Icelandic Extravaganza - Road Trip in Iceland Posted on: 21st January 2017 :: Photo Credits: Pradip Gatkine, Soumil Gurjar, Alap Kshirsagar ::
Continued from Roadtrip in Spain
It was 8.30PM on 31st December when it finally happened. I was leisurely taking a bath in our cottage when I heard some Korean tourists scream from our neighbouring cottage. I thought that they were celebrating the New Year a bit early. Laughing at their over-excitement, I continued to immerse myself in the hot water jets. But in a few seconds, Soumil banged the door of my bathroom and shouted, “Jaldi bahar aa Pala (one of my several nicknames:) ). They’re here!” Jumping with excitement, I dried myself hurriedly and came outside. The sight that I saw in the sky was beyond words! The nature had decided to celebrate New Year’s arrival with its own fireworks: Auroras!
I have replayed the next half an hour of my life over and over in my mind. The sky was ‘lit up’ in the most unworldly way I had ever seen in my life. No man-made fireworks could ever match the magnificence of this natural extravaganza. I just kept staring up at the sky without blinking. After some time, my neck started to hurt. But I just couldn’t take my gaze off of the awesomeness unfolding in the sky. So I spread across the ice-cold table outside our cottage and fixed my eyes on the sky.
A flame with red edges burst from the green belt that had spread across the sky. The belt had covered the entire arc from east to west just above the Milky Way, in the northern sky. It continued to morph into various shapes for the next 15 minutes, making everyone scream with excitement. The play of green and red colours on the backdrop of a pitch black sky was simply spectacular. This was the best New Year’s celebration I had ever seen in my life. Our Iceland trip had just ‘unlocked new level’ (that’s our way of expressing the best experiences of life) or rather ‘multiple new levels’!
Day 1: 30th December 2016
Location: Reykjavik
On the first day of my 25th year on this planet, Iceland gifted me the ‘first snowfall’ of my life. After an amazing roadtrip in Spain, the three of us arrived on the Keflavik airport in Iceland at 2AM. We got our rental car from the airport and carefully listened to all the instructions for driving safely in Iceland. Then we drove to the Reykjavik city and parked our car at a gas station operated by N1: the leading fuel distributor in Iceland. It was around 5AM when it started to snow. We immediately gulped our hot chocolates and came out of the N1 to enjoy the snowfall.
As the sunrise in Iceland happens around 11AM during this time of the year, we had about 4-5 hours to rest. Unfortunately, our Airbnb host was unable to let us check-in so early, so we had to sleep in the car itself. Within a couple of hours after the heater drained car’s battery, it became so cold that we couldn’t sleep inside. So we decided to drive to a nearby town called ‘Mosfellsbær’ and buy some Icelandic winter wear at the famous ‘Álafoss Wool Store’. It is said that when Álafoss was established in 1896, it marked the true beginning of Iceland’s wool industry. The store had a huge collection of authentic locally knit woollen clothes. After completing the shopping when we walked around the store building, a wonderful sight awaited us: the Álafoss waterfall. It was a small waterfall but the surrounding Ice cover made it look much more beautiful.
After spending some time near the waterfall, we started our journey through the ‘Golden Circle’. Golden circle is a popular tourist route of around 300km starting from Reykjavik and covering the main tourist attractions in southern Iceland like Þingvellir National Park, Gulfoss Waterfall, geothermal area in Haukadalur (Geysir and Strokkur geysers) and the Kerið volcanic crater.
We were truly mesmerized by the first look of Iceland! The landscapes were just like paintings straight out of an artist’s canvas. The route was so picturesque that it was hard for Soumil to focus on the road while driving the car.
Our first stop was the Þingvellir National Park. The Þingvellir national park (anglicised as Thingvellir) is of immense historic and symbolic importance to Icelanders. It was for long the site of the original AlÞingi, the national parliament of the settlers and the setting for many of the most important events in the history of the island. The park is also renowned for its geological significance. After regaining our warmth in the Visitor’s centre and learning about the history of Þingvellir, we started to explore this UNESCO World heritage site. We walked along the trails through a rift valley that marks the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, towards the Þingvallavatn, the largest natural lake in Iceland.
Our next stop was the geothermal field in Haukadalur. It’s a natural wonder of hot springs and boiling mud pools, including the great Geysir (which gave the word ‘Geyser’) and Strokkur geysers. As the 'Geysir' erupts very rarely, we couldn’t see it in action. But we were able to witness the eruption of Strokkur geyser thrice! It was a spectacular sight as the geyser sent a 15-20m column of water and steam, eliciting loud cheers from the crowd. (New level unlocked!)
Then we drove to the ‘Gulfoss Waterfall’ or the Golden Waterfall located in the canyon of the river Hvítá. The falls cascaded around 30m down in two stages while massive ice formations decorated the falls. When we were walking around the waterfall, I received a call from my Grandmother wishing me a belated happy birthday. I was amazed at how the technology has brought people closer. I was able to speak with her from 8000kms as if she was sitting beside me. This wonderful moment will stay with me forever!
In winter, the sunset in Iceland happens around 3.30PM. So by the time we left Gulfoss and reached the next spot Kerið, it had already become dark. Still we walked around the volcanic crater (No photos though, as it was very dark). The trail was covered with slippery Ice making us fall a couple of times. As the area was deserted, we decided to wrap up our tour for today and return back to Reykjavik.
When we reached the location mentioned in the Airbnb booking email, it turned out to be a football club. Luckily our host responded quickly to our calls and informed us the correct location of her house. (Apparently, she had mentioned the football club’s location as a safety measure to keep the thieves away) She was a very friendly lady and even offered us hot soup when we reached her home. She was a member of the Brahmakumari spiritual movement and was very much interested in visiting India. The guest house was awesome with a clean bathroom, well equipped kitchen and a huge LED TV. To complement our road-trip feel, we ended up watching the TVF-Tripling web series before going to sleep.
Day 2: 31st December 2016
We checked-out of our Airbnb in Reykjavik at 11AM in the morning. The entire garden was whitewashed by the snow! It was a refreshing sight.
We had decided to travel along the southern part of Iceland towards Kalfafell while visiting Hellisheiði Power Station (Geothermal power station and energy exhibition), Selfoss, Seljalandsfoss (waterfalls), Vik (black sand beach) along the way. The weather was perfect for a long drive through the mountains!
The Hellisheiði power plant is the largest geothermal power plant in Iceland and 3rd largest in the world. The geothermal energy exhibition at Hellisheiði Power Station was unfortunately closed due to New Year’s Eve. So we just drove around the building and continued our journey.
Our next destination was Selfoss, supposed to be a waterfall. But when we reached the location shown on google maps, there was no sign of any water body. It turned out that it was a town called ‘Selfoss’ not the waterfall. ‘Selfoss’ waterfall is actually in the north Iceland. Such a confusion because of the same names…and they say ‘what’s in a name :)’. We made a quick stop at a gas station near the town. It was a nice location for clicking some pictures.
We reached Seljalandsfoss around 1PM. Seljalandsfoss is one of the most popular waterfalls and natural wonders in Iceland. We tried to climb along a path beside the waterfall to access the cave behind this 60m column of water. But it had become dangerously slippery and the ice-cold water made us shiver to the core. So we dropped the idea halfway and returned back.
The route towards Vik was scenic. We saw some pipelines that looked like snakes. And there were horses running along the road. (Remember the ZNMD movie scene! It had been my dream ever since I had watched the movie :). One more level unlocked!)
We reached the Reynisfjara shore near the village Vik just before sunset. The scene was like a paradise (coincidently Coldplay’s song ‘Paradise’ was being played on the car stereo). We drove up the hill and then walked towards the edge of the mountain.
A lighthouse was situated on the hilltop. In the sea, there were the dramatic looking basalt sea stacks called Reynisdrangar. Legend says that the stacks originated when two trolls dragged a three-masted ship to land unsuccessfully and when daylight broke they became needles of rock. Contemporary legends note the story of a husband who found his wife taken by the two trolls, frozen at night. The husband made the two trolls swear to never kill anyone ever again. His wife was the love of his life, whose free spirit he was unable to provide a home for; she found her fate out among the trolls, rocks, and sea at Reynisfjara (source: Wikipedia).
When we reached the nearby town of Vik, it had already become dark. We walked on the black sand beach and touched the water of Altantic. It was really cold! After watching the waves for a while and collecting some pebbles we returned to the car.
Location: Kirkjubæjarklaustur
While we were driving towards the ‘Hörgsland Cottages’, Pradip noticed some light-green glow in the northern sky. It was the beginning of the awesomeness that followed. The glow turned into a full-fledged aurora within an hour. (For those wondering what an Aurora is, here’s some scientific description from Wikipedia: “An aurora, sometimes referred to as a polar light or northern light, is a natural light display in the sky, predominantly seen in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions. Auroras are produced when the magnetosphere is sufficiently disturbed by the solar wind that the trajectories of charged particles in both solar wind and magnetospheric plasma, mainly in the form of electrons and protons, precipitate them into the upper atmosphere (thermosphere/exosphere), where their energy is lost. The resulting ionization and excitation of atmospheric constituents emits light of varying colour and complexity”) . The three of us watched in awe this spectacular display of green and red colours across the sky, while lying down on the bench in front of our cottage.
The green belt faded away after an hour. Then we drove towards a nearby town Kirkjubæjarklaustur to watch some fireworks (not even close to the awesomeness of auroras though). The locals had put up a huge LED display with ‘2016’ written on it. We initially thought that it was placed on top of a building. But when the fireworks illuminated the sky, a huge mountain appeared behind the display.
As the clock struck 00.00, the ‘2016’ got converted to ‘2017’ (though it was stuck on ‘2011’ for some time due to a technical glitch :) ).
Day 3: 1st January 2017
Our first morning of 2017 was a pleasant one. Our cottage was situated in a picturesque location with a mountain at the back and open fields in the front. It had 3 bedrooms (one for each of us), a kitchen cum dining room, a hall and a private bathroom. It was definitely one of the best vacation homes I have ever stayed in (and it was pretty cheap). We could see the sun rise along the horizon from our cottage.
We had booked an Ice Cave tour with Extreme Iceland for today. The meeting point for the tour was Hali Country Hotel, west of Höfn town. We left from our cottage around 11.30AM.
The route was along the coastline. Glaciers on one side and sea on the other! I opened the retractable rooftop of the car (yeah, it was a semi-convertible car) and stoop up on the back-seat, my torso above the car. Oh Boy! It was a freaking awesome feeling. One more level unlocked. The adrenaline rushed and I felt more alive, becoming one with the nature.
On the way, we stopped near the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon. Considered as one of the natural wonders of Iceland, this large glacial lake is situated on the edge of Vatnajökull National Park. The milky white and bright blue Icebergs floated on the river. A spectacular interplay of light and ice crystals! It was an out-of-this world sight indeed. One more level unlocked!
All the tour participants gathered near the starting point around 1PM. Our tour guide was a North-Icelandic guy who had come to visit his in-laws in this part of Iceland and was working part-time on conducting Ice cave tours. He was a cheerful and experienced guide. He drove us in the ‘monster-truck’ towards the Skaftafell park near Vatnajökull glacier (the largest and most voluminous Ice cap in Iceland).
The guide told us that many Hollywood movies have been shot in these locations, including the James Bond flick ‘Die Another Day’, Interstellar and Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Apparantly, the scenes in Secret Life of Walter Mitty where he is shown playing football in Afghanistan and looking for an Ice tiger in Himalayas (and his trip in Iceland as well, including the most famous ‘Skateboarding scene’) were shot in different parts of Iceland itself. (It had been my dream to visit Iceland after I had watched the movie a couple of years ago. Dreams do come true!)
After driving for about 45mins through the rocky terrain and dangerous slopes, we reached the base of Svínafellsjökull glacial tongue in Skaftafell. We were given Ice crampons to attach on our shoes. Crampons make it easier to walk on the ice without slipping. We also put on helmets before entering the ice cave.
We were stunned by the magnificence of the Ice cave! (one more level unlocked). It was a marvellous display of different shades of blue colour. The guide explained to us the formation of Glaciers and Ice caves. Glaciers are made up of fallen snow. They are not frozen water, as some might think. But how does it turn into ice then? Simply by compression due to the weight of the snow as it keeps accumulating. It's just like taking a handful of fluffy snow and squeezing into a hard snowball, and keep doing so for hundreds of years. The ice eventually gets so compressed that most of the air is forced out of it. This is what causes glacial ice to appear blue. A glacier is a river of ice. It flows. That's because the highly compressed layers of ice are very flexible. At locations where a glacier flows rapidly, giant cracks called crevasses are formed. This is why it's so dangerous to walk on a glacier - the crevasses get sometimes covered over by snow.
When we came out of the cave, our guide told us a story of a man trapped under an avalanche. In winter, the sheep in Iceland get dispersed in search of food. So the shepherds have to bring them back from the mountains. A few years ago, three such shepherds went to search for their sheep. Suddenly the weather changed and they saw an avalanche coming towards them. Two of them were able to run away but one got trapped inside an Ice crevasse. The other two went to the nearest village to bring more people to rescue the trapped guy. But the weather was too bad and the villagers were not willing to risk more lives to save one life. So they decided to wait till the next day. When the weather got better, they went to search for the trapped guy and were surprised to find him alive. The man narrated to others that he was so frightened by the thought of not waking up alive; he hadn’t slept all night and kept singing loudly. Apparently, the hay that they had carried with them for bringing back the sheep, had kept the guy warmer and saved his life.
On our way back to Horgslands cottages, we stopped once again near the lagoon. We ate ‘paratha and chips’ (DJ Chitwan style :D..Watch TVF Tripling to get the joke) watching the sunset at this wonderful site!
Before going to our cottage, we drove to a nearby town to buy some food for dinner. Unfortunately, all the shops were closed as it was 1st January. We checked-in our room at around 6PM. Luckily we could get a packet of Doritos from the reception of our hotel. That night, we ended up eating Rajma (thanks to the MTR ready to eat packets brought by Pradip from India) and chips while watching the Steven Spielberg drama ‘Warhorse’ in our room. We went outside a few times when the ‘Aurora Predictor’ app showed a high probability of visible aurora. But there was none that night.
Day 4: 2nd January 2017
We checked-out of our room in Horgsland Cottages at around 11AM and started driving towards Reykjavik. The weather was not that good. It was raining a lot. But the landscapes in Iceland didn’t disappoint! We even saw a huge rainbow over a mountain.
Our first stop was Skógafoss, one of the biggest waterfalls in Iceland (25m width and 60m drop). According to legend, the first Viking settler in the area, Þrasi Þórólfsson, buried a treasure in a cave behind the waterfall. The legend continues that locals found the chest years later, but were only able to grasp the ring on the side of the chest before it disappeared again. The ring was allegedly given to the local church. The old church door ring is now in a museum, though whether it gives any credence to the folklore is debatable. (Source: Wikipedia) This waterfall was a shooting location in the famous ‘Gerua’ song of Shahrukh Khan’s Dilwale movie and also in Hollywood movies like Thor: The Dark world and Secret life of Walter Mitty.
We left from Skógafoss around 1PM. We had planned to go to the most visited geothermal spa in Iceland, the Blue Lagoon. Unfortunately, it was completely booked. So we had to search for other alternatives. As they say “Everything happens for the greater good” :) we ended up visiting a hidden gem in Iceland: Seljavallalaug. This oldest geothermal pool in Iceland was built in 1923 and is situated in a narrow valley below the Eyjafjallajökull (a volcano completely covered by an Ice cap).
We took a detour from the Route-1 just after Skógafoss and drove on a gravel road for about 20-25mins towards Seljavellir. At the end of the road, we parked the car and started to walk in the valley. It was raining heavily and the entire area was covered in fog.
We were supposed to cross a river stream and walk behind the mountain to access the pool. The river was covered in slippery Ice. It was dangerous to walk on that Ice as it would crumble at some places due to the weight. We searched for a spot to cross the river without having to wet our feet, but couldn’t find any.
Finally, we decided to walk through the stream. I removed my shoes (as they were not water proof) and made a dash through the water. It was freezing cold! After reaching the other side, I was barely able to walk as my toes went numb. I ran towards the pool and jumped in the warm water after keeping the clothes in a small changing rooms beside the pool. The pool was much cleaner than we had expected (it is maintained by volunteers only). We stayed in the pool for about 45mins. Initially there was no-one except the three of us but later a Swedish family arrived. In our return journey, they helped us cross the river from an upstream location without having to wet our feet. But it was still so cold that we had to run towards the car to keep our bodies warm. Putting the heaters in car on full power, we dried ourselves and had some food. Hike in Iceland! One more level unlocked :)
Location: Reykjavik
We drove back towards Reykjavik and checked-in our Airbnb room at around 8PM. It was small room with shared kitchen and shared bathroom with other lodgers. We were surprised to find a picture of Lord Rama and lots of books on Yoga in our room.
After dinner we drove in Reykjavik to explore the city. We visited the ‘Hallgrímskirkja’, a Lutheran parish church. It is the largest church in Iceland and among the tallest structures in Iceland. Then we went to the Harpa concert hall. It had a stunning architecture both from inside and outside. There we saw an exhibition on Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. We returned home around midnight and rested.
Day 5: 3rd January 2017
We started our final day in Iceland with the famous public hot-water pool in Reykjavik ‘Laugardalsalug’. It had an indoor pool, an outdoor pool and multiple hot water tubs. Just sitting in the hot water pool was deeply relaxing.
Pradip had to catch his return flight to Washington DC from Keflavik airport at 3PM. We decided to visit the bridge between continents before dropping Pradip on the Keflavik airport. The bridge between continents lies across a canyon that was formed due to the movements of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. The Reykjanes peninsula lies on the boundary between these two tectonic plates, which are continuously drifting apart. The rift between the plates manifests itself on the surface as canyons or crevices. It is estimated that the plates drift around 2cm a year or 2m over a period of 100 years in opposite directions. Besides serving a symbolic purpose, it is meant to illustrate the phenomenon of continental drift. The bridge is 18m long and stretches across the canyon at a height of around 6m.
The feeling of walking over to a new continent was exciting. We had our breakfast near the bridge. After dropping off Pradip at the Keflavik airport, Soumil and I drove back to Reykjavik.
We had decided to drive through Iceland’s western Peninsula ‘Snæfellsnes’ today. As Soumil had forgotten his scarf (which he had bought from the Álafoss wool factory on our first day in Iceland) in our last night’s Airbnb room, we went back to that place and recovered the scarf. When we were just about to leave, Pradip called and told us that the WOW airlines were looking for a volunteer to board the next day’s flight (as today’s flight was overbooked). They were offering a hotel room for the night, food and a return ticket to any of WOW airlines destinations. We immediately told Pradip to go for this awesome offer. But unfortunately someone else volunteered before him and we decided to stick to our previous plan.
The route from Reykjavik through the Snæfellsnes peninsula was very scenic. We had decided not to click any pictures en-route and just enjoy the journey. The landscapes changed from Ice clad mountains to Green fields along a beautiful coastline. It was a delightful journey! We passed through a 6km long tunnel called Hvalfjörður. Our first destination was Gerðuberg, an impressive wall of basalt columns.
When we left from Gerðuberg basalt columns, it had already become dark. So we skipped a few spots like Lóndrangar rock formations, Vatnshellir Cave etc. and straightaway drove to the Djúpalónssandur Black Sand Beach. Djúpalónssandur is a sandy beach and bay on foot of Snæfellsjökull in Iceland. It was once home to sixty fishing boats and one of the most prolific fishing villages on the Snæfellsnes peninsula but today the bay is uninhabited. Four lifting stones are in Djúpalónssandur, used by fishermen to test their strength. They are Fullsterkur ("full strength") weighing 154 kg, Hálfsterkur ("half strength") at 100 kg, hálfdrættingur ("weakling") at 54 kg and Amlóði ("Useless") 23 kg. They were traditionally used to qualify men for work on fishing boats, with the Hálfdrættingur being the minimum weight a man would have to lift onto a ledge at hip-height to qualify. On the beach there are remains of the Grimsby fishing trawler Epine (GY7) that was wrecked there on March 13, 1948. When we reached there, it was pitch dark and completely deserted. The mighty Snæfellsjökull glacier looked frightening from the distance. The sea waves were crashing loudly against the rock formations. The shipwrecks were spread across the beach. That didn’t stop us from walking along the beach and collecting some black pebbles :)
After the Black sand beach, we drove along the northern coast of the peninsula to complete the full circle. We stopped at the Kirkjufellsfoss waterfall situated near one of the most photographed mountains in Iceland: Kirkjufell Mountain. But it was too dark to see anything. We could just hear the sound of the waterfall. The silhouette of Kirkjufell Mountain looked stunning though. We had dinner at a nearby town called Grundarfjörður. Soumil tried a local fish dish while I had no other option than to go for a vegetarian pizza.
On our way back to Reykjavik, the ‘Aurora predictor’ app showed a high KP index. (The Kp number is a system of measuring aurora strength. It goes from 0 to 9, 0 being very weak, 9 being a major geomagnetic storm with strong auroras visible). But the sky was too cloudy to see any aurora activity. We reached Reykjavik at midnight and parked our car near the Grotta Lighthouse: the north-westernmost point of Reykjavik. We slept there in the car for a few hours and then drove to the Keflavik airport to catch our return flight to Frankfurt.
This Iceland trip was definitely the best trip of my life so far. It unlocked so many levels :) like first snowfall, aurora on New Year’s Eve, horses in the snow, erupting geysers, open rooftop car experience, out-of-this world landscapes, glaciers, Ice cave, hidden hot water pool and black sand beaches. Looking forward to visit Iceland's northern part and highlands in future!