Iceland Day 1

Friday, 2 August 2024

The first day in each new country always feels very long and this was no exception.  Our first stop was the rental car company which was a bit tedious as we had to wait 45 minutes at the airport for the shuttle.  Once we got the car we were told to watch out for the wind as an 'orange' warning had been issued - but that we should be ok as long as we aren't travelling west.  Of course we were travelling west!

Our second stop was to a supermarket to decipher all the food items and stock up as much as we could for the next 3 days at least. 

Then we did a million other stops on our way west to the western peninsular of Snaefellsjokull which had high mountains and a big national park. The weather steadily got worse and by our second last stop of the day we were all absolutely drenched.  By the last stop I'd had enough and refused to get out of the car to look at another stupid light house and suffer another drenching.  I'm sure the 5am start didn't help my mood.

Luckily by this point we were close to our firsts night accommodation at an old bookstore, so by the time we'd had dinner and hot showers I was feeling a bit better.  

There are too many places to list them all - here are some of my better photos in chronological order:

(Zali hitting her limit - 3 stops from the end) 

(this stop was my breaking point - note how wet Jon is in this) 

Jon probably has a good photo of our final stop before our accommodation as only he and Jett braved the elements. I won't post it out of respect for their acheivements :)

We finally made it by around 7pm - on schedule by our usual standards except we got up at 5am Faroe time.  The place we stayed at felt like a Hydro town - grid streets and fairly soul-less. It turns out it was where the fishing workers lived so it makes sense. It did have some nice Murals but nothing that would challenge Sheffield.

I have to admit that after the Faroes  our first impressions (well mine anyway) of Iceland were a bit humdrum.  The normal-ness of the cities and long bland sections of driving (and our fatigue) probably contributed to this.  Also the deteriorating weather didn't help.   The prices are even more expensive than anywhere we've been so far-- one night in our tiny slightly run-down place in a nothing town cost more than our 3 nights in the cabin on the Faroes.