Reykjavík Grapevine - 24.06.2005, Side 49

of Toyota Yarises that were also making the Ring
Road trip and discussed the advantage of the enormous
American-style Suzuki Z-19 SUV that we had rented.
Yes, we would be paying about twice the gas price, and
our vehicle wasn’t green, but for the day hikes we’d been
taking, the SUV had been helpful—it is against the law
to leave the road in Iceland, but many gravel roads that
come off the highway require more clearance than a Yaris
will provide.
With four days to do the Ring Road, and personal
goals to get as far as possible from civilization, we did
right in getting the SUV. Had we been interested in
stopping by the sites at Mývatn, Húsavík, and the rest of
Iceland, had we been touring the country in LESS time,
a Yaris or subcompact would have been a better choice.
But we had time and some finance. With a little
money and time and a capable SUV, northern Iceland is
an absolute playground. We chose against running out to
Dettifoss in favour of searching out reindeer, but the tour
guides we spoke with insisted that a decent SUV can get
you to Europe’s most powerful waterfall during the easy
travelling times, between June and August.
The four-hour ride from Mývatn to Egilstaðir
provided the most stunning scenery of the journey. The
volcanic desert in the north, where the road is, for the
most part, gravel, has the bleak melancholy beauty that
Henry David Thoreau claimed for Mt. Katahdin—this
seems like a place where ancient civilizations must have
gotten by stoically. Like the kind of place that encourages
a belief in religion or Microsoft Windows or some kind
of higher power.
We broke the drive up here, but had we planned
better, we would have searched for a campground. As
it was, we pulled over to watch reindeer and large dust
devils alternately until we came upon the surprisingly
thriving and contemporary town of Egilsstaðir.
We were happy to find Egilsstaðir well stocked with
energy drinks. Having gone through our case of Magic,
we bought both Egils Orka and Magic, looking for the
greatest quantity of caffeine and other legal stimulants/
appetite suppressors—it had been our hope that we
wouldn’t have to waste time eating during the trip.
An hour after Egilsstaðir we found the best day-
hike in Iceland, at a small gravel turn-off just before
Djúpivogur. There we found the waterfall that finished
all the available space on the camera, and there we got
the last bit of energy to make the next twelve hours of
driving for the southern section of Iceland.
We made it to Hótel Skaftafell from Húsavík in one
day easily, despite our many stops. At Hótel Skaftafell we
poked around to ask about the Batman filming, (nothing
to report: everybody was well-behaved but intense),
then headed out to the largest national park in Europe
to at least look over Paul’s favourite waterfalls and to be
reminded our four-day tour of Iceland was ill-advised.
Four days in Skaftafell National Park would be a good
deal more productive, and would require less wasted gas
and energy drinks.
Along the south of Iceland, we watched the most
productive farmland in the country in full early summer
growth, set against jagged volcanic mountain formations
that are almost always snowcapped. With blind hills and
turns, this is the section of the country that you’re most
likely to hit a sheep at a high speed. Between Skaftafell
and Vík, the bird-watching, even for an amateur, is
outstanding. The local eagles and the great skua are
impressive, as are the masses of swans that make their
homes in the many glacial rivers along the road, the many
ravens, and the mass of arctic tern, especially at Vík.
The last stretch of the journey, from Vík to
Reykjavík, was so leisurely, with such gentle slopes, that
we began referring to the area as Iceland’s California
highway. With a vineyard or two, and if we had any
feeling in our taste buds after three dozen energy drinks,
we could have been the cast of Sideways. As it was, we
did our best to make sour faces and act like we were
recovering from a midlife crisis. The depression brought
on by caffeine and guarana withdrawal helped.
By Bart Cameron
Suzuki Z-19 provided by Cheap Jeeps,
www.geysir.is. Phone: 893-4455.
Magic Recovery Energy Drink
provided by Vífilfell Beverages.
Whales
&Puffin Island
Take part in an adventure at sea with an
unforgettable 3-hour trip from Reykjavík harbour
into the world of whales and sea birds.
Daily departures from Reykjavík
9:009:00 9:00 9:00 9:00 9:00
May
13:00
June
13:00
July
13:00
Aug
13:00
Sept
13:00
Oct
13:00
April
13:00
17:00 17:00 17:00
555 3565
Call us now
or visit
www.elding.is
Elding Whale Watching, Reykjavík, Iceland
Tel: (+354) 555 3565, Fax: (+354) 554 7420
info@elding.is, www.elding.is
M
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fí
t
Icelandic for reindeer is “Hreindýr”, which could
translate as “Clean Animal”. Well, these were not.
P
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P
aul / G
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