Iceland: the land of fire and ice. Need I say more!

I could have written this blog in so many of the weird and wondrous places that makes Iceland so unique. Almost unique enough that, "At any moment you could expect a mythical creature, like a griffin, to just pop out of nowhere." in the words of an almost as surreal traveller as the island itself, Justin.

I contemplated writing at the harbour, where the ships have lingered for many days since the sea festival. But, at a mere four degrees, I thought better not! 

I could have stayed in my 16 bed hostel room, which is actually the second dorm I have occupied, as the second night six room shaking snorers drove at least four people out.

Then, I thought why not at 4.30amin the morning, when the suns out and and it feels like two in the afternoon? Or while I'm rubbing elbows with my fellow party-goers in the bar, that's full to capacity mid week?

... Then I thought why not be civilised and write it in the little shabby-sheek sand-holt bakery just down the way? Where I can not only immerse myself in the culture, but also marvel at the unique and superb food that makes this country so amazing.

Okay, the food, 

For the record, Icelandic ice cream does not go with raw herring, pate, whale blubber or sour shark! Icelandic ice cream does, on the other hand go amazingly with hand made cones and waffles, rye bread and of course, any lolly or chocolate you could possibly think of!  

Fermented shark and cumin shots are not as bad as you think they would be! Whale blubber is! Whale steaks and salmon are amazing, let me say this again... AMAZING! 

Icelandic hotdogs (not entirely sure of the meat) but the two unique mustards and two types of onions are a winner. Icelandic meat soup... Meh! But, the rye bread, skyr cakes and dairy produces here are to die for.

The people I've met......so far!

John Dingeman; 

Is in the army, job description; purchases things and moves shit! He grew up in Detroit, owns a condo in DC but is stationed near Venice, Italy. Definately going to take you up on the offer to stay. Top bloke, introduced me to southern comfort and lime. We all stayed up until5.30am just to see what it was like and because we could. Let me tell you the night life here is feral...

Erik... Aka shorts and Kyle... Aka American.

Canadian and American... we met in the carpark and soon enough we were all trekking buds up to the hot river, and spent the night sharing travelling stories and conversing on topics probably best left to the males locker room... But all in good fun!

Angie and Derrick: a couple from DC, who had never tried, let alone heard of wheatbix! 

Justin and Chloe:

Young-uns, fresh out of college and graphic designers travelling the world to find themselves and get inspiration! Justin you almost didn't seem real...

And Melanie and Greg: somehow we always, accidentally on purpose end up in the kitchen at exactly the same time for meals, maybe it's just meant to be!

The most EPIC road trip around Iceland!

Okay, to briefly sum up the 4-5hour trip up to the Snaefelles Peninsula... it was a bit meh! Other than the 6km tunnel under water, which rocked! Until we found out (at the end) we had to pay $10...

But I can tell you now, from night one and beyond it was magnificently, amazingly, absolutely, crazy amazing and that's an understatement!!!

Night one, we wild camped down stream from a 700,000 year old strata volcano with a glacier on top. Just next to a waterfall and the glacial winds made it subzero temperatures. But, the view certainly made up for it :)

The next day we took a 3hr ferry to the west fjords, 

We went right and bypassed the hour trip out to one of the fjords to the left simply because it was puffin mating season and they were all out to sea having a good time. 

Heading right meant we travelled on gravel road down 8-12% declines, where snow was piled at least 3m high on one side with a shear drop on the other. 

Every second turn was a blind corner and I saw my most favourite waterfall in the world.

All I have to say is this was the coolest road I have ever driven and probably one of my favourite places in the world. Oh, and did I mention it was bucketing down with rain.

That night, yes we did make it to Isafjörõur where we had some inside goss on the best place to eat. Seriously the meal lived up to expectations, actually far exceeded them, I'll give 100/10.

The next day we went around so many fjords I lost count, but, managed to count 94 waterfalls on half of a fjord. And these weren't tiny ones! We may or may not have nearly run out of petrol... Thanks to the random farmer who called an English speaking relative who informed us it was only 60km away... Thank goodness, was all I could say when I knew we'd make it!

That night we camped in one of the more northern fjords. It was noted to be one of the best places to see the midnight sun. 

The next day we made it onto the round road (a single road labelled 1 that covers the circumference of the whole island). The road from the west fjords to the round road was spectacular, all of the roads coming off the main road were impassable due to snow and every lake was frozen with the most amazing blue gleam. 

At times visibility was about 15m and all I could think was that I had seen a couple of cars pass in the opposite direction so it must be passable.

Once on the round road it was a bit, meh until Akeyri. And then again until lake Myvath, which was spectacular. It was an active geothermal area. We galavanted in late evening in amongst the crators, formed by lava that emerged during a submarine eruption many years before. 

At midnight we drove during sunset

and found a hot pool inside a cave.

Some Canadians we crossed paths with told us that a tour guide informed them then that they use it all of the time and that we should just ignore the no swim signs. Given, we knew not to put out heads under and it was about 44 degrees so it took us a good 15 minutes to slip in. Even then you didn't want to move around to much as the heat just intensified significantly. 

We continued onto bubbling mud, steam geysers and water ponds 80-100 degrees. 

Then trekked a few km through 3-4 foot of snow to a volcano. This volcano erupts every 12-15 years and was actually overdue to pop it's top!

With a pretty green lake at the top...

And I'd never pass up the chance for snow angels...

We also made it to Europe most powerful waterfall, Dettifoss.

And Dettifoss' shadow: Settifoss,

That night we stayed in a small town in the east fjords, where we found a trapeze strung up. But, it had been so weather damaged it was unusable due to one of the cotton ropes hanging by a few threads. 

By the end of that day we had made it to the Vatnojukull glacier, the largest in Iceland making up 8% of Iceland's land mass, with 3% visible from the road it was huge. We found the glacial lagoon where icebergs broke off the glaciers and floated in the inlet and out to sea, where the salt water preserves the icebergs. Which essentially meant we could play on them when they floated onto the beach at low tide. The seals also made an appearance!

Over the next day or so we saw magnificent waterfalls. One of the waterfalls a couple got married at, they literally turned up with a photographer as witness and a marriage officiator. People around, myself included just clapped... It was magnificent!

It was the last waterfall of the round road and I think that Sam was happy we had finally made it there as this was the waterfall I kept asking her about. We could actually walk behind it... All I can say is I didn't need a shower that day and it was more of an intermittent jog behind.

The next day we made it to the hot river, and as you already know found some crazy Americans and Canadians to trek the 4 hour round trip to a hot stream that we spent a good 2.5hrs at. This made the blue lagoon seem so insignificant and touristy that it was actually off putting. We poked our head in just to check that the lake was really blue. 

After that we made it back to Reykjavik! Safe and sound other than the gigantic dent in the side of our car and a $1800 excess. Luckily, mostly covered by insurance... Thank goodness for travel insurance! 

This trip has been one heck of a lot of fun, with memories that will last a life time! 

With a few more to come, as I am ticking yet another item off of my bucket list. I am going horse riding on an Icelandic horse tomorrow and Sam has already set off on a five day horse trek. 

I also managed to purchase a custom made double trapeze and hot pink silk, so this trip has been memorable in many more ways than one.

Until next time.

Kim.

My Life, My Story: Day 4 (Carnarvan) to 10 (Exmouth)

Day 4... Carnarvon

Okay so we started off with a very lazy morning but this also coincided with completing all the requirements for George to make him road worthy. George's name was also modified to George Aslan II (more regal I think) and despite what you may think on Tom's initiative alone his car also attained a name today: Claire (for the back story on Clair visit Tom's blog: http://t.co/aDcqc6b95n)

We got on the road about midday cruising along to the song "on the road again" very fitting I think...
George got adopted into the family extremely quickly. But the topic of sexuality (regarding Clair being the car and George being the trailer) did arise. As the dilemma arose because the connection between the two resulted Claire being inside of George???  the answer to this dilemma may one day be solved but for the moment we just ignored this fact.


We managed to entertained ourselves for the 6.5 hour trip up to exmouth by playing 'I spy' where both Zoë and myself intermittently managed to fall asleep on Toms goes, sneaking in guesses when we casually woke up just to check where about in the journey we were and whether Tom needed to swap drivers.
I was also informed by Zoë that if you say thank-you after you sneeze then it kills a fairy and that Toms aim by the end of the journey is to be able to fill the gas stove bottles up with unleaded petrol without spilling any. I'll keep you posted on this one! Personally I think this challenge maybe do-able, but, hey you never know! On the other hand the upside down curry challenge maybe another story. This challenge came about before this trip (between myself and tom) but I imagine it will be completed on this journey. I am really hoping he fails miserably at this one but I'll also keep you posted on the results of this challenge as well. No dates set as of yet...

Once in exmouth we swam in the 25m pool at the Ningaloo caravan park across the road from the Visitors Centre (only location for drinking water). We also found homemade gelato ice cream at the Pinocchio restaurant located on the camp grounds. I have come to realise that I am travelling with ice cream fenatics at one point in the trip when we were staying in the national park 100km out of Exmouth. We went on a restock trip to exmouth also known as an ice cream run which turned out to be a 2 hour round trip :p
I got the first ice cream paid for by tom due to the fact that I won the debate between whether bananas grow on trees or bushes...



Day 5, Exmouth

Tom went to pick up our temporary travel companions for 5 days; Sam and Will (Tom's very good friend from the UK). Zoe went for an early morning run. where I intended to have a swim and have the tents packed up by 8am.

... well I had a good sleep in til 7.30 and as I was about to go for a swim Tom arrived back so we quickly packed up the tents and despite having neither done I still managed a bit of a sleep in so a win for me...
We set off for the national park, where we would be completely self sufficient other than a bush toilet provided. we intended to get ice cream before we set off but shamefully the restaurant was open until 5pm. So a few sad faces and grumbly tummies... so for you ice cream fanatics out there just remember this very important fact!

We ended up staying at Lake Side Campsite in the Ningaloo National Park due to the fact that it had established tree to provide some shade for the 38+ degree days we knew we were going to endure. It was $10 a night and a one off $12 park entry fee for the car. This was the first of five days with no shower... the only smell that night was the delicious smell of Toms amazing curry!

We played cards against humanity at night with a few Ciders and White Russians. If you want an extremely awesome sociable, slightly rude card game, cards against humanity is the game for you. When I mean slightly rude the intent of the game is to be the most insulting person by completing a saying...

Day 6

Valentines day... I couldn't really sleep so I was up at 4am for a walk and swim. The tide was extremely low. The coral that had previously been completely covered earlier in the day, was now completely exposed above the water. The moon and sound of the waves was amazing at this time of morning, and the benifit was that I could sit on the beach and not have to worry about being burnt to a cinder. Because I was so far away from civilisation I could also view the milky way and today was a full moon and this wont happen again for another two years.

Today was the 2 hour round trip to exmouth for ice cream, but sadly it was closed and Tom and Zoe had to resort to conissour ice creams from the shops :(

Tom became inventive with the outsides layer of the tents creating shades that established the illusion of a plane crash camp set up... Well that's what I thought anyway. these turned out to be very effective shades.

Tom took me on a sunset beach walk for Valentines day. Very romantic and someone had already made a love heart out of stones on the beginning of the beach track :) If you don't already know I'm a complete sucker for romance...
But Zoe was missing as we had adopted her as a valentine. We had definitely become a very close knit surrogate family and it felt weird not to have her around for our walk. We had stated that Zoe had a werewolf boyfriend (because of course it was a full noon). But in the end she said that they had mutually broke things off because she was moving away when we leave back down the coast and it clearly would work.

We got back and cooked an awesome dinner, casually talked amongst ourselves and headed to bed with the intention of getting up early to go trekking at Yardie creek.

Day 7

This morning I woke up with a very painful foot, I had cut the sole of my foot on coral a few day prior. I had also been walking around in true camping style barefoot. This had compacted the cut with dirt. Tom performed surgery amputating just above the ankle... no really he cleaned it up and bandaged. Despite the horrible pain and my squirming it was all clean and bearable to trek on... thanks Tom for that!
Moral of the story always have reef shoes when walking on coral, clean any coral cuts asap as they tend to get infected and wear closed in shoes often because even if your not attempting to prevent dirt getting into a cut's you'll probably bruise your feet. Especially If you have baby feet like me, and they just burn for hours, which isn't nice when your trying to go to sleep.

We planned on trekking 2 routes at Yardie creek (located 40min drive south of lakeside). One trek was 30 min which turned out to be the trek into the reserve. this was a little disappointing and it took us 10 min to complete and the 40 min trek took us 2 hours but we meandered our way throught the stage 4 route seeking out all the wild life including turtles, fish, osprey, cockatoos, wild goats, lizards and flowers.



when we got back to camp mid-day we relaxed attempting to stay out of the sun as much as possible. We played shit head that night where Will and I had a stand off. We were the last two and kept swapping cards trying to get one up on the other. Trying to outsmart each-other to move a step closer to winning but in the end we mutually forfeited out of social curtsy as this had carried on for about 15 minutes and gone nowhere. We also played a few rounds of bullshit before meandering off to bed.

Day 8

We got up early this morning to fish at Yardie creek and again failed miserably :( but on a positive note I heard a beautiful rendition of bohemian rhapsody from Zoe and Tom and established that hiccups, farts and poo's together were shi-hart-ups.... I didn't even know that was possible combination!

 

We progressed onto snorkelling at Torquise bay where we had the privilege of seeing wild turtles, black tip shark, sea snakes and beautiful fish and coral.

We got back to camp where just after lunch I believe I was dehydrated and suffering a bit from heat stroke. Tom managed to cool me down enough by covered me in cold ice water. I also drank 2L of hydrolyte over the next 2 hours. I cooled enough to nap but decided to submerge myself in the ocean to try and reduce my core temperature. Later, I made a car trip with Tom to get ice cream and utilize the air-con to try to cool me from the inside out, it was actually a neat trick. I ended up cold which was a relief and felt back to normal... if that's possible.

I had consumed approximately 4-5L of water before lunch (which was actually as warm as tea), but clearly in this extreme heat it just wasn't enough. make sure to stay hydrated aiming for 8-10L a day.

We had a sundowner and handstands on the beach. Zoë cooked cookies (camp style) with various trial and errors ranging from a modified aluminium/ pot combine attempting to replicate and oven to the winner pan fried choc chip cookies. Tom's hair also managed to get double braids down the back.

               

Before any though of sleep were pondered... we literally sang all of the popular song from the 90's and 2000. this continued until midnight we either lulled our neighbouring campers to sleep or annoyed the hec out of them. Either way we went to bed knowing that we were having our first shower in four days...

Day 9...

We trekked Charles knife gorge an 8.2km walk 20min south of Exmouth on the East peninsular. We left the tailer at the caravan park as it was off road access. We headed off early and finished at the gorge around 11am to avoid the heat of the day. Will informed us that a 12 year old boy had passed away after completing the gorge walk because of the extreme heat almost exactly a year ago. So if you do plan on doing this walk set off as early as possible and take plenty of water.

 

We got back to the caravan park swam, showed and just generally chilled. We did laundry (definitely needed). We visited the local shops twice because it was so hot, we were tempted to curl up in the corner for a nap due to the welcoming air con or just crawl into the freeze for a little while.
We cooked dinner (when I mean we, I mean Zoe and Tom cooked and I facilitated through massage). We were all as knacked as knacked can be  so we all headed of to bed rather early...

Day 10... Exmouth (Tuesday 18th Feb)

Today was literally a write off day but very very needed. We did what ever we wanted until ice cream o'clock (5 o'clock when Piccolo's opened). We visited the visitors centre to steal some air con for a couple of hours. The rest of the day was spent under fans in the common room of the Caravan park. It was literally 5pm when Zoe and Tom both woke me up for ice cream... I wasn't bothered as we had been counting down since 11am. We ended up sharing 1L between the three of us... And spent most of the evening relaxing in Pinocchio restaurant where we had dinner as well.



Au revoir till next time.