Jumping around Iceland

CamperStories

JUMPING HAUNTERS

Our journey began without a fixed plan. We had all that we needed, a camper van to travel and sleep, and lot of fan. What else would you need?

There is not a better option than, after having collected information about the most important places you would like to see, take your camper van, and just let time and weather take you anywhere. Taking advantage that the Blue Lagoon is so near the airport, this was the first place we visited just arrived in Iceland. Without doubt, this was the best way to forget the long flight.

Since this moment, and after this relaxing welcoming, we just were guided by our own desires. The first desire was sleeping closed to a waterfall, and so hearing the noise of the water falling when you wake up in the morning. Have you ever tried? This dream came true by Skógafoss. And then, one of the activities you can’t miss is an excursion to Fimmvörðuháls. I can’t remember the number of waterfalls you see. But I can assure that all of them are really amazing. Our first idea in our journey was visiting the closest places to Reykjavik, but fortunately, Icelandic people are nice and warm, and we met an Icelandic guy… that told us:

Who said it isn’t worth to go all around the great Iceland in just one week?

So he encouraged us to travel all around Iceland, and this conversation changed the direction of our journey. Of course, into a much better way.

Happy and funny, we decided to travel all around the Iceland. Wherever you go, an amazing nature place surprises you. Just travelling, you can see marvelous landscapes.

Second lovely wake up was by Jökulsárlón. We arrived there in the night, it was cloudy and there weren’t visibility. But when we woke up the next morning, we were overwhelmed with such a fantastic landscape in front of us. You can stand there for a long time watching the icebergs movements over the sea.

Following our proposal of rounding the isle, casually we arrived to Seyðisfjörður. The same as the previous day, we arrived in the night, and couldn’t appreciate the beauty of this small country. But when we woke up the next morning, a colorful crosswalk was in front of us. The lake and the houses were really pretty.

One of the reasons that encouraged us to go around the isle was visiting the famous Diamond Circle, that although a little far from Reykjavik, it´s one of the best places. Dettifoss is absolutely overwhelming. The waterfall with higher volume of water in Europe. We drove by the North part of the isle, and to finish the windy and cold day, nothing better than a bath in another wonder of nature, Mývatn Lake.

Read more: North Iceland Travel Guide

In Reykjahlið, we felt really comfortable. It was the camping with the best facilities we stayed. Beginning the following day with a visit to Hverfell volcano, you can feel the most authentic Iceland, black sand, smoke… And what about Dimmuborgir? It´s absolutely amazing. It´s unbelievable to think that such us shapes are created from lava. It´s worth to walk quietly through some of its ways to relax and inspire the authentic Iceland. Of course we didn’t have time to see all the marvelous secrets of Mývatn Lake, so we left and went on in our journey, driving directly towards Akureyri, the North capital. It´s located by the shore of a fiord, and just before reaching the town, the view from the road is fantastic and Akureyri center is really nice. We were for a walk by the central streets to see some shops and coffees.

Due to that we fell in love with thermal baths, we accorded to visit another one, and we decided to go to Hofsós, that we were recommended by the Icelandic guy as well, with views that get you out of mind. The baths were a marvelous idea. To arrive there, we gave a round around Eyjafjörður to see the snowed mountains, so great, and even we were surprised by some houses with grass roofs.

While bathing in Hofsós, and facing the last time in Iceland, we thought we had enough time to go to Snæfellsnes. We visited some of the more picturesque countries, Stykkishólmur, we tasted shark, we made a small walk near Snæfellsjökull, even we reached Öndverðarnes, so windy that I had to be careful for not being fallen by the wind. The South of Snæfellsnes is so beautiful in the sunset…. One of the most beautiful landscape in Iceland.

When we were tired, we just stopped for dinner and slept.

We reserved the last day around Iceland nature for the top in Iceland, the Golden Circle. We thought that after all we had seen it couldn’t surprise us, but…. we were wrong. Geysir was fascinating. You just have to wait for 5 minutes, and you can see a high water jump. Like in the TV!!!!! And it seems that we kept the best for the final. Gullfoss. I´m pretty sure we saw all the waterfalls in Iceland, that they aren’t few, but without doubts Gullfoss is the best one. The most beautiful.

And in the afternoon…. To finish the journey, we couldn’t leave Iceland without visiting the capital, Reykjavik. It´s so different from the rest of the country. But in spite of being the capital, the center of the city is so quiet to visit, to go for shopping, to have a coffee “to take away”…

To sum up, Iceland is absolutely impressive. You can’t even make an idea about its nature and beauty until you don´t go there and see it with your own eyes.