Iceland

Day Seven - An icy drive to North Iceland

Pri

— 3 min read
Day Seven - An icy drive to North Iceland

Where we drive through ice and snow to reach Akureyri in northern Iceland with a stay at the Hamrar campsite.

Two routes are shown here, one avoids the toll. we ended up taking the toll route because of poor driving conditions.

The Ring Road had opened, and we decided to complete our drive to Akureyri (which we had originally aimed to reach on day six). Our final stop for the night was to be Hamrar campsite, which we'd found through a google search last night, as our original stop had been an inn at Hjalteyri.

Studlagil: Our first stop was Studlagil Canyon. Studlagil looks magnificent in pictures taken during the summer months; unfortunately, it was completely snowed over when we were there - even the stairs leading down to the main viewingpoint were buried in it, to the point that people were sliding down them, or deciding to take the path outside of the stairs rather than attempt to go down them. We met a few tourists here, including one from Texas who were going to drive straight across to the Snaefallesnes peninsula after their stop here (ambitious, really, considering its in the north-west of the island). Note that the washrooms are paid - if you're in a hurry, make sure you have your wallet out!

The stairs down to the Studlagil viewing point
An icy Studlagil canyon!

We stayed about 20 minutes, and carried on.

The drive became increasingly more difficult due to the weather. Several cars in front of us were going slowly, so that there began to be a buildup behind us. When it was safe, we decided to pass two cars in front, and lost the growing bunch of cars behind us - probably safer than getting caught in a pack.

By the time we were near Akureyri, the winds were getting intense. The CampEasy GPS was telling us to take the pass around the mountain to get to the city in order to avoid the tolled tunnel, which was built to bypass the Vikurskard Mountain Passage, which, as we can certainly attest, can get quite dangerous - inspite of the GPS's warnings otherwise, the tunnel was definitely the safest option at that point.

Hamrar Camp: We reached the cute Hamrar campsite, which housed a small building near the parking lot with a clean and well-stocked kitchen, showers and tables to eat on. We also did our laundry here.

The 80s decor at Hamrar campsite

The building also has beds upstairs for campers to sleep in who aren't traveling in a campervan. The beds didn't look...too comfortable though.

Stops we didn't get to: Dettifoss, North America's second-most powerful waterfalls - unfortunately, the road to Dettifoss was completely snowed over and impassable.

For more on our Ring Road Trip:

  • An Overview of our Iceland Ring Road Drive with costs and a general itinerary
  • Day 1 of our Ring Road Drive in Iceland
  • Day 2 of our Ring Road Drive in Iceland
  • Day 3 of our Ring Road Drive in Iceland
  • Day 4 of our Ring Road Drive in Iceland
  • Day 5 of our Ring Road Drive in Iceland
  • Day 6 of our Ring Road Drive in Iceland

Read more