Driving in Iceland is an interesting experience. With me behind the wheel, and my wife behind the camera, ours is quite possibly the slowest car on the road. This is our third day of driving and we've not overtaken a single vehicle. The gravel roads take a bit of getting used to. The roads are quite narrow, so everyone drives in the middle of the road to avoid the bigger pieces of stones and gravel by the sides until a car approaches, and then everyone moves back to their side of the road (and endures the bumpy ride for a few seconds). What looks like a hundred kilometers on the map could take us two hours to cover. Sometimes, the car had a noticeable tendency to turn to one side and it took a conscious effort to keep it straight. My first thought was that we had a flat tire, but a quick check revealed all the tires were still good, so we decided we wouldn't worry about it for now.
The scenery of coastal Iceland is unlike anything we had seen before. There is usually some body of water - either a fjord, a lake, a waterfall or a river - nearby and on a sunny day like today, even the smallest streams shine sparkly blue. And it seems that there is always some mountain either threatening to loose rocks on the right of us, looming behind us, rising out of the ground in front of us or holding up the Earth's crust underneath us.
Being the geek that I am, the closest thing I can relate to the scenery of Iceland is the scenery from movies and computer games - especially the ones set in fantasy worlds. Even today, on my third day of driving, I marvel at the scenery and half expect an Orcish army or some giant robots to come thundering down the next mountain. The colours are so vivid, they almost look computer-generated. To my eyes, the sky appears a little too blue, the clouds a little too white, their shadows a little too distinct, and the greens, browns and greys of the mountains have boundaries that are just a little too clear. I mean, I hate to use old cliches but everything looks like a painting.
Another thing I have to say about driving in Iceland is that the road follows obvious natural features. There are no trees or tall buildings to drive around, and the things that you do have to drive around - fjords and mountains mainly - are so large and obvious, that you can often tell where you are on the map by comparing it with what you see through the windshield.
We have over a week of driving left to do, but if the scenery is anything like we think it will be, I have no
problem with being the slowest guy on the road.
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What a beautiful morning. The view from breakfast was great. |
When we got outside, this is what we saw.
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Such beautiful scenery. Oh, and my wife too. |
| On clear days, the clouds cast very distinct shadows on the mountain sides. |
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There was also a golf course at Guesthouse Langaholt. |
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And of course, always in the background the magical glacier Snæfellsjökull. |
| On our way to the beach this morning, we crossed this patch of grassy plain and saw some sea birds hovering above our heads. They would hover in one spot, as if unable to overcome the wind, but after awhile we noticed they were only doing this above our heads. At first, we thought they were being friendly and hoping to be fed. We took a few pictures but soon, they were swooping down on us. It was then that we realised we were stepping on their nests and that their aerobatics were not meant for our amusement. We got off the grass immediately and ran towards the pebbly beach. |
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Later in the day, we were talking to Shelagh, the friendly lady who operates the information center at Grundarfjörður and we mentioned that we'd been at Guesthouse Langaholt and she said she loved the place except for "those crazy birds." They are called arctic terns or kria and they have been known to attack people, and apparently, we were "very brave" to have tried to photograph them.
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The beach at Snæfellsbær. The stones and pebbles on the beach have been rubbed smooth and round by the waves. |
| See Ming and Snæfellsjökull. |
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On the drive towards Grundarfjörður, we came across this big bulge on the ground. We're not sure what it means, but my theory is that there's a whole lot of lava waiting to come out of it. |
| We stopped at the first of many streams and took some pictures. |
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On one of the mountain roads, we stopped by Sönghellir, the singing cave. The cave didn't look too impressive so we didn't enter. Instead, I tried to climb this rock outside of it but I could hardly get off the ground. |
| In old days, people passing through the area used Sönghellir as a shelter. Legend has it that Bardur, a tenth century Norwegian shaman raised by mountain dwarves, stayed in the caves while he built his farm at Laugarbrekka nearby. When he became a hermit, he moved to the glacier and wasn't seen again. People started worshipping him as a Spirit of the Glacier. |
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Further along the way, we also passed by Arnarstapi, which had a nice natural fishing dock. |
A panoramic view of the strange rock formations at the fishing dock.
| In the background, the mountains look liquid in the shadows of the clouds. |
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Forgot where this was. It was a lava rock sea cliff with lots of birds and you're not supposed to stand near the edge because the ground is not very stable. |
| This picture was taken by a Finnish hitchhiker that we picked up, named Merja. We were supposed to drop her off near Hellnar, but we had a miscommunication and took her all the way to Hellisandur before we realised. In the end, we dropped her off at Grundarfjörður, where she was at the day before. Oops. |
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Ground Control and Major Tom, who had come with us all the way from Malaysia, were enjoying the views very much. |
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Late in the day, we arrived at a place surrounded by mountains called Grundarfjörður. I had noticed that many things in Iceland - towns, power lines, roads - are often built below mountains, and I thought it had something to do with the wind. I asked a local here (Svenni), if the mountains helped to block out the wind and he said "No, they um...." He paused to search for a word, then said "....magnify it." I looked at him blankly. "The wind is stronger because of the mountains," he adds with a shrug, "But what can you do, huh?" |
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Shelagh, Gísli and Svenni
That wasn't the only time we've been pleasantly surprised by the people of Iceland. Yesterday, when we arrived at Grundarfjörður, we asked Shelagh at the information counter if there was a photoshop we could visit to transfer our photos from the camera to CDs because our camera was getting quite full. After a quick search around town, it looked like there wasn't a shop that offered the services we needed, so called her husband Gísli on the phone and he came over with his notebook computer to help us get our photos onto CDs.
While he was doing that, See Ming reminded me to lock the car and Shelagh laughed and said, "Oh you don't have to. Not in this town."
The photos took longer to transfer than any of us expected so, in the end, their friend Svenni took our memory cards to his house, and made us a nice DVD of all our photos, complete with a cover with our faces on it, and a custom Grundarfjörður surface design and back cover.
We don't know what to say to that, except thanks Svenni, Shelagh, and Gísli and sorry we didn't get the chance to take photographs with you.
| Back to Day 2 <<< | >>> Day 4: The drive to Ísafjörður |
