Iceland on four wheels, 28 days exploring the wilderness

[Berglid]

After Geysir we went to meet my friend and owner of Icelandic Riverjet, but he was back in Norway so he booked us in on a trip with Gawin from New Zealand. I did not film or take any photos this time. But this is so much fun. You can check out their webpage for more info http://www.icelandriverjet.com

Im going to add a movie from the last time I took this boat trip with Cato.

We had so much fun on this trip. So after the boat ride, we got ourself some good coffee and breakfast. Then we decided to head more south and into Thorsmork. Thorsmork is one of my favorite valleys on Iceland. The colors and the hiking possibilities are so big here. We went to a little bit more hidden camping site and put up our tent.






Slyppugil is the name of the camping site. We got meet by the super friendly warden Klemenz.

 

[Berglid]

We put up our tent, I got a North Face VE 25 and I really love this tent. I have used it on winter trips and summer trips and the tent feels so big inside even if it is a small tent.


The entrance to this super nice camping place. And almost no people around.This is one of the few places on Iceland where you can go camping in the forest.

 

[Berglid]

Next day we decided to go for a walk in the mountains. There are hundreds of different places you can go in this area.


The first bit is the worst then it flattens out on the tops.


Enjoying a small stop.


The view just gets better and better




At the top of one of the small mountains in Thorsmork




We got some nice hats from Arctic Edge to test out this summer. Check them out.


Looking back down into the valley

 

[Berglid]

This is our campsite


Going back down I just had to climb a small mountain, standing on the left side


Going back, nice formations in this volcano landscape


Simone waiting for me

 

[Berglid]

After the walk in the mountain we took a short drive in the Thorsmork valley. We went to Krossa, the river. On the other side there is a cafe. So we decided to go there and get us some Icelandic food.


Small river? The tires on this car is ca 110cm high.


On the other side.


I did not take any photos of the cafe.


After eating, we decided to go to Gigijokull glacier.


This entire valley was covered in ice and a glacier lagoon before the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull volcano. Then it all got flooded away.


Not so much left of the glacier anymore, sadly.

 

[Berglid]

Almost all the glaciers on Iceland is getting smaller, but some is actually growing. Do you believe in global warming as a effect from all the pollution or is it just natural cycles?


This is me, the bearded viking from Norway


Heading back to camp, time to make some food.


BBQ and beer. Waiting for a friend from Norway to come later this evening with his LC80

 

[Berglid]

The next day we packed all our stuff. We had a long drive this day to reach the next campsite. But it was so nice weather so we decided to drive to the top of Eyjafjallajokull.


Going to the top, in the beginning there is a small mountain road. The rest you need to go on the snow. When you are going up you are actually driving on the snow on top of the glaciers. This is not always safe and you should not go there if you don't know what you are doing. Usually this is not possible this late in the season but the last winter there came so much snow so it was still possible now.


Still good weather but it was starting to get cloudy.


With our luck it of course got really cloudy on the way up. Lots off fog. We decided it was no point to go all the way since we would not see anything this time. So we turned around about halfway up the glacier. Still a long way left to drive this day.

 

[chilliwak]

Wow Berglid, what a cool :drool:adventure! I think the landscape in Iceland is absolutly breathtaking. I can see that you and Simone are enjoying yourselves. I look forward to seeing more of your adventure... Cheers, Chilli..

 

[El-Dracho]

Hi,

Wow, what a cool adventure. Have been to Iceland some years ago. Enjoyed it very much.
Yes, I remember, the depth and the strong flow of Krossa river as a real challenge for a "normal" 4x4.

Look forward to see more pictures from your adventure!

Bjoern

 

[trailsurfer]

Fantastic Trip report! Please keep the pics coming.

 

[Berglid]

Thanks for the comments, I will try and post some more today

 

[Berglid]

Since we didn't go all the way to the top, we decided we had to start moving to get to the camping site. The day just got worse and worse. Started to get cold and rain. Simone is trying the car for the first time. She does not have a driving license and she is a little bit nervous driving my car. But she did well. Meet one car and they where surprised that it was a girl driving this huge car


Heading south, black volcanic sand. This is a unique experience on Iceland. The black sand makes you notice every colour on Iceland and makes it more dramatic


I did not take any pictures almost on the way since it was raining like hell, we just listened to music and cruised along. Here we just came to the first camping site. We decided that we could also check out the next camping since it was only 15 min driving to the next one. It was raining so bad so we wanted to stay inside.




This was the next one, it was completely filled with hikers, we did not even go inside to ask for a place to stay. Totally crowded, to bad. So we turned around and stayed the night at the first camping. First we had a BBQ outside in the rain and got to bed inside. Woke up early next morning from the noisy hikers. So no more sleep for us. This is the bad thing about the cabins. I always prefer to stay in my tent almost no matter what weather it is outside.

 

[Berglid]

The weather the next day was really good. We needed to go back to Reykjavik for one night. Pick up some stuff and our friends where going back to Norway. So this day we where just exploring the Fjallabakk area.


Fantastic landscape to cruise along slowly.


Pål is crossing a small river on his LC80 on 38 tires.


The colors are something else on this place. Sometimes you start to wonder if its real or if you are looking into a painting.










More tomorrow. Follow me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/arcticextreme/

 

[Scott Brady]

Nice work! Beautiful images

 

[chilliwak]

I see what you mean by the beautiful colours :drool:in your photos Berglid. Absolutely stunning!:Wow1: Good to see that you are teaching Simone how to drive. Thanks for posting up. Cheers, Chilli...