We travelled from Los Angeles to Reykjavik and spent 12 days along Iceland’s Ring Road, circumnavigating the country counter-clockwise. We had to reverse our entire plan because of the threat of the Bardabunga Volcano and the risk of flooding in the north. The volcano did erupt and we had to get updates each day to assess the safety of various regions as we continued our journey. Luckily, everything worked out fine.
Neither of us knew how to drive stick shift (we’d taken a few hours of lessons before the trip) and so we stalled the car 3 times just trying to get out of the Happy Campers parking lot. We struggled with reverse and really struggled that first day in the city while we were completely jet lag’d after flying all night and not sleeping.
The first night our stove caught on fire, melted the dial, and was totally useless after that. We had to hang around Selfoss and hope that the major sports store would have a portable stove when they opened in the morning. We were lucky and they had one stove left, a Jetboil water heater. It was a life saver and we didn’t have to go back to Reykjavik.
After that, we got into a rhythm, had a little rain here and there, and saw everything that Iceland has to offer.
Here was our itinerary:
DAY 0 – Travel to Reykjavik, Barbadunga warnings
DAY 1 – First camp, stove catches fire
DAY 2 – Geysir and Gulfoss Waterfall
DAY 3 – Seljalandsfoss Waterfall and Skogafoss Waterfall
DAY 4 – Vik and Dyrholaey
DAY 5 – Skaftafell National Park and Svartifoss Waterfall
DAY 6 – Jokulsarlon Iceberg Lagoon, driving to the East Fjords
DAY 7 – Seydisfjordur
DAY 8 – Driving west to Dettifoss Waterfall and Husavik
DAY 9 – Lake Myvatn, Godafoss Waterfall and Akureyri
DAY 10 – Snaefellsnes Peninsula and Stykkisholmur
DAY 11 – Hiking outside Stykkisholmur and Kleifvartn Lake
DAY 12 – Blue Lagoon
Album : https://www.flickr.com/photos/87874299@N08/sets/72157647440846842/
Our Trip’s Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb5CpqjlhAg
