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F ever a place was designed for road tripping, it would be Iceland. The land of fire and ice provides a convenient Ring Road that allows one to travel about 1 500km around the entire country and end up back where you started.
We decided to tackle the Ring Road — or Road 1 — over six driving days, with buffer days built in for contingencies such as bad weather (Iceland is notorious for rapidly changing weather) as well as rest days. We spent the day before in the capital city of Reykjavik, where you can see the world’s only Phallological Museum (yes, you read that correctly: a penis museum).
On day one we hit the “Golden Circle”, where we saw the continental drift between the North American and Eurasian plates in the Thingvellir National Park. We also stopped at the Strokkur geyser, which erupts every 10 minutes up to a height of 30m, as well as Gullfoss waterfall, where water drops down 32m into a canyon. We ended off the day with a relaxing dip in the warm waters of the Gamla lagoon. What a great start!
On day two in the south of Iceland, we hiked on the Sólheimajökull glacier, where you can see first-hand the effects of global warming. Our tour guide showed us some basic measuring equipment installed on the glacier, which shows an alarming drop in its height from as recently as April 2016, as well as how far the lagoon has migrated due to the glacier melting. In addition, the glacier was coated with rough volcanic ash from nearby Katla volcano, as well as some finer volcanic ash from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in 2010.
We also saw Skogafoss waterfall, which had a beautiful 60m drop, and the Black Sand Beach near Vik.
Our day ended at Jökulsárlón, which is a tranquil iceberg lagoon at the head of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier. Here there were actual chunks of ice breaking off the glacier and slowly drifting along in the lagoon. A must-see!
By day three we arrived in eastern Iceland and finally got to drive through the Eastern Fjords, which provided amazing coastal views of the North Atlantic for most of the day’s journey.
On day four, the landscape changed dramatically as we approached the Mývatn region. There were lava fields covered in moss, desolate moon-rock regions, and areas such as Hverir, which had strong geothermal activity.
Several fumaroles are located here, travelmag@sundaytimes.co.za