Hello everybody, I’m here with my good friend Gareth Leonard from TouristTownie for an exciting new series. What’s up guys? We are here in Iceland for the next days, we’re gonna take you around the country and show you the best this place has to offer. But before we hit the Ring Road, let me tell you something about the logistics. This is the Ring Road and this is our version of it. So we have little side trips here and there, and this will all together take us about days. To get around in Iceland, we teamed up with SADcars, who provided us with a x for days, this way we could easily drive the gravel roads in the East, and we were allowed to use the so-called F roads to get to spots which are more off the beaten path. In matters of accommodation, we partnered up with HomeAway, who offer apartment and hotel rentals all over the island, this way we can show you a great variety of local places to stay, especially when traveling with friends, a great alternative to campervan travel. After buying all supplies needed for this road trip and fueling up our mighty Duster in Reykjavik, we hit the road. Welcome to Circling Iceland.
Icelands Western Region impressive Snaefellsnes Peninsula Waterfalls Circling Iceland Photo Gallery
Iceland is a volcanically and geologically active Nordic island country of Europe located in the North Atlantic Ocean, it sits spanning the Mid-Atlantic Ridge tectonic plate boundary, which separates the Eurasian and the North American plates. Geologically speaking, Iceland is the youngest country in the world, since it only begin to rise from the North Atlantic Seaboard about million years ago, the product of volcanic eruptions that are still going on today. The center of the country consists of a plateau, characterized by sand and lava fields, mountains, and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea, creating numerous waterfalls. We finally made it to our first stop, Hraunfossar. It only took us three hours. Because we stopped everywhere, I guess that’s the problem everyone has coming to Iceland. It’s just so beautiful and overwhelming that you think you need to stop everywhere. Comes right out of the land, straight from the glacier.
Comes right out of the yeah, the glacier, it’s over there, there is the glacier. Hraunfossar is a series of waterfalls formed by rivulets streaming over a distance of about meters out of the lava field, which flowed from an eruption of one of the volcanoes lying under the glacier Langjokull. The name comes from the Icelandic word for lava, hraun, and the word for waterfalls, fossar, a word you will hear many times in this series from now on. The day has been much longer than we thought it would be, but Iceland is just too stunning. So we made it to our first accommodation, it’s one of these huts over there. So this is where we slept tonight, our HomeAway location in Arnarstapi. Arnarstapi’s located on the South side of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula and it’s worth visiting because of this beautiful dramatic coastline here. We heading to Arnarstapi, make sure to bring some time to walk the trail along the impressive coastline with columnar basalt and cliffs that were once formed by the lava, hence the hexagonal shapes. On the way to the cliffs, you pass by an enormous straw-like monument, which is a tribute to Barour, the region’s guardian spirit and the leading character in a local saga. We’re going up there, to the the North side of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. We made it to Kirkjufellsfoss, a waterfall which is famous for this mountain here, because if you photograph it from the right side, you have a beautiful picture, one of the most popular pictures here in Iceland. Beside the waterfall being one of the most popular photo locations on the island, the mountain behind it, the Kirkjufell, was one of the posting locations for Game of Thrones Seasons Six and Seven, featuring as the Arrowhead Mount.
We promised ourselves yesterday we wouldn’t drive in the dark anymore, but here we are, we have three hours to go, Steve’s behind the wheel, we are just driving straight through the fog. He says the White Walkers are waiting for us, I hope that’s not the case. There’s a second one out here. There’s two annexes. Oh, this is, first try? We might have something, oh and there’s our house. To explore the North of Iceland, we decided to base ourselves a little bit north of Akureyri in a house by the fjord in Nollur. Located at the eyafjod, this beautifully designed house was the perfect fit for us to explore this area of the country, and even more important for us, due to its incredible location, with a good chance to see the Northern Lights. But you know, the best part about this house is having a hot tub. It’s really so nice. And the fjord is right behind us, it’s incredible. I’ll drink to that. It’s time for a little hike, we’re in the Asbyrgi Canyon. I’m gonna go check out this canyon from above, there’s a viewpoint right at the end, it’s a two and a half hours round trip, let’s go. Asbyrgi was most likely formed by catastrophic glacial flooding of the river, after the last Ice Age. First,-, years ago, and then again some, years ago. The river has since changed its course and now runs about two kilometers to the East. After a good hour of hiking, we finally made it to the viewpoint over the Asbyrgi Canyon. Look at this, how beautiful. Still have some fall foliage left, great spot. The legend explains the unusual shape of the canyon differently. Nicknamed Sleipnir’s footprint, it is said that the canyon was formed when Odin’s eight-legged horse touched one of its feet to the ground here. So that’s it from the first post of this series from Iceland. Make sure to also check out the blog of my buddy Gareth if you want to see our daily adventures here, and make sure to comment to this blog for your travel needs every Thursday. See you soon.
