Driving out of Keflavik, we headed south on Route 1 for our first activity of the day: sulphur fields by Hafnarfjordur.
Walking along the bubbling mud pits and steam vents, the smell of sulphur enveloped our noses. This wasn’t the only sulphur field in Iceland as there were more in Lake Mývatn (more of that in later posts). But you definitely get the feel of walking on the moon here.
Next on the list was a short crater hike at the northernmost end of Reykjanesfólkvangur Nature Preserve. While driving, we had no idea that Iceland’s main roads turned into gravel at various points until we found ourselves on one. If you think New Jersey roads are a pain, these gravel roads were dreadful. This specific gravel road that we drove on screamed death. Seriously, they took potholes to a whole ‘nother level. On top of that, the rocks were large and jagged…we were just waiting for one of those suckers to pop a tire. It didn’t help that the low tire pressure signal lit up as well. And it definitely didn’t help that the road went on for about a good mile and a half before we finally reached the hike. So if anytime in the future you find yourself in Iceland get yourself a car with 4WD! I can’t tell you how many times we’ve almost had an anxiety attack driving through some of these roads.
The funny thing about this picture is that I didn’t even make it all the way to the top. The winds that day were blowing about 18-20mph, in addition to it already being 48 degrees. So of course being the crazy person I am, I attempted to hike it. And being the crazy person I am to hike it, I got blown over by the wind and ended up with a bloody left leg. Keaton was able to make it to the top and catch a glimpse but it was way too dangerous to explore any further. We ended up crab-walking all the way down the trail to prevent falling again. But hey I got this picture at least, right?
Most of the day consisted of driving to Selfoss which was where we camped for the night. We realized that roads throughout Iceland were fairly easy to configure since there were so few of them. There were signs throughout Route 1 indicating which direction was heading to a certain town and how many kilometers it was from where we were.
When we arrived in Selfoss, we paid the warden and immediately set up camp early since we knew that it was going to rain that night. We staked the tent in, blew the air mattress up, and spread the two-person sleeping bag out. It was a fairly quick process.
We tried making small-talk with a traveler who was clearly a tent master (he had no ripples in his setup – everything was absolutely taut). But he was too busy checking his already perfect tent. The guy would pop out of it every 10-15 minutes to analyze the stakes and strings that were neatly tied (probably more than once). By that time it was only 5 in the evening but with all the chaos that we went through at the airport, the long drive, and my injured leg, we decided to sleep it off. I remember waking up around one in the morning to light seeping in. I had forgotten that the sun never sets in the summertime here. Peeking through the little window, I caught the sky in what seemed to be twilight. I remember getting back in the bag and thinking “I’m really in Iceland”.
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