Round the World 2008

I have to say that the week in Iceland was a high point of the RTW trip.  It’s a beautiful country, very sparsely populated (only about 300,000 people live here) and a real adventure to drive through.  I also reached the furthest point north that I’ve ever been – 66 degrees N.  Here are some photos from my final days here.

Skaftafell National Park covers the area around and including the Vatnajokull Glacier.  The natural beauty here is almost unreal.  I took two hikes in the park, one to the Svartifoss Waterfall, the other to a viewpoint overlooking the glacier.  The highlight of the park for me was Glacier Lagoon where icebergs just having broken off of the glacier float in the lagoon where they stay until they melt enough to flow into the Atlantic Ocean.

I spent last night at the harbor town of Hofn where I had a nice lobster dinner at a restaurant where everything on the menu was some kind of a lobster dish.  This morning I drove along the coast to the East Fjords, which was incredibly scenic.  Driving inland to Egilsstadir I got a flat tire in a pretty remote area.  No problem…I thought I’d just put on the spare tire.  Turns out the spare was flat also.  After walking for a half hour towards a farm in the distance which was much further than I estimated, a car finally drove by.  A nice German couple let me use their cell to phone for help.  It was about five hours later before I was on the road again.

I was very happy to make it to Egilsstadir where I’m staying at a small guest house this evening.  I’ve gone as far east on the island as I can go and am now heading back towards Reykjavik, this time taking the northern route.  The weather is very strange here.  It has been quickly alternating between rain, mist and sunshine since I’ve been here.

I arrived in Reykjavik on Friday afternoon and I was lucky to be upgraded to a Toyota Land Cruiser.  As I would soon find out a 4×4 is necessary anywhere off Iceland’s main loop road.  Reykjavik is a decent sized city where most of Iceland’s population lives.  The city’s central district was large enough that I spent an entire afternoon checking it out.

I left Reykjavik early yesterday and after a short while passed through Thingvellir National Park which is extremely scenic but more famous for it’s history.  It’s the place the early Icelanders met annually for a thousand years to democratically govern the island.

After the touristy Gulfoss waterfalls and Geysir, the geothermal area, I decided to go to Vik, the town on the southern coast where I had hotel reservations, via the Landmannalaugar Nature Reserve.  I missed the part in the guidebook that warned about crossing this area.  I forded no less than 15 rivers and streams before I made it back to the main road.  It was very stressful because some of the rivers were so deep and so wide I didn’t know if I’d make it across.

I reached Vik by sunset and had a nice dinner at the restaurant next to my hotel.  Next destination is Vatnajokull, the largest glacier in Europe.