Saturday, July 21, 2018

Iceland Road Trip 2018 ✈ East Iceland

2,850 kms (1,770 miles), 8 days, and a camper van. We spent 8 days driving around Iceland, feasted our eyes with spectacular scenery at every turn, fed our soul with solitude, and indulged in so many unique experiences within such a short period of time. Iceland is definitely a unique country like no other.




30 May 2018 (Wed): Djúpivogur - Breiðdalsvík - Egilsstadir

After wrapping up our sightseeing along South Iceland, we made it to the Djúpivogur campsite on East Iceland around 8am, where we parked and camped for the 'day'. This campsite costs ISK1,650/pax + taxes, and on top of that we still had to pay ISK300/pax (coins) for hot shower. That's a total of approximately $18/pax, quite pricey imo. =.= 

Since we were sleeping during the day, we could have just gone to Djupivogur swimming pool next door (literally) to shower and parked there for the day. Would have cost only half the price and we could have enjoyed the sauna there. Too bad I only thought about this after paying for the campsite. 

Djúpivogur campsite is slightly elevated so you get a view of Djúpivogur town. This campsite is maintained by the Hótel Framtíð next door, so we had to pay for campsite at the hotel and get a little tag to put on our dash. 


The town is so small you can see the entire town from the campsite. Unfortunately, it was cloudy when we were there.

There was only one shower room for each male & female, but we didn't have to wait for shower. We spent more time figuring out how to get the hot shower to work than the actual shower itself...lol! There's also a kitchen but it wasn't as nice as the one in Selfoss. We arrived the campsite as everyone was getting ready to leave, so the kitchen was packed. It was funny because everyone was eating breakfast, while I was there hoarding 2 stoves cooking up a storm for our dinner and smoking the entire kitchen...haha! =P

We went to bed after 'dinner' and woke up at 4.45pm, another solid 8 hours of sleep. The campsite was empty and we had the entire common area to ourselves. It was great to have the kitchen to ourselves and made some ham fried rice and fried egg for 'brunch'. 

Started our drive along East coast at 7pm. There aren't really any sights along this route but this drive is spectacular and is one of the more scenic routes in Iceland, with mountains on your left and the Atlantic ocean to your right.

We stumbled upon this scenic spot surrounded by majestic mountains with fantastic view of the fjord 30 minutes into our drive. 


It's dangerous to simply stop along the main road, so we always made sure we stopped away from the main road, or not obstructing traffic (even though traffic was non-existent). =P


Flowing stream, snow-capped mountains, fjord...this would have been an awesome camping spot!

I'm kicking myself for not walking closer to the waters for better pictures.

Blaming hubby for now being as crazy as I am...haha! Handed him the GoPro to pan around, and notice how far he was standing...lol!


Can't miss my signature jumpshot (with crazy hair). =D

Views along the drive for the first 2 hours. The drive was really easy for the most part especially with no cars, but there was one section of gravel road and construction.

If you look at the map, you'll notice that the first part of this drive involves driving in and out of the fjord. This part of Iceland is sparsely populated with only few farmlands.

Another quick photo stop. We were very lucky with the weather, blue skies and great visibility!

According to my research, there was supposed to be a sea geysir here but we drove around and couldn't even find any trace of a geysir, not even a place to park. Besides, it was extremely foggy when we arrived and we couldn't even see the sea. We walked around the area for awhile and decided to give it a pass. 

They say the weather in Iceland can change drastically within 5 minutes, and we definitely experienced it here. It was extremely foggy when we arrived, but the fogs cleared within 5 minutes when we left.

No geysir so let's take some photos of the...road. =P Are those cloud or fog? I'm confused.

Benefit of traveling off hours, we get to see the beautiful sunset. We were on the east coast so the sunset was a lil' earlier at 9.30pm.


As we were traveling outside of normal hours, we had to make sure we buy things we needed before everything closes. Thanks to google, we found this gas station at a small town called Fáskrúðsfjörður (not gonna try pronouncing this) that was opened till 10pm. 

This town was slightly off the Ring Road but we were so glad we stopped here for gas. This is the view right in front of the gas station...welcome to Iceland. =P There is a campsite in this town and even though we didn't stay here, I would recommend it for the views. 

Easily our favorite stop along the east coast. 

Chasing sunset all the way to Egilsstadir town. Hubby certainly enjoyed having the road to himself!

Stopped for lunch break at 10.30pm by this river with sunset view in Egilsstadir town. Our original plan was to visit two more waterfalls (Hengifoss and Litlanesfoss) and stay at the Egilsstadir campsite. However, we were all waterfalled-out at that point, and we knew we were going to see more waterfalls in the next few days. Hence, we decided to continue driving northbound, which got us a day ahead of our original itinerary.

31 May 2018 (Thurs): Rjúkandi Waterfall

Amazing view of the clouds and glimpse of sun ray at 1am. Traveling at night means we had to use these porta-potties all around Iceland. 

Another random stop...Rjúkandi Waterfall. This waterfall is not a popular tourist spot but it is definitely worth a stop. A short hike and you're right next to the gushing waterfall!


That's all for East Iceland. Stay tuned for North Iceland in the next post! As a token of appreciation for scrolling through this long post, here's our map to help you plan for your Iceland adventure! Click on the top right 'square' to open in Google Maps.

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