You’ve probably realised by now that Iceland doesn’t shut roads lightly. This isn’t England. If someone slides off the road, big viking men come in a tractor and push you back on. If we see a road is closed on their excellent electronic map thing, we aint going up it. I don’t mean we aren’t brave/stupid enough to try it (because believe me, we are). I mean, you aint going up that road unless you’re piloting something with tracks.
So imagine if an Icelandic dude tells you not to drive west because of the conditions; that main roads may start to close due to an incoming storm. PAH.
This was a restaurant car park. I can’t imagine these cars had been there much more than an hour but check out the mini snow drift! It’s at least 1 ft deep!
Best view while filling car with fuel I’ve ever had. Possibly also the coldest. Still not worried about road closures.
Route 1 is the main road. It’s starting to look pretty funky.
Ah.
The police direct us on a more southernly route to the capital. It’s a big detour but we have zero options. Thankfully, it remained open.
WE MADE IT. I have no pictures of Reykjavik. We were far too exhausted. Wowser.
What a day. What a trip.
The Mitsubishi Outlander in it’s glory. I really must say, Im mightily impressed. It looks like another fake off roader. The kind of thing you see people dropping their kids off right outside school gates and just in general being a nuisance. Well it’s not. The studded tyres and locking diffs kept us going through thick snow where others failed. I wanted to take it home.
A chill day this was. That was the plan. It started out that way nicely. I sat and drank tea in a guest house while waiting for my camera to charge. Neil, feeling slightly mental, went for a sunrise photo explore. I can 100% guarantee I enjoyed my tea more.
Kvernufoss was the mid afternoon trip. The Icelandics who showed us the way suggested we needed crampons. We showed them. Bear Grylls and Ray Mears remember.
Pretty serious looking ice daggers.
The view from the lighthouse wasn’t half bad. Rock arch one side, black beach the other.
The next morning, we returned for sunrise. This may have been a mistake. It was slightly windy.
Well, I guess ‘slightly windy’ probably doesn’t quite cover it. The wind was outrageous. Worst I’ve ever encountered. The heavier blasts took about 3 steps forward to recover composure. Couple that with -7C and ice everywhere – it certainly made it interesting.
Yesterday was an interesting day. We’re both now pretty exhausted. We feel like we’ve been in the car forever. Our food choice leaves a lot to be desired. Even the evening routine of getting all the tech charged back up feels like a drag. We were being powered by one thing, the Ice Cave tour. Oh, and maybe some tea.
We leave at 8 and drive ~3hrs east to Jokusarlon. It felt like a longer trek than normal. The night gave birth to the most glorious morning, possibly that we’d seen in Iceland. Thing is, we were too tight for time to get some photos. Our stop consisted of a high speed fuel fill up and driver swap. Neil wanted to fly the drone, I wanted to get the GoPro out. We just didn’t have time. It’s OK though, because we are going to an Ice Cave.
Well here it is. A 30m x 20m hole in the glacier with some ice in it and a ton of other tourists. I’m not going to say it wasn’t cool (pun intended), but, for 170€, we expected a whole lot more. We felt robbed, not only of our money, but also the photo opportunities we had in the car earlier on.
You win some and you lose some. Usually I’m lucky. That morning, I definitely was not. The highlight was riding in the big boy truck. In the snow they drop tyre pressures to 10PSi!
Jokusarlon Ice lagoon lake. Not as impressive as seeing it in summer, but a great place none the less.
Jokusarlon’s icebergs drift out into the sea and wash up onto Diamond beach. The sea washes the snow off for the icy shinyness.
We were still bitter about the days earlier events and decided it was proper meal time. We trek back to Vik with Bon Iver to soothe our souls, then, a quick glance at the Aurora Forecast app reveals a solar storm is on the way AND some clear sky! The burning desire to see the Northern lights returned with haste! Over dinner, we’re in full on, super duper Northern light investigation mode. Which way do we go? How far do we go? How committed are we?
Turns out very.
‘You’ve probably already seen them but didn’t realise’ says the lady next to us over dinner. Now; this couple were lovely and we really did appreciate people trying to help us, but, I would bloomin’ well know if I saw some dancing green shizzle in the sky. The lady, Jacqueline, suggested looking for whitish/greyish cloud and taking a shot with long exposure. Mentalism. You’d have to be off your rocker to start taking photos into the sky, in the snow, in the dark, in a car park somewhere in the south of Iceland because a random couple from Washington DC said it would be a good idea, and yet, here we are:
The couple drove off into the night leaving the two fools taking photos of nothing. Maybe they had a bet to see what stupid stuff they could get strangers to do. They really got us.
Is that the Northern lights? Nope it’s a car light in the distance.
Is that the Nort……. DUDEEEEE, ITS AURORA!!!
Yep, that’s right. Two cameras shooting randomly into the darkness in different directions and we actually found the Northern lights. Who’d have thought it. That crazy couple, Jacqueline and Matt from Washington DC weren’t crazy. They were basically our heroes. Cheers guys.
We push further out into the unknown empty roads and take photo after photo, at random camera settings until probably about 2am.
So last night we popped out to town for an evening meal. Neil volunteered to drive and everything seemed hunky dory. Blizzards were forecast, but, you know, we’re pretty tough. Think Ray Mears and Bear Grylls with higher tea consumption.
On the way back, Neil claimed to have done his 50% of driving – (I think secretly the dark blizzard snow driving gave him the heebie jeebies) so I drove back.
Now, it might have been Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’ we played earlier or possibly the awesomeness of using every forward facing light OR being able to use the all of the empty road to take the straightest possible course, but I was feeling very Colin McRae. I could almost hear co driver Nicky Grist in his Welsh accent…. ‘hairpin right into hairpin left, into straight 100, crest into 10 left, rocks inside don’t cut.’
Of course, quite often, this resulted in the TV cutting to some late 90s home footage of a Ford Focus WRC car rolling end over end. He was nicknamed Colin McCrash after all. Least he gave it 110% every time. Perhaps he wasn’t the best person to have in mind.
Point was, not that you can fully appreciate from this video, occasionally (and often very suddenly), the snow came down so thick and fast that you literally couldn’t see anything. You’re already steering into the wind to stay straight. Someone may as well have put a dust sheet over the screen. The lights lit nothing but the snow directly on them. Now you’re steering left (for example) to stay straight but completely blind – just like a rally driver.
So there you go. If you come to Iceland in the winter and fancy driving in storms, give Mr Grist a call.
Today we drove from Akureyri to Kirkjufell. This, in theory, should be pretty straight forward. I’m sure to the Icelandics, even in winter, it still is. While Neil and I are left making screeching/whimpering noises through the lack of visibility, dancing snow and the slippyness of the roads, the Icelandics are shooting by, probably laughing. Still, we made it to our destination and still got some pretty great shots during the journey. Thank goodness for studded tyres.
Need those tyres.
Dancing snow exists.
Kirkjufell – Probably the most iconic Icelandic photo. Tick.
Cheesy photo with Kirkjufell. Tick.
Long exposure of waterfall next to Kirkjufell. Tick.
Pretty pleased with this quick bit of video editing!
Success!!! Today, the day was started the right way. With a cup of tea. Iceland rewarded us. The sun rose so slowly over Godafoss, even I, captain useless at photography, was able to pull out some good stuff!!
Neil, seen here, hand frozen, committed to advertising a wooden watch. I did try and tell him wood was for furniture and sheds and stuff. He wouldn’t have it. He was punished with eternally frozen hands. (Although this may have also been the lack of gloves).
Two videos here serve as a reminder as to how quick it can change. One moment taking photos. Next minute, your face really hurts and the tripod has fallen over.
The cold destroys batteries. I came up with a solution for the Go Pro during Neil’s drone flight.
Myvatn Geothermal bath. Winner.
The first drone footage we have!! The wind was bearable, nothing was falling from the sky and my god, the guy driving the car here looks skilled.
Despite ploughing north to Akureyri, just 62miles south of the arctic circle, we just couldn’t shake off the rain. This wasn’t just rain either. It was missile propelled Icelandic wind rain. The views were stunning but photos were tricky and drone flights impossible.
The small gap in the rain warranted a nice little outdoor test of the Go Pro with overlays
The finest yoghurt selection there ever was. Naturally, I bought many.
Lets not beat about the bush. Jordanian driving is utterly shocking. Up until now, the most buttock clenching driving experience I’ve ever had is driving through the centre of Athens in rush hour. It trumped Rome easily. Jordan’s roads smack those two into the middle of next week.
The thing is, after a little time, you can recognise that the hyper beep overly aggressive style kind of works. If somebody cuts you up, you cut up the person behind and so the knock on affect goes. The consistency sort of brings you comfort – and my goodness, when you feel comfortable, you certainly are rewarded.
There really are some rolling scrap heaps floating about.
If you’re a keen driver, you could consider Jordan a bit of a hidden gem. The highlight of this is our drive south along the Dead Sea Highway. Smooth, quiet and serene roads with stunning views to the west. If you want views though, wait until Highway 60.
Highway 60. A steep, snaking ribbon of tarmac which slowly turned from epic driving fun to epic sightseeing fun. I could not recommend this route highly enough.
I did wonder if it was disrespectful to take photos of some of the many shacks. This was at full zoom.
The desert made famous by Thomas Edward Lawrence – Lawrence of Arabia.
In 1914, the Ottoman Empire sided with Germany in WW1. The British reacted by withdrawing their long term policy of support to Ottoman colonial rule in the area and supported Arab revolts led by Sherif Hussein’s four sons.
The Lawman was dispatched as an Intelligence officer to work out which son would make the best leader. He decided on Sherif Feisal and was formally assigned to him as an adviser. Together, they successfully seized both Akaba and Damascus from the Ottoman’s.
As for as I’m concerned, that was far too much running around. Camels are wayyyy too uncomfortable for that.
Jordanians really need a to pick plug. British or EU. Which do you fancy using today?
Is this fire too big for a tent? Had me worried for a bit.
