Sep 14 – Last Day

Since we didn’t have to return the van until around 1 pm in order to get to the airport in time for our 5 o’clock flight home we decided to check out some thing down in the area near the airport and van company.

First quick stop was the Bridge Between Continents. It is a short pedestrian bridge over a small rift valley with the Eurasian plate on one side and the North American Plate on the other.

I am not sure why they are so close here and so far apart at the national park.

 

Then you walk across.

Next was a place called Valahnukamol with a couple of sweeping cliffs at the shoreline.

It was a set used in the Eurovision movie.

Tiny people for scale on op of the cliff.

A photosphere.

A sea stack was just off shore with a story.

And a volcanic plug far offshore.

Behind us was the Reykjanes Lighthouse.

With a steep set of stairs.

Looking out.

Looking up.

And behind is to the geothermal generating station and the Gunnuhver Hot Spring.

A photosphere.

Back down to the car and off to the hot spring.

You can walk right next to the spring and with the current direction of the wind get covered in steam.

We did go right into the cloud and and you can’t see anything. We did get a bit wet but it wasn’t really hot and we soon dried off.

Then lunch and off to return the van.

I am glad I paid for the Premium insurance when I rented the van. It covered basically any damage except using regular gas instead of diesel or locking your keys in the car.

The reason I am glad is that I backed into a pole when we were up north and cracked the back bumper. I blame it on the fact that the damn spare tire covers a big portion of the view out of the backup camera.

Someone else returned their identical van just before us and had only gotten the basic insurance and were being told that they had to pay for every new scratch on the van and a chip in the windshield.

With us they didn’t even look at the outside of the van and just checked that we had filled the gas tank. I imagine the charge to replace the bumper was more than the extra cost of the insurance. We were not charged anything extra.

We got to the airport just after 2 and it was good thing because it took a long time to get through security and then a huge line to check your passport so we got to our gate a little after 4 pm. There we were shocked that they do not have sit down waiting areas at the gate. The gate it just a door off of a long wide hallway. Everyone just lines up in the order they arrived along the side of the hallway. The line for our flight was easily 150 feet long and blocked entrances to stores and restrooms. We ended up standing in the line for over an hour because our flight was delayed a bit.

And of course the flight was full and I was in a middle seat battling with the lady beside me for the arm rest. We were very glad to get off the plane.

 

Some final thoughts.

We were amazed at how complete the cellular network and internet coverage was. It was everywhere, even when we ventured down dirt roads into the interior. The only time we lost coverage was at the very top of our loop into the highlands where we had to cross the river. And even then we only lost it for about 1/2 hour.

Everyone speaks English so we had no problem communicating with anyone.

Everything takes credit or debit cards but they do need a pin. I converted some Canadian dollars to Icelandic kroners but never used any of it. There was even a pay washroom out in the middle of a vast lava plain that you could tap and go to enter ($3). Some of the campgrounds want you to pay for showers with coins but we just took our showers at the campgrounds where it was included in the camping price.

Whereas here you pay one price for the site at a campground, in Iceland you pay for each person, usually in the range of $15 to $20 pp.

You almost never have to book a campground ahead of time. There was only one time where the parking for vans was very small that we couldn’t get a site. Most campgrounds are just big fields and you can park anywhere if you don’t need electricity so they can always fit one more vehicle in.

The price of everything was about double that at home. Gas worked out to about $3.10 Cdn a litre. We tended to not let the tank go below half and usually filled up once a day at a cost of around $120. We never did go to a restaurant. We weren’t there to try food and could not stomach the prices.

One thing that annoyed me was that every once in a while I like a Pepsi. I bought one that was just simply labelled Pepsi but it was actually what we would call Diet Pepsi, sweetened with sucralose. I cannot stand the taste and it stays with me all day. Every drink I looked at that here would have sugar in it used an artificial sweetener. I stuck with water.

The Google Translate app was a life saver when shopping for groceries. Just point the camera at the item and see the English translation.

With all the sheep we had seen and all the fishing going on, Jennie was shocked that lamb and seafood were very expensive. The “cheapest” meats to buy were chicken and pork, which I imagine were imported. 

When I was planning the trip I created a Google Map with all of the points of interest that I found in my investigation. I knew there was no way we could see them all but it helped with deciding how long to go for.

We made it to the blue ones and skipped the red ones, mostly because of lack of interest, too hard a hike, duplicated something we had already seen or just lack of time. I don’t really regret missing the things we did.

I think we did a pretty good job of seeing everything we wanted to and right now I wouldn’t feel a need to go back to something we missed.

Just for reference, the Ring Road loop is about 1300 km long, the total length of shoreline of Iceland is just over 6000 km and according to the campervan company we travelled around 6200 km.

We really enjoyed this trip. The small campervan was a bit of a challenge after being used to our 38 foot motorhome but we managed.

Just about every day we saw mind blowing scenery and the pictures in the blog just don’t do it justice but they at least remind us what it was like to be there in person.

I hope you enjoyed following along.

Sep 13 – Thingvellir and Northern Lights

Yet another sunny and calm day.

We have actually been very lucky with the weather. There was really only one day when we couldn’t do anything and that was when we first tried to go to the west coast and the wind and rain were so fierce that we just turned around and headed east. We have had a few rainy days but it only lasted for a while and didn’t stop us from going out. Even on cloudy days, most on them eventually turned at least partly sunny. And of course we have had a huge number of gorgeous sunny days, which I think is pretty unusual for Iceland.

Then there is the wind. I don’t think it ever stopped us from doing anything but it sure made everything that much more tiring. It’s fun for a while to feel the power of the wind but after a short while you just wish it would calm down.

We also managed to avoid some really bad weather. Once we had done most of the loop and were returning to explore the west coast which we had skipped, that was now in the bright sunshine, we got an email from the campervan company saying that the north coast was under a heavy wind and snow advisory. We heard later that they actually had to break out the snow plows.

Then a few days later we got another email about a severe gale warning for the south east with 60 to 90 kph winds with gusts up to 125 kph. Meanwhile it was very calm where we were.

It was another below zero night and cold morning.

Preparing breakfast.

Heading out we first stopped to check out the hot tubs. It was a nice setting.

But they were just commercial hot tubs and one looked rather gross.

We also sopped at the steaming vent that was on the roadside on the road into Drangsnes.

There was s small campground on the other side of the road that did seem to have a pool using naturally heated water.

Since today was our second last day we wanted to head back south to not have to long a drive to return the camper at around 1 pm tomorrow so we headed down to Thingvellir National Park that we had skipped exploring earlier.

Before we returned to the ring road we had a choice of a direct route going inland or a longer route along the shore. Guess which we took.

We weren’t quite sure what to expect with Hwy 68. With the 3 digit roads we know they are going to be dirt and not great. The 2 digit roads are mostly paved but do have long dirt sections which are sometimes also not so great. When this one went from paved to dirt we thought we were in for another bumpy ride but it turned out that this was the first one that was smooth enough that we could actually do the posted 80 kph speed limit. Then it went back to pavement for seemingly no reason, then dirt again and finally back to pavement.

Off in the distance there was a low fog bank on the opposite shore.

As we got closer it started to break up.

Down and up several more fiords.

We always have to watch out for sheep on the road, even on the main Ring Road.

Then we were back on the Ring Road for a while before turning towards the national  park. On the way we did a quick stop at Porufoss.

The photosphere.

Then on to the national park. It’s claim to fame is that is sits on the rift between the Eurasian tectonic plate and the North American plate.

Near the visitors center there is a deep crack in the lava that they let people think is the actual gap between the plates.

In actual fact both of these walls are on the North American plate and the Eurasian plate is several kilometers away across this large rift valley that has filled in the gap as the plates move apart.

If you follow the path in the gap you can get to Oxarfoss.

Our last waterfall of the trip.

Blurred.

The photosphere.

It was about 2 km one way to get to the falls. Heading back.

We spent the night at a nearby campground in the park.

And miracle upon miracle, on our last night in Iceland it was clear and the Northern Lights burst forth.

The wind had picked up a bit and it was bitterly cold so we could only stay a short while but they were so bright and seemed to change every few seconds that we still saw a great display.

We could see the green quite easily but the reds only show up on the phone camera time exposures.

We have seen some small displays at the cottage but this was definitely a checkmark off on the bucket list.