Two weeks in May: Iceland 

Iceland had been on my radar for years. We probably would have been here sooner had Covid 19 not intervened. The drive around the island, in a roughly counterclockwise direction, was very scenic, in a ruggedly wild sort of way. Hubby did a stellar job and excelled at staying on the very narrow Ring Road without too much complaining, even when we ended up on dirt roads, mud roads and, on the odd occasion, snow-covered roads.

On the fourth day, our GPS decided it would be fun to see how we handled a bit of adrenaline. After a short detour to reattach the car's air intake pipe to the engine, instead of directing us back onto Þjóðvegur, 'national road', better known as the Ring Road, it sent us on an adventure. The first sign that something was amiss was when the bitumen came to an abrupt end. Then we started climbing, and climbing. By the time we were down to first gear, the road had all but disappeared into the mist. I should mention that, at this point, I was regretting NOT having hired a four wheel drive vehicle. From the passenger's seat, all I could see from my side window was a sheer drop down the side of the snow covered mountain into the abyss. If you thought climbing up the mountain was scary, you should have seen the steep decline, on loose gravel, down the other side. It was certainly a white knuckle ride that we shall never forget.

During our first few days here, we stopped and photographed every thermal spring, waterfall and glacier. By journey's end our backseat passengers barely raised their heads from their devices when, at every bend in the road, I said, "there's another waterfall". Admittedly, there were hundreds. 

Skogafoss

Generally, the landscape was very barren, almost moonscapesque in places, and I wondered why the Vikings would have left a beautiful country like Norway for such a desolate island. That is, of course, until I read that, at the time of their arrival, forests covered around 35% of Iceland. By the Middle Ages less than 1% of Iceland was treed. Recently, the government had been trying to increase this to 4% but, in 2008, the GFC sent the country into an economic depression and the funding for forestry took a back seat. There's a joke over here, "what do you do if you get lost in a forest in Iceland?" Answer; "stand up".

Geologically, Iceland is very young, a mere 15 million years. It could not withstand the pressure of man, cattle and sheep on its fragile ecology. Back in the day, they cut down the trees to make charcoal, nowadays they have learnt to harness the geothermal power that lies beneath. 

Today, 99.96% of Iceland's energy supply comes from renewable sources and it has even started exporting it to other countries. Over 85% of all the houses in Iceland are heated by renewable energy sources, 66% of which are geothermal. 73.8% of electricity is generated by hydro or geothermal sources. It gives you a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that. 

Unfortunately, when your hot water comes straight from the ground, like in most of the accommodations we've stayed in, it comes at a cost to one's olfactory system. If you've ever visited geothermal hot springs, you'll know what that smells like. Sometimes I wondered if it was worth the hassle of washing; what smelled worse? Thankfully the cold water was spring fed and absolutely delicious.

The weather was very unpredictable. We had one or two warm and sunny days, the rest were anywhere from cold and wet to downright freezing, and it even snowed on our second last day. We awoke to find the landscape blanked in white. It made driving more treacherous than usual. But I didn't let that deter me as I navigated a route for hubby to valiantly drive onward towards the next thermal springs and yet another waterfall.

Our accommodation on the tenth night in Iceland was a 120-year-old farmhouse. During our stay, they had 3 lambs born in the early hours of the morning, but we're concerned as the rest of their flock were due to lamb in the coming days and the weather forecasts, for two days hence, were predicted to plummet to -8°C.

Icelandic Sheep

Everyone warned us about the high cost of living in Iceland, but we have been able to find staple items at affordable prices. The cost of fuel is one exception. Currently it is around the equivalent of $3.50 (all prices quoted in this blog are in Australian dollars, unless noted otherwise). Thankfully the car we hired runs on diesel and is very fuel efficient, getting between 4.5 - 5.5 litres per 100 km and, at the N1 fuel chain, they sell delicious hotdogs for under $5.50 each. Suffice it to say we have all eaten more than our fair share of hotdogs in the last fortnight. After hotdogs, the staple fast food here is fish and chips. On average a serve costs about $25-$28 dollars. Milk is about $2.50 a litre and a good loaf of seeded bread is about $8.

HARPA

Our first day in Iceland was spent roaming the streets of Reykjavik. We visited the ultra-modern Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre where I discovered an exhibition by a very talented musician, Baldvin Hlynsson, who, while experimenting with making microphones discovered an interesting art form by producing sound patterns on an oscilloscope, which is a device that converts sound waves into a graph on the X and Y axis.

Baldvin

See more of his remarkable art here.

Another surprising discovery, while in an ice-cream shop, was the favourite flavour amongst the local population, especially the kids; salted licorice. Having spent some time in Holland as a child, I grew to love salted licorice, a staple in Dutch confectionery. So, I couldn't resist the temptation and bought a scoop. It was delicious.

It was high school graduation week while we were there, and we learnt that the students had to wear silly costumes and perform stunts, not unlike muck-up day when I was at school. We encountered several groups in brightly coloured teddy bear outfits and some raised an eyebrow or two when the boys stripped down to their jocks and streaked down the mall. Pretty brave, considering the freezing temperatures in Reykjavik.

Muck-up day

Our time in Iceland was full of excitement and we saw many wonders and had great experiences.

We've:

The Silfra Fissure

Glacial Lagoon

Diamond beach

Myvatn Nature Baths

Icelandic Horse

Glaumbær Farm

Atlantic Puffins

• Seen Vatnajökull, the biggest glacier in Iceland by a considerable margin.  It covers an area of 7,900 km² and its thickness averages out at around 380 to 400 meters.
• Visited Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe. The thunderous fall has an average water flow of 193 meters cubed per second (6,186 cubic feet). 
• Experienced Geysir, the original geyser that gave its name to all others around the world.
• Walked between the continental plates of Europe and North America at the silfra fissure.
• Witnessed blue icebergs the size of trucks float down the lagoon towards the sea.
• Found shards of ice scattered like diamonds on a black sand beach.
• Been dwarfed by massive basalt columns in the Stuðlagil Canyon.

  

  Stuðlagil Canyon

• Swam in blue thermal pools at around 38°C while the outside temperature was a brisk 1°C in Myvatn.
• Petted friendly Icelandic horses grazing by the roadside.
• Wandered through traditional, turf covered homes.
• Got up close and personal with Icelandic sheep and met newborn lambs.
• Filmed grey sea lions on Ytri Tunga beach.
• And spotted wild Atlantic Puffins nesting on uninhabited islands.

Our return to Reykjavik coincided with the historic fourth Council of Europe summit since it's inception after WWII to discuss, at top of the agenda, the war in Ukraine. Every street in a 2 kilometre radius of, and leading to, the Harpa was barricaded. In order to get to our boat to see the Puffins we had to do a 5 kilometre loop away from the harbour foreshore. In the harbour stood naval battleships at the ready. On the way to our accommodation near the airport, several police motorcades with lights flashing, escorted the foreign dignitaries into the city. It looked like something from a James Bond movie.

Tomorrow, we depart Iceland for a week in the Netherlands. But more about that in the next episode.