We camped in Iceland! The first blog back.
With every turn came another blindspot. We couldn’t see what was in front of us, to the side of us, or behind us. The fog was THICK and wasn’t about to go anywhere. But we continued driving at a blisteringly slow pace, on this rocky road, unwilling to take any risk that might send us to our demise over the suspected and imagined steep cliff to all sides.
The blind heads were literally that. All we saw was the white, foggy sky as we slowly traversed over them, hoping we wouldn’t be surprised with the sudden headlights of another vehicle. Mel acted as my eyes before each one, running up to take a look (if she could) for any of that oncoming traffic. We never came across any but the concern was always there.
Up, left, over, down, right, up, over. This road never seemed to end. I thought it was only supposed to be 2km? That must’ve been a typo in the Google review. Suddenly, and still uncomfortably, we were on a steep downhill portion cluttered with large potholes. As we descended the fog slowly began to lift until we were met with a road that paralleled a river and all we saw in the distance were stunning green mountains.
Whilst in Iceland, we decided to camp for two nights. The first night we camped near Skaftafell Glacier to be near the location of our Glacier Hike the following day. For anyone contemplating this, I highly HIGHLY recommend. It was such an incredible experience and one that I will never forget.
The second night, however, we stayed at one of the most mind-blowing and gorgeous camp sites I’ve ever stayed at, Þakgil. While the rain rolled in for the one night/morning we were there that prevented us from doing any of the local hikes, I would still suggest this to anyone visiting Iceland.
We traversed one of the craziest roads to get there, in incredibly thick fog that only made it crazier, but the sights when we got there were incredible. We also ended up sleeping in the car instead of the tent because of the rain, BUT IT WAS STILL AWESOME.
This campground is nestled between mountainsides near the Katla Volcano in southern Iceland. When you pull up, the Reception desk is at the end of the road and the communal restrooms, showers, and sink is pretty much in the middle of the campground. Spots are first-come, first-serve so you can pick where you want to be. They also had cabins, but we didn’t check those out.
There’s a waterfall that is about a 5-minute hike from the campground but we didn’t get to see that because it was POURING pretty much the entire time.
We decided to take a camp spot near the foot of one of the mountains and along a small stream that I used to cool down some drinks before they tried to float away. Even though we ultimately decided to sleep in the car, we didn’t set up any camp right away and decided to go straight to the dinner portion of the night.
The camp kitchen was one of the coolest features of this site and was located inside of a cave! They had several long picnic tables inside with candles sprinkled along the walls and tables to provide a little light. There was also a small fire on one side but it was pretty dark.
We were definitely the noobs in the camp kitchen setting using only a single burner that had to be precariously balanced and our phone lights to see what we were doing, but it was still one of the coolest camp dinners I’ve eaten ever.
Even though the rain put a damper on most of our plans for this spot, I’d still highly recommend checking it out… if you’re willing to traverse the road to get there and back. It’s definitely longer than 2km.
I know it’s been a WHILE since I last posted a blog. Hoping to get back into it more consistently with updates on travel, food, training, life and whatnot.
🤙🏼
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