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| Jurassic dinosaur or Killer Whale? |
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| How big is a Blue Whale? (historical photo) |
We headed north to Hvammstangi and toured the Seal Museum and
saw several waterfalls at Kolugljufur Canyon. In Siglufjordur, we toured the
award-winning Herring Museum. This town was the primary port for herring
processing in Iceland between 1903 and 1968, but due to over-fishing, no herring
are currently fished. In Akureyri, we camped next to a preserve that had lots
of hiking. We also walked through the town’s botanical gardens, which were
pretty amazing that close to the Arctic Circle. In Husavik, we had the best
Fish & Chips that we have ever tasted. We also explored their outstanding
Whale Museum, with a full-size skeleton of a Blue Whale.
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| Don meets the locals |
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| The Rock People |
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| Asbyrgi Cliffs |
Our last major destination was Jokulsargljufur (canyon of
the glacier river Jokulsa) National Park. We started at the northern entrance,
Asbyrgi, where a catastrophic glacier flood carved out a canyon with 300-foot
vertical walls. We hiked here a couple days before taking on the very
challenging dirt road to Dettifoss. On the way we stopped to see the bizarre shapes
and twists of basalt columns and a horseshoe shaped waterfall. We finally
reached Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe. Just a little further
upstream was another pretty waterfall, Selfoss. From here, we started our trip
back to the airport.
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| Jokulsargljufur Canyon |
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| Golden Plover |
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| Slavonian Grebe |
We camped at Myvatn Lake and were greeted by thousands of
black flies! The next morning, gale force winds made the little buggers
disappear. We also got a text message from the rental company telling us that
we should not be driving in such high winds. That’s when we figured they were
tracking us. I guess they didn’t know we had two days to drive half way around
Iceland. So, we really had no choice but to start knocking out the kilometers. We
stopped at Godafoss again and were surprised to see a much higher water level
than we had experienced three weeks previously. We missed Glumbaer Folk Museum
on the way out, so we stopped and toured a large sod house. Back at Touring
cars, we returned our RV – no problems - and headed for the airport. This time
we flew Iceland Air and had a much more enjoyable flight back to Halifax.
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| Godafoss |
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| Sod House |
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| Inside a Sod House |
Travel notes on Iceland
STOP, don’t pack your bags yet. Regardless of how you travel
in Iceland, (short of hitchhiking) you will find it very expensive. As a
general rule expect everything to be at least double what you would normally
pay for it. Gas or diesel was three times more. Laundry was about seven times
more expensive. We did have some good weather in Iceland, that is when we took
most of our pictures. But the weather changes quickly, except for the wind,
which can blow hard for days in a row.
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| Icelandic Horses |
July and August are the peak travel months in Iceland and
that was reason enough for us to avoid that time period. June was crowded
enough for us. Our old 1996 travel guide said, “Iceland has still to be
discovered as a tourist island”. In 2001, we did a three-day layover in Iceland
on our way to Scotland. Now Iceland
hosts five times their population each year. They are trying to improve their
roads and facilities, but they just can’t keep pace with the increasing hordes
of tourists. This is especially true in their campgrounds.
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| Almost Heaven, North Iceland |
Most of the wild flowers bloom in June and everything else
is green, where vegetation exists. We did have problems with black flies around
Myvatn Lake, but by July the black flies are more wide spread. Most of the days
in June were cool (40-50 F) and windy. But when it was nice, it was beautiful.
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| This ship sailed to America and back |
We spent a full month in Iceland, a 10-day cruise and 22-day
RV rental, and we didn’t see it all. For most people, a layover (up to 7 nights
free from Iceland Air) of 3 nights is enough to see Reykjavik, take a Golden
Circle Tour and soak at the Blue Lagoon. If you love it, then plan a longer
trip and be sure to include North Iceland. If you have the time and money, the ProCruise’s
Ocean Diamond was an easy way to see lots of Iceland in a short period. OK, now
you can pack!
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