Day 1 -
At the rental office, we found a service agent quickly. He help me found our reservation and get our rental ready. He also did a quick intro/training for me to learn how to operate the camper truck. I’m usually fully ready as I learned the vehicle from YouTube. A refresh course helps too. We are ready to load up all our luggage and get ready to be on the road ASAP. Prior to departure, the kids was looking for mifi. I remember I selected a package with mifi included. I quickly went back to the office and ask for a mifi. I got my mifi quickly and let the kids test the mifi. Data for kids cells acquired. We are now ready. It was 7:30 am local time. Our first unscheduled stop is to go to a geothermal active area. This is not on my original itinerary. We want to detour to see a few attractions.
Our first stop is Seltun Geothermal Area. This is an area which most tourist will skip or ignore. The drive to this area is actually very beautiful. Route 42 is the route. Along this route, you can find several attractions. After walking along the broadwalk and see some awesome geothermal pool, we head to the next stop, an old church named Krysuvukurkirkja. We are now getting hungry. No food since Boston. We look for food adventure and continue our journey.
We are heading toward Selfoss. We found the hotdog stand open at 9am and we stop for some authentic Icelandic hotdogs. The original hotdogs cost 650kr each. Fancy hotdogs cost 950kr each. I ordered a few hotdogs and some fries for our breakfast. We chowed down our food quickly. Our next stop will be grocery shopping. We found a Bonus Supermarket in Selfoss. Spend the next 1.5 hrs getting our camping foods like chips, bread, hotdogs, PBJ, hotdog sauce, water & yogurt. We are now ready to start our journey to our first destination, Landmannalaugar.
I started to drive south on route 1, aka ring road, toward Vik. In between, we opt to stop at Solheimajokull Glacier. We missed this spot on our first visit in 2022. We are now back to the area and make a stop. We parked our truck, paid parking through mobile app and start walking toward the glacier. This glacier is part of Kayla volcano, which erupted in 1917. Awesome glacier where we can walk closer to view. There is also activities/tour can be taken here if you need to walk up glacier or kayak at the glacier pool. We just walked up closer to the viewing area. We have to continue our trip.
Our next stop is Vik. In Vik, we miss to checkout the church on our last visit. We drove up to the church and have a photo session. It’s a beautiful view of the church with black sand beach and Reynisfjall on the background. With a field filled with wild lupin. After the photo session, we went to Vik for service. We got our truck diesel fill up. Pack more food from Kronan Supermarket. We also stop to make some lunch sandwiches. Time flies fast and it’s 3pm. I need to start our journey into the highland. I choose to skip some planned route and take F-208 into Landmannalaugar. The turning for Route 208 is not far from Vik. We drive on 208 for 10-15 mins before the route turn to F208. We continue to use F208 to reach our destination. F208 start out as an easy trail. It’s just a bumpy gravel road. As landscape charges, the route turn into black sand road. The landscape change from mossy lava field to black lava sand. The next challenge for F208 is not far ahead. There are many river crossing for F208. At least 2 medium river crossing and several other easy river crossing. I just cross all the river with no problem. There was at least 2 river crossing and water level come up pretty high. All the challenges was not too hard. At some point, I was able to follow someone (Toyota hilux). They speed up and drive in good pace. I just followed them on water crossing. After 2+ hrs of F208, we got to the junction of F224, entrance to Landmannalaugar. Our destination is just 2km in front of us, but we have 2 river crossing coming up. Although it rated pretty hard, I have no problem crossing the river with the hilux truck. I can say the water is pretty deep, but not a huge stopper. I cross it and found our camp spot. Stop the truck and start putting/setting the camper. It’s about 6:30pm. Once our camper is ready, I start to go around and take picture. I went back to the river and watch other vehicle crossed this deep river. I learned that my crossing is not correct. I vowed that I would use the right crossing method tomorrow.
Our night start out just walking around the camping area. At 8pm, the service center will open again for camper to registered. I waited patiently till 8pm and I lined up at the counter. Spoke to the CS and get our camping fee paid. For 5 person, I actually get charged about $125. There is a free hot spring which I can utilized. I got our camping sticker and camping wrist band. Time to go for some relaxation at the hot spring. At this time, there is several group using the hot springs. I just get myself ready and jumped in. I found out hot spring water come out in 2 different locations. If I stay closer to the hot water source, the water temp will be hot. If I’m away from the source, the water temp will be a bit cold. Currently, the weather is listed as 8-9 C. No cold weather can stop me enjoying skinny dip into the hot spring. I enjoyed my 45 mins hot spring session. Went back to the truck and dinner is ready. Our first dinner is ramen with SPAM. We bring some ramen and SPAM from home. After a warm dinner, we ready to go to bed. I post some status on FB before dozed off.
Day 2 -
Wake up very early due to bright light & surrounding. Summer in Iceland 🇮🇸 has some pros and cons. The Pros is the access to highland open, but the surround will bring you 24 hrs bright sky. Sun will set for 2 hrs, but the sky still bright. To sleep, you will need to wear eyemask. Wake up early also get some perks. All the camper is still asleep. We managed to get access to the hot spring river/pool all by ourselves. 2 older kids joined in. All 4 of us occupied the hot springs pool for hours. That’s awesome relaxation time. One of our highlight for the trip. Oh, forgot the temperature. Last night, the temp dip down to low 30’s with wind chill in high 20’s. In the morning during hot spring time, the temp is in the high 30’s. Still very cold and we need to change in open area.
Some info about the natural hot spring pool/river. Most of these handmade pool usually not very clean. If you want to compare the commercial hot spring (blue lagoon) vs wild natural spring, it’s usually commercial one win. The natural rock-stacked pool/river usually have grown moss and most have settlements on the bottom. Ignore the green mossy settlement and enjoyed the hot water feed from the ground. Because of heavy traffic, settlement usually minimal, but exist. If you can’t ignore those mossy settlement, you should choose a commercial hotsprings in Iceland. It is a river and water flow in/out of the pool. Always, there is hot spring water feed into these pool. So, there will be hot & cold zone. If you stay closer to where the hot water feed area, you feel either warm/hot. While the girls stay longer at the natural hot pool, the boys is done. We went back to change and get some breakfast.
Landmannalaugar is a natural preserved area within Fjallabak Nature Reserve Park, one of a few park in Iceland. They have camping area, hut, campground & parking for campervan/truck. There is a small store selling some food/coffee/beer/liquor. The compound also have shower/toilet (unisex). It’s in a remote area, but with cell signal and electricity. I think electricity is generated by diesel generators, water from river and geothermal hot water source and cell signal from satellite uplink (my guess)? There is also a present of ICE-SAR (non-profit & volunteer based search & rescue) facilities here. There is a very famous hiking trail, Laugavegur - 34 miles/ 55 km hiking trail, start/end here (the other endpoint is Þórsmörk). This trail usually a four days hike trail.
When I’m back to our camper truck, I start boiling water using the portable stove. Our breakfast include bread, Skyr (Icelandic yogurt), granola & drink (HK milk tea/starbuck coffee instant mix). We also have SPAM with macaroni. We have import some camping food from USA. I’m able to snug some can food, pasta/noodle/ramen/couscous and instant drink package into our luggage. This is my effort to save a few bucks and also try to prep some familiar food for kids.
As the ladies return from hotsprings, we start to prep for our next activities. I’m planning to hike this nature park. I choose one of the easy hiking trail ~ 4.5km round trip. We load up with our gear and start walking to the trail. The hike is the other highlight of this trip. We actually hike through lava field, geothermal active area, near glacier feed river and with colorful mountain/valley as background. Some mountain is just dark volcanic sand color, some mountain is green color (grow with moss or a lot of iron based mineral) and some mountain is colorful with red, orange, yellow color (geothermal active). The hike was eventful but we didn’t bring any snack. Just water bottle that fill up prior the start of the hike. Our hike is very slow paced. We stop and have way too many photo session. 3 hrs hike, but scenic full hike.
After our hike, we return to our truck camper and start prepping lunch. We ate our lunch. I watch most camper packing up and mobilized. I also watch a herd of horses being send to nearby spot. I learned that these are the horse riding tour. Awesome tour experience to have 5-7 days riding tour. As we finished our lunch, we are now prepping to mobilize. I don’t usually track time and have a full travel itinerary. I just make up as we go. Our destination for today is kerlingarfjöll. We have a long road trip for the day.
Let’s talk about our camper truck. I rented a camper truck. It’s a 5 seat diesel toyota hilux 4x4. I’m a Toyota fan and if I got any chance to drive a different Toyota, I’m in. The truck carry a camper behind the truck bed. The camper is powered by a 12V battery or attachment to any electric camping outlet. Inside the camper, it is equipped with a small fridge, small sink with water tank, propane stove with propane tank. The roof need to raise for proper standing height. The interior has a double bed and a table with seating area. The table and seating can be converted into another double bed. Hence 2 double bed occupancy. For our family of 5, it’s a little cramp. But it’s doable for a short duration. The cabin has heater (webasto diesel heater that use the car fuel tank as source of fuel). There are a few cubby storage area which we use for storing sleeping bags/pillows or food. For our family, we carry about 5 carryon size luggage & 4 backpack size carryon. I also have a carryon case for my camera equipment. We able to store all our luggage and backpack inside the camper cabin when driving. When we need to sleep, we converted the table in the cabin into sleeping platform. All our luggages will need to be stored inside the vehicle cabin. This arrangement work out for us during the trip.
I’m ready to mobilized. Jackie and Chris went to the nearby river to film me driving the truck crossing the river. Once the filming done, we head out and start our journey to our next destination. From F224, I turned to F208 north. At the next junction, I turn to F225 east. F225 is a shortcut, but with a medium river crossing. F225 also has one of the most beautiful landscape. The drive is not hard and it’s the quickest way to reach civilization. I think we departure around 2:30pm and we reach pavement around 4:30pm. I decided to make a detour stop at a famous waterfall named Haifoss. There is 2 waterfall in this area. The viewing area actually up high on the cliff. We have a short stop here before moving to our next stop. On our way to F35, he had a stop for gas and snack. We try to find ice cream, but the ice cream machine is broken. I filled up with diesel and buy some drink. I try the famous soda in Iceland. It’s call appelsin. It’s like a Fanta soda. Our next unannounced stop is Gulfoss. Since we visited Gulfoss before, we didn’t walk down to the viewing platform. I use the bathroom facilities and also bought some food from the cafe. We try out Icelandic lamb soup and goulash (it’s like beef chilli). We lost track our time and it’s about 9pm. We continue on Route 35 and lead to the start of F35. F35 is now called Route 35. It’s no longer a F road. Yet, it’s still a gravel road and some bumpy ride. The drive to Kerlingarfjöll took about 2 hrs. From F35 north, we turn at the junction to F347. We arrived Kerlingarfjöll mountain resort at around 11pm. I try to stay here, but it is Saturday and the campground for campervan/truck is fully booked. I’m not sure if I can book a tent site and use the parking spot as my camping vehicle. Also, the area is filled with local Icelandic people. I decide not to create a scene and move on to our next camping area. As we driving away, we stopped at a waterfall and cooked our dinner. Our dinner is hot soup with Icelandic hotdogs. We actually bought all the ingredient to make a very authentic Icelandic hotdogs. We have our dinner at the reststop next to the waterfall, Gýgjarfoss. After quick dinner served, we continue our journey to Hveravellir, another geothermal active area. From F35 north, I turn at the junction to F735. Arrived at Hveravellir at 1am. Parked and prepped our truck camper for sleep. Good night 💤.
Day 3
of our Iceland Roadtrip. Good morning. I think we cannot get used to the 24hrs daylight. I wake up around 6am again. It was very foggy outside. Since the camper is cramp, any movement will affect others. The sleeping arrangement is we have all 3 kids sleeping on the upper bulk bed. Me & Jackie will sleep at the converted bed. I wake up and try to do my usual morning business. But I also wake up Jackie too. Since we both wake up, we think of the hot spring pool at this campsite. The weather is in the mid 30’s. We bring our clothes/towel and walk toward the pool. Again, we find no other camper at the pool. We had the pool all by ourself. When we first get into the pool, the water was cold. I quickly learned that hot water source was not directed into the pool. I make some changes and redirect hot water back into the pool and redirect the cold water away from the pool. After 10-15 mins, the pool turn warm. We both love the pool water hot, so bring on all the hot water (this action was not as acceptable to other camper later). We both enjoyed our personal time at the pool for more than an hour. Once we done with the hot spring, we both went to take a hot shower. Our first hot shower in Iceland. We didn’t had a hot shower in Landmannalauger as hot water shower cost 900kr. We just have cold rinse. Hveravellir has everything include with the camping cost. This campground practice is very common in Iceland. You will find some campground charge $$ for shower. But not all campground equal. Some campground will include hot shower.
After shower, I went out for a walk around the campground. This area is a geothermal active area. There is no geysir, but there is spot where hot water come out of the ground. There walk around the geothermal active area. There are broadwalk surround the area. Continue the trail, I went on walking onto a field. I found a turf house and explored the house interior/exterior. The trail lead me back to the tent area.
The reception/office is open at 8am. I’m ready to walk in and pay for our camping fee. The lodge where is the reception located also has room accommodation. There is a restaurant in the lodge. They are serving breakfast as I walk in. I found a person at the bar and ask to pay for camping. Paid my camping fee and return to the camper. Get the kids wake up and prep for mobilized. Also prep for breakfast. This morning breakfast is easy. Some granola on my fav Icelandic skyr. The kids also want to experience the hot spring. They went on to the hot spring pool. I stay at the camper and start converting the bed back into table and seating area. I start getting some water boil for coffee. I try to relax a bit with my morning coffee. Bring out the map on my phone and start plotting our route for the day. We try to get to westfjords. We are far away from Westfjords. Due to this, we have to skip a few stop. Once all the kids ready and all had breakfast, we get ready to mobilize. Close the camper, move all our luggage from car cabin back to the rear camper, empty trash and we are ready to go.
I think we leave Hveravellir around 12pm. Around this time, there are tons of visitor arriving already. Most day visitor come and visit the geothermal active area. The parking lot filled with day visitor vehicle. As we pull out of the area, I turn back to F35 north. It took me 1+ hrs to get out of the gravel road and back to pave road. I turn into Route 1. I do have a plan to stop at Blönduos. I need to fuel up and also have a break. We stopped at the N1 gas station. We stopped here before during our 2022 ring road trip. We had some ice cream here which we all enjoyed. It was Sunday and this gas station is busy. We got our ice cream soft served. Next we need to stop for some grocery. I found a grocery store a block from the gas station. We went shopping for more hot dogs making items. We bought more skyr that we love. Blonduos pit stop take about 2 hrs. Once we finished our chores, we start to drive toward westfjords. From Route 1, we turn to Route 68. We had another pit stop at a church called Prestbakkakirkja. Here, we make our late lunch (sandwich). We ate our lunch at the church parking lot. Take some photos before continuing our drive north. The next stop is at a town name Hólmavík. It was 6pm when we arrived this town. We had a restroom stop. Then, I found a free car wash. Drove the truck to the car wash area and have a quick rinse. The truck has been muddy, dusty. I took a quick 15 mins rinse and wash the truck a bit. We then took a ride into Hólmavík town area. We stop at the harbor, church and drive through the towns. Found the church very unique as they have a rainbow staircase. Took some photo here. As we ready to pull out of the town, I had another restroom break request. The grocery store we use for restroom break earlier now close. I turn to the campground across the street. The campground seems to be crowded (Sunday). Even I was getting tired of driving, I still want to push toward the town isafjordur. After the restroom break, we continue our driving toward isafjordur. Along the route, I stop at a few spot. I stopped at a private hot springs poo named Gjörvidalslaug natural hot spring. This private hot spring is pad locked. I just took a few pictures and move on. I also try to stop at a campground named Reykjanes tjaldsvæði. The surrounding looks pretty cool from google map. It has a hotel next to the campground. The hotel also has a hot springs pool. But when we arrived and we may stop for the night, there is something that freak us out. The hotel looks like a haunted hospital. There is only a few cars at the hotel. When we pull in the campground, only 1 camper there. When you have a feeling that this area is not secure, you will not want to stay for the night. Although I’m exhausted, I keep pushing on. We left this area and keep driving. It was 10pm. The next area I stopped is a seal lookout spot. The kids is all exhausted and sleeping. I just parked the car at the pullout and walk toward the seal lookout area. I can’t spot any seal, but tons of ducks. I got to move on. After driving around 2 more fjords, we arrived to a town name Sudavik. We found a campground at sudavik and call it quit. We prep our camper quickly and went to bed.
Here are my driving experience for westfjords. There are no straight road. We have to drive around one fjords to another fjords. It was a long 20-30+ km drive. Technically, you can see the opposite side like 1 km apart, we need to spend 20 or 30 times longer distance to reach the opposite side. The drive is beautiful as the road is a coastal route. Sometimes we have to climb up the fjords to reach the other side. Sometimes, there is a tunnel. The road is paved mostly. You will need to pay attention to the road. There is no guardrail and if you fell asleep, you will end up in the ocean.
Day 4 -
Good morning from Sudavik campground. A small campground in a small town. I’m about 15-20 mins from a larger town, isafjordur. Today, I wake up around 7am and adopting better to the 24 hr bright sky. I wear eye mask when sleeping. I’m getting better to wake up without disturbing others. I put on my boots and jacket, climb out the camper, and take a walk around the campground and the harbor across the street. Took some photos of the campground and harbor. It’s quiet in this town. In the next 30 mins, I start to see people arriving the harbor and get ready to depart the harbor. A few car arrived and a few boat departing the harbor. Small boat has one person. Big boat has 2-3 person. As the boat depart the harbor, I was eating my breakfast - skyr with granola & banana, my healthy diet.
This campground is great. The campsite is not near the road and tuck in a bit. The background is mountain cliff of the fjords. Camping fee including all amenities. I’m able to take a long/relax hot shower again. As the clock at 9am, the campground attendant arrived and started collecting camping fee. I paid our camping fee. It was the most affordable camping charge.
We get all the kids wake up and prep for departure. Kids able to take turn and took a long hot shower. After a quick breakfast bite, we prep for departure. We are ready at 10am and I drive off toward our first stop. I need to fuel up at this town, isafjordur. 15 mins drive, we arrived at the gas station, Orkan. After gas filled up, I head into town and find a parking. Parking is free in this town. I parked and we all get out for a walk. This town is pretty busy. There are 2 cruises ship docked and the town is filled with tourist (from the cruise ship). We just blend in and act like tourist. We stop at a cafe and get our coffee/bakery. We walk the Main Street and shop around. We bought some ornament from a 12 years old kid selling Viking sourvenier. We also found a thrift store. Isafjordur has a rainbow 🌈 street like Reykjavík. We took some photos at the rainbow street and 3D crosswalk. We stayed in the town as tourist till around 2pm. I ask if we can go into the wild before eating lunch. We all agree we wait for lunch.
We left isafjordur and head toward our next stop, Önundarfjörður Pier. As we left Isafjordur, we need to cross a tunnel. This tunnel has only 1 lane. As we entered the tunnel, we need to give priority for the opposite traffic. Inside the tunnel, there are many pull out that fit 1-2 cars. If there is incoming traffic, I need to pull aside at the pull out and let the traffic go pass. 4km tunnel? It was one of the scary tunnel I ever drive. It’s really test your patience. As we reach the end of the tunnel, there is a sign of relief. Our stop was not far after the tunnel. We turn into the street and found our next destination. This is a pier with fjords backgrounds. The beaches near the pier also very nice. You could take a swim at this beach. We quickly wrap up our visit and start heading to a town named pingeyri. At this town, I want to do some 4x4 fun.
There is a route called Svalvogavegur, aka route 622. This is a one way around 4x4 trail. It was listed as one of the most dangerous road in the world. As I pass through the town, we just stop for a quick photo. We quickly drove to the start of the I route. The paved road soon will turn into gravel road. The gravel road will start running near the coastal of this fjords. This gravel road will turn to shelf road (no guard rail and driving next to a cliff). My destination is a lighthouse at the tip of the fjords. Driving this route reminds me of driving the mountain shelf road in Colorado. I turn on the 4x4 and sent it. A few stop & go where I get down to take some photos. It was around 3pm when we start driving. We reach the lighthouse shortly and we stop for lunch. While Jackie prepping lunch, I got to fly my first drone session. It was very windy and the drone barely can fly straight. I snapped a few pics from the drone and land quickly. Sorry, No good video from the drone. Lunch ready. We have make some sandwich 🥪 and hot soup. It was a yummy lunch with a great view of the ocean, fjords and lighthouse.
After we consumed our lunch, we are ready to continue our journey. About halfway from the lighthouse, the road in front was blocked. A campervan stuck sideway on the road. I post the incident, so I’ll skip the story. We have to turn around. I did an impossible u-turn on a narrow rocky beach path. We start heading toward the lighthouse. On our way to the lighthouse, there is incoming traffic. I have to warned them so they can turn around before too late. We meet 2 incoming traffic and I have to warned them to turn around. After a detour back to the town, Pingeyri. I look for police station. Can’t find one. I stop at a hotel in the town and ask for help. There is a nice lady receptionist vow to help. She is not local (from Poland), so she need her local Icelandic friends to help. We thank her and get back to the vehicle. I was worry help might not happen on time. I start to call 112 for help. 112 was no help. I also start to reach out to Iceland SAR on social media. Send a few messages with pics and detail info. Till now, I still don’t know if the campervan person make it out.
It’s about 6:30pm. We are short on time and need to move. We drove away from the town and continue our journey. Our next stop is a beautiful waterfall named Dynjandi. We parked our truck and start the hike toward the highest waterfall. There is multiple waterfall here. 3 water fall at the lower point. Dynjandi is the biggest waterfall where it sit at the highest point. As we walk up the trail, we were attacked by midges. Swamp of midges continue to surround us. Due to this, we didn’t have a good photo session at this waterfall area. We quickly snap a few pictures and head back into the vehicle. We left this area with just a short stop. As we continue to drive, I want to visit Látrabjarg. I hope we can spot puffins at this location. But the drive to this area is pretty far away. There is only one road lead to this cliff area. I think it’s almost 10pm as we start our route to Látrabjarg. On the way to Látrabjarg, we lucked out to have a glimpse of an arctic fox. The fox is crossing the road as we drive by. I’m able to take 1 photo of the arctic fox before it’s disappeared into the bushes. The road to Látrabjarg is gravel. As we turn in route 612, we stop at one of the iron boat that grounded at this beach. This boat is known as Garðar BA 64. I just take a few photos hoping there is no midges around. Continuing the bumpy gravel road to Látrabjarg. We arrived at Látrabjarg around 12am.
Day 5 -
We arrived Látrabjarg at midnight. Our time in Iceland is very limited. Today, it’s our last full day in Iceland. Our flight is scheduled at 8:05 pm. Yesterday, I already completed our check-in process. We purchase to have our in-flight meal as we will rushed through the airport and have no time to eat dinner.
Látrabjarg is a seaside cliff where there are many bird species can be found. This area is home of millions birds. When we arrived the area, it was very windy. Temperature is at low 30’s and with windchill below 30. We bundled up with wind jacket and start walking up the trail to the sea cliff. We have no expectation to see anything. The strong wind, chill weather and midnight probably not the ultimate timing. But to our surprise, we can see tons of birds still flying and you can hear birds noise at the sea cliff. As we get closer to the cliff area, we start to see many puffins chilling near the cliff edge. Puffins flying in and landed at the cliff area. What a sight. We are literally just an arm reach to this cutest birds. The puffins also very curious too. They will get closer to check us out. My bucket list is done. We finally got to see a colony of puffins. On our 2022 trip, we failed to see puffins. Here, my eyes witness a colony of puffins resting at this huge sea cliff. For me, the detour and drive to Latrabjarg finally paid off.
A little info. The road to drive to Látrabjarg is loose gravel and really bumpy. It’s also very narrow too. Some area is like single lane for 2 way traffic. You are driving near the sea cliff and there is no guard rail. Due to late hour visit, the traffic to Látrabjarg is minimal. I only encounter a handful vehicle leaving Látrabjarg. We are the only vehicle heading toward Látrabjarg.
After having a close encounter with colonies of puffins, we return back to our camper. We are having a late dinner or midnight snack. We start prepping our late dinner. We are having Icelandic hotdogs and hot soup for dinner. I mention about Icelandic hotdogs, but never mention soup. In Iceland grocery store, there is a lot of selection for instant soup mix. There are many flavors to fit your need. It’s easy to prepare. Just some boiling water/hot water is needed to prepare a good hearty tomato/chicken/beef/brocolli/asparagus soup. We eat our dinner inside the car cabin.
At this moment, a huge thick fog rolling in from the sea. It’s also start to drizzle. The winds continue very strong. The driving situation quickly deteriorated. I can barely see more than 10ft away. I ask everyone to finished dinner so we can depart this area. We closed out the camper and start mobilized.
Here is a confession. I have experiencing one of my hardest driving conditions for this trip. I can barely see more than 5-10 fts due to heavy fogs. It’s drizzle most time and start raining. I had 2 hotdogs which also not a great combination. I’m getting tired and can’t focus on my driving. This is one of the worst driving condition and I’m dead tired. I managed to drive away from the narrow, bumpy gravel road. I’m back to the turn for the iron ship, Garðar BA 64. Since my condition is really bad for continues driving, I opt to stop at Garðar BA 64 and have a Power Nap. 2 hrs Power Nap help me to recoupe my energy.
Power napping help. I’m ready to continue our trip toward Reykjavik. We left Garðar BA 64 and start driving toward Snæfellsnes peninsula. I stop by Brjánslækur ferja hoping if timing works, I can take the ferry from Westfjords to Snæfellsnes peninsula. At the ferry terminal at 6:30am. I look at the ferry schedule. The departure time for ferry toward Snæfellsnes peninsula is at 12:30pm. Timing is not match my need, so I have to continue to drive. From route 62, I turn backed into route 60. At the junction of Rt 62 & Rt 60, I filled up at the N1 gas stations. After diesel fill up, we continue to drive Route 60. Not far from the gas station, you can find a nature hot spring called Hellulaug. I stop at the parking lot and take a walk to see this hot springs. I would have stay here and take a hot dip. The pool water is warm and the scenic of the beach with Fjord background. It’s another serenity hotsprings. I would love to dip, but we had to drive toward our next destination. The drive toward the peninsula is similar to yesterday scenery. We zigzag through the fjords. The weather was either drizzly and cloudy. At some moment the sun 🌞 pop out a bit. The ray from the sun + fjords make an awesome scenic.
Route 60 has a combination of paved and gravel. It seems like Icelandic gov is planning to paved and widen the road. There are some distance where heavy construction on going. Can you believed road construction at 7am? Time flies and I quickly reach the junction of Route 54. Turn into Route 54 toward Snæfellsnes peninsula. My destination is Arnarstapi. In our 2022 ring road trip, we didn’t finish the circle around the peninsula. We were at Stykkishólmur. We visited Kirkjufell. So, I planed to take southern route.
My ETA to arnarstapi is about 9:30am. In between, we try to stop at the visitor center (still closed) and also Ytri Tunga. It was raining while we were at Ytri Tunga. So we skipped this attraction and moving on. We reach the town of Arnarstapi around 9:30am. The town still very quiet. Too bad, the rain never slow down. I just went out quickly and take some pics. We need a restroom break, but the WC in this town is a paid one. There is no clear instruction on how to paid the WC. I know the national park Visitor Center at Malarrif has WC. But they are not open until 10am. We left Arnarstapi and head to Visitor Center at Malarrif. We arrived at the visitor center at 9:50am and it’s raining pretty hard now. I wear my jacket and walk to the lighthouse. The visitor center open at 10am. We visit the museum inside the visitor center and use the WC at this location. We also start to have some breakfast. We got some bananas & skyr. We ate our breakfast and have a brief stop here. It’s 11am and we need to move toward Reykjavik. All the extras driving only yield 1 hrs at this area. We are about 3+ hrs from Reykjavik and we need to head toward Keflavík. We turn back and drive toward Reykjavik.
We took route 54 until we at the junction of Route 1 in Borgarnes. We reach the Hvalfjörður Tunnel. As we getting closer to Reykjavik, I made a stop at a store named Arctic Truck. This is a store where famous for building Arctic purposed 4X4. I got no time to spare hence just a drive by. Our next stop is Costco. At Costco, we filled up the truck (cheapest fuel in Iceland) and have our late lunch. Costco hotdogs is similar to Icelandic hotdogs, but much cheaper. I also try the gelato which is not on US costco menu. Time flies so fast and it’s 3:30pm. We need to get back and return the truck at rent.is office. Leave Costco and head toward Keflavik. We arrived at the rental office 4:10. Quickly start to pack our luggages. The return process is very easy. I just hand back the key and the Mifi device. At 4:50pm, we are on the shuttle to airport.
Packing up quickly and efficiently is a team work. Every members know his/her responsibility. Having spend less than 20 mins is very efficient. Jackie also able to make some sandwiches with the remaining bread/cheese/vegetable. Also have 2/3 cups of skyr left which we took with us. It was 5:15pm and we are at the terminal of KEF. Check in line was not crazy. We are able to get all luggages checked in within 20 mins. We also able to get through security in less than 5 mins. Jackie got tagged for extra security check at the security. She was pulled away at the border custom. We just hang out around the duty free shop and wait for her. Got to take some photo with the 🧌 & puffins hat/pillow. By 6:15pm, we already at the terminal. There is no gate assignment for our flight. We need to wait till 7pm before the gate assignment. We found a spot to lay low and relaxed. We ate the sandwiches and skyr. At 7:05pm, the departure gate announced and we quickly get to the gate and lined up. The boarding started around 7:30pm. Due to Jackie get extra security check, she was invited to line up at the priority boarding line. We just lined up at the general boarding line. We are able to board our flight, get our onboard luggage stored and sit at our assigned seat 💺 quickly.
Our 2024 Iceland roadtrip concluded. We are blessed with 4 full days of perfect weather. The trolls 🧌 blessed us with great weather and accident free roadtrip. There always some dangerous/scary moment, but we are blessed. We missed some activities/attraction which I think it will motivated us to planned a return trip asap. We had an awesome flight experience with Icelandair and also renting experience with rent.is. The truck performed flawlessly and able to get us to many awesome spots in Highland and Westfjords. Until next visit to Iceland.
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