Travel to Iceland by XNUMXWD guide, useful tips and information
THEIceland is a distant and particular land, it is still a primordial and wild land, which holds immense naturalistic treasures, like a huge park on which to walk and travel, a place with views unforgettable, where the view is lost in spaces that seem to have no end, where ancient valleys follow one another with deserts, where crystalline rivers and rushing waterfalls alternate with glaciers and soils and steaming calderas.
This is Iceland, the land of ice and fire, the last European frontier before the ice of the Arctic, the island that touches the Arctic Circle, cold and bubbling with energy.
Iceland guide, useful tips and itinerary
It was too comfortable to take a plane and land at Reykjavik: in seven hours it would all be over, a leap from Rome across half of Europe.
No, if you want to enjoy a trip to Iceland, a real trip, your destination can't arrive right away, you can't get away with a 7-hour flight.
Why take a trip to Iceland: the 5 reasonsIf you want to visit Iceland you must enter into the perspective of the great adventurers, of the travelers of the past, of those people who fully enjoyed a journey, a long journey to the final destination.
If you want to visit Iceland you have to leave with an off-road vehicle, as we did, from Rome through Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Faroer Islands and, finally, through the last, suffered stretch of sea to the eastern coasts of the 'Iceland.
Five days on land and two days on the ship, then paradise.
The last hours on the ship were terrible.
I remember the strong roll of the ship, the leap out of bed early in the morning, the rush to the deck, where the roll was most bearable, the wind threatening to lift you up and crash you somewhere, the swollen gray sea below us and the fog, that dense and dense fog that more than a few meters did not allow you to see.
Sitting on the deck, with our stomachs in turmoil, we imagined who knows what storms in the land of Iceland, imagined rain, wind, thunderstorms, cold.
A ruined vacation.
Then, almost suddenly, the layer of fog disappears, the sea becomes blue again, the sky is blue, the wind dies in silence and the high coasts of the island greet us from afar.
We had arrived in Iceland, we saw hers green ribs, the pointed hills, the village, a wonderful time to welcome us.
Iceland what to see, places to visit and excursions
The Toyota pickup hits the ground and our adventure in Iceland begins.
The first visit is in an immense cave in the ice, a white cave that opens into the glacier and from which a river of icy water flows.
Then finally in the desert.
The black run takes us to a desert area unique in the world, what we are witnessing seems an impossible event, yet we were in the middle: in the middle of the desert, in a sandstorm, with the glacier on our left and the mirages in the warm air in front of us.
Iceland by off-road vehicle (part two)
From there, the next day we move to the lake Myvatn the lake of midges.
The campsite is wonderful, in the evening we go to a pub to drink beer and the next morning we reach the volcanic area of krafla.
krafla it is a succession of pink and smoking hills, of sulphurous lakes and jets of steam that come out of the hot ground, bubbling mud and lava fields.
From the hot grounds we move north to the beautiful village of Husavik, for whalewatching, a boat trip to spot whales.
Three hours in the ocean to see the cetaceans peeking out of the water and plunging back.
Da Husavik we reach the waterfalls of Dettifoss, an imposing jet of water, a river that flows between high and steep rock walls, a quiet beach of black sand, another corner unique in the world.
The day ends in the best possible way, with the sighting, at night, of the aurora borealis, greenish trails of light that flicker across the sky and then vanish.
After the water we return to the heat and we go to visit the Grjotagia cave it is a beautiful volcanic cave near the Hverfell area.
Inside the heat is strong, the stench of sulfur is unbearable, the water has a temperature of 50 ° C and we have to be careful where we put our feet.
It was once used for thermal baths, then closed due to the increase in temperature.
Godafoss, other imposing waterfalls, spectacular jumps of water, alternating with quiet banks, a sort of canyon in which the river has opened its passage by digging and overcoming the difference in height with a sparkling jump that Godafoss created.
In the afternoon we visit the nice and quiet town of Akureyri, in the north of the island, where you can make good purchases, and in the evening we slip into a characteristic Icelandic pub, to enjoy the customers who joined the singer, some with a beautiful voice, some out of tune like a bell.
Hveravellir, caldera with sulphurous water in which to take a bath, then the desert and the view of the glacier Langjokull.
Then to visit a beautiful glacial valley, on a dry shore of a watercourse where you can admire the effects of cryoclasticism, the fracture of the rocks, beyond a thousand colors, due to the cold.
It camps ad Asgardsfjall, a huge campsite, with tents and cottages.
A great place for one excursion unscheduled evening, with anorak, wool cap and gloves.
All the strength and energy of Iceland are released from underground, enclosed in the rock, erupting with jets of hot water.
Are the geyser and they have names worthy of their character: Little Geyser, Geysir e Strokkur, which spits out water and steam up to 20 meters high.
A visit to the falls Gulfoss, before going to the only point in the world where it is possible to see the ocean ridge, the boundary between the European and North American plate, otherwise relegated to the bottom of the sea.
The area is called pingvellir, and the landscapes it offers are unforgettable
Cracks up to 30 meters deep, jagged rocks, vegetation: walking on the ridge is an exciting excursion.
There, too, a waterfall could not be missing: the Oxararfoss, formed by the jump of the river Oxarà.
THE JOURNEY CONTINUES….
Photo gallery Iceland
