ICE ICE BABY!

ICE (land) ICE (land) BABY!! A wild treasure!

I spent two weeks in Iceland in 2018, and boy oh boy I can’t wait to go back. For me, Iceland is one of those places that I arrive, explore, leave, then immediately want to go back to explore some more. When I was there, we drove the Ring Road (aka Route 1) - a 1,300km stretch of road that loops Iceland.

There are waterfalls everywhere. Even in the middle of summer, they’re abundant. I can’t imagine how amazing they would be in winter, surrounded by snow!

Because we visited in the peak of summer, we had close to 24 hours of daylight. It was unbelievable. The sun would set, and we would wait about 20 minutes and it would rise again. We took advantage of the daylight and turned semi-nocturnal. We would have a big sleep in, and then adventure until around 1 or 2am. Less crowds!

There are number of geothermal pools dotted around Iceland, some fancy and spa-like, some holding on 102 years after they were built (enter Seljavallalaug). Seljavallalaug is Iceland’s oldest pool. A secluded geothermal beauty built in 1923, she has some character. The unmanned pool is located in the highlands along the south coast and is approximately a 20 minute walk from the nearest carpark. The pool ranges from 20-35°C depending on the season, and although we dipped at 11pm, we still had to share - imagine peak hour!

Driving around Iceland took waaaayy longer than we expected it to, mainly because we kept stopping to look at the view. I think I said ‘wow’ about a million times a day.. We stumbled upon someone’s tiny studio by the water. How serene.

The landscape changes immensely as you drive around the island. The North side of Iceland is home to Námaskarð - a geothermal area that is linked to the Krafla volcano system. Námaskarð boasts black rivers of fumaroles (cracks in the Earth’s surface that emit steam and volcanic gases such as sulphur dioxide (making the place smell like boiled eggs)). The rich and colourful minerals give Námaskarð its burnt colour! It feels like walking around on Mars.

It baffles me that you could visit such vastly different landscapes in the same day, right after Mars, came Antarctica [read: Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon]. You can drive right up close to Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon and observe from the water’s edge, or do an amphibious tour! I’ve heard great things about these tours. The giant bus-like vehicles with monster truck wheels drive into the water, then become buoyant and drive you around the glacier in the funky converted boat! It seemed a little too touristy for our liking, but Elias and I had a great time laughing at how ridiculous they looked!

Iceland is known to be superstitious in nature, elves (also referred to as ‘hidden people’ or ‘Huldufólk’ in Icelandic) are noted to be part of the landscape. There is a strong respect for the elves, passers by are welcome, as long as you respect their residence: the rocks. Roads under construction in Iceland have been known to be built to avoid known elf dwellings. Even if you don’t believe in elves, Icelandic culture teaches that magic surrounds, and if that means greater respect and preservation of the natural environment, I’m all for it.

One place that is known for being a populated elfin settlement is Borgarfjörður eystri. Borgarfjörður eystri is a fjord in North East Iceland, the fishing village of the same name is home to 130 residents, 1000 elves, and hundreds of puffins!

The area is remains largely untouched by mass tourism, so is an incredible stop to add to the itinerary! Their local cuisine consists of high quality ingredients, and revolves largely around the fish caught fresh daily. There is even an annual music festival called Bræðslan, held in an old fishing factory in July each year. Previous notable performers include Damien Rice, and Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men.

We stayed in this gorgeous bed & breakfast with water views!

Because Iceland is so expensive, we put ourselves on rations. We mostly ate tomato sandwiches, with butter when we managed to knick a few extra sachets from a bed & breakfast. We had a jumbo bag of mini marshmallows as treats, and apples for snacks. We ate out a couple of times, but found due to our nocturnal antics, restaurants weren’t open at the times we were arriving in towns. On a few occasions we treated ourselves to dinner out, usually the delicious local seafood. On our last night we booked a special dinner to conclude our trip - mussel soup with crunchy bread and lots of wine. We were enjoying ourselves so much that we forgot that we had a booking for Iceland’s famous Blue Lagoon! We missed our late night time slot, with a no-refund policy ($260 loss… sad), and an early flight the next morning, it has been added to the ‘next time’ list.

Luckily, we stopped at another geothermal beauty earlier in the week!

I have compiled a list of all the places we stayed while driving the Ring Road in case you would like to do the same!

Borgarfjörður eystri (as pictured above), had a gorgeous bed & breakfast with water views in an idyllic and unpopulated town.

Höfn was an area that seemed essential for a stopover, but had scarce options for accommodation. We stayed in a tent and got very damp and very cold, very quickly. A great experience to say that we have camped in Iceland though!

In Selfoss, we stayed in a horse ranch, which was such a fantastic experience, they offered riding lessons, or treks on horseback through the farm.

Reykjavík is the capital of Iceland, such a cool place (pun intended) to spend time! We stayed in an old bicycle shop that was like Hermione’s bag of tricks from Harry Potter, you would never know how many rooms were actually there!

Our favourite accommodation was a gorgeous tiny house in Akureyri! One of three identical cuties on the property, the lineup has views of Eyjafjörður - one of the longest fjords in Iceland. This was our cosiest stay. I highly recommend!

Iceland is notorious for its wild horses. They are stunning blonde beauties that run wild in the countryside. It was so special to see these guys so close and snoozy, we offered them a handful of grass, told them how amazing their haircuts were, then let them be.

I am so looking forward to my Icelandic return, to whittle away some of the items on my ‘next time’ list.

Stray beautiful,

BEAR.

ICE ICE BABY!

ICE ICE BABY!

Passport to the Greek Islands