Roadtrippin’ In Iceland Part 1

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After we had spent a day and a half in Reykjavik, we picked up our car from Sadcars at our hostel (Bus Hostel) and began our roadtrip!

All we knew was that we wanted to get as far as Hofn on the South East coast of Iceland, as we’d booked a hostel there and they don’t do refunds! And we knew this was 5.5 hours drive, but with stops it would take us all day and potentially into the darkness of the night before we would arrive.

The Map of our Roadtrip

Our first stop – Seljalandsfoss (Waterfall)

After we set off driving and got the initial “How cool is this! We are on our very own gals roadtrip in ICELAAAAAND!” out of the way, we began navigating. At first, getting onto the right road took a little bit of effort and then once we were on the main Icelandic road, you are set.

Most landmarks in Iceland are naturally formed sights, like waterfalls and geysirs and icebergs etc. And the main major highway runs past all of the major sights – wonderful for tourists like us who did very little planning!

We were all quietly thinking “when will we see the first natural landmark…” when all of a sudden, around the bend, there it was – Seljalandsfoss waterfall!

As this was our first ‘out-of-the-blue’ waterfall experience, we were all so jazzed about it. We were singing it’s praises and going on about how beautiful and awesome and amazing it was. We were also complaining about how freezing it was outside! But, we put that to the back of our minds as we explored the area.

We selfie’d in front of the waterfall, we walked behind/under the waterfall, we walked the trails to find more waterfalls. We then bumped into our old friends – The Russians!

One of the Russians had a GIANT lens for his camera. It actually looked so big, they joked it was a tool for shooting planes out of the sky (not a good joke to say in the current climate).

I got to learn how to use his camera and after some bonding, we decided that if they had a car for the day and so did we, we’d drive near each-other to the next landmarks together and enjoy them as a team.

Our next stop

The next sight we stopped at was none other than that bad ass muthaf*****, the volcano that erupted in 2010 stopping air traffic all over the world –  Eyjafjallajökull. We pulled over and read the sign about the eruption and took it all in, that we were looking at the very destructive thing that caused such chaos. And it looked so beautiful and serene to us.

Stop 3

Another short drive around the bend and we were swinging sharply (and going too fast to do it) into a parking lot just off the highway to see a much larger, much more epic waterfall than Seljalandsfoss, this big kahuna is named Skogafoss.

Of the four of us gals, two of us decided we had to climb to the top of the waterfall, while the other gals took a quick glimpse and jumped back in the car for warmth.

The climb was a grinder. We had to stop three or four times to catch our breath before we finally made it to the viewing platform! The wind all the way up and at the very top was incredible! We were almost unable to stand up for the force pushing against us.

Katy Perry and I stayed at the top for as long as we could stand before we made our way back down to the car to brag to the other gals all about our escapade up the top. From here on in we were dubbed the explorers of the trip, Burke and Wills. (Burke & Wills were Australian explorers)

Stop 4 – Vik

We could not find the Russians at the waterfall so we departed without them, on for Vik, a place that has black sand beaches.

When we arrived in Vik, we drove right on through it without noticing..! Yes, after coming from Reykjavik, and having heard of Vik, we were expecting something of a similar size – but instead it was one church on a hill, one rest stop and you have gone from one side of Vik to the other.

We got out of the car in Vik, at the rest stop and decided we needed burgers and fries. To explain the hunger levels of the trip, I can only use one reference… Starvin Marvin from Ethiopia – a Southpark character. The cold conditions must have increased out metabolisms so much so that we were permanently STARVING. I think I said “I’m starving” 500 times to my friends.

After our burgers, we were about to get up and explore the black sand beach when low and behold, The Russians walked in! We were so excited and also wondered how they could have possibly found us…without realising that we had said we wanted to go to Vik and there was no cars but ours in the entire town. We weren’t that hard to find.

Exploring the black sand beach was lovely.

We frolicked and posed and bantered with our new best friends, and took a crap-load of timed selfies on my friend Katy Perry’s camera – which will never see the light of day (she never posts her photos 🙁 )

When it was too cold to continue enjoying the beach we had to come up with a plan. It started to feel like the sun was going down. But we still had to get to Jokusarlon, the glacier lagoon I had read about. The Russians dared to follow us, even though they had to return their car to Reykjavik that evening.

Stop 5 – the Glacier Lagoon

We sped like there was no tomorrow, like we were racing against the sun (well, we really were!) to get to Jokusarlon before night hit.

Along the drive we saw some incredible scenery. Iceland is truely unique. One minute you are driving through marsh, the next it’s strange rock formations with moss growing out of it, the next you could be in the Grand Canyon, the next the moon, the next Morocco!

As the sun was falling and we reached dusk, with just a few minutes of sunlight left… WE MADE IT! Just over the ridge there was a sign for Jokusarlon. I leaped from our car and didn’t wait for anyone before I was running, still trying to beat the sunlight.

Once Jokusarlon was spotted, I abruptly stopped and gasped. This is what I had come to see. This is what I had to drive all this way and race the sun for. Jokusarlon is magnificent!

Burke and Wills were first to the icebergs, followed by The Russians. We picked it up, took selfies, licked it, took more selfies, and then there was complete darkness and we could no longer see.

We are talking, no street lights, no town for an hour on either side of this place, we are in the middle of nowhere. Just us and the glaciers.

Final stop of the day – Hofn (pronounced Hop)

We said goodbye to The Russians, they had a 5 hour drive ahead of them! We hopped in our car and hoped we’d a) make it to Hofn and b) be able to find our accommodation. After finding that Vik was as small as it was, we were feeling a little bit grim about Hofn.

The drive went quicker than expected (perhaps because we were all on cloud 9 after the Jokusarlon experience and well, the whole amazing day) but we soon made it to Hofn – and it was an actual town, with people and houses and a school! After check-in, we settled into our 4 person bunk room. Soon I was at the starvation level where I thought I might actually die, so I rallied the troops yelled at my friends and we made our way in our car to drive around town until we found food of any kind.

Well, the only place that looked like it was potentially somewhere selling food, and somewhere that might be open (on a Saturday night) was the RSL. We were, at this point, completely delirious. We walked in, saw not a single soul, and were a little nervous. And then we met Gummy, the guy who was the barman, the chef, the waiter, the everything.

We bantered with Gummy and all decided we’d have a burger and we also ordered a garlic pizza – cos you know, we were starving!

Before we received our food, Gummy brought us a special drink called ‘Gummy Juice’ – it’s a cocktail he made up and named after himself. He gave them to us for free so there were no complaints and it was actually bloody delicious!

After the Gummy Juice – it was on. We were all drunk on life, drunk on gummy juice, delirious, tired, cold all day, and had become a bunch of idiots.

Our witty humour began to lower itself to just a bunch of nonsense, which we all found hysterical. Katy Perry made up a song on the spot about us all, naming us Dingo, Marvo, Slams and Splodge. Those names have stuck.

Soon, a bunch of four lads walked in. They tried to sit at a different table but after hollering “Lets not act like we can’t see that this place is empty! Join us!” by I think all four of us girls, they came and sat down. Big mistake.

Again, we lured them in with funny witty humour. And then all of a sudden, our deliriousness took over and I was describing wombat poop to one of them while Canuck was over sharing and asking way too personal questions, all in the name of a good evening.

Once we realised that the fun party (us) had freaked the four boys out too much, we up and left, not realising that they were in the same hostel, in the very next room. This became some fun for us later by knocking on the joining wall to no reply knocks back – they were done with us.

However – we had an absolute riot of a night and Hofn will go down as one of my all time favourite moments with my friends.

Day one of the road trip was EPIC. But there is more…

Iceland Video

I created a video our our 5 day Iceland trip on the Magisto App, watch it here: Iceland Video

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About Lesley

Australian expat, married to a Dutch guy, living in Amsterdam. Previously lived in London for 3 years, too! Lover of travel, coffee, brunch, beaches, fresh flowers, and family. Now a new mum, navigating life with a baby!