Iceland Ring Road Adventure
Our 2022 Iceland Ring Road adventure is now completed. We spend 8 days & 7 nights in Iceland. Our trip started on Easter Sunday Night at 8:50pm, departing from Logan International Airport BOS heading to Keflavik International Airport KEF. The flight is smooth and Icelandair have great service. We have 2 drink services during the 5 hrs flight time. We landed in KEF around 5:45am GMT. Entering Iceland is very easy due to no covid restriction and no visa required. It takes about 20 mins to get through and pick up our luggage.
Day 1
We are now officially enter Iceland. Here is the start of our Day 1 trip. Once we have our luggage, we proceed to the arrival area. I called our rental company to schedule shuttle pick up. Due to it's a public holiday for Iceland, we have limited shuttle service. We waited for 30+ mins at the terminal before our shuttle arrived and picked us up to the rental office. Once at the rental office, we spend about 30 mins to finalize the rental contract. The rental office for Campeasy is very welcoming. All guests have access to WiFi, coffee/tea/water, lounge and clean restroom. At around 8:20am, I have access to our rental campervan. We loaded up the campervan with our luggage, watch some introduction video, got some food pantry items, map lookup, cellphone connected to WIFI and pick up our comforter/pillow/table/chair. We are ready to depart to our first stop at around 9am.
A little showcase about our rental campervan. We rented a campervan big enough to accommodate 5 person. It’s a converted Diesel ford transit. The seating arrangement is 2 rear and 3 front. Space wise, it’s enough and comfortable for road-trip. The cabin of the van has a dinette table and U-shape lounge chair. The chair and table can be converted into sleeping platform, enough space for 3 person. There is secondary sleeping platform on top bunk where 2 person can comfortable sleep. There is a small kitchenette with wash bowl, fridge and storage drawers. All rental come with cooking tools (pots & kettle), 2 camping burner with gas cartridges (extra cartridges can be purchase separately) and 5 person dining utensils, plates, bowls, cups & silverware. The cabin is heated by a webasto heating system that connected to the main vehicle diesel tank. It’s powered by an aux battery which also served as 12v and usb for electronic charger. The aux battery will be charged by vehicle while driving.
Our original plan was to go grocery shopping. But since most grocery store don't open until 10am and it’s a public holiday in Iceland, we have extra time to explore. I change our plan (this is happening throughout our trip) and start heading south toward Reykjanes peninsula to visit a few attraction nearby. Our first stop is the Land Bridge between 2 tectonic plates, Eurasian and North America. Then, we head to a lighthouse/Valahnúkamöl (cliff). This is the scene of a movie, Eurovision, where Will Ferrell play an electric piano. We stayed for about 30+ mins before head to the Famous Blue Lagoon. We didn’t purchase our ticket to Blue Lagoon for several reason (not a smart decision as this will spoil us later). Most passenger is tired due to the overnight flight and taking a power nap. I snap a few photos with Cherie & Christopher at the front building sign.
It's about 11:00am and grocery store is open. We head to the City Reykjavik to shop at Costco. Arriving at Costco around 11:30am. We shopped for food at Costco. While at Costco, we also order lunch. We got a pizza and hotdogs from the Costco food stand. We got some bakery, fruits and sushi platters from Costco.
Next we shop at a grocery store, Bonus (next to Costco). Bonus is one of the supermarket chain store in Iceland. You can find Bonus at most large towns and cities. Here, we got some bread, yogurt, snacks and water.
After we got our food, we head out to do the famous Golden Circle. Our first stop is Thingvellir National Park. What a beautiful change of scene. From wasteland (near airport) to City urban to Snow covered mountain and lake. We stopped for a short hike. Our next destination is Geysir, a hot springs geyser. We stay to watch the active geyser action. After Geysir, we drive a bit further and arrived at our first waterfall encounter, Gullfoss. Gullfoss meant golden waterfall in Icelandic. We see rainbow over the waterfall. We also encounter some massive arctic truck at the gullfoss service area. There is a tour for a near by glacier. I chatted with one of the tour guide about their massive arctic truck. This is an activities that I would sign up to experience. But due to our limited time, This experience will need to wait till our next Iceland adventure.
We are now heading south to the coastal. There are several POI along the way, but we had to bypass due to limited time. While heading south, we will leaving the golden circle and entering the Ring Road, aka Route 1. The ring road is one of the major road that circled the island/country. It’s a major route that connected many towns together. We connected to ring road after the town of Selfoss. From there we headed east on Ring Road. We try to find a campground to settle down for the evening. April in Iceland still consider winter time. During this winter time, campground services is limited. After thoroughly research, I try to head to my first choice. We struck out to find the campground open in Hella. We headed more east. Another campground is not open at seljalandsfoss. With limited selection we continue to head east toward Skogafoss. Third time is a charm. We found our camping spot at Skogafoss. We parked at the parking lot of Skogafoss. Skogafoss is another awesome waterfall. Camping at the area with waterfall view on background. Can’t think of anything better than this. Here, we cooked our first dinner and rest quietly for the night.
Day 2
Last night, we camped at Skogafoss. We having some jet lag because iceland is 4 hours ahead of EST. Also, due to red eye flight, we haven’t rest good and we are still recouping from our tired travel scheduled yesterday. But we are very excited about this trip and this keep us awake early in the morning. The campervan arrangement also need some adjustment too. Because we wake up early, we take time to walk/hike around Skogafoss area. I hiked up to the fall. There is a viewing platform on top of the waterfall. Took some video and photos while sun rise behind the waterfall. Here is some info about Skogafoss campsite. It’s actually is the parking lot for Skogafoss. At around 8am, you will start to see visitor (rental car/campervan) pulling up to visit the waterfall. Not all team wake up early. Some was lay back and continue to rest a little later. For breakfast, we boiled some hot water for coffee and drink. We also consumed some skyr, aka yogurt, purchased from Bonus. We also have bakery good purchases from Costco. After all member wake up and complete morning prep, we walk closer to the waterfall one last time and got some picture. During this time, the campground host/attendant finally got in. She stop by our campervan with a payment machine. I’m gladly paid your camping fee. I’ve seen camper left the campground prior the attendant arrived. Those camper probably get a free pass because no one ask for payment. It was around 9am before the attendant arrived our campervan. It’s time to continue our day 2 journey. We are backtrack a bit. We turn west bound and drive back to some missed attraction from yesterday. Our first stop is an old hut/house named Drangurinn. We explored the old house and took some photos. Our next stop is the bra fence. Out of no where, there is a section of fence with a lot of bras hung on it. I search for the history, but can’t find much info. The Bras is not as much as prior Covid. I think the owner of the farm removed some bras off the fence. Yet, there still some remaining bras still hung on the fence. If you the history of this bra fence, please let us know. Definitely interested learning some fact/history. We are moving on to the next attraction. Before we reach our destination, we stop by a roadside sculpture. It’s a puffin sculpture. We always intrigued with puffin. We hope to get a glimpse on puffin on this trip. Some info listed on the sign. There is an island named Vestmannaeyjar not far from our location. This island is famous puffin viewing as puffin is a frequent visitor/resident to this island. We don’t have a plan to visit this island on this trip. Maybe next time. We arrived to our next destination, Seljalandsfoss. Another awesome waterfall. This waterfall allowed guest to hike behind the waterfall. We found a good parking spot and start to walk toward the waterfall. Parking in this area cost 700kr. You can paid at the paid station. This is my first time using credit card to pay fee. Prior to our trip, I already prep 2-3 credit card for this trip. Most payment in Iceland use contactless payment. There is also many store used apple or Google pay. First, I can’t complete the payment. I walk to the parking office and ask for help. I found out that I need to hold my credit card at the payment station for at least 10 sec or more. I try again using the method and it’s work. I paid the parking fee and place the receipt at the dashboard. Next, heading toward the waterfall. We are prepared to get wet. We bring our waterproof jacket from home. We wear our waterproof jacket and continue to hike behind the waterfall. The hike behind the waterfall is not hard, but also not easy. It’s wet condition lead to slippery rocks/path. We have a lot of fun climbing and hike behind the waterfall. We are all wet from all the water pouring from above. We completed our hike and came out. Our next destination is Gljufrabui, another waterfall, located just a walking distance. This waterfall is located inside a slot canyon. Water falling on top of the slot canyon. Since the slot canyon is narrowed and water flowing from the slot canyon, we slowly make our way inside the canyon. We have waterproof hiking boot so we can keep our feet dry. Among all the waterfall we visited in Iceland, this waterfall rank the best. Although we didn’t have great picture from this waterfall, but our experience will stay. After the hike, we return to our campervan. It’s lunch time. We prep our lunch and we eat our at the van. There is a cafe at this location. One of the menu has a sandwich lamb. I purchased the sandwich to try. It was a great sandwich. For our lunch, we purchased some sushi platter from Costco. We enjoyed the sushi platter and lamb sandwich. After lunch, we move on. Our west bound detour completed. We are now heading east again. We head to our next destination, Dyrholaey. We skipped some attraction because our time is limit. If you visited Iceland, there is a famous attraction named Solheimafjara, a DC-10 plane wreck. This is a famous photo location for many tourist. We arrived our next destination. This location has a lighthouse and situated up higher ground. From here, we have a good view over the beach area. We can see black sand beach from this spot. We hiked around the lighthouse overlooking at a rock arch. After hiking the area, we head out to a different spot looking for rest room, aka WC. There is a WC nearby, but it’s a paid WC. You will find paid restroom in Iceland. We didn’t used the WC and decide to move on to the black sand beach. The drive to the black sand beach is 25km, even though we can clearly see the location like 2-3km away. The road need a detour around the high ground and wetland. We reach the black sand beach, aka Reynisfjara. This is a famous attraction where you can find basalt column. There is also a cave. We have fun climbing the basalt column and explored the cave. We also use the WC here at the beach restaurant. Instead of paying WC, we walk into the restaurant and use the WC inside the restaurant. The restaurant didn’t mind the use of WC inside the restaurant. After visiting the black sand beach, we headed to the town of Vik. Here, we fueled up our camper (first gas filling) and also stop by a grocery store. First gas fillip experience has frustrated me a bit. We try to fill up at one of the gas station called N1. The rental company has a discount member card for rental guest to use. But I can’t activate the pump with my credit card. I try like 3-4 credit card and all card get declined. Also, it ask for a pin which I though I set the pin prior the trip. After so many failed attempt, I give up filling gas at N1 and went to another gas station name Orkan. This is an unattended gas station. The gas pump can take Apple Pay. I used my Apple Pay and the pump activated. Fill up the gas tank and we are now ready to move on. Well, wife/kid want to stop at a grocery store. They went in shopping while I’m sorting out my locked credit card. I have to call my credit card company to sort out my locked card. Even though I setup travel notice, the card get locked after several fail attempt at the gas station. I call US no. from my cell phone. Prior to the trip, I activated a international call plan for next 10 days. I can actually used my cell phone in Iceland. That was a great planning as I’m actually use it for emergency. After talking to an agent, I got my credit card reactivate again. Wife and kids complete shopping at the grocery store. We move on to our next destination. Our next destination is a cave named Gigjagja, aka Yoda cave. I have the location marked on my Google map. Using Google map, I navigate to the destination. I need to get off the ring road (paved) and onto a dirt road. The cave is several km off the main road. Arriving the cave, we went in for little exploration and photo session. Do you see the picture? Does the cave shape like Yoda? Time to move on again as it’s getting late. Our next destination is a beautiful canyon named Fjarðarárgljúfur. This attraction also located a few KM off the main road and it’s a gravel road access to the trail head. We arrived the parking area and parked our campervan. We hiked up from the parking area to the first viewpoint of the beautiful canyon. We then hiked up to the second viewpoint before we head back down. We love the beautiful canyon with glacier colored river below. But it’s getting dark and late. We need to reach to our next camping location. Our next camping location call Skaftafell. This is a camping site managed by Vatnajökull National Park. This campsite located near several glacier outlet. You can see a few massive glacier nearby. We find out campspot and settle down for the night. We prepped dinner in the campervan. Set our sleeping area and call it the day. Day 2 ended with many activities.
Day 3
Wake up at our campsite at Skaftafell. I still trying to adjust the time differences. I’m having a little hard time adjusting the time and waking up early in the morning. Kids and wife try to stretch and rest more. So, I walk outside to the Vatnajokull National Park Visitor Center and look for info. I found out there is hiking trail to a waterfall, Startifoss & Hundafoss and skaftafell glacier. I choose to take a short hike to the glacier while giving the kids and wife more resting time. It takes about 30 mins hike to the glacier.
After a short hike to the glacier, I return back to the visitor center. Here, there is groups of tourist waiting for the glacier hike tour. I can see at least 2-3 groups of people waiting/prepping for the tour to start. There are a lot of guided tour in Iceland. You will need to make reservation in advance. Even April is not as busy, having reservation is better than walk up. Normally, I’ve seen tour all book up during summer months. Maybe next visit to iceland, I will do some guided tour.
I return to my campsite. Kids just starting to wake up. We had some breakfast, pastry, oat meal and skyr (yogurt). This campsite has very good amenities. It’s include laundry, share cooking kitchen & free shower. The hot water shower is perfect after a hike. After a hot shower, you can smell hint of sulfur on you. That's the icelandic natural hot water smell.
Today forecast is rainy. I’m able to do a hike before weather in the area moving in. As we getting ready to depart, it is raining. As we driving on ring road, I can feel strong wind pushing on the campervan left and right. We are trying to get to our next destination, jokulsarlon & diamond beach. We left out some POI because of rain. After driving for about 1 hrs with gusty wind and heavy rain, we arrived to our first destination. We visit Jokulsarlon first which required me to cross a narrow bridge. Most bridges in iceland is one-way only. You need to either have bridge etiquette and let opposite car to cross the bridge or someone will have to backout. After crossing the bridge, I pull into the parking lot of Jokulsarlon. At this attraction, you find a lagoon filled with broken glacier or iceberg. Glacier broke off at the mouth of the lagoon and flow out of the lagoon into the open ocean. At the nearby beach, aka diamond beach, is where the iceberg can push up the beach. The weather now seems to be either change from rain to sleet/hail. We can feel ice hitting us while rain water soak us wet. We went out to the lagoon and take some photos. It's cold and wet, so we can't spend longer time outside in open. We returning to the campervan and prep lunch. We all eat our lunch inside the campervan. We have sandwiches for lunch and hot instant soup to warm us from the chillin weather. There is WC, aka restroom, at this location. It's free so use it before you head out (lots of WC need fee to access). Since there is many tour start at this location, you can find many monster arctic truck at this location. I'm always amazed by this huge truck, van or bus converted to be arctic truck. Don't let the huge truck sidetrack our fun. Let's move on.
Next, I have to drive to the parking lot of Diamond beach. Diamond beach has 2 parking lot. I went to one of the parking lot, but found not much iceberg on the beach. Seems like the tide and water current preference the other beach across the bridge. So, I exit and turn around and cross the bridge to enter the 2nd parking lot. Park the campervan and walked down the beach. Right on the shore of the beach, you will find many iceberg. small chunk of ice cube to large chunk of lceberg. It's fun to explore different shape of iceberg. Still rain heavy with slight sleet. We all get wet again. Our waterproof jacket is a life saver because we didn't get wet. It was fun activities at this location. Watching floating iceberg float out to open sea and get stuck in nearby beach. Huge icebergs mostly stuck inside the lagoon.
We need to move on. We continue to drive east heading to Hofn. The rain and wind continue to haunt us. On our way to Hofn, we spotted a herd of Raindeer glazing near the ring road. We stop/u-turn to capture a few photos from distance. We are watching the weather closely as we approching to our next destination. The weather for today is not looking good. The rain will continue the rest of the day and continue next day. I started to see if we need to change our plan and just skip to the next stop. Looking at weather report, the next stop weather will be clear by nighttime. We made a last min decision to skip Hofn and several attraction in this southeast iceland area. I try to also look at the fuel consumption if I had enough fuel to arrive our next destination. I try to fuel up at Hofn. I run into problem again at N1 gas station. After carefully read the map, I concluded we have enough fuel to reach to the next Orkan fuel station (about 200km away). We continue our trip and left Hofn. We head east and bypass one of my must visit attraction, Vestahorn & Viking village. The heavy rain also cause thick fog. I can't even see the mountain range, Vestahorn.
On our way to our next stop, Egilsstaðir, we need to drive on Ring Road through the fjord coastal. It's just twisted road along the shoreline. The mountain range is next to the shoreline. It's a beautiful drive, but rain spoiled the view. We did stop at a side road attraction. Out of no where, there is a red chair next to the ring road. I stop to take a photo. rain still very heavy and force me to move on. Our next stop is a hotsprings pool, Djúpavogskörin Natural Geothermal Pool. Attempting to find this stop location, I make a wrong turn. I accident take the campervan down a sketchy dirt road. While trying to do a U-turn, I almost got the campervan stuck on soft edge. One of the wheel reach soft road edge and sunk into the ground. Good offroad driving skill helps me think fast. Instead of moving forward, I'm able to backup and got my front wheel unstuck from the muddy sticky ground. Phew, it was not a good location to get stuck. Cell is limited and rain/wet/dirt road is spelling disaster. I'm able to avoid this and get back out to the paved road. The location I'm looking for is actually a little forward from our last spot. I found it, but unfortunately the road is blocked by logs and stones. Can't access the hotsprings, we move on.
We stop at the next town, Djúpivogur. Wife is having a bit car sick and kids are looking for WC. We stop by the town WC near the harbor. We didn't explore much at this town due to weather. A short break, snack time and WC break, we moving on. We are now driving more toward north along the shore.
There is a junction coming up. We can either continue the ring road following the shore to head north or I can turn into road 939 and 95 into the highland. In iceland, I need to check road status every morning. Road.is or safetravel.is give useful info for all travellers on ringroad / region road closure or open. I made a last min decision to cut short our travel to Egilsstaðir. Road 939 and 95 is a gravel/dirt road. The road is open and the shortcut cut our travel time at least 1 hrs shorter. I'll say why not test the luck.
Road 939 is heading up highland. The scenery start to change as we start going uphill. Rain and fog remain and because denser as we heading higher in elevation. Our 2wd campervan handle with no issue. If there is a chance of slippery or effy, I will u-turn and take the longer route. You can see snow accumulate the surrounding and snow bank is building up on the roadside. The dirt road is fill with puddles, so it's a bumpy ride. Road 939 is a 20km long. It went up higher elevation, crossing mountain pass before desending into the valley. Here it will meetup with road 95. We had some slippery moment and narrow road traffic, but we all survived the bumpy Road 939. We turn into road 95 and heading north. Still on dirt/gravel road. The drive on road 95 heading north is really beautiful. From snowy Highland to the green valley. From grade gravel to pave road. It's awesome to experience all the scenic change while driving in Iceland.
The rain settle down and we are closing to reaching Egilsstaðir. We found a campsite call Camp Egilsstadir. Arriving at Camp Egilsstadir and I walk into the office to register a campspot. The owner was just closing down the office. She provide good instruction for me to do self registration. I paid my campspot fee at the payment machine and write down my info on the receipt. We enter the campground and find our own site. Camp Egilsstadir is a camground near the town, Egilsstadir. This is the largest town in Northeast iceland region. There will be supermarket like Bonus in this town.
We settled down at this campground after a day of driving in Rain and Mud. We cooked dinner at the community room (share Kitchen) and eat at the campervan. Since we arrived early we get to eat dinner early and we opt for movie night at the campervan. We also spend time plotting our schedule for tomorrow since our plan shift and change. We watch a movie called "Eurovision song Contest - The story of fire sage". I mapped out tomorrow plan and get a group agreement to book some relaxation hot springs bath at Vok Baths. This campground offer discount code for Vok Baths and I just take advantage of the discount code.
Tonight is our first night in Iceland with strong activities of Northern Light. We had wishes to get a glimpse of northern light in Iceland. The activities is very strong, but the cloud from the storm is still lingering in the area. I dont want to watch a chance to see Aurora Borealis. We drive out the campground in search of a good viewing spot. I drove out and head up higher elevation. There is a viewing spot for the town at higher elevation. Here, we stop and try to catch a glimpse of northern light. Too bad, the cloud is covering the skies and we see nothing. But I did have a chance to capture a few picture of the town, Egilsstadir. Dissapointed, we head back to camp and get some rest. We have a long day tomorrow.
Day 4
We decide to stay an extra day on this lovely town of Egilsstadir. We book a relaxation hot springs activities at Vok Baths at 6pm today. Today, we going to just do some relaxing exploration in the North-East Iceland. We have a late start for the day due to late night activities last night. We chilled at Camp Egilsstadir community room cooking our breakfast and enjoyed the camp ammineties. I never describe our most morning routine in detail. We need to prep bedding/sleeping platform in the campervan. When we stop for rest/sleep, we need to prep our sleeping platform. Over the last 3 days, we have a routine build up for this prep. Building the sleeping platform and returning the dining table setup is a routine. Then, we have take the beddings/comforters/pillows to use when we sleep and those beddings/pillows need to put away when we wake up. Our crews of 5 have luggages which the van has limited storage space. If you play tetris, this is where we need to know how to stack our luggage when we don't need it and how to get our luggage when we need it. We have master a routine out of this so we can efficient prep the camper to sleep or adventure. We don't need luggage flying left/right during driving session. We need access to our luggage when we need it.
The rain and weather has settled and sun is coming out from horizon. This will be a great day to explore. Since all the rain and wet gear from yesterday still not fully dried, we laid our jacket, hiking shoes out so we can air it dry.
Here is the tentative plan for the day. We will be exploring North and east of this area. We will try to see if we can catch a glimpse of puffin at Borgarfjarðarhöfn and we will visit the town of Seydisfjordur. The road in between this 2 location actually meet near the town of Egillsstadir. There is no direct road to connect both attraction. We can choose to go north or east first. We choose to travel north as that's a longer travel route. As we departed our campground, something get left over. Bummer, I lost wifey hiking boot, which I laid on the campervan rear bumper. I can either turn back and return to the campground or I can continue our journey for the day. Since we know we will be returning to the campground later the day, we opt to continue up north and we will comeback later in the day to find the missing item.
We took Route 94 up north. Route 94 start out paved, but there is a section of the road is under construction. That 10km section is on gravel and a bit bumpy. There is active construction going on so we get delay a bit by construction truck. The road run north on the valley and we start to turn east after near the shore. From here, we need to climb higher elevation. There is a mountain range that seperate. As we drive up higher elevation, the scenery change again from greenish/brownish land to snowy covered mountain. I could never get fond of this scenery change. This scenery become very common as we continue to travel iceland ring road during late April. Up at location, there is a rest area stop with WC. We stop at this rest area. The mountain peak on the background with valley/seashore on our foreground. It's just an epic scenery which I can enjoy for hours. We took many photos at this rest stop. As we continue our driving to the destination, Borgarfjarðarhöfn, the road back down to seashore and lower elevation. We will driving along the seashore for sometime before we arrived at a fishing village named Borgarfjörður. This is not our destination, but we need to passthrough this town before we arrived to Borgarfjarðarhöfn. A little background of Borgarfjarðarhöfn, this is a bird viewing/watching area. It's seems birds like to nest around this area, especially puffin. This location attract tourist to visit and hoping to get a glimpse of puffin nesting on the cliff of this small rocky shoreline. We parked our campervan at the parking area and start walking down to the bird viewing platform. Well, there is no puffin in the area. While parking our campervan, we meet another campervan'er. The couples already warned us that there is no puffin around as they fly out to the ocean early in the morning, but will return late afternoon. Here is a good learning session, to catch a glimpse of puffin, it either early morning or late afternoon. We were there around noon time. Disspointed, but not a total bust trip. We are not a stranger to puffin. We have seen puffin during our 2016 trip to Newfoundland. No puffin, but there is tons of seagulls nesting on the cliff. We took some photo and enjoyed some seagull interaction. We left because we are looking for WC. There is a WC at this location, but it's not open since it's still off season. We head back to the town where we found a WC. While waiting here, we had some snack and I meet another fellow visitor from Singapore/Malaysia. A newly wed couple stop at the same location trying to find WC. I have a brief chat with the couples as I'm a native Malaysian too. The newly wed couples is touring Iceland on their honeymoon. A great conversation exchange. I told them about the puffin info. Then we seperate and head different direction. We head back into the town to see a few things. We mostly intrigue on sculpture and turf house. When we pass the town, we some some unique sculpture and turf house. Hence we are back for more exploration in the town. I don't know if I can call this town, it may be a village.
We had some fun time exploring the town before we departed for our next destination. We need to return back to Egillsstadir vacinity. Road 95 will meet with Route 93. We turn into Route 93 and drive toward Seydisfjordur. Similar to Route 94, Route 93 start out in the valley and will continue go up higher elevation through the mountain range. The scenis is similar. From green valley to snowy mountain range. On this road, there is a ski resort. The snow still very good for a ski session. As we decending down the mountain pass, we can see the town of Seydisfjordur. This town is very unique because it's situated between the fjord. This town is also where ferry from Europe will park. Smyril line is a ferry service between Iceland, Faroe island and Denmark. From europe, you can actually ride this ferry and arrived iceland with a stop in Faroe island. This town is also getting tourist attention because of movie scene from "The secret life of Walter Mitty" by Ben Stiller. The infamous long skating board scene is filmed in this town. This is a small town, with an attraction which I love to visit. It's the rainbow road with a church on background. We parked our campervan nearby a parking area and walk over. We are also getting hungry for lunch. We prep our lunch at the campervan and consume our lunch at the sitting bench in the town. We also went shopping at the grocery store for some pastries as afternoon dessert. We have a relaxing time hanging out at the rainbow facing the church, Seyðisfjarðarkirkja. We sit around the lagoon comsume our lunch with a great view. There is a WC located at the camping site which we used. Our time at this lovely town, Seydisfjordur, has come to the end. We are travelling back using Road 93. We stop at the rest area where there is an panoramic overlook and also waterfall name gufufoss. We visited the monument located at this viewpoint. The snow still around and we have to hike over the snow bank to reach the viewpoint. We have good photo session here.
We need to return back to Egilsstadir. On our journey back to Egilsstadir, while driving on Road 93, I almost got into an accident. I noticed 2 snowmobiler far away while I'm driving on Route 93. I'm maintaining a speed of 90km/h (iceland speed limit). One of the snowmobile didn't look at road traffic and he/she try to cross the road. It was a sudden pull out from the right side of the road to the left side. I can say if my vehicle speed is faster or I'm not paying attention to surrounding (rather focus on driving), I might hit this snowmobile. The other snowmobile stop at the left side seen the whole moment. He/she try to signal the other snowmobile to stop advancing on the road, but fail. I quickly stomp on the brake to slow down the campervan and hope we dont hit the snowmobile. Since I made an emergency brake, the kids sitting behind kind of shift forward. Things fall down from the table. Luckily, there is no incident or injury. Everyone is safe, but just got a shocking moment. I'm glad I paid attention since I spot the snowmobile. That was a oops moment when I review my gopro video footage.
Once we return back to Egilsstadir, we stop by the grocery store, Bonus, to refill some snack, food and skyr. We returning to Camp Egilsstadir. I registered and paid for another night of camping. we found out spot and parked. We try to prep early dinner so we can consumed before our relaxing session at Vok Baths. We cooked at the share community kitchen again. We had rice and fried fish fillet (from bonus). We had our dinner prior heading to the hotsprings (about 10 mins from our campground).
We left Camp Egilsstadir and head to vok bath. Arriving at the parking lot and parked our campervan. Got all our change and head in. We checked in and got our bracelet. The RFID bracelet was given to each person. Also including with our reservation is a package of 1 included drink at the pool bar. We got a color rubber bracelet. Using the RFID bracelet, we can enter the pool area. Before entering, it's always a requirement to clean our body with soap before entering the hotsprings pool. Using our RFID bracelet, we can lock our personal items in a locker storage. We locked up our clothes and electronics and head out to the pool. Vok bath has many ammenities. There is sauna room, hotsprings pool with pool bar, cafe, 2 infinity pools overlooking the lake and access to use the lake. If you brave enough, you can swim in the frozen lake. I took several frozen dip into the lake as a challenge. It was a soothing for tense muscle with ice/hot dip. Isn't this how football atheletes relax the muscles? We all have a relaxing session at Vok Baths. Our drink is good. I have a local beer call Gull. The kids had some frozen drink while wife give me her drink and I got another local PaleAle beer. He spend like 3+ hrs here before the store close at 10pm. As we head back to our campground, we prep for the campervan for sleep and call it a night. We will have a long day tomorrow.
Day 5
We wake up for another awesome day in Northeast Iceland. Today, we need to mobilize and head back west. Our goal is to reach Akureyri. Since we have a relax exploring day and relaxation hotsprings visit, we are totally reenergized. As usual, we do our morning prep to get on the road. We have some breakfast, oat meal & Skyr with Coffee to boost our morning. Once we are ready, it's time to say good bye to Camp Egilsstadir.
We hop onto the ring road (route 1) and start heading west. Today, my first destination is one of my bucket list attraction to visit. We are heading to Stuðlagil Canyon. This is a iconic location where you can see a greenish/blueish color river flowing through a canyon. The canyon wall build up with groups of basalt column. This canyon is located off a gravel road 18km off the ring road. Once we reach the junction, we turn to Route 923. Driving on Route 923 is pretty short. We arrived to another junction where we turn into a gravel road. Driving down on this gravel road is not bad. It's a graded gravel road and it's dry. After 16km on this road, we will see the road sign for Studlagil Canyon. We turn into the road that lead us to a parking lot. We are on the West side of the river. At this location, there is a campground. They are not open as it's still winter mode here. Next to the camping site, there is a building with WC available. You will need to pay to use WC.
We parked our campervan at the parking lot and start to walk on the trail that will lead us to a viewing platform. To get down to the viewing platform, there is a stair case of 230+ steps. Going down is easy, but coming back up will be a good challenge. The beautiful canyon is viewable at the viewing platform, but I seen people actually can reach the basalt column canyon from the opposite side. From the viewing platform, there is no way to cross the river or get down from the canyon bottom. Hence I would say accessing the beautiful canyon is not at this side. We will need to cross the river to the opposite side and maybe hike for some distance. I can clearly see a hiking trail, but the trail is snow covered. After some photo session at the viewing platform, we start our climb on the steep staircase. Returning to our campervan, we start to search for the location where we can hike onto the canyon area. The cell coverage in this area is non existed. I can't get our map to show the area. We drove like several km to reach a farm name Klaustursel. At this farm, I can clearly see a bridge to cross the river. I also see a sign for Studlagil Canyon. I turn into the road and go down to the bridge. Before the bridge, there is some parking lot. Here is some research done after getting back to cell coverage area. This is a parking lot for visitor planning to hike to Studlagil Canyon. There is also a closer parking area once you cross the bridge. This gravel road seems to be still snow covered. I can either try my luck to drive toward the closer parking lot, but I'm on a 2wd campervan. We vote. The vote is to continue our drive west and skip this hike. Although, I really wish to hike this canyon and capture beautiful picture, I really not wish to take more risk of getting our campervan stuck and stranded. I turn around and start heading back toward ring road. Another 12+ km back to the main road. Once we reach the junction, we head west.
There is a bit of driving to get to our next destination. Before this destination, we can detour and visit another powerful waterfall name Dettifoss. This will required another 50km detour (round trip). Our voting happen again. The group vote to skip this waterfall because of long detour. As we continue to head west, I turn into our next destination, Krafla. This is a volcano crater which allow you to hike around the crater. The water in this crater is very blueish. Prior to arrive to Krafla, we will stop by a roadside shower head. Out of nowhere, there is a shower head with constant hot water flowing out. A lot of people tend to take a shelter less shower, out in an open field, next to a road. You can't say no to free hot springs shower. I try to turn into the area, but it seems like a few campervan is park there and waiting for their turn to take shower. I moved on to reach Krafla. Prior to reach Krafla parking area, there is a road block. It seems like this area is close. The road lead up to the parking lot still filled with snow. It is a 2km hike from this roadblock. I was forced to turn around and head back to the shower area. I pull into the parking area, there is only 1 campervan there. The couples has photo/video equipment setup next to the shower head and enjoying their intimate time. Once they see us pulling in the parking, they a bit shy because new people surround them. We parked and just sit in the campervan and wait for our turn. The couples was there almost another 5-10 mins before they packed up and step away from the shower head. It's our turn to enjoy the hot water shower. I don't hope for a full shower experience, but I still hope to get my hair wet. The hot water is filled with mineral and have strong sulfur smell. I wash my hair and enjoyed the hot water blast from the shower head. While waiting, we also start to make lunch inside the campervan. We eat some lunch here and enjoy some hot water relaxation soak. One problem about this area is WC. There is not potty john or anything. We head out to the next destination and hope to find WC. Our next stop is not far from this location. Hverir is a location where you see active geothermal activities. There is mud pool, steaming smoke from the ground. If you smell rotten eggs, you know you're close to the area. I pull into the parking area for Hverir. There is a hike path around the geothermal activities area. We didn't stay long here, but still get some walking down between some boiling mud pits and smoking ground. If you can't stand sulphur smell, this is not a great place for you to explore. We are looking for WC hence we did a quick walkaround and left.
I can't find a good location with WC. I made a decision and turn into a hotsprings facilities call Myvatn Nature Baths. Similar to many hotsprings bath facilities, this hotsprings has several pool lagoon with light blue color water (similar to Blue Lagoon). We walk in and use the facilities WC. Also, we get a chance to see the pool area and facilities. If we have time for another relaxation session, I would recommend this hotsprings. The pool has a great view of the area, Lake Myvatn. Maybe our next trip. This is a nice hotsprings facilities. Cost is a bit less than Blue Lagoon.
We left the hotsprings and head toward our next destination. It's a short drive and we get to our next destination, Grjótagjá. Grjótagjá is a cave with hot springs water inside the cave. The water is so clear that you can see the bottom. This cave used to be a popular hotsprings location, but it's now on private land and water temperature raise up to danger level. So, it's no longer allow public bath or soak in this hidden hotsprings. This cave is also getting famous after a movie scene shot inside the cave. If you watch Games of Thrones, you will recognize this cave. It's the scene where John Snow having intimate with Ygritte - Season 3, episode 5 "Kissed by Fire". This cave became famous because GOT fans come to visit. There are 2 entrance to the cave. It's close to the parking lot. We just step into the cave and you can see the blue clear water pool. We hang out here for a bit and took many picture. Then we move on. I don't have a next destination. I just want to explore the surround of Lake Myvatn. As we drive around, I see a few campervan turn into a gravel road. With curiosity, I make a turn too. We drove on this bumpy gravel road for like 2-3km before reaching a parking area. After seeing the scenic next to our campervan, I know this is another volcanic mountain. This volcano, Hverfjall, was active about 2500 years ago. Now it's just a big crater. Since we didn't get a chance to hike a volcano, Krafla, I opt to see Hverfjall. From the parking lot, there is a steep uphill path going up the crater. The hike is hard because of the steep hike. But we all manage to get up to the volcano crater. The experience to walk on volcano was fulfilled. The scenic on top of the volcano was beautiful. We did stay long at the top of the volcano. We hike back down and return to our campervan. We continue our journey as I don't have plan to stay at this location for the night. As we get back into the paved road, we continue to circle the lake. The next stop is non-planned. But we did stop at Skútustaðagígar. The area has some weird shape crater formed by lava flow. Look like a popular area for bird viewing. I didn't walk the area, but instead, I drive across the street to a gas station and start fueling up the tank. We are about 1/3 left on the tank. I love to use gas station name Orkan. I stick with this gas station throughout our ring road trip. After fuel up, I'm back to Skútustaðagígar parking lot. We wait for about 20 mins before we head out. We hop back on route 1 - Ring Road. We head west until another unofficial stop. We stop at Laugar, a small village, with a gas station. At the gas station, there is a restaurant. We walk in the restaurant to use WC. Then wife went to the small grocery store and pick up some more treats. Since we started our ring road trip, we have taste so many Icelandic chocolate. Jackie pick up more version of chocolate at this convenience store. He head back to the road after a brief stop.
There is a waterfall just next to the Ring Road, named Godafoss. Godafoss also known as waterfall of god. We stop at the parking lot and hike closer to the waterfall. It was just a brief stop to take a few pics. Iceland has tons of waterfall. We have seen too many waterfalls but this waterfall still worth to explore. We got our pictures and time to move along. The scenic in this area is so beautiful. It's going up higher elevation and you can see snow covered mountain, frozen lake and more. Before we reach Akureyri, I have a choice. I could either drive through a tunnel (pay toll) or detour 20km through another mountain pass. I opt to detour and took Route 84 at the junction prior the tunnel. This road go through another mountain pass before descending onto the fjord valley and meet with Route 83. Route 83 will meet back with Route 1 near by the tunnel exit.
Akureyri is one of the biggest town in Northern Iceland. It's located at the mouth of a fjord. I quickly drive our campervan to our campground. Tonight, we will be staying at Camping Hamrar. Camping Hamrar is a campground located a few km outside the town. We found our way to the campground and try to register for tonight camping. Since we arrived around 6:30pm, there is no campground attendant to check in. According to fellow camper, the host will return around 8pm. Got sometime to burn, we head back to a location where we pass by. It's a skating ring named Skautahöllin. Cherie want to check out the skating ring. As we enter the skating ring, they are having a public skate session until 9pm. Kids want to join in for some fun. We paid for the skate session. It was cheap, which include rental skate and helmet. Our kids joint in the public skate session with local kids. While they skate, we head back to the campground and continue with our camp registration. I paid for our camping fee for the night, got access to the gate keycode and chill down. We head back to the skating ring before 9pm to pick them up. We head back to the campground and cook our food at the community kitchen. We cook our dinner, which is fried fish, stir fired vegetable and rice. We dine at the community dinning area. After dinner, we don't want to sit still since we only stay for a night, we went down to Akureyri downtown acting like tourist. It's Friday night and the town still bustling with people staying for dinner or after work happy hour. We visited the church, Akureyrarkirkja and walk the downtown main street. We head back to the campground around 11:30pm. Time to rest after a long driving and great hiking day.
The Aurora Borealis activities for tonight is not a bad indicator, but I'm just too lazy to stay awake.
Day 6
Last night, the Aurora Borealis activities was medium to low, I'm just too lazy to stay awake. But Jackie did stay up, hoping to get a view of the sky. Our hunt for Northern Light kind of bummer since we have no good luck on the cloudy sky. If the cloud covered the sky, the chance to see Northern Light activities would be very slim. During April Month, the daylight is increasing every day. The night fall won't actually get dark until 12am. Then, the sky will start to brighten up around 3am. The windows of hoping to catch a view for the northern light is very narrow and short. Another key is the light pollution. If we stay inside a town/cities where there is a lot of light pollution, it will lower the chance for seeing northern light too. Looking to some forecast data, it seems like tonight has better chance to see northern light. Try not to disappoint the family, I will try the best to see if we could chase Aurora Borealis tonight.
Due to late night activities for some family member, we start our day a bit late. We do the usual prep and eat light breakfast. We also take a long hot shower. Since we are not ready to mobilize, we got to discover the campground amenities a bit. Camp Hamrar has good amenities. There is a pond with a river flow through. There is a good kid playground. One of the activities playground has a good obstacle course setup. Me and the girls went on to explore a bit. We have some good fun tackling the obstacle course. We challenge ourself to finish the available obstacle course at Camp Hamrar. I would highly recommend this campground because there is tons of activities available and also great amenities, like community kitchen. The time is here. We can finally mobilize. We are late already.
As we try to drive out of the campground and back on Ring Road, we passed through Akureyri downtown area. Not sure why, but we decide to explore the town a bit. Last night, we were here late and most shop is close. I drove around and find a parking lot. We parked our campervan at the parking lot. Today is Saturday and parking for Akureyri only enforced during mon-fri. So, we have free parking. Not to worry about paying parking, we have better mood to explore. We walk to the downtown area looking for lunch. I know there is a hotdog stand near the downtown area and I suggest to try some icelandic hotdog, aka Pylsur, lunch. What a treat. The icelandic hotdog come in a lot of flavor. We order like 6 hotdogs with different styles. The hotdogs all taste very good. Hotdogs with Bacon probably is one of the best flavor, but the volcanic hotdogs was good too. Volcano hotdogs has black hotdog buns is my favorite. A little research on this hotdog stand, Pylsuvagninn á Akureyri, has good review on google. I love to discover good food, but not doing much research. This is kind of my hole-in-the-wall kind of foodie quest. After having our yummy lunch, we walk around the town area. Acting like tourist and take photos. A good stop before we head out this beautiful town. On the way out of the town, we stop by a Bonus Supermarket to load up for more snack & skyr. We found a Bonus snack that we love. It's call Beicon. There is a bonus supermarket at the edge of town. We stop for 30 minutes.
As we head out on Ring Road, it's time to pick up our pace. We skip a few attraction and keep driving. We did a random stop at a rest area. At this rest area, there is a monument named Stephan G Stephansson Monument. We took a few pics before we quickly hop back onto Ring Road. The next stop is for WC at N1 gas station in Blonduos. The ladies went to WC, but end up with soft serve ice cream. We enjoyed a little snack before we arrived the junction of our next destination. We are heading to Hvitserkur, a big rock formation, near the seacoast. To access Hvitserkur, I need to have a 26km detour (each way) on a dirt gravel road. It wasn't too bad to drive to Hvitserkur using the gravel road because it's dry. We arrived to the parking lot. We hiked to the viewing platform (on top of the cliff). Then, we slowly make our way down the the cliff bottom. There is a rocky sea shore and a waterfall nearby. The tide is high at this time so we can't get closer to the rock formation. We took some photos and get group pics of the rock formation. I love to spend more time taking epic photos here, but we got to move on. We departed the parking area and return back to ring road using similar route (26km gravel road). We are now heading to snaefellsnes peninsula. I have a plan to camp in the peninsula tonight and hope we can explored the peninsula the next day.
I'm using google map mostly for navigation in Iceland. When I try to plan my route, the google map seems prefer to take me over a long detour. Given there is no explanation, I try to defy the prefer way and took it on my own way. Based on some info from road.is and safetravel.is, I know there is a closer route is still close for winter. I have 2 different route, north and south. At the junction, I make a quick decision to take the southern route. Here I will drive Route 1 (ring road) to Route 60. Then I will use Route 60 to head north before I turn into Route 54. All seems good and it's a paved route. The issue started when I turned into Route 54. There is no indicator about this Route is gravel. Once we turn into Route 54, we experience the longest gravel road we took in Iceland. It's a 66km gravel road. I failed on research. Route 54 is not all paved. This section is truly gravel road riding along the coast. It's beautiful, but my butt will not agreed a bumpy 1 hr ride. As we riding along Route 54, I start to notice the cloud is getting thick and covered the whole sky. We are now heading to a fishing town name Stykkishólmur. Here I got a chance to fuel the tank and also found a campsite. But, the family seems to want to chase the northern light. I don't want to disappoint them, so I agree not to stay in this area and continue to drive away from the peninsula. The campervan fuel is full and let's try our luck then. But before we head out the snaefellsnes peninsula, I need to make a detour stop at Kirkjufell Mountain. This attraction is an iconic location. It's on my must stop list to visit. As I driving out of the town, I head more west. This detour is a 42km detour, but it's a must stop. I slowly make our way to this attraction. It's 9:30pm and the sky still not dark yet. I arrived the parking lot of Kirkjufell Mountain around 10pm. Wife and kids make dinner in the campervan and I walk toward the waterfall to capture some pics. Took about 10 mins photo session, I head back to the campervan. Here, we have our dinner. I finished out dinner (soup and sandwich).
Let's head out. We drove east of the peninsula (not using the same way we drove here) and hope we can get to a spot with no cloud cover. Once we are out of the peninsula, the cloud still looks very thick and sky still covered with cloud. I make a decision to head south using ring road. We are now driving toward Reykjavik. Along the way, I keep monitor the sky for a break, but it seems the cloud still around and I never see a clear sky, even a small spot of clear sky is good. As I continue to drive south, we are now entering more urban city/town area. At Borgarnes, we continue to drive Route 1 south. When I get closer to a town call Akranes, the ring road will need to a tunnel called Hvalfjarðargöng Tunnel. This is a long tunnel to cross the fjord channel. It's about 1:30am and we are getting closer to Reykjavik. I'm getting tired and the cloud is not cooperative. Kids is all sleep, but not in a good position. I think it's time to call quit and find a resting area. I decided to go to a campsite in Reykjavik. Arriving the campsite, but it's all gated with no reception. I read the posted info. I can do self register and pay for camping online. I login to the camp website and start paying for camping. I paid for a night camping and on my email, I got an emergency code to use. I enter the campground using the emergency code and parked at a quiet spot. We quickly prep our sleep platform and rest for the night.
Day 7
We wake up in the city. We are grateful that we got a place to sleep due to our unexpected detour. We love to see aurora borealis, but our luck is never on our side. We strike out and now we are now in the City of Reykjavik. We are camping at Campsite Reykjavik. We are nearby urban city, surrounded by home and about 3km from city center.
Just little background of Campsite Reykjavik. This campsite is a all-year-round campsite. But in winter mode, it's mostly self service type. This is very common for most campsite I have visit during our Ring Road adventure. Most campsite will have self registration. You paid your fee and you can find your own spot. This campsite is located next to a hotel and local swimming pool. There is a Zoo and Botanical garden nearby. Also, there is sport complex near the vicinity. Within the campsite, there is indoor community kitchen and activity room. There is also WC and shower. Shower is included with camping fee. I think a lot of camper use this campsite as the last stop before heading out to airport. Here in the community kitchen, there is a lot of food/pantry left by previous camper. You're free to take anything or left your leftover. There is also some gas cooking canister share area where you can pick up some used gas canister for your camping stove. This campsite is very convenience because there is supermarket nearby where you can load up on grocery. You can ride on public transportation into the city if you don't want to drive. Bus stop is literally nearby the entrance.
Our plan is change again. I don't plan to stay in Reykjavik because I prefer quiet and away from crowd. Since we are unexpected land in the city, I used it as an opportunity to explore the city. Today, we will be just exploring the city as a tourist. We prepped ourselves with morning breakfast at the community kitchen. After we are road worthy, we left and head into the city. Our first stop is the Sun Voyager sculpture. Since it's Sunday, there is no parking fee in the city. We can parked anywhere parking allowed . We spend some time at the Sculpture area, parked next to it. The weather is a bit cloudy today and chill. We need to layer up and keep ourselves warm. After waiting for photo opportunity, we snapped some pictures. Next, I planned to park our campervan in a location and just do a walking tour. From researching, I know there is a parking lot near the old harbour area. We head toward the harbour and find our parking lot. There is a few campervan park in this lot. I just find the next open space and park. We gathered our belonging and start our walking tour to the City. As we walk toward the downtown area, we pass by a flea market. We have to stop at the flea market. We shopped at the flea market for 1+ hours. The kids pick up some souvenirs and I bought some scratching lottery ticket. Chloe usually most interested in scratching ticket and I'll let her try the luck. For 500kr, I got 2 tickets. One ticket is 200kr and the other ticket is 300kr. Chloe actually won on one of the ticket. The winning ticket only worth 300kr, but a win is a win. Luck is on our side. How do I cash out the winning ticket? The flea market place is fun. We see a lot of different vendors inside. Some sell junk, antique, military items, jewelry, art & craft, gifts and seafood.
Next, we walk toward downtown area where the infamous rainbow street located. The street is call Skolavordustigur. On this street, you can find many stores. There is restaurant, cafe, gift shop, souvenir shop, bakery and even resident house. We now walking to the famous church, hallgrimskrikja. From far away, you can see the structure. The unique sharp of the church building really a focal point. We try to visit the church, but due to Sunday Church Service, there is limited tourist activities. We hear church bell rang and resident walk into the church for Sunday mass. We didn't have a chance to visit the church tower. From the tower, you get a great view of the city. Since it's already noon time, we are hungry. I decided we should experience Icelandic cuisine. Across the church, we found a local restaurant named Cafe Loki. This cafe is famous serving local cuisine. They also has a unique ice-cream made by rye bread. We sit down and ready to taste the Icelandic cuisine. It's lots of fish and lamb dishes. We ordered 5 different dishes to try out.
Dish 1 : Lamb Shank
Dish 2 : Meat Soup - Lamb with rye bread
Dish 3 : Icelandic plate Por - Rye bread with mashed fish & smoke trout. Slide of sheep-head (brain) jelly
Dish 4 : Grainated mashed fish - Cheese baked mashed fish
Dish 5 : Icelandic plate Freyja - Salad, trout tarte and rye bread ice cream
We had side order of additional 2 rye bread ice cream.
I can vowed for the food at Cafe Loki. It was delicious. After lunch, we walk out to a surprise. The sun is out and shining. The cloudy sky is no longer around. The temperature was getting warmer too. What a treat. We greeted by sun. We continue walking back toward the harbor. We want to visit the Harpa music hall as we skipped it earlier. We took our time to walk back toward Harpa. We enter multiple store to checkout some merchandise/gift/souvenir. We took our time to walk to Harpa. When entering Harpa, you can see the unique structure. It's wall of unique shape glass panel within a steel framework. Harpa is a venue hosting a lot of music related activities. You find concert, music, band & orchestra performance throughout the year. It's just a unique building. It's also a good warm building from outside chill weather. We tour the surrounding building a bit and enjoy the view inside the building.
We are now walking toward back to our parking area. It's been a great afternoon walking and visiting Reykjavik. It's time to head back to our campground and get ready for our appointment. In order to get boarding our plane back to US tomorrow, we need to have a covid test with negative result. Our schedule appointment is at 8pm local Iceland time. We will need to do a group video conference and someone will monitor our test progress and collect final result. Once all result is certified, we will get our document needed for tomorrow airline check-in. It's a process which is needed for us to go home. Let's do this. We never get too close to a lot of people throughout the week. So, I'm confident with out progress. At 8pm, we made the call and proceed with our test. Our test result is negative for all 5 members. We took a photo and send it in for verification. After 10 mins, we received our document. It was a relief to pass this test as I'm always plan for the worst. We cooked our dinner at the community kitchen and consumed our final dinner in Iceland. We chilled inside the campervan after dinner and test. We sleep early and hope our last day in Iceland is productive.
I was hoping we can do one last visit to hot springs prior heading to the airport. I try to book a session with blue lagoon. What a surprise to find out that Blue Lagoon was close for maintenance week. This is a bummer because we should have book a session at Blue Lagoon when we landed. They were open on Monday, but close Tuesday for a week. We missed the opportunity to experience blue lagoon, the iconic blue water hotsprings in Iceland.
Day 8 and Final Day
Our flight to Boston is 5hrs flight time. We landed in Boston after a smooth flight. We gathered all our luggage, head to the car and drive back home. Prior home, we make a stop in Boston Chinatown and got some takeout dinner.
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