Our Iceland adventure began with a flight into Reykjavik, the capital city, with a population of only 300,000 the city was nice and small. We arrived at 4pm and by the time we found a bus to the city it was already dark at 4:30pm. We spent two nights in Reykjavik which gave us a day to look around town and acclimatise to the weather a little. We jumped on a walking tour that took us to all the local sights and gave us a great intro into life in Iceland. That night we went out for a traditional Icelandic meal, we almost broke the bank with the bill but it had to be done. Let me tell you nobody ever needs to try fermented shark fin it is quite possibly one of the worst things we had all tried ever!!

After two days in the city it was time for the real adventure to begin, we left our accommodation in the pelting rain, sleet and snow and made our way to the camper hire store. We collected our Ford F350 camper and after getting the low down in the snow and sleet we were ready to set out. First stop was the grocery shop where we decided on a few meals for the coming days and nights.

We spent the day making our way to famous Golden Circle loop, first stopping at the mid-Atlantic ridge where a canyon has formed. We geared up and took a walk along the canyon where huge waterfalls have formed as a result of the two tectonic plates splitting. Many people go diving in between the two plates, we passed on this as the divers looked a tad cold waiting their turn in the snow. Night came before we knew it so we stayed the night somewhere close and had our first evening meal in the camper, thank god for the heater as the place was pretty icy come morning. The following day we continued on the Golden circle visiting the famous geysers where geothermal pools squirt water out of the ground, some 5-10m into the air. We finished up the Golden circle before making our way south to the famous ring road. We stopped off at some really beautiful waterfalls along the south coast before finding another place to rest for the evening as we were going to venture to the DC3 plane wreck the following morning.

As we woke the rain had been steadily falling most of the evening but not wanting to miss the opportunity to see the plane wreck we donned our rain coasts and made the 4km trek to the black beach where an abandoned DC3 plane was left abandoned since it crashed in 1973. We were lucky enough to have the plane to ourselves so the boys busied themselves with some photography while I took shelter from the weather inside the shell of the plane.

Over the coming few days, we made our way along the ring road, stopping off at some really incredible sites. We saw some huge glaciers, including the biggest in Europe as well as some basalt column structures with rock pinnacles that reach out to the ocean. 

We were lucky enough to get some clear skies in between the clouds one evening camping at the base of a glacier so Pete decided to do some night photography. He rushed back to the camper and showed Todd and I the Aurora that showed up on his camera. Unfortunately we never saw the lights flashing through the sky the best we had was a green glittering in the sky but the camera could pick it up a lot better than the naked eye.

We found ourselves on a glacial lagoon one morning looking at some giant icebergs that had broken away from the glacier floating in the lagoon. The beauty of this is hard to describe the beach was scattered with glacial icebergs some so clear you can see through them like looking through a glass window. As we walked along the beach we were greeted by a few friends, some seals popped up to say hello and followed us on our walk around the lake.  After collecting a nice chunk of ice for our gin and tonics we were back on the road, where the scenery just kept getting better and better, there were many photo stops along the way.

From the south of the island we made our way north but after a windy night we opened the door to a very snowy scene. The entire road was covered in snow as was our car and the ground outside. We set off as the snow hit our windscreen and visibility was at a minimum. A few hours into the drive we saw a sign that said the road was closed, the boys assured me it was a “soft close” and it wasn’t closed for our kind of car. We continued on the snowy windy road before arriving at a bridge crossing where two cars were stopped across the middle of the bridge. An all-wheel drive full with Malaysian tourists was stuck in a snow drift and the car was iced to the road.

With about seven guys in total including Pete and Todd they pushed the car off the ice and turned the car around. The Canadians in a Suzuki swift also turned around as conditions were only getting worse and their cars were less than ideal. We continued on for the next few hours as Todd navigated our way through a mountain pass with 5m visibility. It was some great driving and well rewarded once we came out the other side and found some nice hot pools waiting for us.

We found ourselves in a town that evening in the north of the country, Akureyri. Here we pulled up for the night and treated ourselves to a pub meal. We found a good bar for the boys to try some local Icelandic craft beers. We were the only ones in the place and had a great chat to the Icelandic local bar tender.

Our trip around the Island came to an end as we made our way back to Reykjavik and onto the famous blue lagoon. We spent quite a few hours in the lagoon soaking up with hot water with an outside temp of about minus five. We spent our last evening just out of Reykjavik before returning our van in the early morning and making our way to the airport for a flight to Berlin.