A Foss Filled Day

We went to sleep last night at 9:30pm, exhausted, and sure we would slumber for at least 10 hours. 

Instead, we woke up this morning at 1:45am. After 3-4 hours of closing our eyes, we realized that we are not immune to jet lag. Our hopes of a quick adjustment to Icelandic time fell, and we decided to make an early departure from camp at around 4:45am.

Luckily, Nolan’s phone has unlimited slow cellular data while we’re traveling, so we were able to look up all the landmarks to see along the Ring Road (and slightly off). Turns out, you don’t even need to go to the landmarks to see incredible scenery here. The 6 or 7 hours we spent driving were filled with magnificent landscapes that were only enhanced by the sounds of Sigur Rós (thanks to Nolan’s friend Haraldur’s recommendation).

The first portion of our day we spend visiting the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. Our first stop was the most photographed waterfall in Iceland, Kirkjufellsfoss. (Dare you to try and pronounce that! We’re having fun learning the Icelandic alphabet and pronunciations.) Here’s a photograph to add to the collection :)

Photos can give you a taste, but it’s impossible to capture what it’s like to be here in person. Every place we stopped had fantastic 360° views; it was like looking at a completely different, beautiful sight in every direction. At one point in the car, looking directly ahead we saw red rust colored hills, to the left were lush green meadows with snow dotted mountains in the background, and on our right were lava covered ocean cliffs. We stopped frequently on the side of the highway because there was some random incredible thing we couldn’t help but look at longer:

  

Our favorite stop of the day was to see two fosses (waterfalls) right next to each other: Hraunfossar & Barnafoss. We decided this is where Box should raft for our next River Trip; we’d have some pretty exciting rapids ;)

  

And that was the last major stop of the day…other than a 40 minute pull over at the side of the side of the highway to quickly pull our bed down and take a much needed nap! We have to say, road tripping in a camper van is the way to go.

However, it’s not always smooth sailing. Though we had never heard of ‘AdBlue’ before, it turned out that the camper van needed a serious amount of it. It also turned out that it was due for new motor oil. Though we felt the company should have dealt with this before giving us the van, at least they were helpful on the phone and promised that after we bought and refilled the various necessary fluids, they would reimburse us whatever it cost. So we learned how to put AdBlue in a car! And that it turns out that 1. it’s very difficult to avoid spilling (especially when it’s crazy windy), and 2. spilling AdBlue is really bad as it quickly dries into corrosive crystals.

The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful, but (goes without saying,) gorgeous, and we got to start our new audiobook: Dark Matter. We’re only a few hours in, but highly recommend it already!

We’ll be spending the night camping somewhere near Akureyri, the second biggest “city” in Iceland. We’re currently in a café there, where we bought maybe the most expensive muffin and hot chocolate we’ve ever had, but also actually the most delicious hot chocolate!