Driving the Ring Road: Part 1

A few days after exams ended, it was time to start a big trip round the whole of Iceland with my friends Enya, Quinten and Thomas. We planned to spend nine days travelling round the country's main road, Route 1.

We started early on Sunday morning (no hangover: we'd stayed in the night before and I made Enya watch the full BBC broadcast of Eurovision. She's a very good friend.) and made our way to Snaefellsness Peninsula. We've all been before but Quinten knew a Belgian girl who was living on a farm near Grundarfjörður where we could stay the night so it seemed like a good place to start.

We were also celebrating Thomas's birthday!

It was mostly a day of revisiting our favourite places on the peninsula but we also stopped at this natural hot pot just hidden from the main road.

We arrived at the farm in the evening and were immediately shown the lambing shed by an 11 year old girl, Tindra, who proudly told me she'd helped to deliver lambs that morning. It was interesting to see a real, working Icelandic farm but they also didn't mind us being tourists, taking photos and stroking the newborn lambs.

The family were incredibly generous to us, providing us with lots of food and letting us make ourselves at home. However, the night was slightly bizarre as they had several pet cats who liked to stare at us whilst we slept, and even a rabbit who was allowed to wander around freely. Being woken up repeatedly and finding a rabbit either staring me in the eye or making a home between my feet was an odd experience but certainly one I won't forget.

The next morning we hiked a mountain near Bjarnarhöfn. Again, it made me realise how unfit I was but also how inexperienced I am at hiking mountains compared to my outdoorsy friends. However, I made it to the top!

Still snowing in Iceland, of course.

Beautiful views from about half way up.

We travelled to the North West of Iceland and camped that night in a very remote campsite. Yes, I actually camped in Iceland. I am not used to this stuff, unlike my Scouting friends, but I managed to help Enya put up the tent and, after she showed me how to properly do-up my sleeping bag, managed not to freeze to death.

The next day, we visited the town of Hólar. It is very small with a population of around 100 people but still manages to have a cathedral and a university. We also saw some traditional Icelandic turf houses.

The cathedral.

We went for another hike which was nice, apart from the fact we had to walk an hour each way along a pebbled causeway to reach the hill. I also learnt that I can easily get sun burnt in Iceland, even after using factor 50 sun screen. We had a good view though!

That night, we stayed in the most amazing accommodation I've had in Iceland. Whilst at the farmhouse, the family had told us that we should stay with their mother/grandmother who lives in Ólafsfjörður. It was pretty scary ringing up a stranger to ask if we could stay with them but I did it in the end (after Enya dialled the number, pressed ring then just handed me her phone and said 'it's ringing, you have to talk to her'). Guðrún and her husband were amazingly welcoming and she was delighted to have us stay. She spoiled us rotten with food, including many things she'd hand baked. She offered to do our laundry, tried to make us stay for lunch, and seemed disappointed that we would travel round the island the other way and couldn't visit her again.  The next day she refused to let us leave without taking two huge bags of food. It was lovely to experience such amazing hospitality and kindness.

The next day I finally got to visit Akureyri, Iceland's second city, home to around 17,000 people. It was as small and friendly as I expected and had some lovely old buildings.

We stopped at Goðafoss waterfall before heading to Myvatn.

Godafoss.

Myvatn is a beautiful area and we visited the nature baths (similar to the small lagoon), a volcano crater, Dimmuborgir lava fields and, my favourite part, the bubbling, steaming mud at Hverir.

Then we made our way to the small town of Húsavík in the North...