My last hurrah trip round Iceland

[Sparks61]

Well my year here in Iceland is nearly finished - I haven't been on the board much with doing exams and final projects. But that is all done now and it is home time on the 1st, so four of us have decided we need to take a farewell trip in the T2 and go the whole way round - roughly 1700 km without exploration trips. We have only seven days, so time is tight, but it should be nice now the weather is improving (it is above freezing now). Map of the trip below - the alternate includes the West Fjords which is dependant on time and I have been there before. There is actually a ferry between point H and I but it still comes in at over 2000 km.
I have a mate who owns a farm up at point F so will have a few days there. We can't go into the highlands yet because (1) most roads are still not open and (2) you really only go with 2 trucks minimum. We will venture of the beaten track as much as possible though.
I thought I would post pics up as I can as we go if anyone is interested.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20the%20island%20trip.jpg

ALTERNATE

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20the%20Island%20alternate.jpg

Wish us luck - D-day is the 23rd. Just hope the T2 keeps going :)

[makeitfit]

Oh good man :D have it large mate I know I would :clap
As Zippy would say, where's the pics ? :lol
#Good luck and enjoy, I'm sure the T2 will be as good as gold, enjoy.
You lucky, lucky barsteward :sly

[spiderpig37]

good luck mate and enjoy weathers just above freezing here:lol

[96terrano]

U bringing the t2 back to the uk?

[Fez_uk]

why would you want to leave such a cool country??

[Sparks61]

I looked into bringing the T2 back but it wasn't practical and I do better selling it here.
Don't really want to leave but I have a new "significant other" at home waiting and my Uni course over here is finished - I have to get home to do my dissertation.

[Kamsin]

It aint true if there aint no pics.........

Snap everything and post the lot, show us what we (And you) will be missing.

I dream of a trip like that, all i get right now is a Sunday in the Peaks, :lol.

[Sparks61]

We leave Wednesday morning. Looks like we are doing the alternate route including the North West Fjords but it depends on weather - Sunday onwards looks a bit iffy but that can change . Pics will depend on Wifi or 3G access but hopefully 26th and 27th we should have internet.

[Sparks61]

This is a very late story but it has been a long and messy 3 months since I got back to the UK.
The trip was done and was ...... fantastic. if you can manage it - do it. So over the next few days I will post up the trip in day by day version.

So DAY 1 was Reykjavik target Höfn. However the T2 let us down late afternoon and we ended up at Kirkjubaerklustur until a new battery was found.
Here is the map of day 1
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%201%20route.jpg
First stop (B) was at Seljalandsfoss waterfall - this is a cool fall - quite tall and you can walk all the way round the back. Rigth next to route 1 so an easy stop.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%201%20T2%20at%20Seljalandsfoss.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%201%20Seljalandsfoss%20from%20the%20side%202.j pg

Plunge pool from behind.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%201%20Seljalandsfoss%20plunge%20pool%20from%20 behind%202.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%201%20Seljalandsfoss.jpg

Next stop (C) was Skogarfoss falls - again an easy stop and pretty cool

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%201%20T2%20at%20Skogarfoss.jpg

Then it was on to Dyrhölæy which is just fantastic. it is a few km off route one on mostly tarmac but the last climb up to the top on gravel. Some of these shots are form an earlier visit as it was a bit rainy but it is great. Notice the dots on the cliff top which are people for scale !!

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%201%20Dyrh%C3%B6l%C3%A6y%20arch.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%201%20Dyrh%C3%B6l%C3%A6y%20arch%20with%20peopl e%20for%20scale.jpg

This is the view down the black beach from the top

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day201%20View%20south%20from%20Dyrh%C3%B6l%C3%A6y% 20Portrt.jpg

From there we moved on to another random fall at the side of route 1 - stop (F) which is where the T2 let us down :-(

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%201%20waterfall%20past%20Klustur.jpg

When we got back to Kirkjubaerkluster (E) we did go for a wander to a local feature called the "Church Floor" which is actuall the worn tops of basalt columns - like the Giants Causeway in miniature.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%201%20The%20Churchfloor%20at%20Kirkjubaerklust ur.jpg

Next post will be day 2 - I need to sort the images.

[96terrano]

nice pics mate:thumb2 looks lovely

[wildbri]

Looking forward to seeing more of your adventure. Bri

[Sparks61]

Day 2 began rainy and 'orrible and so not much was seen for the first hours. leaving Kirkjubaerkluster (A) there is a bit of nice scenery and then a LONG drive across a flat flat black sand outwash plain - about 35 miles of it !! The first stop was at a place I have been to before called Jokulsarlon (B) . This is a huge lagoon with a glacier at the north end which calves icebergs into the water. The bergs then hang about in the lagoon til they make their way out through the outlet to the sea. They are pretty small at that stage and get washed onto the beach where they melt into wonderful sculptures.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%203276.jpg

You can see the glaciers in the background here.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%203283.jpg

Yours truly leaning on an iceblock on the beach

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%203315.jpg

Sculptures on the beach

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%203322.jpg

The rain kept coming down but there was still cool things to see - like Reindeer

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%203345.jpg

As the rain started to clear the clouds covering the mountains were amazing - here is a shot of a perfect dome shaped cloud over a mountain near Hofn (C)

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%203351.jpg

The scenery and mountains were stunning as we drove out of the rain round to the lighthouse at the SE most point (D)

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%203354.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%203368.jpg

This is the lighthouse at the SE most point ( D)

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%203373.jpg

I have more of day 2 to load but will do it tomorrow

Bryce

[Sparks61]

Oooopss
Forgot the map

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%20route.jpg

[Sparks61]

Weather starts clearing up in the afternoon. From D to E is pretty gorgeous - not sunny straight away but improving.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%20Pano%20Lo%20res.jpg

We came across these huge falls. The scale is hard to tell but the second picture has one of our group standing at the bottom left and the part you can see is just the lowest section.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%203391.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%203394.jpg

The T2 to prove it was there :-)

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%20IMG_1195.jpg

The sun starts to break through

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%203404.jpg

The sun finally breaks and wow. This was taken around (E)

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%203407.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%20IMG_1197.jpg

We get onto the gravel finally.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%20IMG_1198.jpg

The last sight of the day was another falls - so many spectacular huge falls in the east fjords.

Note my mate perched on the right side for scale

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%203414.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%203419.jpg

The day ended with a typical Iceland sunset

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%203445.jpg

Our accommodation - for reference it sleeps 6 and the cost each (slpit between 4 of us) was £20 each - includes a barbecue and a view to die for.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%20IMG_1203.jpg

[jims-terrano]

Stunning!!!!

[Sparks61]

I forgot this from Day 2. For those of you who like rock stuff there is some amazing rock formations. Here are some awesome basalt lava columns in an outcrop next to the road.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%203381.jpg

Here I am next to it for scale:-

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%202%20me%20by%20the%20basalt%20columns.jpg

[solarman216]

Absolutely amassing pics mate, reminds me of when I travelled Europe in a truck and took hundreds of great pics, treasure them for the future, they are memory triggers for the future when you can not recall as well as you could, Rick

[Sparks61]

I have hundreds and hundreds of pics of Iceland. I thought I would try to get this travelog complete so people could at least have a small idea of what a great place it is to tour. So many go and stay in the Reykjavik area. There is sooo much more.

[Sparks61]

The day was just gorgeous which was handy as this was probably one of the most remote legs of the trip.

The Route.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%203%20Route.jpg

Clear and Blue

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%203%2000.jpg

Our first interesting bit was the fresh opended pas on route 917 (between (B) and (C) on the route. My mate took a video of the drive - it's quite long but gives a good impression of gravel road driving in good weather in Iceland. Interesting the only other vehicle we saw was a tanker truck !!

Here is a link to the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n385GoadqZw&feature=share&list=UUy_XAmIcv2daPjNLPp81mcQ

I will post photos tomorrow. Day 4 is really cool with the volcano stuff in.

[Sparks61]

Arriving at the coast it was a beautiful day. This part of Iceland is very quiet - we saw only 4 or 5 other cars all day.

First stop was at a cliff top viewpoint

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%203%2001.jpg

Some of us are braver / stupider than others - there were lots of these knife edge rock dykes projecting out to the sea. They are vertical injections of stronger lava.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%203%2002.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/day%203%2003.jpg

It was pretty remote. The beauty of Iceland is most of it is open access

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%203%2004.jpg

Next stop was another HUGE falls - again there is one of the guys at the top for scale. It plunged into a deep ravine and ran out to sea.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%203%2005.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%203%2006.jpg

This is a typical small town in NE Iceland

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%203%2007.jpg

However even in these remote places Icelanders create some strange stuff. This was a monument of something which to this day we are not sure about.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%203%2008.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/day%203%2009.jpg

And then - on the side of the gravel road to the most northerly point in Iceland we find these .........

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%203%2010.jpg

Apparently a local artists installation - random dummies dressed in fishing gear.

The lighthouse below is the most northerly point in Iceland (E). We wanted to get out to it but were stopped by the locals as the area was closed due to Arctic Terns breeding :-(

Here is the T2 just short of the arctic circle

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%203%2014.jpg

We ended the day at (F) where there is a national park in this hors hoe shaped valley which has been cut with entirely vertical sides.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%203%2015.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%203%2013.jpg

The scale of the thing is shown a bit by this shot

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11080497/Round%20Iceland/Day%203%2016.jpg

The scale of things you find in Iceland is amazing.

Day 4 will be more volcanoes and some almost desert areas.

[Sparks61]

Is anyone interested in the rest of the shots before I resize them all etc ??

[supergnome]

Of course they are, superb thread. Keep doing your education in places like this and take the T2 and camera. David.

[96terrano]

Great pics mate, love them, :D