Iceland Road Trip...

motordavid · #1 10-13-2016, 06:27 AM

A little different locale for a road trip: 14 days driving around Iceland with my CEO & me, this past late August.

We rented a Dacia Duster, (DaShia) in Reykjavik, did a couple days in the Rey area and then headed out on the Ring Road, which circles the entire country. The small-med suv like car was a 4 cyl turbo, 6 spd manual, with front wheel drive, AWD and a semi-locking four wheel drive capability. Like everything in the country, diesel is expensive as in ~ $5+ per gallon.

We drove the Ring Road counterclockwise. The RR is ~ 900 miles, but somehow we managed to do ~ 2300 miles during those 12 days of our country orbit: lots of side roads, some backtracking, lots of up & down the dozens of fjords, etc.

Area-wise it is similar to driving the perimeter of Ohio, on two lane/one lane roads, but the potential driving speed is only ~65 to 70 mph at best, and one often has hours of 20-30 mph on washboard, windy mtn roads. Add in several long, one lane tunnels and frequent stops for the views, scenes and walk around stuff to see, and it is a country to be enjoyed rather than to haul azz through.

Scenery was remarkable: in the southern/eastern sea level climes it looked the the movie The Martian, but with CO2 and precipitation added, so it was nearly lime green. In the North and Westfjords regions it was desert to rugged fjords and mtns.

It has the Vatna glacier, 2nd largest in all of Europa, it has ~150+ volcanoes and hundreds of smaller old cones and lava rock formations, and hundreds of miles of remarkable two lane roads, most nearly empty when one is well outside of the greater Reykjavik area. Remarkable countryside, history and a very different 'sense of self' even among the many places we have been to/visited...

Beautiful country, very friendly people, very pricey trip, but it was my CEO's 60th and my 69th, so we didn't care...a sampling of the 20 Gigs of pics we shot. Lots of 'road pics', as it was a Road Trip.

Thanks for looking!
GL, mD

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motordavid · #2 10-13-2016, 06:31 AM

A 2nd set of pics...

motordavid · #3 10-13-2016, 06:37 AM

3rd Set...

motordavid · #4 10-13-2016, 06:44 AM

4th Set...

motordavid · #5 10-13-2016, 06:54 AM

Last Batch...Thank You for Looking!

GL, mD & VVZ

motordavid · #6 10-13-2016, 08:12 AM

A couple hours of this road, big elevation gain/washboard gravel/foggy/sometimes one lane, and no guard rails will keep one's attention...my CEO was driving this stretch so I could shoot through the windshield/hang out the window.

X-cellent · #7 10-13-2016, 10:07 AM

Incredible! Iceland has long been on my bucket list of places to go....now even more so!

motordavid · #8 10-14-2016, 03:50 PM

Some funny signs and car stuff:
We saw a couple E70s, an X3 and an X1 in Reykjavik: all were diesel.

Saw one X6, but no idea of its engine without my decoder ring.

Saw one Vette, a C7, the entire trip and that was also in Rey area...

The silver wrapped P Car below was in Akureyri, the far northern district 'capitol'. We were there two days/nights and this man would be in his Porsche driving around the town every time we were out walking around; morning, noon or night, (the sun didn't set until 10:30 even in late August).

The problem with having cool cars there is one can't stray very far from the Reykjavik area, and especially from that Akureyri northern town, as one will soon be driving on washboard, rutted, gravel and mud roads. Sort of landlocked, if one has a cool car.

There were always a few serious azz 4 x 4 trucks, well outfitted with huge wheels/tires, lifted and serious driving flame thrower lights. They made our little Dacia Duster, (Made in Romania with Renault 'help'), look like an econo box, which it was. But, it's diesel and slight 4WD worked on some ugly fookin roads and very steep ascents and descents...

The couple on the m'cycle were near the end of a 5 week trip, from Spain. Their English was worse than my Espanol, so they were happy to hear Spanish even if it was my halting, stumbling version.

The pic of our Dacia in the fog below, was taken at the top most part of the country, as in 66 Degress North Latitude, looking out into the fog of the Arctic Ocean. It is the farthest I have been North...got to about the same 66 degs South Latitude on a trip to Antarctica a few years ago.

Some funny azz signs; most signs were icon recognizable, but the Icelandic language is very, very difficult with many nouns using end word modifiers which look similar but mean different things, and with correct pronunciation that was nearly impossible. Fortunately, everyone spoke English and most of the under ~50 gang spoke it very well.
Thanks for looking!
Ol'UncleMotor

edogg · #9 10-17-2016, 06:55 PM

Thanks for sharing the photos! Iceland looks beautifully desolate (or is that desolately beautiful?).

The stone houses make for interesting photos. Are they inhabited or abandoned?

djbock · #10 10-23-2016, 02:21 PM

Out Fookin standing pics as always MD, thanks for sharing.

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