.
Day 7 – Hyammstangi to Reykhólar
The plan today was to get as far as we could up the eastern side of the Hornstrandir peninsula. We saw some seals and had a chat with some horses, while we passed through fairly benign farmland. As we got further north toward Djúpavík, it suddenly got very mountainous, and there was a real risk of boulders coming crashing down onto the car from the near vertical cliffs right next to the road. It was particularly alarming as there was a dizzying drop to the beach below on the other side, and no crash barrier. This is the most remote area in Europe, with hardly a soul around and it certainly felt like it. We failed to make it all the way to Djúpavík, as it would have meant driving back in the dark along the dangerous road. We retraced our steps, and passed over the spine of the peninsula, through the snow again, towards the west coast. This was very pretty and we enjoyed the final few miles of the journey to Reykhólar, where we camped behind the ubiquitous outdoor pool, and took some more night pictures.
Day 8 – Reykhólar to Langeholt
The mission today was the Sn忙fellsnes Peninsula, to photograph the iconic cone mountain, Kirkjufell. After failing to get up at the alarm clock yet again, we sprung into life and made a quick getaway, there being no showers. Heading south down the coast, we drove out onto the northern side of the peninsula. This was more like the south part of Iceland, but with the Atlantic booming onto the shore. There were big mountains, waterfalls, rocky coasts and plenty to look at. Arrived at Kirkjufell and managed to take all our pictures before several groups of people arrived. We then carried on to the tip of the peninsula, where we found some very strange, enormous standing columns right on the sea shore at L贸ndranger. Around here were several lava fields, and it was possible to see where the lava had oozed over the side of the mountains to form carpets on the flat foreshore. We started to head back along the south side of the peninsula, but it was getting dark and very windy, so we stopped for the night at a tiny hamlet called Langeholt, tucked in under the mountains.
Day 9 - Langeholt to KeflavĂk
Not a formal photography day. We drove from Langeholt to KeflavĂk, where we planned to pick up William. Arriving in plenty of time, we stopped for lunch there, and visited the Viking Museum, all about a chap named Gunnar Marel Eggertsson who built a Viking long ship and sailed to America in 2000. Then we picked William up from the airport and went for a long swim at the Blue Lagoon. Finally, we drove down to Selfoss (as we couldn't find anywhere to camp closer), ready for the Golden Circle tomorrow.
Day 10 - The Golden Circle
Today was Golden Circle day, and a brush with the many tourists who are doing similar rounds. First stop was Gullfoss, followed by the Geysir. We finished off with Ăžingvellir, ancient seat of the Icelandic Parliament, with the added bonus of being the location where two tectonic plates are being pulled apart. The crystal clear chasms were excellent. A trio of people also seemed to be giving a lecture to a large group of interested people on the Arctic Char which occupy the lake in great numbers. We then headed back to KeflavĂk and camped on the headland at the end of the peninsula, next to the lighthouse.
Day 11 – Reykjavík
Sadly, we were up early to hand the camper back in and so we headed into Reykavík. After dumping our bags at the Hotel Leifur Eiriksson opposite the Hallgrímskirkja , we took in some of the sights - the Photography Museum, the Settlement Museum and the (somewhat unusual) Phallological Museum. After a rest we had an excellent seafood meal at Sjávargrillið, just down the road.
Day 12 - Reykjavík
A slow start and a good breakfast at the hotel. We visited the Hallgr铆mskirkja church and then wandered down to the sea, and took some photos of the Harpa Concert Hall building. We pottered along to the National Art Museum, and saw some modern installations, and a photo exhibition by Err贸. The best bit was an interactive sound exhibit, where we made a noise in a microphone causing cartoons to blow up on the wall. Then just down the road to the Volcano Museum for a look at a documentary on the effects of volcanic eruptions. Tea, and a browse in the shops, followed by a couple of happy hour drinks, a dinner at the Noodle Bar, and we were off to the airport. We spotted great Northern Lights on the way there and so spent quite some time photographing them in the freezing cold wind. Then it was an early night, ready for the flight home. It was snowing when we woke up in the morning.
We just missed winter descending on Iceland, as the snow was falling as we left the next morning. Great holiday! Icelandic radio is extremely limited. Outside of the main centres, there are only one or two stations, and their choice of music is eclectic. We learned rather more than we perhaps needed to know about Icelandic music, but one song kept coming on, and became the trip theme tune - Stolen Dance by Milky Chance. Thanks to James for the three photos that he donated to this book. ŠHolly Woodward, 2014