Hitting the Road

Day 4, 6 days remaining

After 3 days in Reykjavic, I rented a car for the rest of my time in Iceland so I could explore on my own. Iceland has 1 ring road (Route 1) that circles the entire island. I did about 1200 miles over 7 days.

Above is a map of Iceland. I marked some of the more notable locations in blue and the route I drove in green. Most people tend to stay on the southwest, close to Reykjavic. It's a shame because the south coast and east coast are absolutely stunning. Once you get about 2 hours out of Reykjavic, prepare to be alone. You can go long stretches without seeing another car. I also marked the peninsula on the west coast which is the Snaefellsjokull national park. I didn't make it out there because of bad weather but that peninsula was the inspiration for Jules Verne's novel "Journey to the Center of the Earth".

I headed out of Reykjavic around 10am and immediately headed east. I took my time and made periodic stops along the way to look at some things we spotted along the way a day earlier on the "Blue Ice" tour.

One of them was a waterfall called Seljalandsfoss. It's not quite as big as Skogafoss, but the neat feature of this waterfall is you can walk behind it.

I actually walked up to it, then went back to my car to put in my rain gear. I figured I would regret coming all the way to Iceland and not taking the time to see and do everything I could.

So after stopping for about 30 minutes here, I continued on my way. I drove along the south coast, admiring some of the landscape and the immense isolation. This is route 1. Both directions looked like this.

Then I continued on to Reynisfjara. Also known as the black beach. The weather by that point had changed considerably so I only stayed there for maybe 30 minutes. Struggling to stay on my feet in the wind and freezing from the wind and rain.

Along the way, I stopped at some of the lava fields and "black deserts". Miles and miles of ash covered flatlands. They are truly jaw dropping.

This is a lava field. Miles of moss covered lava rock. Equally stunning as the black deserts. 

About 5 hours after I set off, I arrived at my hotel in Kirkjubaejarklaustur. On the map, it's the 3rd blue box from the right. It's about 500km from Reykjavic. Tomorrow, I would be exploring the east coast and the largest glacier on the island, Vatnajokull.