A day in the rain

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The bed in our hotel room has been very comfortable so we have both slept well and we don’t wake till the alarm sounds. It’s looking a bit grey outside but then it looked that way yesterday morning too. We enjoy a great breakfast before bringing our bags down ready for our campervan adventure!

At 10 on the dot, Iris arrives to take us to collect our van. We are given the low down on all the dos and don’ts to ensure we won’t come back to a stack of parking and speeding fines. We are also warned about the dire consequences of driving through rivers or letting the wind (which is fearsome here) rip the van doors off! We are handed a tablet which is the sat nav system and also a communication device between us and them incase we have any difficulties.

Ian is despatched to watch videos on how to look after the camper, how to set the bed up at night, and how to change the wheel! Meanwhile I am left to carry all our bags across to the vehicle, put our suitcase in storage and collect our bedding packs.

We are very happy to see that we have been given a nice upgrade to a 4x4 automatic van. We don’t usually drive autos but it does make it easier when also contending with driving on the wrong side of the road!

It’s almost noon and we are finally ready to leave…it’s now hammering with rain. We decide to drive out to Gardur Old Lighthouse which is the tallest lighthouse in Iceland. You can climb up to the top for great views…but not today…you’d probably get blown out to sea!

We retrace our route back to Keflavik for a large supermarket shop. It’s still hammering with rain and we need our waterproofs just to get from the van to the shop entrance.

At £122, the bill is less than we had anticipated as we’ve stocked up quite well and food prices here are quite high. Hopefully this lot will last us a week. It’s been tricky deciding what exactly to cook as we are reliant on two tiny gas stoves.

Stowing the shopping does take time. Not that it’s worth doing much else as it’s still hammering with rain! Note to selves…if we ever get round to buying a camper it’s not going to be one of these tiny ones that you can’t stand up in!

We plough on to our next destination, Hafnir. It requires a walk…no way in this weather. Ian is already telling me that if we weren’t so far away he’d be on his way home by now! Oh dear.

We arrive at ‘the Bridge Between Continents’. It has something to do with tectonic plates - might have been more interesting if it were not so cold and wet. Ian might have explained it better but he’s in a very big grump.

We press on to a Gunnuhver Hot Spring and some supposedly impressive rock formations just down the road. To be honest they’re not very impressive and we now have to work out how to pay for the car park to avoid a hefty fine. Fortunately we do have wifi in our van and it’s just a matter of logging on to a website, entering our vehicle registration and coughing up the hefty charge with our credit card.

They call this area the Golden Circle though Ian states he can’t think why!

We pass the entrance to the famous Blue Lagoon and are thankful we didn’t sign up to going there. I really don’t think it’s the weather for lounging in a pool.

Our next stop is Brimketill Lava Rock Pool, arguably more interesting than the rocks, yet free parking here…it’s all a bit bizarre. Although we do have more stops we could see, we decide we’ve had enough and head to our first campsite which is weirdly situated on an industrial estate!

The site has a communal kitchen and dining area but today it’s crammed full of people. Not surprising as it’s toasty warm inside. We decide to cook something simple in the van and then dive under our duvets. In fairness, the van is well insulated and has a good heating system so things could be worse. Well this is what I’m trying to tell Ian anyway!

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