A word on driving in Iceland...

If you have never driven on the right hand side of the road before, Iceland is the place to do it (mind the wind). With a population of only 300 000, this is the easiest place to drive on the other side of the road (and in the other side of the car, changing gears with the other hand). There's just no traffic once you get out of Reykjavik.

Two things to remember: the speed limit on the highway is 90 km / hr, and 50 km / hr in the towns.

The only problem is that the roads can be icy and the weather can be atrocious. Oh, and the speed cameras were dreamed up by some vindictive so-and-so to make sure that rather than prevent accidents, their main purpose is to ensnare all drivers and ensure the coffers of the Icelandic DVLA are full to bursting. I say this because how are you supposed to make sure you are doing the correct speed if the sign is actually ON the speed camera, and the camera (which is facing oncoming traffic, catching you on your approach, rather than the ones in the UK which catch you as you go past) flashes BEFORE you reach the posted speed limit? What's that all about?

And you know, they make the signs look sooo cute, little yellow boards with two flashlights at the top, either side of the board (kind of like eyes) and screen in the middle that displays your speed, flashing red numbers, (again, BEFORE you pass the posted speed limit sign) - they just need a little smiley mouth down the bottom and a recorded voice saying "thank you for speeding in Iceland, have a nice day"...

By the way, I'll let you know if they follow up on speeding fines for international drivers... here's hoping they don't. I didn't mean to speed. Honest.

Where the wind blows...

Iceland sure is one WINDY country!

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 they 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.

It was such a relief to be out of the wind!

Golden Circle Tour (and no, I don't mean the Cannery!)

So on Monday we did the "Golden Circle" tour - of þingvellir (pronounced something like "Thingveddler") national park, Geysir and Gullfoss waterfall. This was a great tour, I particularly liked Geysir where we saw a geyser called Strökkur go off - it does it every 5 minutes, and can shoot really high (100 metres?) - except on Monday it was windy so it tended more to blow sideways. And it really smells because of the sulphur - Geysir reminded me a lot of stinky Rotorua. Anyway, back to that tour. So þingvellir is where the first parliament was set up in like 930 or something, apparently Iceland is the first place in the world to have a parliament like that. Its a very beautiful area, there´s a gorgeous lake there and a beautiful church. But the other thing that þingvellir is known for, is that it is the area where the continental drift can clearly be seen. Where the continents divide is a flat plain, you can clearly see the difference between North America and Europe. As they drift apart, volcanic action, earthquakes etc cause lava to fill the gap - so the island of Iceland is literally growing every year. It was pretty interesting to see. One thing that is very interesting about Iceland though is the fact that there are no real trees. They say if you ever get lost in an Icelandic forest - stand up!

After this we went to the waterfall at Gullfoss. This was pretty impressive but very cold. The water comes straight off a glacier. We had lunch there and then went to a place called Hveragerdi, which is where there are some greenhouses. This place also has some natural hot springs and we were told the story of one family who were sitting down to Sunday lunch when the floor of their house caved in, because hot spring had suddenly "sprung" there. We also went to a place called Kerið (Kerith), there's an explosion crater there which is 55m deep or something, and the water was frozen over (its a beautiful but eerie blue-green colour). Apparently they've taken to holding concerts there, building a stage that floats on the water in the crater - and the first musician to perform there? Björk, of course...

Anyway, it was a pretty full on day and if you are going to Iceland, I would totally recommend this tour. So on that note, I do promise that the rest of this blog will not be so full of statistics and facts and stuff, else you might be put off...

To Iceland we will go...

So this past week has been half term at my school, which means only one thing - TRAVEL!!! Thought it would be good to go somewhere different, and as its Winter, anyplace far north would give a fair chance of seeing the Northern lights. I did see the northern lights (well, one northern light) in Kiruna in 2004 but I was next to the Icehotel and there was too much artificial light, so you couldn't see it really well. This is why I wanted to try again in Iceland. So, first of all, Iceland isn't as cold as you might think. Don't get me wrong, its pretty cold, and with the windchill factor, even colder, its just that I thought that there would be snow everywhere but was very disappointed when we landed in Reykjavik (well the airport is actually 45 minutes or so away by bus in Keflavik) - the only snow you could see was on some of the mountain tops, but certainly nothing on the ground. The landscape is actually quite bleak, black rocks (from volcanic eruptions) as far as the eye can see, no trees... This is because Iceland (if you want the geology lesson) is situated on 2 continental plates that are currently separating at the rate of 1-2 cms a year (Europe and North America). This separation causes earthquakes and volcanoes so that's why a lot of the land is made up of old lava. Plus, the country has a lot of geothermal systems and in fact most of the heating comes from geothermal sources (only about 15% of the country doesn´t have access to it). This means though that the hot water in the taps stinks of sulphur. Actually, a lot of the country's central heating is done by geothermal means, and they have more electricity than they need. Anyway, enough scientific type talk...

The road from Keflavik to Reykjavik

Anyway, back to the story... So we arrived in Reykjavik on Sunday, that was good, wandered about the town, no snow, but a bit chilly. Found out pretty quick there isn´t a lot to do in Reykjavik on a Sunday night. Its very expensive there too, we managed to find one restaurant where for AUD$40 we got a soup and a couple of lamb chops with a few vegies (and a couple of pieces of glass chucked in with the vegies... hm...mind that cut lip then). That was the cheapest we could find. Obviously we will need to do our own cooking in the youth hostel to save money... Apparently Reykjavik is good for culture, like museums and stuff, but this sort of thing isn't open on a Sunday night now is it. So we wandered about a bit, had a look at the big church and the statue of the dude (Lief someone - they also named the airport after him) who discovered America in front, and then decided to call it a day...

Setting the record straight - what's in a name?

A lot, that's what. I often get asked about my nickname, "kmuki". Its not a nickname that is widely used amongst my family members, no, from them I usually get things like Orb, Strawb, Kyles etc... Actually "kmuki" (pronounced "ka-moo-key") was given to me by a very dear friend that I have known since grade 1 (on yer, Jude!). Its a combination of things. Basically, back in the day, I wanted to be an author (hehehe well now I am, cool how the internet and blogging makes everyone a published writer, hey...), but the problem was the library cataloguing system. If I were an author, my surname would be represented in the spine label as MOO. So, combining this with my first initial, you get "kmoo" - add "ki" to make it sound kind of ok, and you get "kmuki". Mystery solved...

On your marks, get set - LET'S GO!

Hello world, after advising several people to start blogs, I've decided to finally jump on the bandwagon and do one myself! Not really sure what I'm doing, but it'll be fun, and at least it should be a better way to keep you informed of what I'm doing etc, rather than sending those extremely long emails that require several cuppas to get through (if you actually read them all anyway!)... At least this way you can dip in and out as you like.

I suppose I should outline my intentions for this blog... um, I'm not really sure what they are. Actually I think it'll be more for me, as kind of like an online travel diary or something. Plus a bit of a commentary on life in general...

Either way, it should be an interesting experience...