A big thank you to Squarespace
for sponsoring another van life adventure through Iceland.
So today we begin our over landing journey
through the center of Iceland, starting in Vik,
and then turning onto the F roads for nearly 500 kilometers
to Husavik in the north of Iceland,
with an overnight stay in Landmannalaugar.
Our vehicle is a retrofitted 2017 Mercedes G Wagon
that my cousin Tim and his wife Rike
have lent us for two weeks,
with the promise that we'll return it to Germany for them
and save them a three day ferry ride
and an 11 hour autobahn trek.
So far we haven't really gotten the chance
to test this off road camper,
because the rivers in Iceland are still relatively shallow,
but it's the end of September now
and the mountain roads are all about to close for the winter
so the fact that we're about to drive into
the most remote region we've ever explored
in two years of van life, is definitely weighing on us both.
- [Dana] Do you think it's open?
I think so.
- I think it's open.
- Yeah.
- It's just like weight.
We're definitely not five tons.
All right, Google maps has ended.
We are switching to Gaia GPS,
about to do some more, legal off-roading.
(laughing)
That's intense. - [Dana] Yeah.
(rhythmic raining)
- [Dana] Oh my God, Lou.
- Oh my God.
All right, tire pressure, has been lowered for gravel roads.
We got 2.5 in the front.
2.7 in the back
and I am drenched,
from the waist up and very dry
with my awesome boots. - [Dana] Looks like
you got your rubber pants.
- Yeah.
(laughing)
This is gonna be an adventure.
I really hope the road is open,
the weather is so crazy. - [Dana] Oh yeah.
And doesn't it if it rains, the water rises really fast.
- Yeah, I checked the roads and they were all open though,
so hopefully they haven't changed.
- [Dana] Fingers crossed.
Thanks for going outside while I stay here.
Clearly building the road as we go.
This is where we're goin'.
- All right, we made it to our first river crossing
of the day, and it is pouring rain outside,
so I'm gonna go walk in and make sure it's not too deep,
because the water levels look a lot higher than normal.
- [Dana] Okay.
- Doesn't look so bad.
- [Dana] Okay.
- You just want to go around to the left.
- [Dana] Yeah where you walked?
- Yeah.
- [Dana] Sweet.
- All right, my river crossing champion.
(woman laughing)
You cross all the rivers for us.
- [Dana] Yeah it's no problem.
Oh you look beautiful.
Thanks for going out there.
- Yeah, I'll meet you in there.
- [Dana] Okay cool.
(upbeat music)
- [Lou] Great job.
- Amazing.
- [Lou] You cross that river like a champion.
- That was not too bad.
So should I drive now?
- [Lou] Yeah.
- I like driving in the park,
I don't like driving on the road, you know?
- [Lou] You're a spoiler driver.
- I am.
♪ Been knocking at your door ♪
♪ I know one thing for sure ♪
♪ I've never been so close before ♪
♪ It's one way or the other ♪
♪ No way in between ♪
♪ I aint getting any younger ♪
♪ You are still forever a dream ♪
- [Dana] It's all organic, right?
- [Lou] Yeah.
- Try and sell a block?
Puddle.
- [Lou] River crossing.
We found it.
- Wow.
These roads are really cool
The green everywhere.
- [Lou] Yeah.
- I really like Iceland, I think.
The weather is a bit much right now,
but in this car, we have turned it, into a proper sauna,
it's so warm.
Your clothes dry yet?
(splashing swooshing sounds)
So at this point in the drive,
Lou decided to help out
this young family who had taken a wrong turn.
This F road was a little more challenging
than they had expected, plus rental car insurance in Iceland
almost never covers water crossings or water damage,
so they had good reason to be hesitant.
We've also been cautious with our off road camper
since he's not our van, took a long time to build,
and cost quite a lot of money,
but obviously none of these river crossings
have been a real challenge for our G wagon so far.
- [Lou] Good job Dana.
- It's fun to have you in the car with me when we do them.
(gentle dramatic music)
- [Lou] That's a tough chance..
- [Dana] Yeah, wow.
I wonder if people have gotten stuck here, you know?
They get in and with the huge rain they can't get out.
Hopefully we're not those people.
We made it.
That was a drive.
- [Lou] That was a tough campsite to get to, huh?
- Yeah that was crazy.
Always save the most intense bit for the end right?
- [Lou] Yeah.
- Should we go into here?
- [Lou] Well yeah, I think you go in.
- Wow.
Are you happy we're not in a tent right now
and we have this beautiful home.
I always feel guilty, now when not at campsites,
and I'm like, oh the poor people in the tents.
We've got this beautiful van.
Wow, how are there buses here?
Where do you wanna go, over here?
- [Lou] I wonder where the campsite is, it's interesting.
- [Dana] I think that's it.
We made it.
Now I just need a check-in.
Make some food.
I'm already nice and warm and cozy,
what about you?
(laughing)
You've been running around
like a crazy person out in the rain.
- [Lou] Yeah.
- I'm like not cross-eyed at all.
That's why I'm so happy.
No but that was actually pretty cool.
I feel like that was nice
because I feel like my second day of river cro--
that was my second day of river crossings right?
- [Lou] Third.
- Third day.
Now I finally feel calm enough to go slow.
I felt like when I was first doing them,
I had so much adrenaline, and I was like,
gotta get through the river, that I was going too fast
and the water kind of built up in front of the car,
but actually it seems better to go slower,
and then you just slowly move through,
and you don't have to create this wake, you know?
Get the hang of it.
It's also so nice to have you go in and check the depth,
that's really lucky.
But even not, I'm just so impressed,
with so many of the other cars going through it,
are much smaller than ours,
so that always gives me confidence,
like if their car can go through it,
then we can go through it,
because we have a beast of a car.
And yeah.
Are you getting your weighters off?
- Yeah.
No more river crossings for today.
- [Dana] You made it.
All we all checked in?
- Oh yeah I checked into the campsite
and guess what I found, right next to the campsite?
- [Dana] What, more rivers?
- No, kind of.
- [Dana] What?
(dramatic music)
- [Lou] Good job Dana.
- Now we have our living room.
Shall I make us dinner?
- [Lou] Yeah.
- Well the plan is to cook the onions down,
so they're not raw, then add the ginger,
then add the mushrooms and tofu,
let that cook for a little bit,
maybe add a little soy sauce then,
then add the red pepper,
the green beans, things and spinach to wilt that all down
and then it's gonna be a big yummy stir fry
and at the end we're gonna stir in miso
because you don't want to cook miso a lot
at a high temperature because it kills all
the natural bacteria in it.
And we opened this, so that the onions go out.
Shall I open this one too, both?
We opened all the widows
so that it wouldn't get too onioney in here.
Luckily it stopped raining for a little bit.
- [Lou] Here you go.
- You know what's really nice?
- What?
- About this table, you can't move,
like you can't by accident bump it
and have things spill,
'cause it has this little catch here
and so it can't be hit or go in,
which is really very clever.
What do you think?
- Want to start again?
(laughing)
The next day the rain finally stopped for an hour or two
so we got to explore one of the most
beautiful places we've ever visited,
but that's a story for another day,
for now, I'd just like to take this moment
to thank Squarespace
for sponsoring this van life adventure through Iceland.
We might be novice off-roaders,
but thanks to a beautiful website
we can upload a bunch of photos
and look like real professionals
in a matter of minutes,
with the help of gorgeous portfolio designs
and customizable layouts.
So if you're in need of a website,
head to Squarespace.com/wildweroam for a free trial
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of a website or domain.
(gentle music)