4WDing in Iceland

[Pwoffey]

Just back from 3 weeks in Iceland, 2 weeks of which were travelling on a 4WD tag-along into the highlands. (The trip was arranged by Great Divide Tours in Australia and Arctic Trucks in Reykjavik - no financial connection etc). There were 8 Australian couples/families and the tour leader. We had a 2016 Toyota HiLux with 38 inch muddies. Steered like a pig, noisy as hell, rubbish dust proofing, but was fit for purpose which was travelling on lava fields and dust deserts, very bad gravel tracks, crossing dozens of rivers and a final 4 km drive/slide on a glacier on the icecap. In Iceland anyone can simply go and drive on the glacier, though it takes a bit of effort to get there and you'd be stupid to do it in an unmodified vehicle or by yourself. Most people do it the easy way on a special glacier bus, but we had big tyres down at 4psi, dual lockers and plenty of insurance so....

In Iceland you want to stop and take a picture every 50 metres, the geography is so stunning. With the volcanoes, geothermal activity, glaciers and tectonic plates shifting it could be a pretty dire business if Mother Nature decided it wasn't going to be your day. It is just a fabulous trip if you ever get to do something like this. A couple of things we noted in contrast to Oz: no animals apart from sheep and Icelandic ponies, so no roadkill (the sheep are pretty smart). There is virtually no litter. In 3 weeks traveling over most of the island, both the interior and the more touristy coast, I saw just one discarded pizza box on the side of the road.

[RUGGA]

Unreal , do you have a map trail of your route?




and more pics pls?

[old Jack]

Looks like a great experience.
Green with Envy!
That is another trip I need to put on the retirement list, thanks!

OJ.

[Pwoffey]

Unreal , do you have a map trail of your route? and more pics pls?

I attach an indicative map from Great Divide Tours. GDT can provide you with a full itinerary. We actually did a lot of deviations from the indicated route taking in extra 4WDing opportunities.

Not shown on the GDT map is the route we did independently in the week prior to the 4WD tag-along. Basically this was doing the tourist coastal route from the far east coast (the lovely little town of Seydisfjordur, where the ferry from the Faroe Islands came in) all the way around the south coast to Reykjavik. This is fiord and iceberg country and has vast lava fields. We did this in a new rental VW Golf. It would be hard to think of a more different experience driving a Golf (with pinpoint steering) on bitumen to the Arctic Truck wallowing on basalt gravel. I'm probably being a bit unfair given its purpose, but a HiLux will never be on my shopping list.

I'll post a few more pix of the 4WD trip; there are plenty of images of the usual tourist spots on the web so I won't bore people with those.

[disco stu]

That's awesome! Certainly something different for sure

[RUGGA]

I'll post a few more pix of the 4WD trip; there are plenty of images of the usual tourist spots on the web .

Thank you and I will do a web tour.

[Pwoffey]

At Thingvellir National Park, site of the world's oldest surviving parliament (930 CE), the American and Eurasian tectonic plates are drifting apart at 2cm per year. It's pretty creepy as this is one of the only places in the world where it's at the surface.
tectonics at Thingvellir NP.jpg
About 63% of Iceland is lava field.
typical lava field.jpg
Some 4WDing scenes. We sometimes stayed in mountain huts.
steeper than it looks.jpgriver crossing 1.jpgovernight in mountain hut.jpg
There was always lots of dust - fine basalt ash from volcanic activity. Just like Oz bulldust, it gets into everything.
cars and dust.jpg
Waterfalls are everywhere. In the first pic the water actually comes from the glacial water table underground, not from a river flowing over the edge of the cliff. It's weird to see water just spouting out of a rock-face. In the second picture there was a large group of Icelandic horses on a trek above the falls.
waterfalls.jpgwaterfalls and ponies.jpg
Some thermal activity. BTW Iceland's power is 100% renewable from geothermal and hydro sources. If you want a hot shower you can literally stick a pipe into the earth and up it comes:
al fresco shower.jpggeothermal activity.jpg
This geothermal pool is reached after a 6km hike. It's very warm, just bearable. Right next to it is a glacial melt stream to take a very quick dip in.
thermal pool.jpg
This is Askjar, a very long and in some parts very technical drive from Myvatn in the middle of Iceland. It's where the Apollo astronauts trained for landing and trotting around the moon. I think the moon would be more hospitable.
where you train for the moon.jpg
Just a few more scenes.You are never too far from an icecap.

icecap.jpgrhyolite mountains.jpg

[Hatto]

Wow, that would have been an awesome experience!