Hi, and welcome to the first video in our Icelandic road trip - An 11-night journey around the country
And we start on the 13th of March 2018.
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Our road trip will take us on a clockwise route with nine stopovers
I aim to pack in as much helpful advice, travel tips and warnings along the way
as well as show you a number of sites, all in under 15 minutes an episode
I'll also show you why this sign will become your best friend
Today's journey will take us from Keflavik International Airport along the southern coast to
Höfn including a touch of the Golden Circle and much more too
And so without further ado let's get started
and let me introduce you to Etta, our hire car for the journey
and our first stop en route is the hot springs.
Now you may notice I don't pronounce all the place names that's because I can't
Now one thing as well I can't provide you with is the smell of this place - it's intense
Now a quick word about the filming. This was all shot on an iPhone 8 mounted on DJI Osmo gimbal
it provides fairly steady camera work, but the one problem we do have is wind noise, and it's definitely windy here
So where I can I'll provide you with the natural sounds, if not we'll just have some background music
and our first stop is a geothermal park, home of the original Geyser
although he's laying dormant for a long while, so the main attraction is Strokkur, which erupts around every 5 to 10 minutes
It's free to park here and it's free to enter
and I'll touch on the costs of the road trip as we travel through
Now it's just a case of waiting for the eruption
Let's hope we get our timings right
Oops missed it
Never mind, we can watch the magic as the water gets sucked back in ready for the next event
we could stand another five or ten minutes, but you know what, it's a busy day, and on to our next destination
And this is the mighty Gullfoss and to be honest, I think this is one of my favourites
but how Janis captured this I don't know, the wind here was tremendous
but once again it's free to park and free to visit
and to get a scale of this place, check out the footpath on the right-hand side in the snow
Now, we had already covered the Golden Circle on our 2007 trip to Iceland
so on this journey, we headed out to make our own adventures
We'd done plenty of planning but we also kept our eye out for that sign
It means normally there's somewhere to park and something worth seeing
and now a quick side note on visitor numbers
a lot of these places can get really busy, especially on the most popular sites
but it's also easy to find quieter spots
and now the sound of a real waterfall along with a little bit of wind too
This road trip is more about the journey, than the destinations
there are exceptions, but definitely make sure you enjoy the journey
and now another major attraction on the Golden Circle
and this was the only one on our trip where we had to pay for parking
Now the fee was a nominal amount, maybe one or two euros, one or two pounds, or you know, one or two dollars, it's just a real small fee
and as you can see it does get a little busy, but hey once again a little bit of patience
in the summer months, you can walk behind the waterfall
However, at this time of the year, with the ice, it was closed off for safety reasons
And another waterfall, and guess what, you don't get tired of them
they're stunning forces of nature
And here, like so many of these attractions, you'll find a gift shop, and a cafe,
and facilities for taking a comfort break
That's one of the things you'll need to focus on, on the planning of your trip
And now the Black Beach
and we were surprised by how busy this was
considering it was blowing a gale, freezing cold
but, I guess all of us are pretty much following the same route, and the same attractions
and it wasn't until after this particular video, when we'd reached Höfn
that we really noticed the volume of traffic and the amount of tourists diminished significantly
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And I love this, nature can chuck us a few surprises
come on Janis, you know you can outrun this
So we're now on to day four of our journey,
and a few more waterfalls
and it's worth mentioning we were unable to capture everything we wanted to on video
either due to the weather or other conditions that prevented us
So, if you want to catch the full itinerary, then check out our blog post - I'll pop a link in the description below
One thing that you'll notice, no matter how much planning you'll do, there'll always be something
you'll come across that'll surprise you; like this at the roadside easy to stop and take it in
It's these little unplanned stops that you need to put into your schedule
and there may be a few of them during the day, so factor that in for a stress-free drive
And talking about a stress-free drive here's a few of our tips
Double-check this, but the timer recording the speeding is 90 kilometres per hour on tarmac
and 80 kilometres an hour on gravel
but that's the limit, you want to be enjoying yourself,
and even if you stick to the limit, you're gonna find these people in a terrible hurry, trying to get past you
and take care when pulling to the side of the road, especially when it's snow-covered, because as you can see here there's verges
but when it's covered with snow, it looks completely flat, and even the verges can be deceptive, and a lot softer than you think
and fuel stops, like comfort breaks, can be limited, so if you're below half a tank, then top up when you're in your next major town
and when you park up, park into the wind if you can
that stops the door being ripped out of your hand by the gusting winds, as you open it, and that could
leave you with an expensive bill once you return the rental car
We also packed, a USB rechargeable torch
the USB cigarette lighter converter and a good old-fashioned paper map
and now some other planning points
breakfast was included in all of our accommodation, so we made sure we had a good breakfast,
and then aimed to hit the road by about 8 30 a.m and arrive at our destination by 5 p.m
Now back to the route, and that below the mountains is a glacier
and this is the first glacier we had ever seen
So we decided to get up as close as we could
and we followed a rather bumpy road, to this view.
we flipped out the paper map
and noticed there was another viewpoint a little further along
so we didn't rush to get much closer
Back on the road again, you can see it in the distance
peering between the mountains on both sides
You have to admit that looks pretty impressive
However, to get to it was a bit of experience, it was down quite a rutted little road
and this is why I always advise people, opt for a little SUV if you can
the increased ground clearance and the 4x4 capabilities do come in useful
and when we got up close, wow was is it stunning
you can see the different layers, and some of them quite deep and dark, possibly from
volcanic activity - This is the land of fire and ice after all
Now you may have noticed on this journey we haven't been blessed with
the best weather, but that doesn't make a difference
the location, the scenery, is still stunning, and it still pops up surprises
We were surprised when we saw this little fella basking in the glacial lagoon
and then there was the diamond beach
Now, this was stunning, these are parts of the glacier that have broken off, been washed out to sea,
and then returned on the tide, and deposited on the beach
and everyone's experience is going to be different, because nature takes a toll on these
and you can actually watch them, just melting in front of you on the black sand
and that brings our video to a close. I really hope you like what you've seen
Don't forget to subscribe for the next instalment of this journey. Stay safe, stay well, and happy travels