Today we took our Flybus 11AM return trip back to the airport, then from the airport we got the shuttle to pick up our campervan from rent.ie. We picked up the campervan at 1PM, and it was an off time with no flight arrivals so they had lots of time to show us around the van. We had a wonderful woman checking us in that spent nearly 1 hour with us. We were provided with a jug for water, a little propane one burner stove, a pot, kettle, frying pan, dishes cutlery and bowls for 2. We also had a sheet to put on our 2 inches thick mattress, 2 pillows and 2 sleeping bags. We also had a heater in the back that would run on the auxiliary battery for about 5 hours, but we were pretty sure we wouldn't need it with 2 of us in the van. There was also a little cooler fridge that plugged into the auxiliary battery in the back. It is a 5 seater van, which works out great for storing all of our “stuff” on the back seats while travelling. At night we need to tuck these things somewhere else as the back seats needed to be folded down, then we need to tip the front seats forward for our bed to unfold. All this will be tested on our first night tonight.
First stop is at the Bonus grocery store. We were told that this is one of the cheaper places to buy groceries in Iceland, and very easy to find as there is a huge pink pig piggybank on the front of the store. Plan is to buy about 4 days worth of groceries at a time and then restock. Excited to see so much black licorice options. I'd also read about Skyr, which is like a cheese yogurt, so that was added to the list. They don't have full salad kits like we have at home, but they do have bags of lettuce and all the toppings for sale separately.
After our grocery pickup our first stop is at Þingvellir National Park. We are hoping that leaving so late in the day we are missing a lot of tourists since most will be on the way home by now. We visited the first historic parliament site in the world here, as well as walking between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. We also visited Öxarárfoss waterfall, all of these in the Park.
Next off we are off to Brúarfoss waterfalls. Anything that ends in foss in the name is usually a waterfall. Here is where we first used the Parka App that I had downloaded from home. Parking here was 750ISK. Many many of the places we will visit over the next 10 days require you to pay for parking. A sore spot for many visitors. It will be interesting to see what we paid by the end of this. It was a short walk to these waterfalls, and an absolutely beautiful blue colour. One of my favourite picture of the 2 of us was taken here.
Next we drove to Geysir Park, where we again had to use the Parka App to pay for parking, this is going to get old very quickly. The geysir named Geysir no longer erupts, but Strokkur geyser very close to it does erupt ever 10 minutes or so. The smell here is quite strong, like sulphur, reminded me of the smell of the water at home in Arundel at bit. A great spot to walk around and explore a little.
I had read about a horse farm just past Geysir that you could feed the Icelandic Horses, but unfortunately with our late start today there was none outside to help with the feeding any more.
Time for another waterfall and we are off to Gullfoss now. They seem to be getting more and more incredible. You can view this one from upper and lower.
We are now done for the day. We had planned to spend our first night at Skjól Camping which was handy to where we were finishing visiting today. A large group of kids here, but they are tenting far away from where we park our campervan. At this camp you pay at a little restaurant that is onsite and then park wherever you want in a field. We try for a level spot close to the bathrooms. There are a couple of showers here and a few bathrooms, and 2 sinks to wash up dishes. Here you pay for showers, happy we had our showers earlier today.
We have a simple supper trying out our burner for noodles, seems to work great. With a salad and supper is done. Off to bed super early. We have “blackout” curtains that have magnets to stick to the windows, it is pretty much 24 hours of daylight right now. Andre is using a mask, but I just bury my head under the sleeping bag to get it really dark.
No problem with setting up the bed. Hoping that once the sheet is one we never have to take it off again. We do need to fold the bed back up every day in order for the front seats to be put back up to drive. The rental agency also told us the police do not like it if you leave the beds made up.
Day summary:
11AM Flybus to Airport then transfer to Campervan rental 1:00PM
1:30PM Groceries done and drove to Þingvellir NP 2:45PM
4 Sightseeing spots
8:15PM at Campground
175 KMS of driving
15 KMS walking
At our first stop after picking up the Campervan was Bonus grocery store
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| Our big fridge cooler and $140 Canadian of groceries |
Icelandic horses is an unique bread. There is around 100,000 in Iceland with just as many in the rest of the world. Iceland has a population of almost 400,000. In the countryside there are more horses than people.
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| Icelandic horses which we will see many times on this trip |
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| Typical views while driving. |
Our first stop was Þingvellir National Park after driving 75 minutes from the grocery store
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| we had to pay for parking about 20 times during our trip with the average being $10 Canadian but no admission. |
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| The flag of Iceland |
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| Busy when we got there at 3PM but it got quieter by the time we left around 4:30 as most day tour were done |
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| Harlequin Ducks |
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| Golden Plover, I believe |
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Öxarárfoss waterfall |
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Summer Residence of the Icelandic Prime Minister |
Us between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates
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| Iceland takes recycling seriously |
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| More amazing views as we drive |
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Strokkur erupting |
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| One of the many many one way bridge we went over |
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| The big buses that can go in the highland. They can inflate and deflate the tires using Bluetooth from inside the bus to go over difficult road or rivers |
At Gullfoss
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| fields of lupines |
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Strokkur waterfall lots of mist |
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| At the top of the falls |
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| More lupines flowers. Looks like they are flowing into the river/waterfall |
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| Horses at the Campground |
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| Our first night supper at Skjol Campground which was $50 Canadian. We had some that were as cheap as $25 and the most we paid was $60 |
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