Well, the trip that was three years in the making did not disappoint; Jeff and I had an incredible trip just the two of us. Iceland was the first country I went to with the sole purpose of being outside in nature. No big indoor sights to see but rather see all the unique beauty of this place. And this was Jeff’s first time in Europe! We originally were going to have the capital of Reykjavik be our home base and travel about as we wished but the more research we did, the more we were drawn to the idea of getting a campervan and traveling around the entire country, so that’s what we did (logging over 1,200 miles and we never actually ended up stepping foot in the capital). We traveled counterclockwise around the entire Ring Road and saw all Iceland’s regions minus the Westfjords (next time!).
There is so much beauty in this country and it’s incredible how the terrain constantly changes. The horizon never seems to end. Your eyes play tricks on you because you may think you’re looking at cloud but it’s really snowcaps, mountains appear out of seemingly nowhere. It’s wild, amazing, and captivating.
Here’s what we did during our week there.
Day 1: After arriving early Thursday morning (6 hour flight but only 4 hour time difference), we got our campervan and groceries and started our trek. We took a little nap in Selfoss and then continued on with our southwest/southern sightseeing. We did some hiking, saw numerous waterfalls, and walked on Reynisfjara black sand beach. We then camped in Vik for the night. I had a little panic moment worried that I wasn’t going to be able to hike much (I love hiking and was looking forward to all the miles we’d log each day here) because the day before we left I dropped a heavy bathroom scale on my foot while I was working, severely bruising my big and second toe and ending up with the removal of my big toenail. Obviously, that would never be fun but seriously?! The day before this trip?! I couldn’t believe it and after the lidocaine wore off it wasn’t pleasant but by the second day we were there I figured out a way to bandage it and power through I did. Thank you Jesus. I’ve spent my entire life disliking feet but I will never again take my toes for granted!
Day 2: We were making our way for our longest day of hiking in Skaftafell National Park (the largest national park in Europe). We then went to Diamond Beach and Glacier Lagoon and camped in Hofn. This was probably my favorite day and I wish we would’ve spent even more time hiking around.
Day 3: On day three we started our trek up the east coast to the north seeing more waterfalls, geothermal areas, and the most incredibly perfect rainbow outside this farm to table place we went to dinner. We camped out in Myvatn.
Day 4: We started this day with a hike to the sex cave from Game of Thrones. Not actually what it’s called but what it’s most famous for. Next trip we want to visit more caves cause it was super neat. We then hiked up and around a crater and ended in the Myvatn Nature Baths (a smaller version of the Blue Lagoon).
After we left the nature baths we stopped at another famous waterfall (seriously, the land of 10,000 waterfalls, it’s nuts) and then got groceries. From there our road-trip got longer than expected with trying to camp at two different campsites and neither one working out (one didn’t have electric hookup we needed and the other didn’t have good Wi-Fi which we needed for the FSU football game ha). So we ended up tapping out and checking into a hotel because we couldn’t drive any longer and it was getting late.
Stay tuned to hear about the hotel (a mix between cute boutique hotel and European Horror story), northern lights, an trolls and the rest of our trip!
Erika Reid Bell 