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