Iceland Trip Part 6 - Adventures with Judy and John
We planned for a day and a half to recover from our Kerlingarfjöll adventure and we used all of it. Cleaning, laundry (which required me driving in downtown Reykjavik (because the damn facilities were broken at the campground)), and re-organizing our stuff in the bimobil so we could sleep 4 instead of 2. And to top it off, my post F-road inspection of the vehicle revealed pink fluid dripping from the vehicle. It was either transmission fluid or power steering fluid, neither of which is good news. Oh yeah, and a few screws from some of the KCT windows had to be retightened, and we lost a connecting screw for one of the front side panels inside the passenger-side wheel well. That meant us also running around to find a replacement screw and who could figure out where our leak was coming from and fix it. By the evening before we had to pick up Judy and John from Keflavik airport, we had checked off some of the items from the to-do list, but only had a rough outline of a plan for the rest. That’s kinda how the whole J&J adventure went!
John and Judy were arriving on the Oh-Dark-30 flight from the US. Still, the drive to the airport was short (which is why we chose the campground we did) and the morning gave us some beautiful light. Then again, there’s the saying, “Red skies at night, sailor’s delight, red sky at morn . . . “
Not unexpectedly, Judy and John’s plan arrived an hour late. Ann and I spent the hour wait people watching. We were glad to see them when they finally exited the arrival doors. We then headed off immediately to our first adventure - Costco Reykjavik! Like Costco everywhere, the food quality is pretty good and the prices are ideal, so we did a bit of stocking up for the trip.
Just as we were leaving Costco and were loading up the bimobil and to drive unannounced to the Iveco repair shop (who I had spoken to the day before but who hadn’t gotten back to me yet), my phone rang. It was Iveco - come on over and we’ll be able to look at it for you. Fortunately, the repair shop was about 1 mile from downtown Reykjavik and John and Judy had just mentioned something about needing to stretch their legs. Consequently, when Iveco said to get lost for a few hours, we said sure!
The weather was not ideal (read, it was raining off and on, with the obligatory wind), so I found us what turned out to be an excellent coffee shop half-way between Iveco and downtown.
We enjoyed our coffee until the rain stopped (thank goodness for the Iceland weather app letting us know the rains had passed and we were safe to head out) and we resumed our trek into town. Given the situation with the bimobil, we were fortunate that Judy and John wanted to run around Reykjavik a bit before hitting the road. I hadn’t researched the city at all, but Judy had some places she wanted to go to so we followed her lead and enjoyed the sight seeing.
There is, of course, the famous church, with an inside even more beautiful than the outside (we did not wait in the line to go to the top viewpoint area).
We wound up just wandering around, not really hungry enough to eat, despite all the excellent looking restaurants we passed by. John can’t help but read menus as he walks around so much of our discussion, even in Reykjavik centered around food and cooking
We eventually made our way towards the waterfront and wandered around there for a bit. There was plenty of street art on the promenade and I decided to play a bit with graphical compositions.
Without trying, we saw one famous site after another.
Then my phone rang. The vehicle was ready - a connection with the steering column had come loose and was leaking. Lucky I caught it because who wants to lose power steering while on an F-road? We walked back to the vehicle and then drove to the in-town Reykjavik Eco campground. Once we were set up, we walked over to a near-by restaurant while a crowd of people were heading to the stadium next to the campground to watch a soccer game. After dinner, we enjoyed the rowdy crowd noise from our cozy bimobil.
The next morning, the adventure began. As I mentioned in the Once in a Lifetime post, this part of the Iceland trip was going to be packed with F-roads with John as my navigator and, if needed, emergency support crew. Our destination was Landmannalaugar via F225.
The landscape did not disappoint.
And the road, for the most part, was better than I’d expected. Lots of washboard and a few very bumpy sections, but nothing too technically difficult (so long as you have 4wd and big tires).
Unsurprisingly, the landscape kept changing, and best of all, the rains pretty much stayed away.
As we drove further into the highlands, the “hills” started getting bigger and bigger.
And then we hit the first and really only major water crossing on F225. Fortunately, we were able to watch a vehicle coming in our direction taking, in my view, the crossing entirely wrong (way too fast, and in the wrong part of the river). You can see his exit wheel tracks below. The route I took was to the left, following closely along the staked wire across the river.
The fact that the water level only reached to the bimobil’s axles instead of near the top of the tires proved my thoughts were correct about the other vehicle’s route. Sometimes it pays to read up about (and remember) technical driving tips, and to watch folks pressing their luck.
We eventually turned onto F208 and soon thereafter stopped along Froststa∂avatn.
A few miles later, up and over a hill with a short run down F224 and with a couple more (deeper) water crossings, we were at Landmannalaugar.
Fortunately, we were not the only big vehicles there. Folks stopped gawking at us once the vehicle next to us pulled up! If I had an ego about my rig, it would have been shattered. But I don’t, so I was glad to have folks gawking at other people for once.
After we checked in and scoped the area out, we (again) followed Judy’s lead and headed over to the Landmannalaugar geothermal bathing pool. Sorry folks, none of us really wanted to have our pictures taken. I’m a scary sight in swim trunks these days.
After nearly boiling ourselves to death (damn the rocks on the bottom of the geothermal pool were hot!), it was time to relax . . . with something John bought at the duty free store on the way out of the airport. You can always count on John to have your back!
And then Ann and John got to doing what they do best - COOK! Judy and I were content to sit back and smell the food, at least until it was time to eat.
John is an amazing cook, particularly meats, and Ann and I decided that John couldn’t go without an apron. So when we saw this one, we knew who it was for!
The next day’s forecast was for decent weather, with everything going south by the early evening. There were a couple of potential routes to take, but we decided to take one that climbed the adjacent lava field and did a big loop out and back, returning via a canyon a half-mile or so away.
The climb up (past the boardwalk to the geothermal bathing pool) was steep, but that was the worst of it. Plus, the view from up top towards the entrance to the campground was great.
As were the views as we walked along the lava field.
It didn’t matter which direction you looked, it was beautiful!
And as we got to the end of the lava field, we descended onto an open valley floor.
Instead of heading further down the valley, we headed back up the lava field.
There we passed some geothermal features and then hiked closer to the ridge line to the south on the way back to basecamp.
The trail eventually dropped into a canyon and then to the larger valley where the campground is located. I have way too many photos to include. Trust me, it was gorgeous.
Afterwards, we decided to have an afternoon coffee at the famous bus coffee shop at Landmannalaugar.
For a camping location, Landmannalaugar is pretty tough to beat this place!
As forecasted, by evening the heavy clouds, rain and wind arrived. We didn’t need the not-so gentle rocking of the vehicle to sleep well that night given the hike!
The next morning was . . . miserable. Even Judy decided that it wasn’t worth trying to go for a short hike before we rolled out.
As we hit the intersection with F208, we turned right instead of left. Some folks have said that this stretch of F208 heading south is the most beautiful road in Iceland.
Unfortunately for us, the weather quickly worsened and, even though we knew beauty was all around us, we could see very little of it.
The rains would come in sheets and then die off, only to come pounding again. The only constant was the wind, which given the bimobil’s size, meant a lot of rocking.
Not too far down the road, as we came down this hill, one vehicle was pulling another vehicle out of the river after it had stalled in an attempted crossing. They were part of a two-vehicle tour (both with less clearance than the bimobil) and did not need any assistance, so we drove onward.
What we could see from the road was incredible, but the conditions were horrible.
On the fly, I considered making two major changes to our plans. The first was to eliminate a detour to park near and hike up to a waterfall - Ófaerufoss. The second was to give up the plan to backtrack from the Ófaerufoss parking area and take F235 to Langisjór, a mountain lake northeast of Landmannalaugar. Instead, I thought it better to head towards lower ground.
Judgment is the best tool you have when you’re out in the wilds and everything was telling me it was better to be safe than sorry. I didn’t get any push-back when I explained my thoughts to the others so I knew I wasn’t the only one concerned about the conditions.
Eventually F208 started a downward descent into lower elevations where I was hoping the weather conditions would be better
They weren’t. The driving became more flat than up and down, and we started seeing more streams flowing by, connecting with a main river system that we were now driving along. But the fog and rain persisted, obscuring what was surely beautiful views.
I’d recalled a National Park campground (Hólaskjól Highland Center) on F208 and sure enough, we finally reached it. John and I chatted up the ranger for a bit and when I told him that we’d scuttled our plans to visit Langisjór, he said we’d made the right choice. Him and his wife have a cabin up there and he’d spent the previous night there. “It was miserable. It’s going to be miserable up there the next 2-3 days. You won’t be able to see or do anything. You’re better off coming down here.” Knowing that we’d made the right call was a bitter-sweet pill because I knew I wasn’t going to go up there with just Ann and me.
As the ranger predicted, the weather wasn’t any better the next morning. And as the flag by the traveling group of Defenders that had rolled in during the night shows, the wind didn’t die down at all. It was ferocious.
The long drive off the highlands towards the coast was windy and nasty.
At the coast, things didn’t look any better. We drove until we reached a welcome center, had some coffee and confirmed with that Ranger’s advice not to try to head inland on F206 as we’d planned. We decided to settle in for the night at nearby Kirkjubaejarklaustur to have a good dinner and to reassess our travel plans. Any of the F-roads were going to be out of the question for the next couple of days.
Revising our travel plans turned out to be easier than I’d feared. I asked Judy if there was any place along the southern coast she really wanted to visit. She mentioned Diamond Beach, and that became my starting point for planning. Looking at the weather forecast for the next several days, east was a good direction to go for the next day. We decided to take a couple of days and explore some of the south coast spots that I’d marked for Ann and I to check out later in the trip (to include Diamond Beach), and then reassess based on the weather.
The next morning was miserable in Kirkjubaejarklaustur, but the weather app showed increasingly favorable conditions the farther east we’d drive. After about an hour, the sun showed its face (Mr. Wind however, never went away). We started getting sneak views of the immense Vatnajökull (I’m not going to add “glacier” because that’s what the “jökull” means in Vatnajökull).
The plan was to drive straight (with a couple of pull-out stops) to Diamond Beach and the Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon and then work our way back west.
The glacier lagoon was shrouded in fog, which gave a very eerie feeling to the giant floating ice bergs that tended to cluster around the outlet to the sea. It’s the remnants of these bergs that wash back up on diamond beach after being polished crystal clear.
Unfortunately, the beach did not live up to expectations due to (I suspect) the timing of our arrival at low tide.
The drive back was windy, but beautiful and provided us with plenty of views of the glacier.
We even got to follow some sheep being moved from one field to another with a glacier in the background.
The day, despite the wind, had turned out rather nicely. However, as we drove back to Kirkjubaejarklaustur where we were going to spend a second night, we were reminded of what it would have been like if we’d gone as planned up into the highlands. We were wise to head east. Even so, at dinner that night John asked if I was exhausted from wrestling with the wind all day. I was.
The forecast predicted better conditions along the coast and the next day showed it to be right. It was to be a morning of waterfalls and then onward to Vik. The first was Stjórnarfoss not too far from the campground (again “foss” means waterfall).
And a few hundred yards away was Stjórnafoss nágranni.
We stopped to photograph a couple of unnamed waterfalls, and then pulled into an empty parking lot to photograph Hamrafoss. As was the case all too often. By the time we got back to the bimobil, the lot was packed. I think it’s the “Hey, there’s a big vehicle there, so there has to be something worth looking at!” thing, but it happened all the time to us in Iceland. We’d find a nice spot away from everyone else, and within the half-hour others start showing up. I guess that’s one of the drawbacks to having such a visible vehicle.
We then backtracked towards Vic, stopping by Fja∂rárgljúfur, a 2 million year old river canyon.
This one included a nice hike up to several viewpoints that offered amazing views of the canyon.
It’s an amazing geologic feature in what otherwise appears to be a series of rolling hills.
From there we headed to Vik for a big lunch, . . .
. . . and a walk along another famous black sand beach. This one was much less populated that the one at Diamond Beach and was a more pleasant stroll.
We even got to see a group riding Icelandic ponies as we checked out the famous Troll rocks.
That evening we checked the forecast. The weather wasn’t going to be ideal, but the weather app said we should have off-and-on rain with little wind for a couple of days, which is better than what caused us to leave the highlands in the first place. We decided to take the run to Þakgil the next morning.
The morning was as forecast. Yes it was cloudy, but we didn’t see any rain during the drive into Þakgil. The landscape, of course, was beautiful.
Once we got some elevation, the landscape changed dramatically.
Every so often we would see a pull-out and stop to explore the area.
This area had lava flows that formed during the last ice age. Apparently, the lava would extrude upward, the heat melting part of the glacier above, only for the lava to hit the melted glacier and get frozen into these odd, fluid shapes. They were fascinating to explore.
As we continued onward we followed a ridge that seemed to open up in 3 directions. I saw a pull-out and heard no complaints when I said, “I’m stopping again.”
Looking south, we could see the ocean.
Looking northeast you could see into the interior and the road as it dropped down on the way to the canyon that forms Þakgil.
And to the northwest, Huldujökull.
We spent quite a bit of time there, following sheep trails along the ridge to get different views for our photographs and simply loving the landscape.
Then at one point Ann shouted out, “Hey Guys! I think we’re walking on a bunch of blueberries.” We rushed over and, sure enough, Ann was right. In Iceland, the blueberries like to hide under the very low ground cover that forms a soft mat-like surface under foot.
After chomping on a few (remember the tour guide we listened to in Asbyrgi?), we decided to dive in and start plucking blueberries. One of us, for some unknown reason, had a zip-loc bag stashed in their pocket and we started packing them away. Really, can you imagine a more beautiful place to be picking wild blueberries?
When we decided we’d picked enough blueberries, we tromped back to the bimobil to resume our trip. We descended from the ridge, drove to and across a river and then turned into the mountainside, all though a beautiful landscape.
The campground was at the end of the canyon, surrounded by mountains. Best of all, it wasn’t packed!
We decided to hike up the smaller canyon at the end of the main canyon, where Ann and I were hoping to photograph the next morning. John and Judy just wanted to check it out.
It’s a beautiful hike ending at a small waterfall.
When we got back, Judy and John went on another short hike while Ann and I took showers and got dinner ready. They weren’t gone very long because the rain settled in for the evening. So everybody got cleaned up and ate.
And instead of just sitting around and chatting, Ann and John got to putting our freshly picked blueberries to good use and made scones.
Yes, they were delicious.
The next morning turned out to be a mixed bag. Yes, Ann and I got to at least start our morning shoot, which I’ve written about here. And Judy and John got to do another lung-busting climb up the canyon walls to better see the near-by glacier. But the weather quickly turned and everyone lost visibility and got wet (them way more than us). It was time to get out of the mountains.
As we approached the coast, the rains stopped and the skies largely cleared. We turned around and, sure enough, the mountains were still socked in, but as is the case in Iceland, it can be gorgeous in one spot and miserable only a few miles away. So we took our time and stopped at a couple more locations, to include the famous Skógafoss, which like Diamond Beach, was packed with people. Still, it’s an impressive waterfall.
Judy wanted to hike up to the top to see what more might be up there, we opted out of the climb but encouraged Judy to check it out. As it turned out there was nothing much else to see, and while we were waiting Ann and I took some pictures with our point-and-shoot cameras, while John gave us a running commentary on whatever crossed his mind.
We had a destination for dinner that evening - the Ingólfsskáli Viking Restaurant - in a traditional viking turf long house.
It was quite the set up.
And despite bordering on being a bit kitsch (yes, those are horns from which we drank our mead), the food was delicious!
And yes, I had a go at being the best Viking I can be.
Given that we were winging it and food plays such a crucial role to life when John’s around, our next day was also planned around food despite it being the last day in Iceland for John and Judy.
We didn’t have far to travel, so we headed up to Faxafoss for one last waterfall.
The morning was sunny and brisk, so the hike down to the waterfall was pleasant.
It was the perfect way to get us hungry for lunch . . . which was at the Fri∂heimar Tomato-based Restaurant, where, you guessed it, the menu is tomato oriented.
They have an extensive collection of greenhouses where they grow their own tomatoes and other vegetables and fruits they use on the menu.
However, not everything is tomato-based. In addition to our to tomato-topped bruschetta, we shared this amazing burrata and strawberry appetizer.
But yes, I did have a delicious tomato soup as well as their tomato beer (surprisingly good, as is water in Iceland).
To be honest, we didn’t want to wait two hours for lunch (we hadn’t made reservations), so we hopped over to the other side of the greenhouses to the Vinstofa Fri∂heima wine bar and bistro, which serves the same menu. Instead of tomatoes overhead, we had grapes.
From there it was back to the campground in Sandger∂I near Keflavik airport. Along the way back we took a different route than we took leaving Reykjavik. Our drive took us through some passes in the mountains south of Reykjavik for some final lovely views.
And that was that. We arrived at the campground in late afternoon to get ready for Judy and John’s departure.
This post doesn’t come close to describing the raucous time we had with Judy and John. It was a constant run of jokes and laughter, good food and good drink in a beautiful landscape (regardless of the weather). People must have thought we were nuts. I guess for awhile we were. We could not have asked for better traveling companions. But all good things must come to an end so our adventure within an adventure ended.
The next morning we dropped Judy and John off at the airport and set our minds to the next stage of our adventures.