Iceland 2024 - Part 1. - Reykjavik, Golden Circle & Southern Coast

An Introduction

We briefly visited Iceland in 2009 after an Arctic expedition cruise finished in Reykjavik, the capital city.  Then, with only 5-6 days in country we did what most tourists visiting Iceland do, spend time in the capital, visit the ‘golden circle’ to the north east of Reykjavik and then venture a little way along the southern coast, usually as far as a place called Jokulsarlon, made famous in a James Bond movie.

Well… we did all of that yet again, but this time in more detail, plus doing stacks more over the 2.5 weeks, driving literally around the island.  

In the months before arriving into Iceland, frequent volcanic activity was keeping everyone ‘entertained’ a mere ~60 kms from the capital.

Iceland is famous for its volcanoes and this photo
from Perlan museum shows an historical eruption

So why even re-visit this country, but more on that and more a little later after some Icelandic fun facts first:

• Iceland is smaller in size than just England, so it is quite small, about the same size as Portugal.
• Icelands population is ~393,000 or number 178^th in world population size
• there are about 2 million international travellers visiting Iceland each year
• Glaciers cover about 11% of Iceland
• the ring road around Iceland is 1,332 kms or 828 miles long
  

  

  This is a map of the sealed 'ring road' around Iceland

• the first permanent settler in Iceland was Ingolfur Arnarson, a Norwegian chieftain and his wife in 874 AD

Our Goals and Planning

Our goal for this 2^nd trip to Iceland was very simple… see as much as possible with the clear intent of not returning for a 3^rd visit.

Our planning we thought was fairly detailed and consisted of:

• reviewing a detailed trip itinerary kindly shared with us by PYT (Please Yourself Travel) which acted as a stimulant for our research.  With respect to PYT intellectual property, we did not use this.  Their itinerary whilst quite complete, did not fully suit our objectives and we sort of like doing our own planning.
• Watched a LOT of YouTube videos of others travellers in Iceland, especially those of photographers, as they detailed places on the island to visit and car rental and other tips.
• read lots of articles on travel within Iceland.
• Because there is so much to see, we broke the island into believe it or not, 13 ‘zones’ so as to identify places to see, get clarity on daily distances to travel, lengths of hikes, specific things to look at and where to plan our accomodation.
  

  

  Tourist maps like this were used to assist our planning

• we printed out 13 more detailed google maps and potential route to take to reach various destinations within each zone.  it was laborious but worth it.
  

  

  One of Rob's 13 maps we used to plan
  km's to travel, things to see, accomodation

• There were many days when the route was ~250 kms but it took us 10-12 hrs to complete it, due to finding extra things and the nature of the area we were driving into.
  

Great credit to Rob and her attention to details during a lengthy and intense planning exercise.

There were a few other things to also consider when driving around Iceland.  First there are 3 different types of roads: paved roads, gravel roads, and F roads.  Both paved and gravel roads can be driven using normal cars, but F roads by law, can only be driven on using 4 wheel drives.

We opted to hire a small and common 4 wheel drive called a Dacia Duster to give us the most flexibility.

'Dusty'... our little Dacia Duster

Next thing to learn about and adapt to, at the risk of voiding your car insurance is the wind.  Iceland can be very windy and during our time there we experienced this numerous times.  Part of the car rental conditions, is to ensure you park the vehicle, bonnet first towards the wind, to avoid doors being badly damaged when opened.

As an example, we received a high wind weather alert from the car hire firm on the first day of 95+ kph.  We parked bonnet first towards the strong winds but then it was a major struggle to even open the doors to get out.  We got used to this.

We did come across more evidence of the risks during very strong winds when we came upon a van used for transporting tourists lying on its side down an embankment having been blown off the road by wind.  Behind it was a motorcycle also lying on its side that had also been blown over.

The car we hired, to reduce costs, was a manual, which meant not only driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road but also changing gears with the right hand, especially on rough narrow dirt roads weaving their way up, down and around mountains or into valleys next to the numerous fjords and little to no verges.

Section of the paved Ring Road around Iceland

So hopefully you now have a little context about how we approached our trip within Iceland but few other observations to ponder.

Iceland is a stunningly beautiful destination, rich with varied landscapes, but it is certainly not an inexpensive one.  We selected accomodation, mostly Airbnb’s or guest houses, quite often 15+ kms from the nearest main town, to keep costs down, the compromise becoming having to drive back into the town for a meal or collect some food on the way through them.  

Our planning had to include when eating locations opened and closed because they either opened later or closed early.

The coastal areas around Iceland can be very rugged

So now to the overall map of where our travels took us but will add more specific maps later.

As a reminder, the ring road is 1332 kms long BUT we drove a total of ~4,400 kms!

This shows our total route around Iceland over 2.5 weeks

Okay, so with some of the pre stuff out of the way, where did we go and what did we experience in Iceland and we will do it by broader areas.

Caution… this is the land of ‘foss’ or waterfalls and there are LOTS of them… everywhere, so we hope you like waterfalls!!

In an attempt to keep all this as succinct as possible, we focus on main highlights only but you will see more in the additional photos.  Have also broken Iceland details into multiple posts.

Reykjavik

We actually had 2 stints in the capital Reykjavik, in our view a somewhat eclectic city, first when we arrived and then at the end of the trip. 

Iceland Part 1. route via Reykjavik, Golden Circle & Southern coastline

First time, having collected the car at the airport, we stayed in an Airbnb outside of the city and then closer to the city centre before departing Iceland.  They do make a good coffee in Iceland and have some nice bakeries.

Buildings in the heart of Reykjavik are very varied

Under cloudy skies, wind and occasional showers, we visited the Hallgrimskirkja Lutheran church, with its distinctive internal/external design.  The external design is symbolic of the basalt columns which are very prevalent across Iceland.

Outside of Hallgrimskirkja in Reykjavik

Inside the church and kept very minimalistic

The statue recognises Leif Erikson a Norse explorer believed
to be the first European to step foot on continental America

The volcanic eruption(s) south of Reykjavik were unfortunately dormant whilst there, but we tried to drive out to Grindavik and the Blue Lagoon to see the cooling lava flow and defences built to stop it when it was flowing.

The town of Grindavik was closed due
to volcanic eruption threats

The dark rock is the most recent flows of lava which had
cooled during our time in Iceland

Alas we weren’t allowed anywhere near it all, but on our return visit, they had just opened new dirt roads built on top of the latest lava flows… very impressive.  The Blue Lagoon operation is a major tourist $ drawcard for the country.

Section of the Blue Lagoon complex with an excavator still working
on the horizon to build protection walls using the cooled lava flows

Part of the wall built around the
Blue Lagoon to protect it from lava

Before flying out, we visited a highly recommended experience based museum called Perlan which had been recommended and was fabulous.  It covered the fire, ice and auroras of Iceland, amongst its many audio/visual presentations.

They have created an ice tunnel to walk through, built using actual glacial ice and ash from a major 2011 volcanic eruption with a chilly -10c temperature.  You can do natural ice tunnel tours which we searched for, but we were too far into their summer season to achieve this.

Rob walking through the man made ice cave

Inside the ice cave at Perlan

Iceland gets very cold in winter and as a result, using geo-thermal heat from below, they heat some of the main roads and footpaths in the city centre to keep them free of ice and reduce people slipping on ice.

The Golden Circle

The ‘Golden Circle’ is a ~250 km circular tourist route heading inland from Reykjavik and takes in some of Iceland’s more well known attractions like Gullfoss, note - ‘foss’ in the name, otherwise also known as the ‘Golden Waterfall’.

Walking towards Gullfoss

Looking into the cauldron of Gullfoss,
a constant stream of tourists coming & going

In the circle there is also the town of Geyser, an area known for its active geysers along with bubbling hot springs, steam vents and sulphurous mud pots.

 

 
A sequence of the hot water beginning to explode from below the earth

The geyser at Geysir doing its thing

Iceland is known also as being the home of a meeting between 2 major tectonic forces, namely the American and Eurasian plates and it is here you can walk down between the 2 of them.

Walking down into the gap between the
Eurasian & American tectonic plates

Now we did warn you about ‘fosses’ as there was Oxarafoss located close to the tectonic plates in Pingvellir Nat. Park.

Oxarafoss from a distance then a lot closer

Further into the Golden Circle after negotiating some dirt road and some walking, we visited one of our favourites fosses due to is almost out-worldly blue colour, Bruarfoss… simply magnificent.

Bruarfoss was definitely one of our favourite waterfalls

We finished our time travelling the Golden Circle with the 6,500 year old Kerid Crater, yet another sign of Iceland’s volcanic reality and history.

Kerid Crater in the Golden Circle

Southern Iceland Coast

It was now time to join the circle road heading towards the town of Vin along the south coast and as sure as night follows day we were soon admiring yet more fosses in the form of Urridafoss and Aegissidufoss.

Very rugged Urridafoss

There were fisheman trying to
catch salmon at Aegissidufoss

But there are 2 major fosses people venture down here to see, starting with Seljalandsfoss.  We knew we had found it with all the buses and cars in the car park and people walking towards a wall of mist.

The strong wind created a water curtain of spray at
Seljandsfoss as crowds walked to and some got soaked by it

The wind was howling away creating a thick mist off this waterfall, the sun behind it accentuating the mist and many people were being tempted to do what this waterfall is renowned for… walking behind it.  

With all the wind churning the falling water, those brave souls who went behind the wall of water came out soaked, even with raincoats on, with water being forced down their necks and soaking their legs.

You can see a few people walking behind Seljandsfoss

Following a path from Seljalandsfoss and with a tip from our son Callan, we also experienced Hidden Foss, another waterfall hidden from view and observed by venturing through a crack in the side of a cliff.

Hidden Foss is very well named

Further east along the ring road we reached the next main foss attraction… Skogafoss whose waters are fed from 2 glaciers and is one of its biggest, with a drop of 60 metres and a width of 25 metres, mind you, there are quite a few big waterfalls as you will see.

Rob walking towards Skogafoss

Skogafoss is a wide powefull foss

Already we had been seeing large swathes and fields of purple flowers and discovered they are called Nootka Lupine and were introduced from Alaska for the purpose of land reclamation due to degradation.  It has now invaded Iceland like cane toads have in Australia and is toxic to animals. 

It may be a pest but the fields of lupines made a beautiful sight

As we ventured further along the southern coast we were welcomed by moss covering old lava flows, before the moss eventually breaks down combined with dust to form dirt.

Eventually moss grows over old lava flows like this
and eventually the moss breaks down to dirt

Because of all the volcanic activity over the eons, most of the beaches in Iceland are not white or yellow, they are black and we visited one of the most dangerous ones, Reynisdranger.  Here they have warning lights, advising of the sea state and risk of ‘sneaker waves’ suddenly appearing and washing visitors out to sea.  There have been numerous deaths here!

Wave warning sign before we stepped onto Reynisdranger beach

Basalt columns are one of the attractions at Reynisdranger

This where people get washed out to sea when walking around
the front of these columns of basalt at Reynisdranger

People visit here to admire the basalt stacks down along the beach and we had to make way for an ambulance making its way off the beach taking someone with a broken leg to hospital in Vik.

Along this coastline there are very long stretches of black beaches and rock formations, best admired from the top of cliffs at an area called Dyrholaey... you just have to love the names of things in Iceland.

The long black beaches at Dyrholaey

Along the southern coastline at Dyrholaey
there are all sorts of formations

We climbed up to a cave to look back through the opening
towards the coastline around Dyrholaey

During this part of our drive, on one occasion we stayed in a remote located hotel which included breakfast.  Whilst searching for things,  we’d ask one of the staff a few questions, no big deal, but a little later, she came up to us with the other staff person on duty, her husband it turned out, and asked us a few questions.

“Are you Australian?” which we confirmed we were.  “Is it true there are huge spiders in Australia the size of dinner plates?”.  “We would love to visit Australia but all your spiders and snakes scare us”.  This is a comment we have heard many times during our travels.

Rob replied in a typically direct way, “nah, not sure about spiders that big but we hardly every see spiders and snakes normally, so don’t worry too much about them”. A. slight sense of relief spread across the locals faces but then Rob finished it of with, “its not the spiders and snakes that will get you, its the crocodiles and sharks that will!”. Oh boy!

We started being teased by what we would see a lot more of at the far end of the southern coastline... glaciers and their associated lakes.  Here is just a small dose!

This was one of our first views of an icecap along the southern coast

Solheimajokull is an outlet glacier of the massive icecap of Myrdalsjokull on the South Coast of Iceland and it also happens to be one of the more easily accessible glaciers, so we wnt for a walk to have a look.  Some visitors were having a very close look.

Solheimajokull glaciers from a distance

Look closely and you will see a group of tourists walking
on the Solheimajokull Glacier

So we have managed to make our way throughout the capital of Reykjavik, around the Golden Circle and now along the southern coast of Iceland... BUT there is a lot more to come.

CLICK HERE for more photos of Iceland 2024 - Part 1.

Now with all the introductory stuff out of the way, look out for Iceland Part 2. and go well.