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On the road in Iceland
by Tony Wallbank

In Iceland the hotels have wetrooms. This means that once you’ve had your shower and got your clothes on, if you need to go to the bathroom the floor is still swimming with water. This was one of the first surprises to greet us in Iceland.

A rather bigger one was waiting for nightfall. There was no nightfall! Almost broad daylight continued to stream in through the hotel windows all night. The usual cues to go to bed and sleep were not there. There was a big advantage though: there was no rush to get back from a drive before it got dark – it didn’t get dark. There was a slight dimming and then the sun started coming up again. Many Icelanders were still out and about at 1am, walking around the streets, driving their cars. The only real difference from night to day was that the shops were closed.

I’d wanted to go to Iceland for some years, ever since I became interested in geology. It is a geological wonderland, especially good for those interested in seeing the way continents are being pulled apart and the resulting volcanic activity. The mid-Atlantic ridge, where new ocean floor is continually formed as America and Europe are pulled apart by huge forces in the earth’s interior, comes onshore in Iceland and runs diagonally across the island. This holiday was also my first fly drive, so new experiences all round. More usually I do walking or organised exploring type holidays.

The airport bus from Keflavik airport drove through miles and miles of moonscape with few things growing and lava contorted into all kinds of different shapes. Reykjavik itself has a population of around 350,000, or about the size of Luton. The centre is easily explored on foot and is a strange mixture of concrete, stone, and wooden framed buildings covered in corrugated iron. The city has restaurants in all the usual styles you would find in a city anywhere, though fresh fish is indeed very fresh and on menus everywhere. Our hotel in Reykjavik was being painted. The painter had three jobs, so no wonder Icelanders have one of the highest standards of living in Europe. He worked for his employer during the day, then worked for his own company in the evenings to around 10pm. All the time he was doing his third job of testing artificial legs!

We had three days in Reykjavik, collecting our car on the second day. This was supposed to be a Subaru Legacy estate but turned out to be a Kia Sorrento, a “small jeep” in Icelandic parlance. We took off virtually immediately to explore Iceland.

Driving in town, apart from being in a relatively large vehicle and changing gear with “the other hand” was relatively normal. Out of town however things changed. Most of the roads are built up on top of the surrounding countryside, so going off the edge of the road doesn’t just mean hitting the kerb, or a hedge, but means falling off the edge. Mostly it is a fairly small drop though you’d probably roll the car over. They don’t really go in for barriers and sometimes it is a huge drop right off the edge. Very helpfully, there are lots of short yellow plastic posts with reflectors on the top to help line up where the road goes. Then there are the dirt roads. These vary from dry smooth dirt surface through potholed and wet to ones with rivers to cross and ones with “fast flowing rivers”. We didn’t cross any rivers (except by bridge) as, apart from a natural reluctance to go swimming while at the wheel, our vehicle was not insured to do so. We did explore many dirt roads of varying types and surfaces. It is typical of the country that the largest waterfall in Europe is only reached after driving 25 km along a dirt road.

Iceland was having a heat wave with maximum temperatures around 18 to 20 instead of the usual June average of 11 degrees. This was as good an introduction to driving as possible with nice dry roads and good visibility. Our first stop was overlooking Thingvellir, a huge lake and 10 km wide gash in the landscape. The 10 km space between two cliffs has dropped 50 metres or so and is getting gradually lower and wider as Europe and America are being pulled further apart. This was the spot where Iceland chose to set up its first Parliament over 900 years ago. It only moved to Reykjavik in 1844 when a building looking about the size of a large suburban house was built in the capital to house the government.
The scenery is fantastic, so another driving hazard is trying to keep eyes on the road when all around are such magnificent views. We wondered as we drove along why many of the mountains were flat topped, like Table Mountain. Reading the geology book provided the answer: much of Iceland was erupted under Ice and when the lava reached the ice surface it spread out in a horizontal layer. The whole lot was then planed off by glaciers, and there are lots of the typical U shaped glacial valleys in between flat topped mountains.

Finding the hotel in Reykjavik was interesting: Iceland seemed to have just as many road works as we do. Fortunately the 75 metre tall tower of Hallgrimskirkja, an impressive church looking something like a spaceship and the tallest building in Reykjavik, made a prominent landmark to aim for. Our hotel was immediately opposite. The parking is much better than in the UK with a complete absence of yellow lines and free public parking on the edge of the city centre.

The next day was a geologist’s indulgence day. We drove to the most south-westerly point on the Reykjanes peninsula. Here is where the mid-Atlantic ridge comes on land. The spreading region is about 10 km wide and widening at an inch or two per year. There is a dramatic volcano cone right on the beach that has been split down the middle forming a mini-Atlantic ocean, about 40 metres wide, between the two halves of the cone. We were on dirt roads that were covered in Arctic Terns. As we approached they flew up in swarms. It was just like being in the middle of a wildlife film. The geology book (Classic Geology in Europe No 3 “Iceland”, by Throdarson and Hoskuldsson.,Terra Publishing) was a bit cryptic; we were looking for a farm that had been inundated by lava in the 1400s. We thought we’d missed it and stopped for a walk over the lava field. As luck would have it we were in just the right place. Walking through the lava was surreal. Total silence, small grey mossy plants covered much of it and it was hard on the feet. Breaking a piece open revealed an intricate pattern of holes linked up by blue rock.

One of the more exciting day’s drive was over the track past Hekla. The day started with a walk behind Seljalandsfoss, another hefty waterfall, this one impressive because of its height of 65 metres, plus the fact you could walk behind it and look through the descending water at the sunny plains outside. Hekla is a very active volcano, most recently erupting in March 2000 to celebrate the new millennium. Most of the eruptions are relatively small, though it is still a spooky thing to approach. The road past it starts out nice and hard surfaced but deteriorates into a track across a huge pumice field. The guide book spoke of “the summit shrouded in mist”; however, the weather was kind to us and we had superb views all day, so driving was punctuated by lots of photostops. After passing the mountain there was lots of downhill that got the brakes quite hot, so a long stop was called for while everything cooled off.

We of course couldn’t miss two of the main tourist sights not all that far from Reykjavik. These were Geysir and Gullifoss waterfall. Tour buses combine these with Thingvellir and make a round trip though we did them on our way to our next destination. The most active geyser erupted every ten minutes, and in between gurgled and snarled waiting for the pressure to build up again. It was fascinating to watch, and to try and capture on the camera. Almost as wonderful was a blue and a green hot pool right next to each other. Gullifoss is a huge waterfall, dropping in two steps into a narrow gorge. It deserves its reputation as a “must see”.
The next destination was Borganes, a sleepy small town which in the UK we’d call a village. Borganes lies on a peninsula on the side of a huge fjord. There were superb views across the fjord to the mountains opposite, which changed their colour as the sun went down. A cunning plan to take photos every hour through the night failed when the camera did not have this mode. I needn’t have worried as I was awake most of the so called night and could take pictures manually at various intervals.

We’d booked on a couple of whale watching trips so next day it was off to Olafsvik where the first of these departed. Olafsvik lies on the north coast of the Snaefellsnes peninsula, and here it was cold with the wind from the north. To reach Olafsvik required us to drive over a dirt road pass. Not particularly steep though a bit slippery on the dry surface, and barriers were conspicuous by their absence.

This remote town was fascinating. The centre of town seemed to be the petrol station, which also served as shop, pizza house and general meeting place for youngsters. Here for the first time on our trip the houses looked ravaged by the weather and several looked like they needed a coat of paint.

Olafsvik used to be a whaling town, though now they take tourists to see live whales rather than taking dead whales to the people. Our whale trip had good sunny though cool weather, with some bouncing around over the waves. The boat was a large relatively stable catamaran with a “downstairs” to warm up in, drink hot coffee, eat sandwiches and still see what was going on.

It was midsummer, and a little early for the largest whales to come to feed in the deep seafloor trench a few miles off the coast. We were rewarded though by wonderful views of killer whales (Orca), a family of 5 and a mother and calf. I was really glad I had my old SLR with me as well as the digital camera. With the latter it was a bit hit and miss as the delay in taking the shot after pressing the button gave lots of pictures of empty sea with no whales to be seen. The whales were so close to the boat though, and spent lots of time swimming around that even digital cameras captured some good pictures. Most impressive was managing to get the coastline in the background as well as just the creatures themselves. That evening the hotel restaurant closed at 7pm, just a bit too early for us, so we found ourselves buying hamburgers in the petrol station.

The Snaefellsnes peninsula is one of the remoter spots we came across, and we drove all around it along dirt roads of varying quality. There were more colours in the mountains, some greens, purples, oranges and whites, as well as the usual volcanic greys and black. Exploring a narrow slit in the cliff wall revealed a hidden waterfall and chasm cut in the rock where it was eerily quiet. The tip of the peninsula is uninhabited and has a desert like feel, though instead of desert sand there is black, red and grey volcanic debris, strange looking black cones, some with pale green vegetation, huge lava flows and the odd river coming down from the 4,700 ft snow capped volcano a few miles inland. More rock samples filled up the truck.

From Olavsvik was our longest day’s drive, taking around 6 hours (stops included). Arriving at a tiny village in the middle of nowhere we were surprised to find an outdoor municipal pool, nice and warm, and with hot tub to relieve the stresses of driving. It is fortunate Iceland has geothermal heating to be able to keep this going all year round.

Next day started with more driving, though not so far this time, and by lunchtime we were in the Myvatn area, a nature lovers and geologist’s paradise with a large lake, lots of birds and fascinating volcanic features. There are some volcanic cones here called “rootless cones” that have only been found in Iceland and on Mars. These are formed when hot lava flows over and through soggy ground and explodes. The resulting cones are then fed by more lava flowing along the same route. The lake at Myvatn is shallow and these cones stick out of the water giving a surreal landscape. It is an active area and Krafla, the big volcano in the area, last erupted from 1975 to 1984. There are steam vents all over the place and in one place has sprung up beside the road blocking the view. We were surprised to see a digger coming at us through the cloud of steam. It was actually spreading more volcanic ash on the road, which was being re-built following collapse of its predecessor further up the hill. On the return journey a couple of hours later the way was blocked by a huge lorry dumping more material on the road. They were digging black volcanic ash out of the hillside a few hundred yards away and making the road. We had to wait while the digger roughly spread the stuff out and then we had to drive over the resulting very soft surface. To add to the challenge it was still all covered in steam and impossible to see if there was anything coming the other way. There are fascinating lava formations in the Myvatn region, including a 2 sq km area with huge ornate structures including old lava tubes big enough to hold a concert in. One such structure has the name “the church”.

The Icelandic people are making good use of all the free heat, and this area has a huge geothermal power station. This has been running since 1977 and there is enough steam capacity in the area to expand operations. Iceland would like to use its cheap energy resources (with little greenhouse emissions) to attract big energy users such as aluminium smelters and so reduce the country’s dependence on the fishing industry.

Our second whale watching trip was from Husavik a short drive from Myvatn. This was a complete contrast to the previous trip. This time we had a much stronger wind, though still blowing from the north. The boats were converted wooden fishing boats and we were expected to spend most of our time on deck. We’d put all our clothes and waterproofs on and staggered down to the harbour, only to be greeted by a huge pile of fur lined waterproof giant baby-grows. We struggled into these and then the boat set off.

Outside the harbour the waves came and we rolled all over the place. Despite being issued with sea-sickness tablets many people were seasick and this odour pervaded the deck, only to be cleared when a wave came over and washed it all away. Those of us not so afflicted tried to stay upwind, generally near the bow, though this was the area of maximum movement as we went over waves. I took some pictures of the scenery (wonderful as always) though the couple of Minke whales that surfaced were there for too short a time for photography. It was a good morning out on the sea but we were very glad we’d had the more relaxing and stable trip a few days earlier.

All too soon it was our last day of our holiday and we were enjoying our last Icelandic meal of wonderful fresh seafood. The saddest part of the trip was sorting out which rock samples I could keep and still be within the weight limit on the plane, and the subsequent ceremonial disposing of the ones that didn’t make it into a lake. Then it was drop off the hire car, confessing to the dents we’d made in it and onto a local plane for the short hop from Akureyri to Reykjavik. The good weather had returned and there were spectacular views of the ice cap and glaciers from the plane window. Taking off in Iceland it was ten degrees, though landing at Heathrow England was in its own heat wave and the temperature was 32 degrees. Back home my lawn was all shrivelled up.

First published in VISA issue 63 (Oct 2005)