If I can be honest, I’ve been dreading today. Part of that is because we’re moving from one rental to another, and I’m not ready to move on – but mostly, I’m simply not prepared to have spend upward of 8 hours on the road and visiting major tourist stops.
How many major tourist stops, you ask? Well, we will be driving past Thingvellir National Park, Geysir, and Gulfoss on our way to ÖÖD Hekla Horizon, where we will be spending the next two nights before heading to Highland Base.
We have been to these sights before, but we will forgive our daughter for not remembering – particularly as she was two years old at the time. And – while we wouldn’t have gone out of our way to see them again – we will literally be driving right past them.
The driving portion alone looks like it will clock in at around 5 ½ hours, plus another two hours for the added stops. Let’s see if we can keep this to under 8 hours, shall we?
With this long of a day ahead of us, we’re up at 8 am with the goal of getting out the door by 9 am – and we just about manage it. This rental ‘only’ requires us to take out the garbage and run the dishwasher, so it’s not as onerous as it might otherwise have become.
And what was the verdict of our time in Grundarfjörður? Overall, we really enjoyed both our Airbnb rental and the location – particularly the combination of a walkable town with easily driveable distances to hiking and whale watching – but next time I think we’d make the extra drive over to Westfjords and Ísafjörður.
Back to the task at hand, I once more finish my careful load mastering:
Made more challenging this time by the extra groceries we’re transporting
Fun fact – the cargo bump-outs in the back of a Hyundai Tucson will hold six bottles of wine
On the road!
At some point after Borgarnes, Google becomes convinced that the main road is no longer the fastest route – and so sends us down a side road:
This quickly becomes one of Iceland’s gravel roads. This would have been bearable but for a Suzuki hatchback that refused to go above 30 km per hour and refused to move over to one side.
Eventually a local in a raised pick-up passes them and we follow close behind.
It’s a long stretch of gravel, but eventually we’re back on smooth tarmac – and rewarded with striking mountain scenery, and the twisty roads to go along with it:
We listen to music, eat cold pizza and admire Iceland’s rugged charm. It’s one of those moments that feels like it might just stick in our collective memory.
Time marches on, and eventually we find ourselves back on the Golden Circle – the famed 250 km route that encompasses all of Iceland’s most famous tourist attractions in a single day trip.
We soon arrive at Thingvellir:
Don’t be fooled by my artful photography. It’s absolutely jammed, though we manage to find a parking space without much trouble – all available at the low, low cost of 1000 ISK (roughly CAD$10). There are cameras absolutely everywhere so don’t plan to skip paying although if there are significant line-ups at the kiosks in the parking lot you can also pay in the visitor centre.
From the official Thingvellir website:
“At Þingvellir – literally “Assembly Plains” – the Alþing general assembly was established around 930 and continued to convene there until 1798. Major events in the history of Iceland have taken place at Þingvellir and therefore the place is held in high esteem by all Icelanders. Today Þingvellir is a protected national shrine. According to the law, passed in 1928, the protected area shall always be the property of the Icelandic nation, under the preservation of the Alþing.
The Þingvellir area is [also] part of a fissure zone running through Iceland, being situated on the tectonic plate boundaries of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The faults and fissures of the area make evident the rifting of the earth’s crust.”
This has special meaning to us as we crossed the mid-Atlantic ridge during our Cape-to-Cape cruise aboard the Silver Wind – there was a party and certificates, and everything.
Mostly we’re keen to see the seperation of the European and North American continents:
That gap is roughly 20 cm larger than it was in 2018. The plates separate 2 to 5 cm a year, and are currently averaging 2 to 2.5cm.
It is now also much, much busier. Compare if you will to our initial visit in 2018:
How time flies…
We hope to SCUBA dive between the fissure at some point over the next few years – but figure we might as well see them above ground first!
From here we head to Geysir Geothermal Area. The highlight here is Strokkur, which erupts every 6 to 10 minutes and shoots boiling water up to 40 metres into the air. It’s been reliably doing so since 1963. The original Geysir – located in the same area – is believed to have been active as early as 1206, but has been largely dormant since 1916.
The geothermal area itself is fascinating to walk through:
Remember, kids – don’t step off the marked paths!
But it’s Strokkur itself that steals the show:
Hmm. I may have been too close on that one – let’s try again from a distance:
Much better
And for those who prefer video:
We also manage to find some thermal clothing for the kids too, which they’ll need for tomorrow’s whitewater rafting.
Off we go again – this time to Gullfoss.
Gullfoss consists of two separate waterfalls – the upper of which has a drop of 11 metres:
While the lower has a drop of 21 metres.
Water flows over Gullfoss at the rate of 109 cubic metres per second, while the heaviest recorded flow is over 2,000 cubic metres per second – or enough to fill the Empire state building in less than 8 minutes.
From Gullfoss.org:
“In the early 20th century, Gullfoss became the center of a fierce preservation battle. In 1907, an English investor, Howells, sought to harness the waterfall for hydroelectric power. He offered to buy it from Tómas Tómasson, the local farmer who owned Gullfoss. Tómas refused to sell, but later leased the waterfall to him.
This decision set the stage for Sigríður Tómasdóttir (1871–1957), Tómas’ daughter, to become a national heroine. Having grown up at the family’s sheep farm in Brattholt, Sigríður could not bear to see Gullfoss altered. Determined to protect it, she used her own savings to hire a lawyer in Reykjavík and fought for years in court to void the lease.
Her dedication was legendary – she walked barefoot many times over dangerous terrain to follow up on her case in Reykjavík. At one point, she even threatened to throw herself into the canyon if construction began.
Although she ultimately lost in court, the hydroelectric project never moved forward, as the lease was canceled due to unpaid rent. Thanks to her courage, Gullfoss was preserved. Today, Sigríður is remembered as Iceland’s first environmentalist, and a memorial stone near the waterfall honors her role in its history.”
No tripod for waterfall photos this time, as it’s buried deep in the hatch – so I do as best I can by propping the camera upon a rock:
Not terrible, all considered
We leave the third site at 3 pm, which is putting us on track to reach ÖÖD Hekla Horizon for 4:30 pm – or shortly after check-in time.
The rivers of Iceland carve a complicated path across the landscape. We drive south and west for a time, then east and finally north to reach our intended destination.
The landscape continues to shift, becoming almost prairie-like as we near the Hekla volcano:
Finally, ÖÖD Hekla comes into view:
These houses are designed to showcase as much of the natural beauty as possible, while still offering privacy through the special glass. The interior size is modest:
But it’s well designed, with high-end finishings. And most importantly, it’s only an hour away from tomorrow’s whitewater rafting trip with Secret Local Adventures.
(Also – the cleaner is just finishing when we pull up, so the stops worked out neatly.)
My wife cooks spaghetti bolognese for dinner tonight. She had the forethought to pre-cook the ground beef and tomato sauce, which is handy as there is only a single cooking element here, and one pot.
I pop outside to check out some the scenery and architecture:
A very stylish sauna – which we are unlikely to use while we are here
The Hekla volcano (left) in the distance
After, we head to the Northern Lights Lounge, a kind of resort-wide common area:
We wonder if it might be a type of social hub, but it isn’t really. Only one other couple comes by to wait while the sauna heats up, and they are either conversing in hushed Italian or watching TikToks on their phone.
We spot another couple here, but they are busy flying a drone around the property – presumably to be part of some sort of travel influencer video. It’s hard to be critical of the drone when I’m also taking photos of the exteriors of buildings, though I do claim some moral superiority by virtue of not making the annoying buzzing noise that drones make.
(I check to see if ÖÖD Hekla has a drone policy, and they do not – so that will likely be a point of feedback after we leave.)
No matter – we’re done with the Northern Lights lounge, so we head back to our house to watch as the sun sets over the Hekla volcano:
We sit amidst the setting sun and watch as the gloaming lingers on the horizon, until we can almost name every shadow that dots the landscape.
For a day that I was dreading, it turned out very well indeed.