On Tuesday we decide to explore some of the country, as we have nothing else to do in Reykjavik, but there are no trains in Iceland (and the buses only run on Monday and Friday), so we hire a car. As I'm the only one with a licence, I get to do all the driving.
We head out East towards the largest glacier, Vatnajökull. Now I've driven a few times on the right-hand side of the road before, its a strange experience, but certainly a lot easier when in your own car, sitting on the right hand side, changing gears normally with the left hand etc. To be sitting on the other side of the car, using your right hand for the gears, looking up to the right, that's a bit wierd. Couple that with trying to make sure you're doing the correct speed, not cutting anyone off, not knowing exactly where you're going - this is a bit tricky.
Anyway, we are driving East, heading for the iceberg lagoon at Jokkusarlon, and then on to Hofn. As we approach the town of Vik, its starts to get a bit windy. My friend Agnieszka is interested in seeing the basalt cliffs at Vik,
but I decide to stay in the car as its getting windier. Next thing I know, a sea of black sand is heading for me, crashing against the car. Now this is a bit of a problem, as we didn't take out extra damage cover and aren't covered for damage done by stones. Agnieszka gets her picture and we quickly get out of there (luckily there's no damage to the car).
Heading down the road we start to notice some signs that look like they're giving temperature information or something about the area. This is important for later.
Anyway, its getting a bit windier, oops, there´s another sandstorm, now the doors on the car feel like they´re going to blow off, now I can´t really control the car on the road, the back end is fishtailing all over the place... but we're near the glaciers now and t
hey look so pretty,
so we stop the car for a bit to walk over to one. Yeah, there´s a bit of a problem there, can´t stand upright in the wind, almost get blown across the road (I´m not joking on this, I was standing next to the car and the next thing I was heading for the other side of the road - I have to get down low to the ground and grab on to a bit of a fence to pull myself back to the car)... a rescue truck comes past and advises us to pull into the next town, Freysnes, as there´s no way we can travel further. Turns out that the those "temperature" signs we have been passing were also giving the wind directions and strength. In Iceland they measure wind strength in metres per second. The winds we were driving in were blowing 36m per second, with a dzhoosh factor of 45. The dzhoosh factor, and that´s the technical word the woman in the hotel gave us, (pronounced like the French je with "oosh" added), basically describes the sudden, strong gust of wind that whooshes in and out.
So back to the story. We pull into the next town, there´s a hotel there. We can´t travel to the next town because the wind is so bad, that the car that went through JUST BEFORE US is now a wreck, they were driving when suddenly one of the dzhoosh winds picked up some boulders and flung it at the windows, there were 3 broken windows in the car and luckily no one was hurt because they managed to duck quickly down as they saw the debris coming for them. Its now getting late, so we decide to check into the hotel as the wind is not forecast to drop before morning. There´s a load of truck drivers having to wait it out at the hotel too... but there´s still one problem. Because of the dzhoosh, the electricity to the
ONE HOTEL IN TOWN (Hotel Skaftafell) has been knocked out - and this is part of the 15% of Iceland that does not have heating via geothermal means, so there´s no hot water, no electricity, no nothing. Eventually that gets fixed and they are able to give us a hot dinner for tea.
Next morning, the winds have actually picked up, now blowing 45m per second, dzhoosh 57. So now we have to decide do we want to stay another day, because the place we want to see, the Jökusarlon (iceberg lagoon) is only 60kms away - but we can´t get there because of the wind. Our other option is to go back to Reykjavik - only about an hour down the road its closed off because of a sandstorm. We end up being stuck in Freysnes. There´s no real wind
though in Freysnes so we go to see Skaftafell national park nearby, only there´s a lot of wind there and as we´re driving along suddenly a dzhoosh puts a whole load of hard, pelting snow our way and we can´t see a thing. And boy does it sting when you´re outside (later we were climbing up to see the waterfall). We give up the waterfall (this is the one picture we managed to get in the wind) as a bad idea and go back to the hotel. Later in the afternoon the winds drop to 27 (dzhoosh 36) and we decide to follow a milk truck through. But partway across the back end of the little Daewoo we´re in starts skidding across the road - and there´s ice and snow on the road anyway - we get sooo freaked out and decide to head back to the hotel.
The next day, Thursday, the winds are at 10, no dzhoosh, so we make it to the Iceberg lagoon,
which is spectacular. They actually filmed bits of Titanic and some James Bond movies there, it looks like the Arctic or Greenland or something.
We then make our way back to Reykjavik, and beyond, up the North West coast, to the peninsula of Snæfellsnes, which was no mean feat either. There was a mini sandstorm on the way, and then as we get onto the actual peninsula, you guessed it, the wind comes back up, 28 with dzhoosh 35, but now the roads are covered with snow and ice, are uphill, and its to put it lightly, a bit slippy. Oh and did I mention, after dark. I was sooo freaked out, praying hard, and driving VERY slowly and carefully using my gears. We made it through ok, no incidents, and got to the hostel.
