Six months in Iceland 2014-2015

[Berglid]

My Adventures in Iceland 2014-2015

Hello everyone. My name is Robin. I am an Arctic Nature Guide from Norway. I have always enjoyed traveling. Especially in the Arctic. I have lived on Svalbard and travelled around. This year I will combine my work in Norway, working with rock scaling with traveling on Iceland.


Rock scaling work in Norway





From Wikipedia:
Iceland[6] ( i/ˈaɪslənd/; Icelandic: Ísland [ˈistlant]) is a Nordic country between the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean. It has a population of 325,671 and an area of 103,000 km2 (40,000 sq mi), making it the most sparsely populated country in Europe.[7] The capital and largest city is Reykjavík; the surrounding areas in the southwest of the country are home to two-thirds of the population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active. The interior consists mainly of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a temperate climate despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle.





With me I also have my girlfriend Simone. Who is working in Lebowski bar. She will stay there all the time, and I will fly back to Norway to work for periods. I own two cars now, that I have on Iceland. LC120 AT44 modified, long range fuel tank, crawlerbox, lockers, vhf/uhf/hf, and much more. This car is on norwegian plates. I also have a LC80 46" modified on icelandic plates. These are the cars I will travel around with this winter. This is not my first time on Iceland, but usually I only stay for short periods.

Thorsmork valley this summer


LC80 before the last modifications.


I will try to write here every week! Feel free to comment and ask questions. This will only motivate me to put more up here!

 

[kpredator]

thank you for the pictures and information.
some nice rigs you have there

good luck and enjoy your time there

kp

 

[Grabow]

Looking forward to more pictures! Iceland is definitely on my list of places to see.

 

[Berglid]

The beginning
I will start the story from this summer since I have plenty of pictures from that trip. My friend Håvard and I planned to go to Iceland this summer. We packed the black car to ship it over to Iceland from Norway.






I used Eimskip in Norway. They shipped the car on an open container over to Iceland. When it got over my mechanic's daughter picked it up. My mechanic, Tryggvi, powder coated the wheels and put on new tires. Finally ready for summer trip!




In the beginning of the trip, my car was not ready so Håvard and I took my 80 for a spin. I did not trust the car to travel alone since I had a big engine break down, twice! Last winter. However, this was the only car we had the first week.
We did not really have a plan, as always we love to explore and find things on the way. I cannot promise that I remember everything from the summer trip. Therefore, I will write what I remember. My phone also was stolen with the pictures from the beginning of the trip. More about that later.

I arrived to Iceland first. Håvard would come the next day.


Only thing for me to do was to pick up the 80-cruiser beast, find myself a hotel and relax. I checked into backpackers and stayed the night there. The car looks small parked next to my 80.


The next day we walked around in Reykjavik talking about where to go. We ate some food and the adventure spirit was too big. Therefore, we drove to the supermarket. Shopped some food and supplies, put everything in the car and left town towards the highlands.


We went south with no plan at all. We wanted to go to Landmannalaugar. There is a natural hot spring. On the way, we drove past to nice girls hiking. They wanted a lift. Nevertheless, our car was full. So we went. After about 3km, Håvard regret that we did not pick them up. So we turned around, put all the bags on the roof. In addition, we got them inside. Nice company for the next hours. They must think we were crazy driving like hell over the highland. Of course, I did not have any pictures of it, but I found a picture from Landmannalaugar without turists. The nature there is spectacular.

 

[Berglid]

The next day we went north from Landmannalaugar. Trying some new roads, I have never driven before. Here is a spectacular view.








We soon found out the rivers this summer was bigger than normal. Since we were driving, alone we did not take the usual chances that I do when we are more cars on the trip. Dry suit in the car is nice some times. It is usually not the depth that is the problem, but the current.




There are many dangers with river crossings in Iceland. The closest help here is a day drive away. And there are no phone connection here. We had to take it slow and stay safe. There are also wet sand in the bottom, sometimes this is a problem. But not here.





It’s nice with god maps and gps on Iceland. It’s not always easy to find the road. Here is it.






Well since the river was big this time, we did not take the chance on the last bit. We were alone. Usually we do it when we are more cars. However, the nice thing with Iceland is there are hundreds of roads that take you to the same places.

 

[EZE]

AWESOME! My wife and I had a 20hr layover in Iceland, rented a Jimny and drove everywhere we could during that time. We've been planning a longer trip back ever since. Looking forward to more updates, thanks for sharing!

 

[Overland Hadley]

View attachment 258358

Wow, I had no idea there were that many roads in Iceland.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Berglid]

We turned around and found some nice small roads in the wilderness. Our goal was to get to the Nyidalur camingsite in the middle of the highland. With plenty of time we tok all the small roads driving around in almost circles to get there.


The colours in the terrain is amazing. Especially the green moss and the volcanic sand.


This is the same river; we tried to cross in a different place.




Håvard posing.


The road was nice and easy here. On our way to Jokulheimar hut to take a look.

 

[Berglid]

Finally a little overview over the highland. Real moon landscape to drive trough.




Almost at the Jokulheimar hut now. This hut is in the beginning of Vatnajokull glacier.



Vatnajökull (English: Glacier of Lakes) (IPA: [ˈvahtnaˌjœːkʏtl ̥]) is the largest glacier in Iceland. It lies in the south-east of the island, covering more than 8% of the country.

The average thickness of the ice is 400 m, with a maximum thickness of 1,000 m. Iceland's highest peak, Hvannadalshnúkur (2,110 m), is located at the southern tip of Vatnajökull, near Skaftafell National Park. It is classified as an ice cap glacier.

Vatnajökull has been shrinking for some years now, possibly because of climatic changes and recent volcanic activity. Until 1930 it was growing.

According to Guinness World Records Vatnajökull is the object of the world's longest sight line, 550 km from Slættaratindur, the highest mountain in the Faroe Islands. GWR state that "owing to the light bending effects of atmospheric refraction, Vatnajökull (2119m), Iceland, can sometimes be seen from the Faroe Islands, 340 miles (550 km) away". This may be based on a claimed sighting by a British sailor in 1939. The validity of this record is analysed/undermined in mathematical and atmospheric detail by J.C. de Ferranti

 

[Berglid]

Will upload every day. Please rate the thread and subscribe. I have around 1000 more photos comming + the next six months of exploring

 

[Berglid]

Jokulheimar hut.




From the hut and to the camping there are a long small road going through the old lava fields.


Anyone else having problems getting things from the back of the car? Håvard is ca 180cm


In the afternoon we got to Nyidalur campingsite.

 

[Scurvy]

Great pictures, love your vehicles ! Looks like an awesome place to be exploring

 

[getout]

Awesome trip and great pictures.

 

[Cloudrunner]

Iceland is definitely on my bucket list. It looks like an awesome place to explore.

 

[jhill15]

This looks amazing! I cant wait to read more!

:subscribed: