Like most trips we do, we started with a city to explore before we picked up our 4x4 and hit the road. With no solid plans we set about exploring the city on foot; we took in a few of the top tourist spots and learned our lesson the hard way about going for beers outside of happy hour! We were graced with beautiful, clear skies all day so when darkness arrived the forecast was looking pretty good for the northern lights! As the pictures show, we were very lucky and had two nights of beautiful clear skies and a light show like nothing we’ve ever seen before.
On the road! We decided to pick our 4x4 up first thing, after a very easy bit of paperwork and a quick grocery shop, we were on the Route 1 (ring road) and heading north to our first area to explore, The Snæfellsnes Peninsula. After 2 hours driving we decided to stop at the famous black church of Búðir and a near by waterfall, a few photos and a stretch of the legs and we were back on the road to Arnarstapi to see the sea arches then finally on to our home for the night in Grundarfjörður which is situated next to one of the most iconic mountains in Iceland, Kirkjufell, I couldn’t miss the chance to get a few photos of the famous landmark and even managed to fly the drone.
After a brilliant nights sleep we were up and on the road before sunrise. Today’s drive was going to be a long one as we were heading in to the West Fjords, part of Iceland that’s completely cut off from the main land during the winter. We had our first encounter with the unpaved roads (dirt tracks) which we were fully prepared for and our trusty Renault Kadjar was a pretty smooth drive but we didn’t realise quite how much the roads would slow us down due to the hundreds of potholes, luckily it really wasn’t a problem as we were weaving in and out of the most stunning fjords with mirror like reflections. After lots of tea and photo breaks we stopped at Hellulaug Hot Spring, a first for us and we had it completely to ourselves. So far the West Fjords were not disappointing, after 2 large mountain passes we arrived at the intimidatingly big Dynjandi waterfall. I think it’s safe to say it was the first thing we’d seen so far to totally blow us away!
Dynjandi, can you see the man in a blue jacket for scale?!?!
After some noodles & tea from our camp stove in the boot we took to the road for our last leg of the day, probably another 100km of unpaved roads over the most stunning mountain roads and through more fjords, we saw less the 20 cars in 6 hours of driving and only 1 fuel stop. It’s unbelievably remote up there and breaking down really isn’t an option! Studying the map, the road looked like it disappeared into the mountains, we were met with the first of many 6km long tunnels! We emerged the other side in our home for the night, Ísafjörður, one of the most northerly towns in Iceland.
