Two Italian nomads in Iceland

 What happens when you put together two nomad, wild and adventure minds ? They plan a travel in less than one month , they rent a camper van and they do a trip around all Iceland. We are Desirèe And Carolina, two Italian girls with a passion for travels, adventures and food…

The adventure started  at 1:00 am when we rent our fantastic Renault Kangoo from Rent.is in Keflavik Airport .The guys at the rental were very funny and I think we appeared a little bit lost about what we were doing but we were really excited about that new experience. We were very surprised to see that the van had everything we would have needed! The fridge for our beers, the camping gas for our Italian plates and a very relaxing bed where we slept like angels for our first night.

 

The first day we went to Reykjavik. Such a beautiful city! So colorful, and funny. We visited the churches, the ancient port and we had a stop in the beautiful cafè Babalù to see how the Icelandic Cappuccino is different from our Italian one…. it was very tasty !

After this quick stop we decided to visit  the Golden Circle, starting from The Þingvellir National Park, where we had the first Italian lunch : Risotto allo Zafferano!

The park was amazing and we imagined the first Icelandic people talking at the parliament (Alþingi) In the park we also saw the first waterfall Öxarárfoss .

After selfie time, we went back to our Kangoo moving towards the following stop , but we met a fantastic friend along the road, our smiling Gino!! He gave to us a lot of smiles (and a lot of mosquitoes) and I also found the famous white horse, but he told me my prince was not there …

 

We said bye to our friends and we started to drive towards the Geyser. You have to be very patient and wait the moment, but There is where you can see the really strength of  nature and the turbulently eject of the water erupting suddenly is one of the most amazing show that the environment can give to you. So drove to  the last step of the circle : the Gullfoss waterfall. We were very tired, hungry and cold but the view from the top was fantastic.

We finished the day at the Skjól Cafe with a big pizza!

The second day began with a wonderful sun waking us up and making us fly!

 

We went to visit the Kerið lake, a volcanic crater lake….

And the big waterfall Urriðafoss, which left us surprised for its bigness and its beauty.

After another risotto with courgette (the best one) we wore our K-way and we entered he fantastic Gljúfrabúi. To get closer you have to climb a steep path up the cliff (it can be a little bit difficult for a not very agile person like me) but the result is impressive.

Closed to this waterfall there is Seljalandsfoss, one of the most famous waterfall of the Island. We have been lucky for some minutes as we could enjoy the rainbow on it : it was like a cartoon, the perfect set for an unicorn research.

We changed our wet clothes and we went to another closed waterfall: Skògafoss. You can see it also from the top by an uphill walk. We were tired but we didn’t avoid to see the Sólheimasandur airplane wreckage: you have to walk almost an hour to see it , but it worth it: it’s an airplane of the 2 world war forced to land in this black beach, and it looks like the set for  a zombie movie.

We slept at the Vik Camping after a shocking cold shower.

We started the day with a walk on the black beaches of Kirkjufjara and Reynisfjara, we had lunch with some toasts at the Skaftafell park and we went to the fantastic glaciers: the Svinafellsjökull, where you feel like in Frozen movie, ruling the Kingdom of ice (Yes, I’m almost 25 but i love it),

Fjallsárlón and the Jökulsárlón, two fantastic glaced lakes that  have been part of the James Bond films “A View to a Kill” and “Die Another Day”, as well as “Batman Begins”, “Beowulf and Grendel”, and “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”. We had a fantastic dinner at the Hafnarbúðin in Höfn  …. and we finished the day at the camping in Höfn.

Read more: Camp like a boss

 

We decided to have a Viking breakfast at the Viking Cafe, viking cappuccino and a viking cake and we started to drive again to the north.

It was very cold, it was snowing and we had a little bit of fear when the red spy of the gasoline switched on in the middle of nowhere. We drove 30 minutes holding the breath, we also saw the reindeers but we can’t prove it cause we didn’t take the risk to stop, so just believe us.

Fortunately we arrived to the fuel station (it was on the top of an uphill) and we could go and reach a fantastic village: Seyðisfjörður. It’s a little, colorful city on the fjord, surrounded by mountains and characterized by some beautiful shops inside the houses of the citizens.

So we drove to Dettifoss the most powerful waterfall of Europe, and then to Hverir, a large geothermal field of bubbling mud pools, hissing fumaroles and sticky red soil.

Early wake up to see the cow milked at Vogafjós Café . You can also try the fresh milk to start the day in the best way. A Quick visit to the Grjótagjá,  a small lava cave with a thermal spring inside, also used as location for an episode of Games of thrones. The temperature inside is very high so bathing is forbidden . Then we went to the splendid waterfall of Goðafoss, where we enjoyed a coffee with our Kangoo and the amazing view around us.

 

After the coffee we were ready to drive until Akureyri, where we had another of our Risotto in a park , and an Icelandic icecream at Brýnja.

After some hours of driving we decided to  have an happy hour in Hvammstangi , looking for the seals. Unfortunately we didn’t see any, but we finished a cold Gull and a pack of Tuc.

We slept at the Varmaland Campsite, after a fantastic van-cooked dinner with hamburger and Heinz Beans in front of the midnight Icelandic sunset.

Unfortunately the last day arrived. We wanted to see one of the hot geothermal baths,so we chose the Secret Lagoon cause it’s considered the less crowded and natural. We really chilled in the hot volcanic water, with a fresh beer that you can buy at the bar.

And the saddest time arrived, the time to say goodbye to our fantastic van, that was our home for all that time, giving us deep sleeps, tasty plates, and very wonderful moments in this wild and great surprising island. See you soon Iceland!

Read more: No mans land

Happy Camping!  #CamperStories