I pick up the car just after lunch. The car rental people refuse to come out and inspect the car with me, so I take photos and send them to their Facebook staff. My travel insurance should cover any excess, but I’d rather not have any extra hassle.
The car is a Hyundai i10. Small, but big enough for just me and my panniers (the blog title still holds!). I take it easy pulling out and before long have gotten back into the swing of driving stick. I pick up my gear from the house and drive straight into what must be the entire driving population of Iceland. The road out of Reykjavik is a 3 lane highway and it was gridlocked. After a half hour I get to the source, two lanes shut down for maintenance. I turn onto the Ring Road and settle down for a long evening of driving.
The drive from the highlands down to Sellfoss is incredible, as the mountains give way to a vast plain. In Sellfoss I pick up a group of hitchhikers. They are heading to Skogar, and can barely fit into the car with their huge backpacks. They are a group of friends from London who had just completed their masters and decided to fly to Iceland to celebrate. The company was welcome and we chatted as the beautiful scenery surrounded us. The weather was fantastic and the lighting looked promising. Our first stop is Seljalandfoss, the first Icelandic waterfall to really impress me. We first saw it maybe 50km away, giving us a clue as to its size. Due to the evening sun we were treated to a beautiful rainbow across its length.
We drove onwards to Skogar, which turned out to be another waterfall, this one with a large glacier towering above it. The hitchhikers invited me to dinner so I decided to hop over to the falls. On my way there I met two cycle tourists from Poland. Upon hearing that hitchhiking is a feasible option for getting around, they contemplated stashing their bikes at the campsite cafe and hitchhiking to Vik rather than brave the winds.
I amazed them with my waterproof socks.
After dinner with the hitchhikers we parted ways and i continued on towards Vik. It was getting late, so I parked the car at a rest stop and fell asleep in the seat.
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