As part of TGT2.5 we have had several side trips and I haven't written about them much to my great shame. There's still the end of our France trip, as well as our 2nd part of the UK adventure visiting TGT2.5:2's cousins and our arrival in Clog Wog land. As well as settling into the rhythm of daily life here and TGT2.5:3-5 going to school and TGT2.5:2 starting a Masters at the University of Clog Wog. I still want to write about all this and our side trips to Berlin, Stockholm, Smaland so as you can see there is much to bore you with poor reader. It's just that blimey I've been a bit busy with work. However, I cannot let a trip to Iceland go without a comprehensive report, because quite frankly it deserves one and it was on the Bucket List. So here goes....
TGT2.5:2 and I had planned that TGT1 include a trip to Snowland as it was first called but the prospect of a horrifically expensive trip put us off at the time, so we've been wanting to visit the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean for about 15 years now. It was time to go and all the more
Part of the reason we had been charged a small African country's debt for our luggage when we left Australia was that we had packed all our snow gear for Iceland and our forthcoming trip to the north of Sweden, so we were going to wear every single one of those puffy Aldi jackets 24 hours a day in Iceland to get our money's worth.
For some reason Iceland kind of scared us and as it turned out, with good reason. TGT2.5:2 and I hadn't had this level of trepidation since we cycled through Tibet over the Himalayas.
The flight was uneventful enough apart from being with an airline called WOW! Such a name doesn't inspire confidence, as in "Wow, we actually took off!", "Wow, the wings are still attached!" and "Wow, we actually landed!" all in a bright purple colour and with dimmed internal purple lights that made you swear you were in a long, narrow brothel rather than an Airbus A321.Anyway, WOW we landed OK and the adventure was on.
We had booked a 4WD and after collecting the baggage and triple checking that we actually collected the right ones (see earlier post), we went to find the airport office of the car hire place. Now this particular car hire company isn't a big name but I thought, it'll be fine, cheap and cheerful. Ahhhh you poor deluded fool. It turned out the airport office wasn't AT the airport, it was NEAR the airport. We bumped into a chap with the appropriate company logo and he said I'll take you to the office. Great. It was only when we left the building and started wandering out into the car park on an already dark, cold and blustery evening I began to be a little bit concerned. Just where is the office? I'll drive you there!
Right.
So in we hopped and drove for what seemed like 2 hours (it was 10 minutes) to a dark, industrial area beside an old aircraft hanger with the door rotting away and flapping in the wind.
Welcome to Icerental4x4!
This was not the slick, cool, 21st century Iceland we were expecting but we are not easily fazed and went about signing the paperwork, but before we did, our helpful young chap went into our insurance options and boy, there were plenty! Now we've hired plenty of cars on TGT2.5, from a horrendous hour long experience near Heathrow airport, to slick and smooth in Sweden, but this one was something else. There were, if I recall correctly, about 7 different insurance options and you were going to pick one because Iceland is a place where cars come to die, even brand new ones. Before we chose our insurance option, our chap helpfully informed us about a customer a couple of weeks previously who had to drive for 300 kms holding the door closed because the ferocious winds had almost blown the door off its hinges. You could have windscreen cover, side cover, scratch cover and in Iceland one of those was going to get you either way, but there was no cover for damaged undercarriage, punctured tyres ("go and get it fixed yourself, it'll be cheaper"), horses chewing your car "Wait, what?!" (apparently the salty body panels are rather tempting for the local breed), or ripped off doors (we quickly hatched a child lock plan to the horror of teenage TGT2.5:3)
We got the premium insurance.
Yet another small African country's debt to our credit card and a promise to ourselves to keep those pesky nibbly horses away from our car we headed off.
The drive from the Keflavik airport to our AirBNB in Reykjavik was about 50 kms. 50 of the most nerve racking kms I've ever driven. It was dark, it was snowing on and off, it was blowing a crosswind gale on a single carriage highway with street lighting straight from 19th century London. There were times the crosswind meant that I didn't really have any say in which direction we were travelling. I am still staggered we got there in one piece but arrive we did. TGT2.5:3 then promptly threw open the door and the door almost came off its hinges as the wind caught it! THE CHILDLOCKS!
The next challenge was getting into the AirBnB apartment. To say the door was a bit difficult to open is quite an understatement. After 3 attempts we finally pushed it open to discover that the door frame was approximately 2 mm smaller than the door. Hmmm. Nevertheless it was warm, had a big TV and a warm shower which TGT2.5:3 was the first to try, but not without some consternation. He yelled from the bathroom:
"Why does the shower smell like farts?"
That would be the health giving mineral springs dear child.
We had planned to go out early the following day to see the Golden Circle but there was a small snag. The door frame seemed to have shrunk in the night and now it was literally impossible to pull open the door with the flimsy handle. So somehow we had landed in a Viking prison. We were stuck in the prison for a good hour while we wrestled with the door and tensions were rising. Eventually got on to the owner of the apartment who finally showed up and had to give the door a huge shoulder charge in order to open it. We told him we were worried we might not be able to open the door again and with masterful understatement and perfect English he said' "that's understandable".
Thanks Thor but what are ya gonna do about it? He assured us he would get it fixed by the time we got back from the day's outing. Hmmm.
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| Not 'grandma's' balls but dried fish anyone? |
Hmmm, I wonder if TGT2.5:2 realises all Icelanders can understand English.TGT2.5:2 took over the driving and we had our first stop at Kerith crater. We had to pay a token entrance fee to get in and clearly the woman at the small wooden booth which she looked too big for, was a bit bored by her job:
"two adults and 2 kids please and we're not sure about TGT2.5:3 "
"No"
"Excuse me?"
"No"
Only then did a tiny cheeky smile come across her face and she waved us through at minimal cost. The crater was the first chance to explore a bit of Iceland's volcano action which was then followed by a visit to the Geysir. We followed the crowds (can't imagine what it's like in summer) to ole reliable and it didn't disappoint. They had roped off the area around the geysir so you stood maybe 5-10 metres back from it and every 30 seconds or so it blew water 30 metres into the sky, then maybe 5 metres, then maybe 2 metres. Very chaotic pattern. It was after a couple of small fountains that some English school girls downwind of us muttered sarcastically, "Yeah yeah mother nature". Obviously, you can guess what happened next. The water erupted maybe 40 metres into the sky and the prevailing wind promptly covered all the girls were in farty smelling water. English school girls 0- Mother Nature 1.
Next we headed to Gulfoss and another Icelandic wonder. A spectacular waterfall and amazing icicle shapes all around it. Our first of many impressive waterfalls. After that, it was to Thingvellir national park where the tectonic plates are pulling apart. Having done a geology degree (I've forgotten everything so don't ask any tricky questions) I was pretty stoked to be at such a geologically significant place and it was pretty remarkable.It was the end of a long day and we headed back to Reykjavik to attempt to open our apartment door. Thor hadn't fixed it as we suspected so we came up with a plan to escape the Viking prison in the morning. We figured the Icelanders had got the whole pillaging thing out of their system by now so we just kinda closed the door and put it on the door chain, hoping for no wind overnight. Done.
The next day it was the first of our tour along the south coast. We had to go over the same pass again to Selfoss but this time it was completely clear with no wind. Now that makes a difference. An amazing drive. With Grandma's Balls (rapidly becoming a favourite) restocked, we were headed to two waterfalls on our way to Vik. The first, Seljalandfoss, you were able to walk behind which was pretty spectacular and TGT2.5:3-5 took the opportunity to get mighty close and completely drenched, much to my great frustration. In fact, it's fair to say I had a bit of a tantrum. Then we went to our second, Skogarfoss with a delightful rainbow and climb up for a view from the top. The view included Eyjafjallajokull, (I can even say it now). Eyjafjallajokull (literally Island Mountain Glacier) got a bit of notoriety in 2010 when it stopped air travel for a few weeks. Looked mighty peaceful to us, but that's the thing about Iceland, it looks beautiful and peaceful but you just know the place can turn on you in a second.
From Skogarfoss we drove to Vik to stay in a hostel with a magnificent view at the base of a mountain. We dumped our things and headed to the black sand beach for an appointment with some Icelandic horses, a belated birthday present for TGT2.5:5. They are such characters that I was almost tempted to go for a ride on one but not enough. I've tried horse riding plenty of times and it ain't for me. TGT2.5:2 and TGT2.5:5 are old hands on the back of a horse but TGT2.5:3-4 had never ridden and what a place to start-at the base of mountains in Iceland on a black sand beach they headed off. Those Icelandic horses are a bit special, small and a bit cheeky as well as their characteristic 5th gait. Apparently, some can't do the 5th gait (about 10%) and if one leaves Iceland it is never allowed to return.
I became the designated photographer and in between wandering down the other end of the beach and thinking about surfing on insane waves in freezing water, I snapped these.
Too soon they were back after their ride. All of them loved it.
We still had some daylight so it was time to head to the basalt columns on another black sand beach. The little monkeys TGT2.5:3-5 clambered up them to an unnerving height within seconds. Then TGT2.5:3 decided to challenge the ocean by dancing around the water's edge and the Sneaky Waves.
Sneaky Waves you ask? Well no, we would probably say GIANT KILLER WAVES, but that's just us. We kept an eye on TGT2.5:3 but perhaps not quite close enough as a concerned Viking came up to ask and ask if we wanted to stop our children being swept out to sea. Sneaky Waves come out of nowhere on an otherwise calm day and sweep you up and take out to sea, just like one poor Chinese guy a few years before. TGT2.5:3 assured us he was in complete control and knew what he was doing. Yeah right. To which we mentioned something about car doors and wind gusts.
The following day we headed for Gerdi via a couple of glaciers across the volcanic desert. The desert was extraordinary, like a Martian landscape. There was a stop where there used to be a farm which has subsequently been abandoned due to a combination of lava flows and floods. At the farm travellers used to stop at the farm before crossing the Icelandic desert and for good luck, they would stack some balanced rocks. Now there are thousands of these stacks. Glad we stopped. Seemed like we were in need of more luck so we added a few more. Quite a sight.
We made it across the desert with good weather and saw a turn-off to the Skaftafell glacier. Not an easy track. More potholes than road in fact and we were glad we were in a 4WD, with doors, as we bounced down the 2 km track. We saw quite a few little hatchbacks bouncing down the very same road and we could see the point of the whole insurance thing. Being up close to a glacier is a humbling experience as it was calving into a small lake with the characteristic blue water and blue ice.
We bounced our way back down the 2 km track and could see a few cars on their way to the car graveyard as they scraped along the road before making our way to the glacial lagoon at Jokulsarlon. What an extraordinary place. The whole lagoon is about 5 km long by about 3 km wide and funnels out through a narrow channel to the sea under a bridge. The channel was blocked by a dozen or so bits of glacier and generated its own mini waterfalls.
We walked along the edge of the lagoon just metres from icebergs the size of city blocks slowing floating across the lagoon which was a moving experience. If that wasn't remarkable enough we then drove down to the black sand beach beyond the channel where the icebergs finally make it out into the ocean. Many get washed back on to the beach and in the process, become sculpted crystals with glass like clarity. This meant in effect we were wandering along an outdoor black sand beach gallery. It was breathtaking.
However, it started to bucket down, the sun was setting and it was time to bunker down in our guest house further up the road in Gerdi. We arrived in the dark in the middle of absolutely effing nowhere! I mean remote in Iceland!!!! Cold and hungry for our only night where we weren't self-catering, we had a rather indulgent dinner at the guest house restaurant which was nice enough dinner and I don't want to be too critical but don't travel to Gerdi for a great curry.
We had to get up early the next day to give ourselves plenty of time to get to our ferry to Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands) 270 km away. Google maps said it would take 3 and a half hours so we gave ourselves 5 and a half hours, just in case. We were a bit nervous given our previous driving experiences over the last few days and in the back of our minds was the petrol situation.
We drove on to the ferry and headed off on the 30 min trip to the island. To those of you familiar with the movie How to Train your Dragon, you'd know the island of Berk, well bugger me that was where we were headed. Even being shrouded in mist. Completely magical. Not so magical was the swell and the resultant wobbly legs and wobbly tummies for TGT2.5:2-5. It passed as we headed closer and closer to the island of Berk, passing high volcanic cliff-edged islands with nesting birds. The ferry rounded another cliff-edged facade which turned out to be the gateway into the harbour.
We had booked a hostel for the night. We duly arrived and walked in the open door and waited. No one was in so we called the number left at the desk and were promptly informed to let ourselves into our room, 'the best in the hostel' with the key was in the door. There was plenty of time left in the day and we had things to do and puffins to see. Literally. We headed to the local fish museum. Now that's not a phrase I ever thought I'd utter. Anyhoo, they have lots of fish in the Westman Islands and we saw lots of fish but more importantly the people who run the museum also rescue puffins who don't make it to the ocean but rather only make it to the streets of Heimaey. They rescue 5500 baby puffins each year and release them out into the ocean when they're ready, however, some don't make it, such as Thor and Odin, two of the cutest puffins you ever did see. So we spent a wonderful 10 minutes hanging out with Thor and one-eyed Odin as they scampered around our feet. As well as being a bit fond of puffins, the puffin visit was also in honour of my mum, Mary. One of the things she always wanted to do was to see her favourite birds, puffins, but never got the chance to do it. Well, mum, they're just as wonderful as you thought they were.
We returned to the hostel to discover we were all alone. The owner of the hostel hadn't bothered showing up and we had the whole place to ourselves, all 20 rooms, 5 bathrooms, reception area, kitchen and dining area of 4 cafe style tables and a bar. We could run the place! It would have been perfect had Iceland followed Denmark's liquor licensing laws, but unfortunately, they follow Sweden's and a bottle of wine costs 2 children and 3 small pets. So we commandeered the enormous telly instead, plugged our computer in and watched a Netflix movie. We had a very cosy night, each taking a different room, with a leisurely start to the next day and eventually, the owner turned up at about 9 am.She was a local going back, well, 900 years I reckon. She was a kid when Eldfell erupted in 1973. They evacuated the island and only the police and firefighters remained behind. For some reason, her parents stayed behind while she and her sister said goodbye to their parents, unsure whether they would see them again and were put on a boat with some money to catch a taxi to their grandparents in Rejkavik. Luckily there had been bad weather and all the fishing boats were in the harbour ready to ferry the 4000 people off the island. She told me how she still remembered how terrified she was and how they had to hop up and down on the road as the ground had become so hot even with shoes on. Eventually, she and her sister made it to her grandparents' place, opened the door to find her parents sitting at the table. They had been flown off the island soon after the girls left. Somehow no one was killed during the eruption but the trail of lava was still pretty easy to see from the top of Eldfell.
The owner was only to tell her story, apparently satisfied that all was well before she nicked off again. "Leave the key in the door please"
Sure, no worries.
It was back on to the ferry for another stunning trip back to the mainland with calmer seas and clear skies with amazing views of the snow-covered mountains. We headed towards Rejkavik but had a stop planned first. We were going to swim in a river. As you do in winter in Iceland. OK autumn, but felt like winter as the temperature hovered around 0-2 degrees C on most days of our stay.
We found our way to the start of the walk and TGT2.5:2 and I were a bit doubtful about the whole exercise. We were to trek 3.5 km up a mountain path (not too strenuous), in the beautiful but cold weather, then get all our gear off and plonk ourselves in the hot spring stream and return before sunset. Despite our misgivings, we headed up through stunning landscape but when we got there it was completely at odds with any degree of sanity. A couple of dozen people were getting their kit off in very public change places (no walls, simply a fence of sorts) and jumping into the water. It took a while to convince ourselves of the merits of following them in but eventually we did (even TGT2.5:2 who doesn't swim in Australia unless it is 40 degrees and she is wearing a wet suit). We de-robed in full public view (not something for the shy) including yelled comments from TGT2.5:3 when I was getting change "The Moon is out tonight!"Thanks
We lay in the warm, but frankly, not quite warm enough water which was barely 30 cm deep for a good 15 mins before we decided it was time to go back down the mountain as it was getting a bit late and the clouds looked like they were coming in. Now getting your gear off when you're dry and jumping into warm water is a very different prospect to getting out of warm water, still dripping wet and trying to get 5 layers of clothing on in a hurry at zero degrees. We weren't very good at it. By the time TGT2.5:2 and I had practised on TGT2.5:3, we were much better. TGT2.5:3 to his eternal shame was a bit of a wuss and kept whinging about he was in agony from the cold. Now TGT2.5:3 won't like to hear it, but he has a little bit of insulation as he has been doing essentially no exercise since we've been away. This differs to TGT2.5:4 and 5 who are skinny as rakes and despite our best efforts were shaking uncontrollably in the cold before we got their clothes on them. Nevertheless, 7 layers made a difference and as we walked back down the mountain they were all warming up. There was only about an hours light left in the day (we had already been 1.5 hours up the mountain) and the clouds were coming in fast and at some points, we could only see a few metres in front of us. To our astonishment people were still coming up the mountain.With bugger all light left and potentially a blizzard on the way, these people were going for a swim. We heard later that you needed a torch to come back down but we saw no torches and no fear. WTF?!?!It was time for our final leg back into Reykavik and we were pleased we still had our doors on. I headed to the car with the boys while TGT2.5:2 took TGT2.5:5 to the toilet. I started the engine to warm the car with the boys sitting in the back but TGT2.5:3 was having another teenage episode and in frustration, I got out of the car to take a few deep breaths and calm down. Suddenly there was some shouting and I turned around to see our car slowing beginning to roll down the hill off the road into the rocky lava field beyond!!!
Now we've all seen this in movies and it's really funny, right?
WRONG!!!!!!
OMFG I don't know how I did it but I caught up with the car, jumped in and yanked on the hand brake just before the car crunched into a boulder. By this time there was only 1 kid in the car. TGT2.5:4 was the one who had jumped out of the car and started yelling frantically looking for TGT2.5:2 hoping she could help, not knowing that I was standing on the other side of the car. He returned with a terrified TGT2.5:2 and 5 to see the car reversing back up the hill.
Turns out the handbrake was on, but not hard enough and the car had slowly started to move. TGT2.5:3 sensed it was time for action, but the problem was he wasn't sure which way put the handbrake on and which way put the handbrake off. He chose wrong and the car had rapidly begun to accelerate when he pushed the handbrake down.
What's the take-home lesson in all that?
Don't hire a car in Iceland I think.
Once the frayed nerves were a bit settled we headed into the big smoke and stayed at a decidedly Soviet era looking guest house. I don't mean to start an international incident with Iceland but a lot of Rejkavik is frankly pretty ugly. Lots of apartment blocks that look like they've come straight out of the iron curtain. It's not a place to make you gasp in wonder.
The Icelandic Viking Saga museum was also on our morning tour and showed us the beginning of Iceland. Leif or Erik or someone threw a rune engraved wooden pole over the side of the boat and declared that wherever the pole washed up on shore, that would be where he would build his settlement. Well, he landed, set up and camp and sent his 2 slaves around the island to find the pole. It took them 3 years (3 YEARS!!!!) to find the pole and it was in a dodgy place with little going for it. Despite that they upped stumps and set up their town which is now Reykjavik (Smokey Bay, so called because of all the steam coming out of the earth). Tough life for the Vikings back then. Think I prefer the inner west of Melbourne to be frank. Lots of blood thirsty stuff. After some lunch it was time to visit our final Iceland treat, The Blue Lagoon.
The Blue Lagoon is THE place everyone goes to and we waited till the end of our trip to go there. We had got the impression in our time that despite tourism becoming quite important in the Icelandic economy, they don't really seem to twig to all the opportunities to fleece your average traveller apart from hire cars of course. All the places we visited like the geysir, the waterfalls, the crater were either free, or close to, but they have well and truly figured out how to separate a tourist from their cash at the Blue Lagoon. TGT 2.5:3 was suddenly 13 again to save a us a pretty penny but what a place. It was an extravagant but delightful place to finish our adventures. They even had staff wandering around the lagoon giving people mud masks for their beauty treatments accepted by TGT2.5:2, 3 and myself. The lagoon had the characteristic farty smell with lifeguards dressed as if they were about to go skiing, guarding the lagoon full of people wandering around in their swimmers.
It was then time to head to our final AirBNB to get an early night's sleep as we had to get up at 3.30 am in order to return the car and get the shuttle to the airport. After our various travails we were well and truly ready to return the car and duly arrived at 4.15 to walk in on another family going through the dreaded damaged car and no insurance discussion. Glad we got the premium insurance. After a tense 15 minutes they coughed up and I wandered outside with the car hire fella to check over our car. It was blowing a gale by now and the paperwork promptly flew out of his hand. I chased it down the pitch black parking lot and in the process TGT2.5:5's dental plates (yes, they should have been in her mouth) fell out of my satchel somewhere on to the pitch black ground.
Seriously!
The plates are $300 to replace so we all found ourselves scouring the ground in the darkness at 4 in the morning while a gale raged looking for a couple of small bits of plastic and metal.
Somehow against all the odds, TGT2.5:2 found them and peace was restored but I was destined to sleep on the couch for a decade. (Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident. In our recent trip to Berlin I lost our credit card and almost lost my laptop. I'm not having a good run and TGT 2.5:2 patience is understandably wearing thin)
The car hire guy gave us the all clear and we breathed an enormous sigh of relief.
We made it to the airport and jumped on our purple plane, said farewell to Iceland and headed back to Clog Wog land
Phew. Need a rest.
þetta reddast.
