What was planned once in 2020 and defenestrated by COVID pandemic, was finally coming true in 2025 summer – road trip around the ring road in Iceland.
There are no direct flights from
Dubai to Iceland, however emirates offers various options through a code share
with Icelandic air via almost every country in Europe. I took the option via
London as it had the optimum duration of layover and slightly less pricey as
well, post ensuring the inessentiality of a transit visa for UK, more so if you
have a valid US visa.
Iceland journeys typically start
with Rejkyavik at the western end on the country and either go anticlock wise or
vice versa, with neither offering any superior benefits to another. Since this was a drive covering around
3000kms, I had to choose convenient points of overnight halt avoiding too long
a travel on any day. I had an itinerary
drafted five years back going via south -east-north-west; I stuck to the same. My
friend NG – a travel pro, had given me lot of details. Besides, in this age of chat
GPT, information is available ad infinitum.
Shiva made it incisively clear
that one night stays for 10 continuous days is going to strenuous and hectic.
Hence, I thought of two or three night stays, albeit it added a couple
of extra days into the itinerary. Still, a couple of one-night sojourns are unavoidable. Contrary to the habit of doing complete research of even things-to-do
at each point, this time I kept my job only to airbnbs and left the sightseeing
part to shiva, for not just due to the paucity of time due to my elevated work
stress, but also due to the unprecedented excitement shown by Shiva for this
trip.
Couple of weeks prior to the
travel, there was a fissure eruption in southwest part of Iceland, spewing
smoke and lava out. About a decade ago, a lot of flights across the
Atlantic had to be re-routed or cancelled due to a huge volcanic eruption in
Iceland. No - not again, I thought. But then in a few days time, to our relief,
they clarified that all flights are operating as normal and the country keeps
getting such fissure eruptions on and off.
Rain forecast by apple inc forced
us to carry rain gear including waterproof shoes. My colleague PK also
mentioned how he had to buy raincoats in Norway after under-estimating the
weather forecast during his travel in 2024.
With eclectic mix anxiety and
excitement, we checked in and went in at the final boarding call for our flight
at 8am. At the boarding gate, the ground staff asked us ‘where is your UK visa’.
With pride, shiva flashed her chatGPT that we don’t need UK visa if you are
transiting, when you have a US visa. The guy knew what he was talking, but
still to be doubly sure, he made few calls, making us wait. He later limpidly explained
–since Gatwick airport does not have an airside transit facility; only Heathrow and Manchester has, and therefore he can’t let us board the flight. We looked at
each other in mock horror. I froze momentarily having no clue of what to do
now. Forgoing holiday is just one part, but the pecuniary impact could be
significant. Shiva went on gainsaying with
every other staff, even hurling nebulous arguments like her parents went from
India to US a fortnight back via London with no transit visa. Our bags were offloaded instantly, post
which he called for emirates staff to help us out. We were taken to transit area of dubai T3 and
asked to wait; unbeknownst of the consequence.
The flight to Gatwick has already departed now. The supervisor in-charge
offered to rebook the ticket through some other Schengen area. I checked the
price online and found, to my aghast, it was costing aed19k – for a one way
fare!. We requested him to put us through
the next flight to Heathrow at 9.40am.
Look sir, Uk is messy, I can re-book you through some Schengen area, for
free of cost, however, if you insist, I will book you through Heathrow but if
something happens, the cost is on you – the manager explained. The word
‘re-book for free’ reinvigorated smile and a modicum of excitement and hope.
With no additional cost we were booked through Zurich on the following day, as
there were no connecting flights from any European airport available that day
to Iceland; checked in and given boarding passes too, then and there. I
requested for changing the return flights as well, which they denied initially,
but then looking at our plight the manager asked the staff to use his
name and re-route that also. We heaved a euphoric sigh of relief. We later
realized what happened was a blessing in disguise. Had we flown to London, it
is possible that immigration officer won’t let us in and make us fly back to
dubai in next flight or had the check in counter in Dubai stopped us before
issuing boarding pass, may be we wouldn’t have got free re-routing tickets by
emirates. There is also a small error on airline part by issuing us boarding
pass and let us up to the gate, which they made good by issuing us replacement
tickets. We retuned home, not so unhappy
with the outcome. I was able to cancel the Airbnb quickly but lost out on one
day’s car rent. The spare day that I always carry for a holiday, paid off now.
We did not have to change much for the rest of itinerary.
The Magical Iceland
It was quite cold and drizzling
when I started driving towards rejykavik. Streets lay bare and desolated at
this hour. But the broad daylight even at 9pm and a welcome relief from the
Dubai summer added zest despite the weariness.
Iceland is unique in many ways:
two tectonic plates meet in this country – Eurasian and north American plates
(there are totally 7 plates that divide earth’s crust), hence there are lot of
active volcano (over 100+) in the country- even having frequent eruptions, lot of
geo-thermal energy, geysers, hot springs, etc..
The country has largest glacier in Europe – vatnajokull glacier, has
only a population of 400k, fermented shark is a national delicacy, gets over
21hours of daylight in summer and just 4 hours in winter.
Golden Circle
The day reserved for reyjkyavik sight seeing is now sacrificed. The next day we set off to cover the Golden Circle – approx. 90 min drive from Reykjavik. First stop was at pingvellir national park: we walked through the Almannagjá gorge for about 30 mins to oxrarfoss. There is option to snorkel at Silfra where you can see two tectonic plates below the water – yes, you do really get to see; perhaps only place in the world where you can witness this!, . We did not do the snorkeling, for the fear of icy waters, body is yet to acclimatize to the drastic change in latitude and weariness of previous day travel. We covered the geysir geothermal area– where hot water springs out and frequently throws up like a fountain, gulfoss – a massive waterfall, and kerid crater. Genial sunshine, gloomy clouds and mild 5 min showers were offered in tandem throughout the day by the Icelandic skies. That was a lot for the first day, which usually goes for us, in languorous city tours. By day end, Shiva was ebullient with the first day coverage. Though the house was perfect of us in Reykjavik, which was slightly off the city limits, we had to vacate the next day morning for next destination – Vik.
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| pingvellir national park |
Day 2 - Rejykavik to Vik
Shiva wanted to do Grindavik
first before going to vik, however this added another three to four hours to
the journey, which made me a bit skeptical. Previous night, by happenstance, I
found an excellent sea facing apartment in Reykjavik for one night. Grindavik
is in between Reykjavik and keflavik airport. I cancelled the night in Borganes
forgoing sneafelles peninsula to fit in Grindavik into the plan. The change in
these bookings convinced her.
The south coast has slightly more
attractions. Enroute, we covered two post
card waterfalls – sejelandofoss (one where you can go behind the falls) and
skogafoss – the iconic falls in ‘geruha’ song of Diwale movie. We checked into
black sand beach suites in vik by 3ish. By the time we reached vik, the nimbus
clouds broke open into consistent but manageable rain. Luckily, until then it
was just dark clouds. This was a premium
property for 2 nights where the chalet had visibility to sprawling open land,
seas and mountains. This is a classic aurora borealis type of property. The Reynisfjara
beach was a stone’s throw away. Despite the consistent drizzle, we visited the
beautiful black sand beach during the evening. The drizzle and the wind made it
even more cold, hence we couldn’t stay longer in the beach.
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| sjelandofoss |
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| Sjelandofoss |
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| skogafoss |
Day 3 – around Vik
We woke up to an overcast morning.
Nonplussed by the pestilential rain, we drove to main vik town to enquire about
ice cave tours. It was Shiva’s idea to explore ice caves, which can be accessed
only by guided tours by 4*4. My previous experiences of limestone caves,
children’s indifference, obnoxious pricing coupled with my parsimonious
tendencies, led me to inveigle shiva to go alone on this tour, while I would
lead the kids to a trek nearby to Dyrhólaey mountain. She acceded this time, reluctantly.
Disappointingly, all guided ice cave tours were cancelled that day due to
rains. I palliated her by driving straight to nearby glacier hiking trail – at
solheimajokull. Despite the soul stirring rains, with our rain gear, we walked
for about 20 minutes to the glacier lake to get the glimpse of the magnificent
glacier mountain which was melting slowly.
There were guided treks to the top of the glacier mountain. Shiva’s
adrenalin was still high, where she kept foisting me to do the trek, adducing
risible reasons like – ‘iam not physically fit to climb so why can’t you climb’
– for a minute even I felt I am doing injustice to her!. I rallied to back to
me senses, to remind her, over and over, that I am not an adventure trip, the severity
of the ascend – though amplified a bit by the rain, even otherwise, seemed to
be a leviathan task, and lastly, even if I had the tenacity, there was no
availability for guided treks that day. Just
the sight of it - so close, was enough for my heart to melt just like the
glacier!.
By the time we walked back to
car, it was pouring. Thanks to good rain gear including waterproof shoes, we
were completely dry inside, but the rigmarole of wearing and taking off the
rain coats and umbrellas, shrug off the dripping water before entering the car
with dry clothes, by walking nearly 100meters into the parking lot through the
rain, was enough to enervate us. We unanimously decided to take a break and
have lunch at the cottage. By around
4pm, the sky cleared a bit, bringing life back into us. We proceeded to Dyrhólaey
mountain. I had told the kids to be prepared for a 1 hour ascend at the
mountain with promise of spectacular views and arctic Puffins!. As we got near, they realized, cars can go
right up to the top and the trek wasn’t necessary. Naturally, all three, goaded
me, to chauffer them to the top. Shiva
had a puffin watching tour in her mind. However, here at the top, we got to see
the puffins at touching distance and tons of them. The sight of these birds so close was special
indeed. The views from the top was also spectacular. We then visited Reynisfjara
black sand beach near our resort. The jet black sand, black pebbles (actually
grey pebbles that turn black when they are wet), cave like formations of the
mountains, Basalt columns, and the mighty waves of the Atlantic, made this a
top tourist attraction. Shiva’s
disappointment of missing the ice caves was mollified by the Glacier, Puffins
and the lovely beach.
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| Puffins |
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| view from top |
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| basalt columns at beach |
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| black sand beach |
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| glacier mountain |
Vik to Hofn
Our next stop was a one-night
stay in Hofn which around 3.5hours away from Vik. Enroute there were number of
options to do, of which we chose the easy ones – Eldardhun lave fields, Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon,
svinafell or skaftafell glacier, diamond beach and Jokulsarlon boat ride.
On this bright sunny day, our first stop was in lava fields of Eldhraun. Amazing to see how these volcanoes have shaped these lands. Next was was at the Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon – a small 4km detour from the ring road. We got the sight of the canyon from the bottom of it – along the river. There were options to trek up to the top, which all of us gleefully rejected the idea. We proceeded to skaftafell nature reserve (part of mighty Vatnajökull National Park). There were options for a more difficult trek to skaftafell glacier and slightly easier one to svinafell glacier. Both were glaciers, adjoining each other – why chose the harder one. We trekked to svinafell glacier, as did majority of tourist. The massive chunk of ice down the mountain having spikes as if a butcher has chopped it unevenly, covered with black volcanic ash, slowly melting into the glacier lakes below, leaving some ice chunks floating on top – was a sight to behold - perhaps one of the few places in the world where glacier can be so easily accessed in summer.
We had light lunch that we picked
from Kronan supermarket in vik and proceeded to Diamond beach. Diamond beach
and Jokulsarlon glacier are next to each other on either side of the ring road.
Parts of Vatnajökull glacier has broken away in large ice clusters forming a
large fresh water lake, that eventually meets the sea on the other side of the
road where many pieces of ice gets washed ashore in the beach, which shines
like a diamond on a bright sunny day – hence the moniker ‘diamond beach’.
Again, probably the only place, where you get to see ice pieces on the beach,
giving nice photo op for tourist. The
Jokulsarlon lagoon is a body of water from melted ice, with large pieces of
glacier still floating around in between the lake – with just ten percent
visible above the water, giving way for seals to roam freely looking for
salmons and trouts and for some protection from killer whales. Jokulsarlon
became quite popular after movie makers found their way to it –Die another day,
Lara croft tomb raider, capitain America civil war and bollywood’s Dilwale!
The are multiple options to get
close to the gacliers in the lake: zodiac boat tour – kind of speed boat which
can go really close to the glacier,
amphibian boat tour – a boat which can accommodate 25-30 people or a
self-ridden kayak. The amphibian was the
only one available immediately. The 45 minute boat ride was fun filled with
facts from the cicerone.
Post a hectic day, we reached
Hofn, completely knackered. Hofn is a small nondescript town at the edge of the
Atlantic. Amidst the limited supply in the townlet, I had a booked a huge
four-bedroom Airbnb – probably the only one which I could find through
booking.com. The house was huge but
little worn and tattered – yet good enough for a one night stay.
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| jokulsarlon glacier lake |
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| diamond beach |
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| svinafell glacier |
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| on the boat |
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| canyon |
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| lava fields |
The day started with bright
sunshine. After stopping briefly at Vestrahorn mountain – another Dilwale
attraction, we went through the eastern fyjords – all the way up to egilsstaðir.
Perhaps, this was the most scenic of all the drives thus far in Iceland; gave
us reminiscence of Norway. Black and
green mountains accompanied by deep blue sea and wild flowers were quite striking
and the blessing of good sunshine aggrandized the refulgence.
After a quick stop at Bonus
supermarket to collect our dinner supplies, we checked in early for a one night
stay in a townhouse in a residential neighborhood by around 3pm. there was a
choice of doing Studagil canyon or Seyðisfjörður – the former taking 30 mins
additional drive and a bit of trek.
Unsurprisingly, the family chose closer option of Seyðisfjörður - the
scenic fishing village with its iconic blue church, rainbow street and Gufufoss
– waterfalls nearby. We stravaged around the quaint village relishing the zephyr
– decompressing ourselves a bit.
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| Seyðisfjörður |
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| enroute |
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| enroute |
Egilsstadir to Akureyi
Despite knowing my jejune
attitude towards birthdays, shiva wouldn’t let anybody’s birthday go listless,
let alone mine. Yes, I turned 45 today - blessed to be on a holiday with loved
ones. We did a small cake cutting at home.
Enroute to Akureyi, we decided to
cover dettifoss and if time and energy permits, do asbyrgi canyon and Husavik
town enroute. Unlike the previous day,
it was gloomy and dark. In parts of the journey, dark grey volcanic sands,
black colored mountains, dark skies and the road – made it appear completely
black all around you – a distinctive experience. The drizzle stopped
intermittently when we reached dettifoss. Detifoss has two entrances east and
west – like many of them in Iceland. I took the west as it’s more easily
accessible and most cars were heading to, though Shiva was wanting to explore
the east once. It is sometimes good to peruse before we reach a destination,
rather than chatgpting at the exit of the road – I told her. The falls was
mighty and gorgeous. Though we have seen bigger ones like Niagara, the sight of
water and forces of nature, never ceases to amaze you.
Since it started raining again
heavily as we returned to our, our enthusiasm for the canyon weaned. We decided
to hit our next destination Akureyri.
Enroute we unexpectedly came across the Hverir geo-thermal area. We
could see sulphur water bubbling from ground unleashing a strong steam. The
pungent smell was so strong as you go nearby, that we had to cover our nostrils. Later we learnt that these are gasses below
the earth surface finding its way out.
We went past the beautiful myvatn
lake, drove along the myvatn river and just before the destination, I had the
druthers to sally through the scenic fjord route avoiding the shorter route through
the tunnel to reach Akureiry city. The additional 10 minutes was completely
worth it and highly recommended.
3 nights in Akureyri
Akureyri is a reasonably big city
in Iceland – perhaps second biggest next to Reykjavik in the north of Iceland –
has a big port and airport as well. Our
Airbnb had partially views of the fjyord. The 2bhk house was probably the best so
far or at least as good as the Reykjavik one.
Since it was my birthday, Shiva
had enticed kids with a dinner in a nice Indian restaurant, only to find out
later - thanks to chatgpt - that a meal for two cost roughly $200. We all gourmandized
on maggi for dinner, made by the birthday boy, merrily watching ‘Happy Gilmore
2’ in Netflix.
Fortuitously, we were blessed
with sunny days for the next couple of days. Shiva’s neophila pushed us to the
geo-thermal sulphur bath in Myvatn. The geo-thermal pool operated at around
42degrees while the outside temperature was around 7 c. Two most popular
geo-thermal pools in Iceland are blue lagoon near keflavik and Myvatn nature
bath. The former being twice as expensive due to its proximity to rejykavik and
slightly more attractive than Myvatn. This was an unique and thoroughly
enjoyable experience.
We visited another lava field, Godafoss, Krafla geo-thermal
plant nearby, learnt how they convert these natural gasses into energy
providing 100% of hot water and home heaters in Iceland. Krafla crater was
another attraction near the power plant.
The following day we took it
completely relaxed. One hour trek in nearby national forest, drive around the
northern fjyords along the arctic ocean, enquire whale watching tours at Huganes
– only to decide its not worth it and better to roam around the shopping
avenues of Akureyri with coffee and waffles. Post dinner, we left the kids home
in the company of Netflix, and we took a nice stroll on the walkway along the
fjyord.
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| lava field |
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| kafla crater |
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| godagoss |
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| hiking in national forest |
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| Huganes village |
Akureyri to Rejykayvik
Haplessly, Shiva woke up to the
news that the fissure eruption in Grindavik has stopped now. The zeal around
watching a lava flow through fissures live has dissipated, yet there is no
change in plan. Since I changed the penultimate day stay from Borganes to Reykjavik,
the drive became a tad longer. Since vidur
expressed his desire to include a bit of city touring amidst the nature heavy
trips, I supplanted sneafelles peninsula or krijkjufell mountain with rejykavik
downtown.
The trip lasted for more than
5hours of which roughly it rained for about 4 hours. By the time, we reached
our sea facing apartment in rejyk at around 6pm, the sun came out and sky went
completely clear. Somewhere near Borganes, we also came across a full rainbow.
Given the clear weather we decided to finish off the downtown attractions in
rejykavik and have dinner at ’subway’. Back home, from our sea facing
apartment, serendipitously, we got an unoccluded view of sun sink behind the
ocean in a surreal mix of orange and grey, followed by moonrise with reflection
of the moon on the water, in a sequence, in a span of 30 minutes at around
10pm.
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| rejkyavik church |
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| streets of Rejkyavik |
Last day – Grindavik
Owing to an early morning flight,
I had booked an Airbnb 5 mins away from the airport. We dropped out bags at the
house by noon and proceeded to Grindavik. Though, we couldn’t see the red lava,
we could see the smoke billowing out of the mountain. The whole city of
grindavik was fully made of lava fields and rocks. The city was looking
lifeless possibly because of the evacuations done recently. We could even see
smoke coming out of road side lava rocks. We did pick few lava rocks as
souvenirs. We scaled a small peak for about an 45mins from the parking lot to
get a glimpse of the crater but realized you will have to scale much greater
heights to see the crater or do a helicopter tour, which I surmise is going to
be extortionate.
We also visited a point in on the
Reykjanes Peninsula where a small bridge spans a fissure created by the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the two tectonic plates are drifting apart. The area
sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the boundary where the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate are pulling apart.
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| gridavik road side lava |
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| solidified lava |
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| erupted mountain at a distance |
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| standing between tectonic plates |
We called it a day and bid adieu to Iceland the next day.
At various pockets of journey,
our mind kept comparing Iceland with Norway, as we had one of the best travel
experience in Norway. Norway was more
charming, abundance of frabjous scenery aided by fjyods, greenery, waterfalls
and snow at mountain tops –indefatigably so and plenty of city vibes and hikes
available too. Iceland definitely had more variety. I had wheedled the kids to
list things which they have never seen or done before – here is what I got,
mostly from Vedha: walking on lava fields, glaciers, arctic Puffins, arctic
ocean, geysers – spewing water upto to 15ft high, geo-thermal pools, natural
sulfur bath, volacano craters, crater pool, mountains with different colors
next to each other – black, green, brown, etc., black sand, basalt columns, eating
1000 year old ice, rainbow street, walk between tectonic plates, lava salt and
lava branded chocolates. To top it, we
narrowly missed a live fissure eruption. We also got see Icelandic sheeps and pulchritudinous
horses everywhere - it appeared humans are outnumbered here.
Thanks to God for blessing us with a safe and healthy trip and finally making this possible.
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