Geocaching in Iceland.

[+J Grouchy]

I am also grateful for my Costco membership.  There's actually a Costco in Reykjavik and it saved me quite a bit in fuel costs!  

[+J Grouchy]

On 9/27/2018 at 9:23 AM, hzoi said:

Dress warm, bring layers, including a windproof shell.  It was in the 50s when I was there in September.  It'll be colder in October.  The latitude means the sun will never get past a certain level on the horizon, like the morning sun in Atlanta, so a baseball cap might help keep the sun out of your eyes while driving.  And the almost complete lack of trees/forests means that often there's nothing between you and the winds coming off the glaciers, so it'll get breezy.

Check.  Most days were upper 30s, but Wednesday was in the 50s...the day we were out between Vik and Jokulsarlon.

 

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Gas is expensive.  Well, many things are - unless it's homegrown, everything is an import.  That said, renting a car is key, especially since you'll be there in the off season.

BIG CHECK.  Very expensive.  I was dropping roughly 40 bucks for half a tank on my fillups.  On the last day before heading out to the airport, I hit the Costco station in Reykjavik and spent $75 to fill up (about 3/4 of a tank)

 

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The first time I went in 2000, I had four days; I stuck to the southern ring road, got out as far as Skaftafell, did some hiking, and then turned around and doubled back to Thingvellir before heading out.  I regretted never getting to Jokulsarlon, the iceberg lagoon, that first trip. 

This was one of our favorite stops too.  We did the Zodiac boat tour, got up fairly close to the glacier (maybe within a couple hundred feet) and it was so still and beautiful there we wanted to stay longer.  After that we walked down Diamond Beach for about two hours and regretted having to leave that afternoon.

 

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When Kelly and I went back for a week in 2009, Jokulsarlon was a must do, and it was great.  We also had fun just soaking in the Blue Lagoon and seeing Gullfoss and Geysir.  This meant we didn't spend as much time at Thingvellir as I had the first visit, but there is a reason most tours go to Gullfoss and Geysir - they are really cool, as well as convenient to Reykjavik.

Þingvellir (Thingvellir) and Gullfoss were our favorite spots out on the Golden Circle.  Geysir was honestly kind of disappointing...as much as anything can be disappointing in Iceland.  It was still pretty, but it was very touristy and compared to Yellowstone, the geysir was kinda just 'meh'.   I think the Golden Circle maybe doesn't deserve all the hype...?  Parts of it, at least.  We took the clockwise route and didn't end up having enough time to see all the recommended stops.

 

 

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The one thing I did during the second visit that I'd skip was driving to Snaefellsness.  The peninsula was cool, but the drive out was pretty long and uneventful, as was the drive back.  I feel like this was a day that could have been better spent.

We'd talked about heading up there, but there just wasn't enough time to do all we wanted to.   I think we'd still like to, but it will have to wait...

 

 

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Waterfalls are beautiful.  Other than Gullfoss, I recommend Seljalandsfoss (right off the ring road, you can walk behind it), Skogafoss (also right off the ring roadhome of many a car commercial, it's very dramatic), and Svartifoss in Skaftafell National Park (awesome basalt columns create a natural amphitheater/cathedral).  In Kirkjubaejarklaustur there is another cool falls on the north edge of town, Stjórnarfoss, which is also just a cool spot.

 

I'd post photos but can't browse through my photo site at work, so if you see anything on cldphoto.com you'd like to visit and have questions about where it is, PM/email me.

Gullfoss was impressive for sure, but very crowded.

Seljalandsfoss was one of our favorite stops.  The guide book actually kinda played it down a bit, but we loved it...especially the 'hidden' waterfall (Gljúfrabúi) you have to kind of go into a crevice to see.  

Svartifoss was a great hike and we wish we'd had more time to wander around Skaftafell.  We could have made an entire day of our visit there, but alas, we only had about 2 hours as it was a stop along the way to the glacier lagoon.

 

And there were just a TON of places along the way that were awe-inspiring.  Just driving down the road you see towering cliffs, glaciers, black sandy wastelands, moss covered lava fields, massive mountainsides where the sheep manage to climb hundreds of feet.  We'd love to go back!

Edited October 15, 2018 by J Grouchy

[+thebruce0]

5 hours ago, J Grouchy said:

I am also grateful for my Costco membership.  There's actually a Costco in Reykjavik and it saved me quite a bit in fuel costs!  

Oh nice! I didn't think of that...

 

5 hours ago, J Grouchy said:

BIG CHECK.  Very expensive.  I was dropping roughly 40 bucks for half a tank on my fillups.  On the last day before heading out to the airport, I hit the Costco station in Reykjavik and spent $75 to fill up (about 3/4 of a tank)

Yep.

4 days' gas cost about as much as 4 days' old suv rental, which cost about as much as the round trip flight.

 

5 hours ago, J Grouchy said:

It was still pretty, but it was very touristy and compared to Yellowstone, the geysir was kinda just 'meh'.   I think the Golden Circle maybe doesn't deserve all the hype...?  Parts of it, at least.

Yeah, another reason why I highly recommend using geocaching for touring Iceland rather than doing all the "touristy" things. Some of those stops are essential visits, but you really get so much more seeing the lesser known sites found by earthcaches and some cache placements - without the bustle of all the non-Icelandic-foreigners

 

5 hours ago, J Grouchy said:

Svartifoss was a great hike and we wish we'd had more time to wander around Skaftafell.

I missed out on Svartifoss because I did the full hike and climb to the Kristinartindar peak and didn't have time for the 'slight' detour to get to the black falls. That was unfortunate!  I'd have loved to see that.

 

5 hours ago, J Grouchy said:

Just driving down the road you see towering cliffs, glaciers, black sandy wastelands, moss covered lava fields, massive mountainsides where the sheep manage to climb hundreds of feet.  We'd love to go back!

Absolutely!

I made a vide just of the dashcam footage... the night parts aren't as interesting for obvious reasons, but dawn and dusk (which was pretty much the entire daylight) are just gorgeous, especially on the larger scale vast landscapes along the shoreline!

[+Goldenwattle]

Maybe someone has given these links, but if not, these are useful. The roads I drove went up to pink rating, although I didn't think that was as bad as some with dark blue rating. I guess it depends on who rates them. Re petrol costs, my advice, get the smallest car you can. My tiny rental car (with winter tyres) made it through. They do snow plough the roads as needed, at least once a day when I was there. Although after one stretch of road, as I passed the plough going out, I stated to the air, "About time!" My car looked as in the attached photograph. Took days to get that ice off. My first time driving in conditions like that. Not used to that in most of Australia, and the few places where it might look like that occasionally, I haven't driven in winter. However, that was Spring in Iceland, not their Winter .

http://www.road.is/travel-info/road-conditions-and-weather/entire-iceland-road-conditions-map/

Also this, web cans, so you can checkif you can actually see the road .

http://www.road.is/travel-info/web-cams/

[+thebruce0]

hehe, yeah on researching the driving conditions, websites urge people to be extremely cautious and aware of road conditions and weather forecasts and to drive extra safe. Coming from an area of Ontario that does get hit pretty with heavy winter driving, I still went taking those recommendations to heart. I ended up driving through a few blizzards, but my 4WD rental had no real problems, and it ended up not being much worse than many of our winters here. That's no excuse to shrug it off of course, but I do think much of the driving recommendations are made with the fact in mind that most tourists probably come from areas with little to no snow, let alone heavy winter driving conditions, and aren't accustomed to what that driving may be like.  And it's never a bad idea to strongly urge ALL drivers to drive with extra caution where weather can change quite abruptly!

The nice thing about the ring road is that there's traffic pretty much 24/7. The real risk is when you go inland. Definitely good to know the class of the road (that can even influence your driving if you have an allowed vehicle)

[+Goldenwattle]

35 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

hehe, yeah on researching the driving conditions, websites urge people to be extremely cautious and aware of road conditions and weather forecasts and to drive extra safe. Coming from an area of Ontario that does get hit pretty with heavy winter driving, I still went taking those recommendations to heart. I ended up driving through a few blizzards, but my 4WD rental had no real problems, and it ended up not being much worse than many of our winters here. That's no excuse to shrug it off of course, but I do think much of the driving recommendations are made with the fact in mind that most tourists probably come from areas with little to no snow, let alone heavy winter driving conditions, and aren't accustomed to what that driving may be like.  And it's never a bad idea to strongly urge ALL drivers to drive with extra caution where weather can change quite abruptly!

The nice thing about the ring road is that there's traffic pretty much 24/7. The real risk is when you go inland. Definitely good to know the class of the road (that can even influence your driving if you have an allowed vehicle)

I would expect that Canadians often drive on ice, but it was my first time driving in those conditions. However, the small 2WD rental made it through, and arrived back safely. The only incident, besides the build-up of ice underneath touching the ground at times and the ice around the front wheel making it harder to turn the car, was the strong wind blowing my car sideways on a hill top. Fortunately I managed to drive out of that, but scary and I slowed down and changed down a gear. When I returned the car (undamaged), the rental people told me they had had a lot of damaged cars coming in that day, so I guess I was lucky.

I didn't see masses of traffic on some sections of the road. One section had 28 cars that day, both directions (one being my car), the car counter said. I don't consider that a lot.

Edited October 16, 2018 by Goldenwattle

[+thebruce0]

Wow, fortunate for sure. Not much you can do if the wind is strong enough to get you moving laterally...

As a geocacher I didn't want to limit my potential caching options by going 2WD, hehe. Probably would have been a very different trip if I did...

Highly recommend having a 4WD any time of year, unless it's summer and you're really only sticking along the ring road in populated areas. Probably feels better to focus on geocaching more than keeping the car in one piece, heh. Good to know your experience!

Edited October 16, 2018 by thebruce0

[+on4bam]

On 10/14/2018 at 5:19 PM, J Grouchy said:

My wallet, however, is asking me for a break.

 

It's a lot better now than it was in 2004 when we were there. The financial crisis had a big impact on exchange rates.

 

[+J Grouchy]

51 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

Wow, fortunate for sure. Not much you can do if the wind is strong enough to get you moving laterally...

As a geocacher I didn't want to limit my potential caching options by going 2WD, hehe. Probably would have been a very different trip if I did...

Highly recommend having a 4WD any time of year, unless it's summer and you're really only sticking along the ring road in populated areas. Probably feels better to focus on geocaching more than keeping the car in one piece, heh. Good to know your experience!

 

I originally reserved a 4WD, but downgraded to 2WD after some feedback from people I know who'd been there.  Unfortunately, when I did sign up I neglected to put the 8am timeslot and it defaulted to noon.  Normally that isn't an issue when I rent cars, but I guess they are busy enough that when I got there at 8 they didn't have anything for me.  I was looking at four hours waiting in KEF!  Around 9:30 am, I went back up and asked if they had anything available and was told that I could get a 4WD for a little more.  We were anxious to get moving, so I went ahead and got it.  The thing was a beast...basically a big pickup with a hardshell cover over the bed.  The window on the back of the shell was nearly impossible to see through, but we made it work.  I was jealous of all the other folks with decent-sized cars, but whatever...my own fault for screwing up the reservation.  We weren't going to let it mess up the trip.  I never needed the 4WD...and I was stuck driving since it was a manual and my wife only drives automatic.  I was actually surprised I was able to remember so quickly since it's been probably 15 years since I had driven a stick-shift.  I only ended up stalling once the whole week.

[+thebruce0]

heh, I had to have automatic. I never learned sick. These days automatics are very good now. But I ended up with a 2004 Ford Escape. It was old, but it was roomy and my itinerary in November had me taking a few 4WD roads (plus the intent to get around the whole island) so I didn't want to risk to 2wd. Yeah it all depends on what you're planning to do, really.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

4 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

I would expect that Canadians often drive on ice, but it was my first time driving in those conditions. However, the small 2WD rental made it through, and arrived back safely. The only incident, besides the build-up of ice underneath touching the ground at times and the ice around the front wheel making it harder to turn the car, was the strong wind blowing my car sideways on a hill top. Fortunately I managed to drive out of that, but scary and I slowed down and changed down a gear. When I returned the car (undamaged), the rental people told me they had had a lot of damaged cars coming in that day, so I guess I was lucky.

I didn't see masses of traffic on some sections of the road. One section had 28 cars that day, both directions (one being my car), the car counter said. I don't consider that a lot.

 

When I was researching local transportation options a couple of years ago when I went in November I considered renting a car.   Lots of people recommended against it and suggested that even if you're used to driving in winter conditions, driving in Iceland in winter is at a whole 'nother level, primarily due to the wind.   Although it didn't snow at all when I was there, it seemed like every vehicle on the road had studded snow tires.   Good tires would make a bigger difference than between 2WD and AWD.  All-wheel drive or 4WD doesn't really make a difference when you're going downhill or need to brake.

[+J Grouchy]

1 hour ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

 

When I was researching local transportation options a couple of years ago when I went in November I considered renting a car.   Lots of people recommended against it and suggested that even if you're used to driving in winter conditions, driving in Iceland in winter is at a whole 'nother level, primarily due to the wind.   Although it didn't snow at all when I was there, it seemed like every vehicle on the road had studded snow tires.   Good tires would make a bigger difference than between 2WD and AWD.  All-wheel drive or 4WD doesn't really make a difference when you're going downhill or need to brake.

 

Yeah...I live in Atlanta, so my concern for icy road conditions was maybe deeper than it would be for anyone who resides above maybe the 38th parallel.  Our vehicle had studded tires and we only drove through a small area on the Golden Circle that was icy.  We did see a couple cars off the road, flipped over

[+Goldenwattle]

5 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

 

When I was researching local transportation options a couple of years ago when I went in November I considered renting a car.   Lots of people recommended against it and suggested that even if you're used to driving in winter conditions, driving in Iceland in winter is at a whole 'nother level, primarily due to the wind.   Although it didn't snow at all when I was there, it seemed like every vehicle on the road had studded snow tires.   Good tires would make a bigger difference than between 2WD and AWD.  All-wheel drive or 4WD doesn't really make a difference when you're going downhill or need to brake.

I was there in Spring (first 2 weeks of May) and the north east and some of the north was where the icy roads were. It was the NE where I got the lowest rated section of road on the map - pink. It was also dirt, but as it was iced over I couldn't tell the difference between dirt and bitumen roads. The locals told me it was more like winter than spring, and shouldn't have still been like that at that time of years. The winds were shocking (I saw the snow being blown and creeping across the icy roads), so not only did that make driving hazardous (once almost blowing me off the road), it made minus 7C a whole lot colder and caching difficult. I called off one search because of the wind and hurried back to my accommodation before I froze. In the areas of the ice it was sub freezing conditions in the daytime. Another thing I am not used to, for although it goes down to minus 7C often at night in winter where I live, we do have temperatures above zero in the daytime. The car came with winter tyres and drove wonderfully, even though a tiny 2WD. (They could have supplied me with a bigger windscreen snow scrapper though.) The rest of the ring road was mostly clear, although snow often boarded the edge.

June was recommended to me by locals as the best time to visit. Not peak tourist season yet, but starting to green up.

Edited October 17, 2018 by Goldenwattle

[+J Grouchy]

Just as an aside, I want to share my new favorite sweet treat with you.  I know many people do not like black licorice...and you wouldn't think the combination of caramel, licorice and chocolate would work...but it totally does.

 

I'm just sad that we didn't buy more of this at duty free on our way out.  A 400 g box at duty free was 699 ISK (roughly $6 give or take).  A 150 g bag on Amazon is $20!

Anyone going to Iceland soon...?  *winkwink* *nudgenudge*

 

 

[+Goldenwattle]

19 minutes ago, J Grouchy said:

Just as an aside, I want to share my new favorite sweet treat with you.  I know many people do not like black licorice...and you wouldn't think the combination of caramel, licorice and chocolate would work...but it totally does.

 

I'm just sad that we didn't buy more of this at duty free on our way out.  A 400 g box at duty free was 699 ISK (roughly $6 give or take).  A 150 g bag on Amazon is $20!

Anyone going to Iceland soon...?  *winkwink* *nudgenudge*

 

 

  Liquorice and chocolate sweets are common in Australia. Liquorice Bullets they are called. I am not a fan of liquorice by itself, but in combination with chocolate, delicious!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_bullets

Edited October 17, 2018 by Goldenwattle

[+hzoi]

On 10/14/2018 at 7:19 PM, J Grouchy said:

Well now that I'm home again...I'm ready to go back!

 

 

I am really glad to hear that you enjoyed your trip.  Iceland is one of my favorite places on the planet.

 

Hmm...maybe it's time to start planning our own return trip.  Third time's the charm, they say...