The Golden Circle would take us back to the beginning. The south and southwest coast attracts many a tourist, and for good reasons. Nature, wildlife, culture, history and sea and land collaborate to make this part of the world truly unique.
Time glass
Black sand, extraterrestrial cliff formations, caves, basalt columns and deadly erratic waves and riptide join forces with a ton of seabirds, including the iconic puffins*, to create one of the most dramatic, stunning and cool beach ever to be Instagrammed.
Reynisfjara black sand beach has its well deserved place on the bucket list. And even though I decided not to climb the columns (they can only muster so many tourists before erosion starts), my muttly mascot did.
WFW was hitting hard, and I couldn’t be bothered with Gullfoss. Skogafoss, that one I did, but the main waterfall on my list was, even before we decided to go to Iceland, Seljalandsfoss. To walk behind a waterfall is, has and will always, be cool.
I love democracy
One of the oldest parliamentary democracies started in Iceland in the 900:s. People from all over the island, and in particular the chiefs of the different regions, would convene for the Alþingi at Þíngvellir, where the fate of the nation would be decided. New laws would be proposed, and if accepted by the eligible voters, tested for three years. If they still held up, they would be written into law.
Well, not exactly written, since the laws were stored in the lawgiver’s head, for him to remember and be able to recite by heart.
Of course, th Alþingi was not only about democracy and law. Although only a select few were allowed to vote, the event pulled a crowd, ready for feasting, trade, and dating. With the limited gene pool, it was essential to find partners outside of the home region, and in Þíngvellir, that opportunity would arise.
With the speed of lava
Our Iceland circuit was slowly coming to an end. The last stop before returning to Reykjavík was Gríndavik, where an evilly entertaining sight was beheld. To the rather crowded campsite came four young dudes, possibly Portuguese, with a very limited experience in camping. From the comfort of our truck we noticed their humorously failed attempts at pitching their tent. Time passed, and the quartet didn’t seem to get anything correct, despite googling, youtubing and ignoring the instructions thar were obviously printed on a sheet in the tent sack. The weather was fine, and the hour was not yet late, but eventually we decided to go out and help. Three minutes later, the tent stood tall and proud, with only the straps for the flysheet to be pinned down and tightened.
At which our Iberian foursome failed.
Gríndavik itself is hardly worth stopping for, but it lies close to the Fagradalsfjall area that have had eruption three years running*, forming Iceland’s youngest lava field.
It’s a breathtaking sight, and even though we never got the chance to see the actual active eruption, just witnessing the majestic lava fields fills the spectator with awe.
And once again, the early mornings proved invaluable, as we had the whole field to ourselves, while meeting an entire horde of tourist on our way back to the truck.
Charwell
And so, we circled back, golden-like. Back in the capital, back where it all begun.
In front of the campsite there’s a hostel, in which we spent our last nights, and behind the campsite there’s a beautiful botanical garden. The garden hosts a cosy cafe, in which we had our farewell drinks for our wonderful overlanding family.
Left to our own, we just had a few chores to do before one last look at Reykjavík. We managed to dry our tent and ship it home, along with our other camping gear and some winter clothing, hopefully to arrive shortly before we do.
The famous Hallgrimskjirka had we only seen from afar, so we did the obligatory trip there, before heading to the Punk Museum. True to its own decree, it was closed, contrary to what the official source said, so we’ll have to save that for our next Iceland trip, along with Perlan, the settlement exhibition and the whale museum.
What couldn’t wait, though, were the White Russian at Reykjavík’s Big Lebowski themed bar, or the absolutely divine arctic char at Old Iceland, a highly recommended eatery.
And so came the day to say goodbye to this wonderful, wondrous country. And not even on this, the last, day did the weather disappoint. We have had amazing luck, weatherwise, and the clear skies will forever be a reminder of this amazing leg of our trip, even suggesting, as we flew over it and had a great view of it, that one of our future destination should be Greenland. But first, the Pacific Northwest!
Caroline’s Corner
The final leg of the Iceland tour would mean a lot more tourists. We had had the privilege of being almost the only vagabonds trekking around but now we were not alone anymore. Martin got hit by the waterfall fatigue but I did not. So Snoops McBeagledog and I took a walk around the impressive Gullfoss falls. Named after the gold treasure supposedly hidden in the falls by a man who really did not want to share.
We had a slight (not) drizzle as well as the mists from the ginormous amounts of water being hurled over the cliffs.
Black Beach was an interesting study into the ridiculous stupidity of human beings. The beach is a very dangerous one. The sleeper waves are superman strong and can drag you out into the freezing cold water without warning. You dont even have to be out in the water just slightly water adjacent. If you are washed away from shore then you will for sure drown. The currents are strong, wild and the water is very, very cold.
The warning sign were yellow aka you can safely walk around on the first third of the beach but do you think anyone followed it? Nah. My brain is a disaster brain as most ADHD:ers out there will recognize. It doesn’t mean that our brains are bust, only that some of us always have an inner conversation of about a thousand voices and some of them have already focused on what can go wrong. So I took a very calculated walk on the amazing black sand, took a lot or photos of Mother Earth’s beautiful creations whilst staying within safe distance of the waves.
The columns were impressive, the black sand striking but I kind of got stuck on the puffins! The puffins, the puffins…. so many, so striking and such skilled aviators. I guess that I’m somewhat of a grumpy tourist but I do not want to climb the basalt columns, nor do i want to walk close to the waves washing ashore. I only want to leave a perishable footprint and not climb up and add stress to the soft rock. But I sure like to see and admire the cool natural fenomena. I so very much wanted to bring some of the black sand with me as a memory but I know that so many of us tourists feel the same way. If we all bring just a small piece with us then that total will be so much more. So pictures and memories will suffice…. No souvenir sand for this gal.
The waterfall fatigue of my partnern in crime soon disappeared when we got to climb up some very rickety stairs (although not as rickety as the thin, superscary staircase leading up to the lion rock in Sri Lanka) on our way to the top of the falls. I don’t mind heights when I’m at the top. But I truly and passionately hate the heights when I climb up or down.
When we arrived at the final waterfall Martin was all over it, or should I say “very in to it’ instead since this was the famous “walk behind” falls. So we lined up, followed the other lemmings and actually had a cool experience. It is not everyday one can safely walk behind a great waterfall. The part i enjoyed the most was when leaving the Seljalandsfoss waterfall (Foss means fall therefore I’m actually doubling up on the naming of the fall as fall fall. Tihi) was the swinging part of the waterfall. The winds would catch a stream of water falling and the exit would be fully showered as well as the unfortunate tourist trying to exit the waterfall. Very amusing and rather unpredictable as the wind in Iceland comes and goes on a whim. We managed to exit the falls dry.
Geysir
The geysir area will forever be remembered for a lot of reasons. One is that I finally got to try the bouncy mats one sees in every Icelandic village/town or settlement. Oh boy was it fun but very exhausting. But fun! So if you go to Iceland do try to bounce as well as doing all the classic touristy things.
Another beautiful memory from this trip is from when we started a conversation whilst cleaning up the kitchen tent. The women of the trip started to talk and talk deeply and honestly of menopause, love, relationships, challenges of life with chronic diseases and so forth. We talked about life and the challenges we face as women. We also spoke of how amazing it also is to be a woman today. A group of women from different countries, ages, experiences came together and bonded through the likenesses and differences we share. So beautiful and so empowering. The men popped in, joined for 45 secs and then excused themselves. The sisterhood can be so wonderous, this was one.
The OG geysir, the one to give the name to them all was sadly dormant. But a friend from another journey got to see it erupt. Pretty cool. The one we saw erupt was very impressive so I’m a very happy camper.
Bucket lists are lists that keep on evolving and expanding. But one item on that list has been with me since I was a very small kid learning how to read and then discovering the Sagas. The stories from Iceland and Scandinavia. To visit Thingvellir has been a dream of mine for so long. I was not disappointed, it was an amazing experience. Both the diving in Silfra and this explorative visit. The museum was an enlightenment. I had grown up with the vison of a democratic parliament but women were not allowed to be elected into the Thing. The farmers chose their representative among the chieftains in their neighbourhood. Chieftains were an inherited position. So not the democracy I thought they/we had but a much better one than the rest of the world at this point in time. But despite the pouring rain and umbrella carrying crowds the Thingvellir and its museum is a place well worth the visit.
Grindavik is not a very touristy place. Not that much to see other than it is very close to the three latest volcanic euruptions. And also has a good campsite with some unexpected entertainment Martin has described . Some very naïve young men seriously lacking the ability to read instructions and follow YouTube tutorials gave us an eveningworth of laughter. Even though we finally helped them and gave them tips, tricks and lots of explanations of how they should erect their tent they did not grasp the concept. When we left the campsite early next morning they still had not put up their tent as we instructed. I don’t think they will last 2 the weeks they had planned to travel around on the island…..
A last meal and lots of goodbyes.
Some of our travelmates had to leave early so we drove by the airport and waved goodbye as well as not allowing them to “forget” their pet rocks. Yes, some of us were adopted by a rock and when you are adopted by a pet rock you must bring it with you….
All things come to and end and so did our overlanding tour. Such lovely group of people we had shared this journey with. I’ll be following a lot of blogs, instas and Facebook accounts to keep in touch with all my new friends. The trio herding us was awesome and so professional. Adored all three of them and I very much hope that I’ll meet them again on a future journey somewhere in the world. This was my first trip with Madventure but certainly not my last.
We spent the next two days in Reykjavík exploring, eating and visiting the local post office (had to send our camping gear home). And then we left Iceland but we will be back. Because Iceland is a place we’ll worth a return trip.
*) I would like to decide that the collective noun for puffins is a plethora, but there are quite a few others, including the boring (colony, gathering), the imaginative (wheel, raft, circus), the straightforward (puffinry) and the downright surreal (impropability)
**) the latest of which was Litli-Hrútur, that started a couple of days before we flew in to Reykjavík, and, ironically, lasted until two days before we got back, which is to close to get a full refund for the helicopter ride we had booked, but had to cancel
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