Iceland Trip

Well, we did it. The trip that we planned for 2020, then cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, then rescheduled for 2021, happened. There were very few surprises. After all, we had nearly two years to plan. 

Here’s a summary.

July 9 departure from Dulles: We had to wear masks in the airports and during the flight. The airline swapped planes and reassigned seats; it was really confusing as everyone started swapping seats to sit next to their travel partners. The flight was good. We overflew Greenland.

Greenland

July 10: Arrival in Keflavik was awful, with a long line to get through passport control that extended down the stairs, wrapped around the ground floor, then out to the ramp with people waiting in line outside, then yet another long line after claiming bags to get to COVID screening. Then we spent 2 hours at Happy Camper pickup waiting for them to give us our van. I drove to Seljalandfoss, trying hard to pay attention to the speed limit with so many speed cameras around while I was feeling jet lag. We camped at Seljalandfoss. We needed coins for the shower but had none, so no shower because there was no bank open on Sat/Sun to get coins. It was very windy, rocking the van overnight. And it never got dark. Fortunately the curtains made the van dark enough to sleep.

Seljalandfoss

July 11: We drove to Skaftafell, and on the way we saw Skogafoss, Vik, Dyrholey, the Sólheimajökull glacier, and the Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon. We camped in Skaftafell national park. This is a good campground, with showers, bathrooms, and food. It was an easy walk to Svartifoss and glaciers were visible in the distance.

Skaftafell

Skogafoss

Sólheimajökull 

Dyrholey 

Pumping gas (diesel) is weird: you have to pick a cash amount at the pump or they put an outrageous hold on the card.

July 12 I walked to Svartifoss twice (once alone), then drove to Jökulsárlón, then to Stokksnes (which was veiled in cloud), then camped in Fossardalur campsite, in the mountains. It has beautiful scenery and a very nice owner. This was Monday, so we finally exchanged money in Hofn, which has a view of glaciers to the west and Vestrahorn to the east.

Svartifoss

Glacier Ice on the Beach

Jökulsárlón 

Jökulsárlón 

Ice on the Beach

Glacier Ice on the Black Sand Beach

July 13 The drive from the last campground to this area via the eastern fjords was amazing. My only complaint is that it was impossible to stop to take pictures because there was never a place to pull over. The puffin marina (Borgarfjarðarhöfn) was very good. There are walkways among the puffin burrows. Hundreds of puffins were standing by their burrows or flying out/in. Afterward, we found full campgrounds in the Egilsstaðir area, had to settle for a camp ground in a hay field with an asshole manager and too many people for the facilities. He charged us extra because the other campgrounds were full, and on top of that he charged us that exorbitant rate twice by saying the first attempt failed to go through. We disputed the second charge when we returned home.

Puffin

Puffin

Puffin with Food

Puffin

July 14 We drove miles down a gravel road to reach Stuðlagil canyon. The basalt columns are very cool. Then we drove to Mývatn (lots of midges everywhere), Hverir (like a miniature Yellowstone) and Dettifoss. It was chilly and rainy. We stayed at 66.2 campground on the north coast of Iceland and parked right next to the kitchen (instead of the shore) because it was so rainy. This was our northernmost point on the whole trip at, surprise, 66.2 degrees north latitude.

Dettifoss

Stuðlagil 

Stuðlagil 

Stuðlagil 

Dettifoss

July 15 We started by visiting Goðafoss in very nice weather. Then we drove 40 km down a dirt road to the end of the road where it turns into an F-road. I parked there then proceeded 1.2 miles on foot in very strong winds with STEEP hills to get to Aldeyjarfoss, then down a steep path to the cliff overlooking the falls. As I began my walk back to the car, a very nice Swiss couple gave me a ride from the parking lot back to my rental van. We then drove to and camped overnight at Drangeyfarferthir by the ocean.

Goðafoss

Aldeyjarfoss

July 16 It was a long drive to Kirkjufell, then to a campground near Reykjavík. We spent most of the Icelandic cash that we never needed because this campground did not accept credit cards.

Kirkjufell

July 17 After a lazy start, we visited Þingvellir, then drove to Keflavík for our COVID test (which was required for our return flight to the US), then we drove to and camped overnight  in Flúðir in the best weather that we had for the whole trip.

Flekaskilin

July 18 We drove to Gullfoss, Strokkur, and Geysir, then got a hotel in Keflavík.

Gullfoss

Geysir

July 19 Departure/return to VA, overflew Greenland again.

The Van

What I like:

• Good fuel economy
• Used diesel, which is cheaper than gasoline in Iceland
• Everything worked, but the windshield wipers were awful until the rain cleaned them off
• WIFI hotspot worked well but we were confused at the beginning when our phones dropped the connection and we couldn’t get it to work again until we finally figured out how to restart the tablet and force it to renew the Internet connection
• Heater works well on second battery/had heat all night
• Dometic refrigerator worked well, noisy
• Extra power outlets (from the second car battery) were very handy. This was charged by the solar panel on the roof.

What I didn’t like:

• The bed was too narrow; the built-in drawers/sink take too much space
• Camp stove was junk
• Curtains left big gaps
• Bedding bag was huge - it took up a lot of space in the back as we were driving around
• Impossible to see back/right because there was no window
• Back door was very hard to open

Cash

• Only one campground required coins for shower/laundry, and it was the very first one
• We wound up using the exchanged cash to pay for a campground

Clothing

• Didn’t need boots, but wore them to let my shoes dry out
• Only 2 really rainy days, at Dettifoss and again during the long drive to Snaefellsnes and on to Reykjavík
• Layers were good, the only time I was uncomfortably cold was in the 66.2 campground because of the wind and rain
• Only needed the coat on the rainy day at Dettifoss when it was so damp

Other stuff

• Never used the tripod, triggers, 14mm (but probably would have used the 14 if not for the clouds at Stokksnes), trekking poles
• Never used the bug nets but would have if we had spent more time at Myvatn or Þingvellir
• Never used the eye mask - we were tired enough and the van’s curtains worked well enough for us to sleep
• Brought too much food
• Never wore the rain pants
• Did laundry twice
• Never needed my night driving glasses because it never got dark
• Had plenty of options for USB charging and never used the 110v inverter, never used the battery that I brought
• DSLR camera used nearly 1 battery charge, then switched and used about half of another battery
• Dumped photos onto computer at 66.2, forgot to put XQD card back in camera, but remaining photos landed on SD card
• Surprising number of cyclists, including bikepackers, out in the cold and wind