Driving around Iceland

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It is possible to get used to anything, even driving on the right hand side of the road. One way bridges and pull over tunnels continue to be challenging, but the thing that make driving in Iceland most difficult is sheep. There are a lot of sheep in Iceland, great wooly mops with curly horns and attitude. There are lots of roads that sheep wander beside, sit on and cross carefully in small groups.

Travelling in Iceland is easy. Very easy. English is used by locals and tourists alike. Even the automatic petrol pumps have an English option. Supermarkets are full of familiar foods imported from Europe. Locals favor chocolate with salty liquorice, sweet cakes lashed with cream, hot chips (fries) and hotdogs. Everything is expensive because it is imported (think fruit in Japan or petrol in Kings Canyon).

Iceland has one of the lowest population densities on the planet, so spectacular scenery abounds, with fine sprinklings of people on farms or in small villages around the coast. Most of our hostels have been on isolated farms surrounded by magnificent landscapes shaped by glaciers and volcanoes. Like Australia, the centre is an inhospitable landscape but requires not merely 4WD but Super Jeeps.

Summer is fading rapidly. Dark was at 11:30pm and light at 4:00am when we first arrived, but three weeks later, dark is at 9:30 and light at 5:30. We saw the Aurora Borealis on September 1, wafting and swirling across the sky like a gossamer silk shawl. Temperatures have gone from 16 degrees by day and 9 at night to 9 by day and 2 over night. The blueberry season is over. All the migratory birds have set off for warmer climes, mountain tops have been dusted with first snow and a few reindeer have visited the coast from the mountains.

If I had tried to find a landscape more of a contrast to the Northern Territory, I could not have done better. Iceland is equally magnificent, vast, and awe inspiring, but so different.

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Photos

Sheep
carefully using the road.

Super Jeep
for highland driving

One Way Tunnel
oncoming traffic must pull over to let us pass, except for huge trucks, who naturally have right of way.

Self Service Petrol
Credit card entered to operate 24/7. No staff required.

Driving Food
Liquorice chocolate, coffee and cinnamon biscuits.

First Snow for the Autumn
noticeably colder hiking at sea level when it was snowing a 800 metres.

Berunes Hostel
Repurposed farm house. Stepping into an older time.

Reindeer
came down from the mountains for a snack.

Blueberries
Plentiful in mid August.