28th
April 2016
A wild wild
coastline, and snow snow snow !
When I woke up
and peered out of the windows, the car was still rocking and rolling in the
wind, and there had been a complete dusting of snow during the night. And it was COLD ! I had been warm enough inside, but there was
no way I was going to spend more time than I had to outside the car, so after a
quick brush of my teeth, I jumped in the car, turned the heater on full, and
headed on up the coast. No breakfast, no tea – Just jump in and get going
!! But it was great – And at least it
wasn’t raining !! I can handle most
things, but rain is not easy !
There was a
dusting of snow on the mountains and I thought “how nice”. But I had checked weather forecasts and they
all said that after a bit of snow, it was going to be fine and sunny, So off I went……..
This coastline up
the east coast is a multitude of fjords, and they are just gorgeous. Totally different from the Norwegian fjords,
you wind in and out of them as you make your way north, and some parts of it
were totally snow free, while others seemed to have had quite heavy falls. And the coastline is wild – Not a lot of
traffic over here (one car every 10 minutes ?), and steep drop offs down to the
raging ocean below – Armco barriers are very rare here – You go over the edge,
you would probably disappear without trace !
And that is all the more realistic when the road is slippery with snow –
You concentrate MUCH harder on your driving !
Quite scary at times, I can tell you.
North of the
Faskruösfjordur we suddenly 5.8 km long tunnel, and as it had been starting to
snow quite heavily just before the tunnel, I was hoping that (in line with the
weatherforecast) I would come out on the other side into bright blue sunshine.
Errrr…..No such luck – On the other side it was not only snowing more heavily,
but it was also starting to settle on the road, making everything even more fun
than it was before. Hmmmm.
Within 5 minutes
not only was the road totally covered in snow, but then I found a 4 WD that had
apparently slithered off the road over the steep verge, and had been unable to
get back up onto the road, so they had abandoned it. I was now realizing why the rental car still
had studded winter tyres fitted – Thank goodness it did !! Even so, it has been a long time since I
have driven in such heavy snow, and never having driven on studded tyres
before, I was trying to
Then a snow
plough came past doing his thing, and after that it became very difficult, with
EVERYTHING white, you really have no mental reference point, and you are not
quite sure where you are. Thank goodness
for the little yellow snow poles – I tell you, if it had not been for those
poles, I would have driven off the road several times, because you can see
nothing. I tried sunglasses, I tried
long distance glasses, and I tried squinting – When everything is totally
white, you cannot determine road from sky, or road from verge. Have a look at a couple of the pics and you
will see what I mean. Just those little
yellow snow poles – And I LOVE them !
Added to this was an almost total dearth of vehicles – Was the road
closed ? Had I missed a sign ? 1001 thoughts went through my head – This was
seriously one of the most difficult drives in many years.
I was a little
disappointed because to the east was more coastline that is not only supposed
to be even more scenic than the areas I had seen already, but once again there
were supposed to be puffin colonies. But
with this weather, there was absolutely no point in even trying to get out
there on B roads – Highway number 1, the National Ring Road, was difficult
enough to negotiate !
Eventually I
arrived in Egilsstaöir – A sizable town where I thought life would return to
normal. But they were as shocked by the
weather as I was ! The guy in the
supermarket where I bought a couple of extra supplies told me that the day
before they had clear blue skies (those must have been the ones I had heard
about on the weather forecast !). Then
last night it dumped on them big time !
He laughed and said “Do you realize yesterday was the first day of
summer ?” !! Ha ha.
So I topped up my
fuel tank, and headed off down a local road to a lake that the guide book said
was a “must see”. The Largarfljot is
Iceland’s third largest lake, and apparently has a monster living in its
depths. However, as the snow fell more
and more heavily, I was lucky to even see the lake, let alone any monster
! I drove down alongside it for a while,
but soon turned around and headed north again, feeling that I should get going
while I could.
After some
seriously snow covered road, passing Icelandic horses standing forlornly in the
field, and more of those geese flying around everywhere, the road suddenly
seemed to clear, and although snow was still falling, the road itself was
clear, and provided a nice black line to follow for a change. It even stopped snowing and when I came to a
bridge over a river about 40 minutes out of Egilsstaöir, I stopped in a layby
for a look, went for a walk, and had some lunch. Now the snow was behind me, I could relax a
little, and look forward to Myvatn which is supposed to be one of the most
beautiful parts of Iceland.
WRONG !! Not 30 minutes up the road, the snow started
again, and it got steadily worse and worse. What made it especially difficult
was an amazing strong wind, stronger even than yesterday off the glaciers, and
the snow was just driving across the road.
What was weird was that one minute it would come from the left, and 2
minutes later from the right – It was just swirling everywhere. The temperature had now dropped to minus 3.5
deg C, which meant ice was also
In fact, there
are only 5 photos in the 3 hours between when I stopped for lunch and when I
next stopped for a geothermal area near Myvatn – and for me to take that few
photos, you KNOW I was a bit busy. All I
could think was “Thank goodness I filled up with fuel” and “thank goodness I
have food, sleeping bag, and warm clothes in case I have to stop out here”. I could have survived for a couple of days,
so at least I was comforted by that. I
mean, how bad could snowstorms be in Iceland ????
I stopped at
Hverir at about 4.30 pm, absolutely exhausted from concentrating so intensely
for so long. It is amazing how many of
those little “motes” in your eyes you can see when all the background is white
– I seriously thought I was going blind at times, and kept rubbing my eyes to
try to clear them. I got out to look at the mud pools etc, but the paths were
SO muddy because of the snow, and the snow / sleet was making everything
horrible, that after 2 minutes it was a case of “I’ve already seen mud pools –
I don’t need this one”, and I left to go into Myvatn.
At least I was
starting to see people – Myvatn is a major activity centre, and for them to
just come 5 minutes out of town was just a bit of fun. Even so, the car park at the local hot pool
was almost empty, and most other roads off to major sightseeing venues were
completely white with no tyre tracks – No one was able to get to them ! At one stage I was driving along and suddenly
saw a flash of blue on my right – And realized it was a hot water lake – But
steaming so much it was almost hidden from view, even though it was right
beside the road.
I was quite
exhausted by now, and did see a sign for “Camping and Pizzas”, but assumed it
would be closed, so I drove on. After
about 10 minutes of still driving in the snow, I decided to just go back and
see if the place was open. I wasn’t
going to be able to cook outside in this weather, and I had only had a cold
dinner last night, and a pizza might be nice………
I drove in, tramped though the snow to the door – It was open ! A young lad (from Prague, actually !) was
there and I asked if he had camping.
Yes. OK, do you have hot showers
? Yes.
Do you have cold beer ? (I haven’t had a beer since I left UK – too
expensive here !) Yes. Do you have wifi ? Yes.
What time does the (warm) bar stay open till ? 10.30 pm.
It was a deal, and with a short while I had parked the car, had a LONG
hot shower (who cared if it smelled of sulphur ?!) , and was in the bar having
a hot spicy pizza and a cold beer. I sat
in there until 10 pm, finally getting some of my blog uploaded, and enjoying
myself – While it snowed outside more and more heavily !
People talking at
the bar said the road had been closed for an hour or more – Er, no one told me
!! We checked out the weather forecast
again, and it showed clear sunshine tomorrow all over Iceland. So I eventually toddled off through the increasingly
deep snow to my little car to go to bed.
I passed an American who was going to his cabin and he asked me what I
was doing in my car – Going to bed, I said.
You must be totally crazy (or words to that effect !) he said and went
off to his cabin.
I laughed, and
was soon snug and warm inside the van, and quickly went to sleep secure in the
knowledge that I would wake to a clear blue sky and sunshine, and be able to
explore Myvatn for the day as planned.
Good things, those weather forecsts………
It had been a
long and tiring day, but one hell of an adventure.
Rest of the pics are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/6278687973138932369?authkey=Gv1sRgCKie7o_ak5_RNA
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