When it became apparent that Icelandair was the cheapest and easiest way for us to get to Seattle this year, it didn’t take long to realize we needed to spend a night on Iceland. No way we could land here without having time to find some caches!
After starting this four week long caching trip/vacation on Sola/Stavanger yesterday, we arrived at Keflavik around 3pm local time.
Since we want to see and experience as much as possible, and probably a tiny bit more, in the limited time we have, we jumped straight into the rental car after we landed. Then we jumped back out again to replace and log the cache near the aiport.
Our next cache on the way towards Geysir, was GC4QFRC This is Iceland. I let my Nüvi guide us to it. But something didn’t feel quite right, I suddenly realized that the Nüvi was set to avoid unpaved roads! Ouch. The settings were adjusted, we turned around and got on the right track. I won’t say too much about that cache, since it’s a mystery, but I will say that it’s simply awesome!
On our way towards Geysir, we stopped a traditional cache and the two earthcaches C44K8V Ingólfsfjall – Palagonite Table Mountain and GC258YJ Kerið Crater. It’s awesome how much we get to see, in so little time!
GC1G4XZ Geysir – powerful hot spring was a new experience for us! The weather was a bit unpleasant, but it was definitly worth the wait anyway! We got to see multiple eruptions, and got a lot of pictures.
The next cache, after another traditional, was GCZCNE Gullfoss (Golden Falls). It’s getting darker and darker outside, but still more than enough light to see this massive waterfall. Not so golden, but still big! Now it was time to turn around, and drive towards Reykjavik, where we had booked a hotel for the night.
But first, we had to stop at GC1Z45X Þingvellir – The Mid-Atlantic Ridge (and a few other traditional caches). We got to enjoy the sunset on the way to Þingvellir, and by the time we got there, it was quite dark. But we managed to see a lot anyway – really impressive place! We also decided to walk down to the closest traditional cache, maybe not a very wise decision, but we did find it in the end.
We did a few more stops on the way towards Reykjavik, and arrived almost exactly at midnight.
Before heading out to Seattle the next day, it was time for the event GC55WEZ Meet the Norwegians – thomfre in Reykjavik. But first we had to find a few caches, especially GC4RRQX Draumur hafsins. The cache got on our todo-list due to the size and amount of favorite points. Now it has one favorite point more!
The event didn’t have many will attends in the start, but the amount increased drastically the last few days. It looked like there would be only one local geocacher attending, but I believe three-four locals attended. It was a real international event, with attendees from Germany, Austria, Norway, Aaland Islands, USA and Iceland. We also took a cool group picture.
I watched a video about driving on Iceland on the plane, and I got a pamphlet when I rented the car. The roads on Iceland are apparently challenging. Compared to Norwegian roads, roads on Iceland are real good! I guess we should start warning tourists about our roads as well!
