Memories of Iceland

[giantcanopy]

# 21

A drive along the scenic and extremely bumpy F225 road to Landmannalaugar.
Quick snap and run shot from the car. Because of the whole day of rain, our drive out via F225 had two additional rivers to fjord.

 

[giantcanopy]

# 22

# 23

Along F225 road

 

[asterixsg]

Nice images from Landmannalaugar. Would love to hear more of your experience driving through that area. I might go again next year and I could use whatever information you can share and any advice is welcome too...

 

[BrownBoots]

Cool, you drove inland on the F roads with river crossings. You just drove in alone without a convoy? I believed people usually drove in with at least 2 cars so they can winch each other out if one car gets bogged down, especially river crossings. I heard someone got killed this year when his car got into trouble while crossing river.

I accidentally drove into a F road with my 2WD economy car and sworn it wouldn't have survived a km of it. :bsmilie:

The Landmannalaugar images are an eye opener. Thanks for sharing.

 

[giantcanopy]

Nice images from Landmannalaugar. Would love to hear more of your experience driving through that area. I might go again next year and I could use whatever information you can share and any advice is welcome too...

Cool, you drove inland on the F roads with river crossings. You just drove in alone without a convoy? I believed people usually drove in with at least 2 cars so they can winch each other out if one car gets bogged down, especially river crossings. I heard someone got killed this year when his car got into trouble while crossing river.

I accidentally drove into a F road with my 2WD economy car and sworn it wouldn't have survived a km of it. :bsmilie:

The Landmannalaugar images are an eye opener. Thanks for sharing.

Thx Asterixsg and BrownBoots for ur comments. Got abit too tied with work lately and not "putting enough effort" on posting hah.
Will try to give a little more info along the way.

Yes we went alone, but luckily we did encountered a group of 3 other vehicles along the way and as the rear vehicle, we fjorded the rivers on the paths the front vehicles did ( front marker vehicle fellas went to walk the river to assess depth ). When we drove back via the F225 road , thanks to the whole day rain, the original rivers got deeper and there were two more that appeared. We met a kind local "monster wheel" jeep driver that helped us cross one of the deeper rivers by showing us which path was shallower ( and he actually used his big vehicle to "river block" the deeper muddy parts that we originally headed. Nice fella, we were thankful.

Yes the "F" roads in Iceland were really %^*& in their own ways. Even on 4WD the vehicle was vibrating like crazy. We had bad encounters at Hotel Gullfoss while attempting to use an F road to shortcut the journey out just to realise that it was blocked for some reason, and had to waste time detour back to drive the proper road out.

F225 to Landmannaugar was ridden with potholes and you get to see rocks size bigger than the fist strewn along the paths, but affords a shorter and more scenic route to Landmannalaugar. I drive a little faster , and took me 2.5+ hrs to, and under 2 hrs fro. For tourists, I would advice not to drive it when night falls, since parts of the track are not too visible, and with poor visibility I imagine one can easily go off track into the plains. F208 is a much longer route which I did not take, is less treacherous and supposedly suitable even for non 4WD vehicles, and has no rivers to cross. We have seen a fantastic little Suzuki swift speed maneuvering the obstacles like the little minis in Italian Job, so I guess it can be a beautiful and enjoyable drive in all respects. Took a few video clips which I might just upload and show a later time.

On the whole I find the drive unpaved mountain roads to Breiðavík and Látrabjarg more nerve wrecking than F225. On good weathers, you can probably spend the whole day shooting along the beautiful stretch of F225. Due to lack of time, Landmannaugar was a day trip for us, when it should have been at least a 4-5 day hiking affair.

#24
Velvia 50, 6x9

* This was scanned with Epson's native Utility, I might try scanning via Silverfast this week when time permits to see if I get better colors.

 

[Zichar]

Thanks for the info Ryan, always appreciate the story behind the photos. Sounds exciting!
It must have took a lot of time and effort to plan for this trip!

Was the rental 4WD equipped for emergencies? Double spares? A tire repair kit perhaps?
Did you purchase an extra jerry can? Stock up extra just in case got lost/stuck?
Would like to believe that safety, well at least the passengers'(!) are paramount
Thinking aloud, it's been years since I've changed a flat lol

 

[giantcanopy]

Thanks for the info Ryan, always appreciate the story behind the photos. Sounds exciting!
It must have took a lot of time and effort to plan for this trip!

Was the rental 4WD equipped for emergencies? Double spares? A tire repair kit perhaps?
Did you purchase an extra jerry can? Stock up extra just in case got lost/stuck?
Would like to believe that safety, well at least the passengers'(!) are paramount
Thinking aloud, it's been years since I've changed a flat lol

Hi Zichar, thanks for ur comments.

I kinda *practiced* changing tyres some yrs back locally in prep for an NZ trip, this time no * and thank goodness all tyres worked fine. There was only one spare tyre with the usual changing kit, we routinely carry enough rations to last past a day with several litres of water. Retrospectively, we should have informed our guesthouse whenever we were out for some strenous drive, in case we needed help. However a few of the places in westfjords and landmannalaugar did not have ( Vodafone or Siminn ) reception and to be on extra safe side one probably need a satellite phone instead. After the end of the trip, my wifey says we have been pretty lucky..

 

[kazeeee]

Thx EM! Been rather busy at work as well, not much time to do up most of them..



Hi Kazeeee

You need to call the bank to issue you a PIN number. It will take some time before they mail you the PIN, which often times can be changed at the ATM ( at least for UOB ). I do not know about debit cards.

There are several gas stations in Iceland, N1 having the widest coverage. N1 gas booths allow credit cards that have PINS that are more than 4 digits. Icelandic credit card PINS are only 4 digits. The other companies such as Orkan has credit booths that ONLY ALLOW 4 digit PIN entry on the interface ( which meant my 5 PIN UOB credit card or other 6 PIN US issued credit cards are rendered unusable )

All the pink Orkan gas stations we saw appeared unmanned. The gas station at Kef airport car park is an Orkan station. * When we returned the rental car, we had to tell the car rental company to charge our credit card backend to top up to full tank because we cannot operate the Orkan pump..
All the green Orlis gas stations we passed by had pump station / attendant.
Most of the N1 gas stations we saw were unmanned except the large ones in Reykjavik
For most of the parts, N1 credit card interface was in Icelandic except the newer or larger Reykjavik ones ( but with abit of guessing you will know how to do it ) - also there are like 3 versions of pump interface hah. During the credit card entry you will be requested to enter the amount you wish to pump. So if you indicated 5000 isk on the system, and you only pumped 4000 isk, only 4000 isk will be deducted. The pump knows the end of the pump when you rest the pump head back into position. So it is highly unlikely someone next gets to use up your extra credits since transaction would have ended. For many terminals, one credit card interface serves two pumps, so you will have to indicate which pump number you are paying for.
Some of the manned stations actually open till 11+ pm, but please check to be sure.

I did not need to get any prepaid cards during my trip, but I know N1 sells prepaid cards with various value denominations. Apparently Olis stations do as well ( but there was one attendant in Selfoss branch that told me they/Olis do not sell them ) We bought an Icelandic driving map from Borders which indicated fuel station ( but did not tell us which gas company ). you can refer to this page as well, although I am not sure how up to date: http://travelcarsiceland.com/is/practical-information/136-fuel.html. Remember to always check fuel gauge and err on side of caution. West fjords will need some planning.

Ryan

okay noted! thanks for your kind advice!

 

[giantcanopy]

You are welcomed Kazeeee

# 25

More moss on lava fields, on the way out of Vik towards the east. Saw a young man coming out of deep from the moss fields with his wooden tripod and LF with a smile. I just had to walk a little deeper into the moss fields that later part of the day.
These are not exactly solid ground and they sink a little every time one threads on them, and crevices may be hidden.

Velvia 50, 6x9

 

[giantcanopy]

Another shot of Landmannalaugar
Colored pickets help hikers to follow particular hiking routes. They do sell a map for the hike around Landmannalaugar which I think costs 300 isk. But there is also a big post at the info / campsite area where one can "preview" for free.

# 26

 

[SnagIt]

Awesome. Your photos are simple, honest yet beatiful.

 

[limwhow]

# 18

Hotel Hellnar, as we passed by towards a visit to Hellnar. Tilted Shifted Stitched Pano

:thumbsup:, Giantcanopy!
I was about to ask how come you never bring your tilt-shift when I saw this shot...
Of course you must bring your T/S.
You're the T/S man, man!

 

[giantcanopy]

Awesome. Your photos are simple, honest yet beatiful.

Thank you SnagIt for your kind comments. You had a mesmerizing Bromo series btw!

:thumbsup:, Giantcanopy!
I was about to ask how come you never bring your tilt-shift when I saw this shot...
Of course you must bring your T/S.
You're the T/S man, man!

Thanks Mr Lim! Iceland had such beautiful scapes i thought I had to post more "proper" shots this time. But I still bag my own private collection of Iceland T/S stuffs for personal consumption

# 27

The beautiful Snæfellsnes peninsular. It was raining for the two days while we were there.
No this is not due to uncalled for GND filter, no this was not unnatural HDR/blending, or zealotic dodge/burn to create an excessive shadows in skies. It was a stitch of 3 jpegs in its simplicity period, a place that my wife thought the house and the mountains looked pretty as I drove on the roads. It was storm clouds at one end while I happened to be on the brighter ends, with the sun over my left. Barely after I made a tilted version, cloud cover came wiping off the shadows that strew across the foreground. Rain exists with its own photographic opportunites. Wait for 10 minutes, and the cloud pattern changes. Colorful Rhyolite mountains and hills in abundance.

Quite unlike the one done in Snæfellsnes in picture # 1 , where I was in the rain, while my beautiful subject was in the shine.

 

[asterixsg]

Ryan, #27 is well done. Very very well done... And these are the moments we live for, don't we ?

I have very fond memories of Iceland and I often remember the saying - If you think the weather is not good in Iceland, wait for 5 minutes. It will either get better or worse

 

[giantcanopy]

Ryan, #27 is well done. Very very well done... And these are the moments we live for, don't we ?

I have very fond memories of Iceland and I often remember the saying - If you think the weather is not good in Iceland, wait for 5 minutes. It will either get better or worse

Thanks for ur kind comments asterixsg.

We purposefully stayed abit later ( till 10-ish before we go back on each of the evenings to hope to catch some sunset amidst the rain ) for each of our two days in Snaefellsnes. Wifey was very accommodating :bsmilie: and we missed dinner twice ( although for one day we managed to grab late dinner in a rather expensive restaurant ) Snaefellsnes is sometimes referred to as a miniaturized summary of what one can see in the entire iceland, and it is not entirely wrong.

We stayed at the beautiful Bænir og Brauð guesthouse in Stykkishólmur. arguebly the best guesthouse that we have stayed. Price was most reasonable, auntie Greta was a fantastic enthusiastic hostess and quite an interior designer, her house being heavily Danish themed.. with an eye for small details http://www.baenirogbraud.is/

 

[commonjunks]

very pleasing mate.

 

[giantcanopy]

very pleasing mate.

Thanks mate!

# 28

Evening while on the way back, a late evening reflection at Lake Langavatn in Snaefellsnes

 

[giantcanopy]

# 29

Snaefellsnes Peninsular. Colorful Hills

 

[giantcanopy]

# 30

Landmanalaugar, Fujichrome Provia 100F, 6x9
Taken on one of the higher spots of our short hike.
We walked a mixmatch of the white picket/red picket/yellow picket routes

 

[giantcanopy]

A little backtracking to Reykjavik , Created a screen cap of google map of the places we been ( i cannot seem to embed google map function on forum )

Link : http://maps.google.com.sg/maps/ms?m...ll=64.148166,-21.936264&spn=0.024065,0.054932

Ryan