Almost a month in to being back in Chamonix after deciding to make the move, my fairly long-awaited trip to Iceland finally came around. I have always wanted to go to Iceland and tried to plan a trip many times, always to be let down by people when it came down to actually getting it organised, so when one of my best friends, Gail, said she wanted to go and asked if I would be interested in joining her, I jumped at the chance. Our good friend Sam was also keen so we got about organising the trip.
We knew when we wanted/needed to go; February half term, which would enable us to have a fairly good chance of seeing the northern lights and fitted in around work for all of us, being that we all worked at the same college. We had also decided that we wanted to hire a van; one, to keep costs down, and two, to enable us to see as much of the island as possible on our own time schedule. (We would learn much about the impossibility of having a schedule in Iceland once we arrived) Other than this, we hadn’t really decided on much else. But we booked the flights from London to Reykjavik and organised the hire van and waited for our adventure to come around.
The trip was planned long before I even knew I was coming back to Chamonix for some of the winter, let alone moving here. But once this happened I had some additional organisation to do to enable me to join the girls. To make things as easy as possible, I looked in to changing my flights so I could just fly from Geneva straight to Reykjavik, but this was going to cost me over €450 and I had the girls to consider too; We had decided to take one checked bag between us to save money and of course, this was in my name so I kind of had to fly in to London before getting the already planned flight to Iceland. So I booked myself a flight with Swiss Air (Only €140 return!) from Geneva to Heathrow, where I would meet Gail and Sam, load their belongings in to the bag and then fly to Iceland…..it didn’t quite work out like that.
My flight from Geneva should have got me in to London with two hours to spare before my next flight, but typical of my luck, when I was on my way to Geneva airport, I received an email informing me that my flight was delayed by an hour. This was going to mean time would be super tight considering I had to collect my bag at Heathrow, repack with the girls things and check in for the next flight. I called the girls to explain and they decided they would organise their own checked bag to enable me just have to get myself to the next flight, provided I could convince Swiss Air to check my bag all the way through to Iceland for me without having to collect it. Luckily they agreed to do this without a second thought. (Thankyou Swiss Air)
Once on my flight, I thought I would be able to relax a little, I was sure the plane would somehow be able to catch up a little bit of time somewhere. But yet again, we were delayed by a further fifteen minutes before taking off. Once in flight, I was hoping and praying that the nightmare wasn’t going to get any worse, but to add to it, the landing time just seemed to be getting later and later. Now it was showing that we would be landing only half an hour before I needed to be on board my flight to Iceland. I called over one of the cabin crew and explained my situation. They were super helpful and told me, once the seat-belt sign came on for landing, I should go to the front of the plane with them and they would ensure I was the first one-off the flight (Who needs first class ;)). We landed with exactly twenty minutes before my next flight. Sure enough, I was the first one off the plane and ran through Heathrow airport in my mountain boots with my bag at a speed I don’t think I could repeat even if I dressed appropriately for the occasion. Once through security, I reached a sign telling me I was fifteen minutes from my gate; continuing sprinting, dodging people on escalators and probably offending quite a few of them, I made it to the gate in four minutes and found my friends…..Panic over!
The flight to Iceland was boring; three and a half hours, in the dark, not sat with one another and the promised in-flight internet not working. Moron here had also forgotten to download her music to her phone, so the lack of internet meant I couldn’t listen to anything either. The in flight entertainment system with Iceland air was okay, I managed to at least find a documentary to watch that gave me some ideas of things to do while we were away. The wine was a better distraction however.
When we finally landed, we collected our things and walked out of the airport and laid our eyes on Iceland for the first time. Being at the airport, there wasn’t huge amounts to see, but plenty to feel; it was cold, REALLY cold! The wind was quite unlike anything I had experienced anywhere else. I had spent the few weeks in the run up to the trip checking the temperatures and comparing them to that of Chamonix, it looked like nothing. Chamonix was much colder, I thought I would be fine, Iceland would seem like a tropical paradise compared to the temperatures I’d been living in. These temperatures I had been comparing, did not however, factor in the wind chill. Yes, the air temperature in Iceland may have only been -5 or so, but with the wind, that easily pushed it down to -15 and below during the day and nighttime temperatures that I don’t even really want to consider.
We had organised a transfer to a hostel for when we arrived as we weren’t able to collect our hire van until the following morning. The hostel in Keflavik ;the Base Hotel, was only five minutes from the airport but this short drive was enough to provide us with our first experience of another part of Iceland’s weather for the first time; blowing snow, where the snow is literally picked up and blown across the roads and flat areas making visibility very poor. It’s not something I’ve ever really experienced before, not like this anyway. With parts of Iceland being so flat the snow can literally blow for miles in the raging winds (Iceland being the third windiest country on earth) and has an almost eerie, dancing fog-like look as it snakes across the road in front of the headlights of vehicles being carried by the wind.
After the first night in the hostel, we arranged a transfer back to the airport where we would collect our van. After shopping around for months before we headed out, we had eventually chosen to rent from a company called rent.is. The van we had chosen was a Renault Traffic, which I have to admit made me mildly concerned as it was for the three of us and as I already live by myself in a much larger Renault Master, I was anxious about how the lack of space would work out, but hey it was only for nine days so we went for it anyway. When we got the van, we did all the necessary paperwork and loaded our bags inside after having a little look around. Sure enough, being a fully fledged van dweller now and having a little bit of inside info on the lifestyle, I had a few concerns….
- Headroom – I am quite tall and living inside a box for an extended amount of time where I am unable to stand up makes me uncomfortable just thinking about it.
- The bed was a rock and roll style, set up as seating and table for daytime use, with the table on a lowering mechanism which became part of the base of the bed for sleeping with the cushions from the seating fitting together in a puzzle to make the mattress. (I have never been in to this idea and didn’t even consider it when making my own van….I’m a fixed bed all the way kinda girl)
- The cooking system provided was a one burner, butane camp stove, the kind that’s not meant to be used indoors. And we had kindly been provided with one single extra bottle of gas. (Anyone who’s ever used one of these stoves will know that you might be lucky to get two days use out of one of these bottles if you’re being conservative.) If you have also ever used one inside or are familiar with butane, you will also know how much vapour it produces when burning. (Which brings us on to our next issue)
- The vapour produced from the stove and the moisture in the air from three people inhabiting a small space quickly results in a large degree of condensation, not too much of an issue if the van is insulated and lined properly. This one however was not; no insulation what so ever and minimal lining (Just a few sections of auto-carpet on the big panels in the walls, nothing on the ceiling.)
- Electrics were minimal and interestingly chosen – two twelve volt ports (one of which didn’t work), a twelve volt fridge and air conditioner, both of which we all decided would not be used, LED strip lights (very power-hungry for LED’s) and perhaps the thing that blew my mind the most; an electric air blown heater. (Sure to discharge even the largest of leisure batteries (which this van did not have) in a very short space of time)
But I tried to put these things to one side and look at the good points….there were a few:
- The table/seating area did turn out to be useful as we found there are often times in Iceland when you are unable to drive anywhere and killing time becomes a necessary activity. This did provide us with a good sociable area to sit around and plan things.
- The provision of water, plates, cutlery, pans, and the like was absolutely perfect, not too much, not too little and the storage for it was well designed, plastic boxes that fitted nicely on to a set of shelves with little stoppers to keep everything in place.
- The cab of the van was actually really comfy, quite roomy and enjoyable to be in.
- The sleeping bags that were provided were impressively warm; synthetic down bags that I have to say were probably almost as good as my own Rab three season sleeping bag.
- The van turned out to be impressively economical on fuel. (37mpg if I remember right)
Van analysis over and all packed and ready to go, it was time to hit the road, although not too much of it; The guy working at the hire company had warned us that a big storm was coming in later that day and we would be advised to stay in the south-west. So we decided our first adventure would be to drive to Reykjavik, not that we know what we were planning to do when we got there. But it was only about half an hour away…So off we went. After a pit stop for food along the way, we arrived. We tried to drive out on a little peninsula, hoping for a view, but the wind and blowing snow was so intense at this point it literally stopped us in our tracks and forced us to turn around. We took shelter in a car park next to a supermarket and waited for the weather to die down a bit. We sat round the table in the van, had a coffee and started making plans of what to do on the coming days. Soon enough there was a small break in the weather, so we took ourselves in to town to have a little look around, we browsed some shops (realised how expensive everything is), found a coffee shop and what we figured out must have been Reykjavik Cathedral. After a short while we were pretty cold and teasy as the storm was coming back so we set about trying to find where we would stay for the night. We decided a campsite would be best, at least for the first night so we found a place at Reykjavik Eco Campsite.
We all slept okay; not great as we were all adjusting to our new surroundings, but better than expected. That was until, the heater cut out at around 4am. We ignored it and just huddled down in our sleeping bags and bared with it for the next couple of hours. Soon enough it was time to get up anyway and see what this day would bring; hopefully less storms and more visibility. We checked the online road map that we had been given, that gives the live status of all the roads in Iceland, telling you whether they are open, closed, easy or difficult to drive, snowy, icy and so on. This turned out to be very useful and our luck happened to be in, as our planned day; a drive around the golden circle, seemed to be possible, so off we went.
Instantly things were better today, we could see the landscape around us, the roads were driveable, we even got our first glimpse of Icelandic horses and Gail got to see her first ever snow plough!…Things had improved hugely. We drove to Þingvellir National Park, a historic site, east of Reykjavík, known for being the site of Iceland’s parliament from the 10th to 18th centuries. There are small remnants of ruins of old stone shelters and a church, but perhaps most fascinating of all is the rift valley that the park sits in, caused by the separation of two tectonic plates. And even if none of this managed to interest you, you couldn’t deny the sheer beauty of the landscape around you. After a tedious day of waiting around the day before, the frustration melted away, this was Iceland and it was so worth it.
Soon enough we decided to move on and see the rest of the Golden Circle; The Gullfoss waterfall, and the geothermal area in Haukadalur, which contains the geysers Geysir and Strokkur. Geothermal areas were one of the things I was most excited to see in Iceland and waterfalls are always cool. This waterfall in particular was very impressive, the sheer amount of water cascading over the falls was one thing, but the fact that large portions of it had managed to freeze, was just mind-boggling. Little did I know that this would be the first of many highly impressive waterfalls we would see along our journey. The geysers at the geothermal area were everything I had hoped, the most active one, aptly named ‘Geysir’ fires off around once every two minutes, and the water coming out of the ground can reach temperatures of 80°C. This really was the land of fire and ice.
As the Golden Circle, was just that; a circle, we ended up back near where we started and decided that we would continue our adventure to try to drive right the way around Iceland by heading up the West coast. Sam, through family connections had the contact information of a family living on a farm near Reykholt, just a couple of hours away from where we were so we gave them a call and headed there for the evening.
All three of us being horsey girls, having had our own horses and worked with them for the majority of our lives, all together at one point, meant that one big desire that we had in common for this trip was the chance to ride Icelandic horses. However, after looking in to it and realising how much it was going to cost, we resigned ourselves to the fact that just seeing them would be nice. We had been told that the family we were visiting had a number of Icelandic horses and bred them in fact so we were all fairly excited to go and pet the ponies. We arrived late in the evening and were instantly welcomed in to the farmhouse for a cup of tea. We chatted with the family and then they had to go and milk the cows, so we offered to go along and help (Sam did anyway), myself and Gail took it upon ourselves to be chief animal petters.
Milking all done for the evening, we asked if we would be able to see some of the horses in the morning and offered our services to help with the mucking out and anything else that might need doing…..any chance to pet a pony! The family kindly offered for us to stay in the farmhouse, but not wanting to invade their home too much, we politely declined and scooted off to the van…..what a mistake! The heater died by 3am this time and a cold few hours ensued, but due to getting up to help with pony duties we didn’t have to endure it for too long.
We all jumped out of bed fairly excitedly at the prospect of our first interactions with Icelandic horses. (We had already learned not to call them ponies by this point as Gail had accidentally minorly offended the family by calling them such within the first five minutes of walking in to the farm-house.) We found our way to the barn where the horses were kept and were instantly in our playground. Around 40 horses were stabled in various set ups in the barn, most a deep chestnut colour but a few variations as well. We started helping with the mucking out, moving the horses (by just opening the doors and letting five or six of them run around in the school), sorting the boxes and then moving them all back again to repeat the process for the next lot of horses. Once the mucking out was done, we went in to the farmhouse for some breakfast. We chatted with the family about what they do and what we had done with horses and by the time we finished eating breakfast we had been given the one offer all of us couldn’t have wanted to hear more. They were going to let us ride some of the horses.
We went in and had our horses selected for us, all wanting the calmest one (so to not fall off and make a fool out of ourselves), but we needn’t have worried, we were soon informed that badly behaved horses don’t last long in Iceland; they get eaten. Encouraged but slightly shocked by this recent revelation we all led our horses in to the school and hopped on. Being personally quite tall and the horses quite small, I thought I was going to feel too big for them but surprisingly this wasn’t the case at all. We rode around, figuring out the different buttons for trot/pace/tolt and all beaming from ear to ear. We were totally stunned to watch some of the horses being schooled around us, many of the training methods being used, being exactly what we would use but towards a different goal, they all move forwards, straight, in to a contact, sensitive to the aids; much better schooled than a lot of horses at home. Dressage doesn’t exist in Iceland, but right in front of me there was this little Icelandic horse doing shoulder-in, travers, renvers and then piaffe. My jaw almost hit the floor at this point. Needless to say we weren’t riding piaffe on our horses, but we all got to experience the one thing that we would never experience on any other breed of horse; and that was the tolt. It was a strange sensation and totally unlike anything else, but the longer we tried, the more it made sense and the feeling it gave when you got it right was just incredible, to feel the front end of the horse just lift up in front of you and the power these little horses could produce was unbelievable. We were at the excitement level of kids sitting on ponies for the first time, but unfortunately it had to end.
We went in to the farmhouse for lunch that had been prepared for us and chatted with the family about our plans and sought their advice for how we should move onwards around the country. We listened and decided that if we were going to go, it had to be now. So we quickly got ourselves ready and said our goodbyes. The offer to stay was there or to return if the weather was too bad and if we were to get stuck this would have been the perfect place but the decision had been made, we were moving on.
We had decided we would try to make it to the North that day, we knew at this point that the roads were open as far as Blönduós and maybe Varmahlíð but no further. So we set out in that direction. We had been advised to stick to Route 1 (the ring road that goes around the whole island) as it is the most reliable road and where we would be safest. Unfortunately we had to make the decision to bypass the Western Fjords as the roads were just too unreliable and the weather too wild and if the winds we had experienced so far in the west were anything to go by, it was probably for the best anyway.
We actually made good progress and arrived in Blönduós just as the sun was setting. It was a beautiful little town right by the sea, with typical looking Icelandic buildings and the mountains in the background behind the town. We stopped for a while and appreciated it before deciding we would try to make it on to Varmahlíð so we could head for Akureyri (Iceland’s second biggest city) as soon as the roads opened in the morning. We drove in to the mountains, losing all phone signal as the last bits of light disappeared from the sky and eventually everything opened up in to a huge valley, where we conveniently found a truck stop lay-by which we decided to call home for the night. It was the coldest night by far of any we had experienced or would experience on the rest of the trip. The temperature outside must have been -25 at least.
The next day once again, we woke up to our onwards route being open, so we headed on through Akureyri with incredible views as we drove along the banks of a huge fjord and then headed back inland towards Lake Myvatn stopping at Goðafoss Waterfall on the way. This was another super impressive waterfall, but we were able to get a little closer to this one. The roads on this part of the journey and the views from them were some of the best on the whole trip. The landscape really could be from another planet, large flat areas, random mountains popping up out of nowhere, weird lava rock formations and giant craters. It really was awe-inspiring.
After the waterfall at Goðafoss we headed on to a geothermal spa where we were planning to spend a few hours and then move on towards Egilsstaðir, stopping somewhere in between. But first, the spa…As we drove closer the weather started getting worse, little did we know that another big storm was coming, by the time we arrived at the spa, the winds were up to 70kph, the blowing snow was ferocious and the temperature doesn’t bear thinking about. But all the same we decided to go for it, we were offered a discount for our stupidity for thinking this was a good idea and got in to our swim suits. (Wet suit may have been a better option)
When we went through to head out to the pool, we were pleased to see we weren’t the only idiots that decided this was a grand idea for a day out, it was actually quite busy. Regardless of this however, it still took a group pep talk and encouragement all round to actually brave the 30m sprint from the changing rooms outside in to the pool. I have jumped in to cold water and had my breath taken away, but I have never had the air do it in quite the same way; as soon as I stepped outside in to the snow and ice and started to run, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t speak, all I could do was keep moving and then jump in to the first steaming, sulphury smelling pool I came across. It was incredible, my ability to breathe came back and I could relax, apart from when the wind blew in my direction (all the time) and blasted my face with snow and ice. I won’t lie, it was actually pretty painful. The longer we floated in the pool, the harder it became to think about getting out. My hair was completely frozen solid from the steam, snow, ice and temperatures colder than -15. Eventually I started to get a headache; something I can only imagine was genuine brain freeze. It wasn’t pleasant so I made the decision and sprinted for inside. Once back in I didn’t ever want to step outside again and spent the next half an hour at least having a shower and re-warming my brain.
Then came the downfall of our luck with the roads. The roads we had planned to head out on was now closed and with the storm still raging was unlikely to be opening anytime soon, to make matters worse, the road back towards Akureyri was also closed now and the Myvatn lagoon seemed to be ending up as a shelter for everyone stuck in the area. There were some smaller roads open that would have allowed us to move on, but it involved going nearer to the coast, on roads that were potentially in bad condition, something which the other two girls were not happy about doing.
This is where some of the self realisation comes in; I won’t lie, I kind of lost it. I couldn’t handle the restriction, the feeling of being stuck, knowing that there was other options that we could at least try. Now I’m not saying for one second that Sam and Gail were wrong, they were 100 percent right to stay put and not take the risk, but for me it just didn’t compute at the time. They are two of my best friends and I would never doubt their decisions on anything, but in this situation, at the time, I needed out. I’ve always been a problem solver and never afraid of a little risk, so to me I couldn’t see why we wouldn’t at least try. When I planned on writing this section I wanted to say it as carefully and diplomatically as possible as I would never want to offend either of these girls. They have both been rocks for me at one time or another and I sincerely hope I do not cause any more upset with these words. But the way this situation caused me to be has made me realise a lot about myself and how much I’ve changed as a person. In this situation it was a negative quality but for the most part I genuinely think I have benefited from it. And as crazy as it sounds, that something so small could make such a difference; I think it’s all come from the decision to move in to the van. I have become so used to having my own personal freedom; the freedom to be alone, or with people, to drive when, or where I want to, decide where home is for the night, or week, or month, anything. I’d always been happy to follow other people’s plans before, maybe because I never really had many huge ones of my own, but now I’ve become so used to governing my own world and not relying on anyone that I’ve developed a necessity for personal space, solitary decision-making and my own assessment and management of risk. From this experience on this particular day, I’ve definitely seen that this can make you a bit of an asshole, or at least perceived as one, but I just live a different way of life now, I live my life, which is very rarely influenced by one person or another, and I love it, and maybe that’s why I felt so strongly about needing to retain control over it.
All I know is hopefully through learning this about myself I won’t get myself in to this sort of situation again, or maybe I understand enough to be able to manage it better now. I just know that I would have lost it a whole lot more if it wasn’t these two amazing girls that I was stranded with.
But enough of that, back to the adventure….Eventually a snow plough got through a small section of the main road and enabled us to go around the side of Lake Myvatn and park up near a hotel for a night where some of the other people stranded at the spa were heading. We went in and had some food at the restaurant in the hotel and then headed to bed, hoping to wake up periodically throughout the night to check for the Northern Lights as the forecast was looking hopeful. Unfortunately the clouds put a stop to that plan so it was just a good nights sleep (until the heater went off again) and then wait to head off the next day.
We packed up the van the next morning and headed for Egilsstaðir, planning to move on again towards Höfn for that evening. It was an incredible day of driving down the East coast. The views were insane; With the raging sea crashing on to the black sand beaches or up over the cliffs on one side of us and the snow-covered cliffs and mountains on the other, with streaks through the snow where rocks had recently fallen, you really felt that if mother nature wanted to have an argument with you, you’d have no hope, you really were at the mercy of your surroundings…..But it was so beautiful.
We arrived in Höfn at sunset and realised that the level of light pollution was too high to even entertain seeing the Aurora. (This was our last night where we would potentially be able to see them) So we decided to head on to Diamond Beach in the South East. This is where we wanted to head to the next day and having done some research there should be little to no light pollution there, so on we went.
We arrived at Diamond Beach and the Glacial Lagoon and found a place to park up. Then more and more cars started to arrive. Someone knocked on our window and asked if we were waiting to see the Aurora, because they had just shown themselves. I had been keeping my eyes in darkness for the last half an hour or so to try to improve any chance there was of seeing them and it turns out it had worked. Looking out over the glacial lagoon there was a huge green arc in the sky, it wasn’t bright, it wasn’t dancing, but it was there. Of all the natural things I’ve ever wanted to see, the Northern Lights are absolutely number one. And here I was, looking at them, I felt pretty lucky. All I wish is I’d actually had a decent camera to capture them with rather than just my phone, but it’s about the experience you live at the time, not what photos you bring home.
We eventually took ourselves off to bed as the skies clouded over taking away the mysterious green hue and slept through til the next morning. We woke up and actually now got to see the landscape and the lagoon we’d been looking out over in the dark the night before.
The lagoon marks the edge of the Vatnajökull glacier, where it calves off in to the water and the resulting icebergs find their way out through a small channel in to the sea, some of them washing up on Diamond beach. The Vatnajökull glacier cover 8,300 sq. km and thirteen percent of Iceland’s total land mass. It is the largest glacier outside of the polar ice caps and the National park containing it is the largest in Europe. It certainly was a sight, looking across the lagoon where huge icebergs floated with their incredible turquoise blue colour, to the seals popping up out of the water at any given time, to the edge of the enormous glacier looming from across the water, and then the black sand of diamond beach, strewn with all the icebergs that had washed up on their way to freedom.
After wandering around in awe at everything around us, we headed on to view another area of the glacier at Skaftafell National Park (Part of the Vatnajökull National Park) which also contained Svartifoss waterfall, even managing to get Gail to do some walking which I think deep down she might have enjoyed. It really was starting to feel like the trip was ending now, we were back in the South and only had one more day left before we had to return the van. We decided we would stop in Vik for the night and found a good parking spot behind a quiet service station, overlooking the sea. There was another hire van there and we figured, hey, there’s safety in numbers. (Wild camping, away from campsites is actually not legal in Iceland, but I suspect as is the case in many places that have this law, as long as you are respectful, leave no trace and don’t stay for too long, you will be fine.)
The next day involved driving to Reykjavik and having one last look around the city before taking the van back that afternoon. We parked up and started exploring and managed to find our way into a strange walled garden with loads of statues. We couldn’t figure out what any of it was supposed to be so we started to leave. At that point a tour guide walked in with a small group of people and we figured we’d just hang back behind a statue and see if he said anything about this place and what it was. He didn’t, but he was telling his group about the history of Iceland. He was super entertaining and his story was interesting so we stuck with it and followed him around. We spent nearly two hours listening to him, in which time he provided us with tea and coffee and gave out free handwarmers. The history of Iceland is very short in comparison to that of other nations and really very interesting so I recommend reading about it if you haven’t before. (particularly if you’ve watched Vikings) After walking around for this time, we were pretty cold and had to make our way back to the van to drive to Keflavik to drop it off. As much as I’d hated on the van and picked out all it’s faults to start with, I was a little sad to be taking her back. We dropped her off and got a lift to the hostel we had stayed at before, this time staying in a suite!! Luxury!! We all showered and bathed the large degrees of grime away and felt human again before having the best nights sleep of the whole trip. …unsurprisingly.
Heading to the airport the next morning was a rather neutral feeling, it was a shame to be leaving this awesome country feeling that there was so much more to explore that we hadn’t even come close to touching, but at the same time it was an exciting prospect to be heading home. I was pretty excited to get back to Chamonix, catch up with everyone, get some skis back on my feet and catch up on all the mountain fun I’d missed while being away. At the same time as this I had the feeling hanging over me that this would be the last time I would see my friends for an unknown amount of time. The journey back to London went quickly and soon I was saying my goodbyes. Although I had some sadness hanging over me because of this, I pushed on and all thoughts were turned to getting back to the Chamonix family. After a little while spent in Heathrow Airport, spending money, eating and drinking the time away, it was time to head off to get my flight back to Geneva. The time on this flight seemed like nothing and before long I was walking out of the airport and heading back to Chamonix. Another short trip down the motorway and I was home.
No sooner had I arrived back in the valley, it was straight back in to Chamonix life as if I had never left. Nothing had changed with the place, the people, or anything else, but something had changed with me: I had learnt a lot about myself on the trip and it had changed how I was thinking about situations as they happened. Something clicked while I was away, not just the realisation that I thrive on the freedom and control to live my own life, but also that I was no longer afraid to be completely and utterly honest about things, both with other people and myself.
Only now after a number of experiences like this trip and a few others along the way am I starting to realise and acknowledge how significant the changes I have made to my life are. Giving up on ‘normal life’ living in a house and doing the van build, the transition into van life, selling my horse; which I’d invested a lot of time, money and effort in to, giving up the security of a consistent job, moving to France. I suppose I should have expected it to cause my personality to change somewhat as well. But I never really saw this much of a change coming, I guess I had never envisaged myself taking on this sort of life because didn’t think I was capable of it. But through pushing myself outside of my comfort zone, I have reformed how I think and live, now for the better (I hope).
Iceland was a fantastic experience, both exploratory, socially and personally educational. I was lucky to see a fairly large amount of the country but I feel there is much more there for me yet, things that I know I will have to travel by myself to really complete my experience in this awesome country. So I’m fairly sure this will not be the end of my Iceland adventuring, I will come back, with my own van to explore the little niches of this country that I haven’t yet touched, to spend some time and really embrace it fully. And that holds an adventure all of its own: The logistics of bringing my own van, while better suited to me in some senses also hold their own challenges. Taking a two-day ferry trip from Denmark, with a stop over in the Faroe Islands will be one part to negotiate. For vans with LPG systems, like mine, it will involve some modification to enable you to use gas, as Iceland does not have anywhere where you can buy LPG and only one place that sells propane bottles. For high sided vehicles like mine (3.1m), the strong winds are something to heavily consider, especially when roads are icy. And there are bound to be many other issues that would make themselves apparent along the way too. Meaning the next Iceland adventure will not necessarily be any more straightforward, but that has started to become what I thrive for in some senses; To continue to push myself to find solutions when situations seem difficult is what is helping me to continually evolve as a person while I’m on this journey. Let it continue……
The BLOG - The Adventures of Carly and Effy-Van 