In early June I attended a seminar at Reykjavik University (they left a brief but outstanding impression) however I wasn’t going to let this opportunity go to waste by simply staying in Rvik for a week. Nope, not me. That’s why we left a week earlier to do at least a brief tour of Iceland.

Geysir supplied the car at a very decent price and we did the rest. Initial deal and the reason we chose them over all the other rental agencies was simple… they have Lada Niva in their lineup. Forgetting for a moment that it’s the cheapest 4×4 (and 4-wheel drive is the only way to drive in Iceland) it’s also very capable off-road. It is by no means a softy SUV but a serious car. When we got to their office (conveniently located 500m from the terminal in Keflavik) we were in for a surprise. Turns out all the Nivas were out so they offered a Hyundai Santa Fe as a free upgrade. A bit of a bittersweet upgrade in my mind. Santa Fe isn’t what I’d normally call an off-road vehicle. It’s an SUV for people who need a 4-wheel drive car to travel the 100m of gravel road to their summer cottage and to feel superior in normal city traffic. It doesn’t have low range, it doesn’t have diff-locks and it has electronically controlled 4-wheel drive. In other words a fully inflated softy. You can imagine why I was disappointed at first. However it has its upside… with rear seats folded flat we could comfortably sleep inside and not bother with the tent (we just had to accept it as dead weight in checked luggage).

So there we were… sleeping and driving (on road) in style, comfort and fuel efficiency but with off-road limitations in mind at all times. As it turned out many highland tracks were still closed due to melting snow so whatever was open at the time was also negotiable with the Santa Fe (mostly).

In total we drove 3500km (2200miles) in 8 days with fuel consumption at 8.1 l/100km (~29mpg) and an average driving speed of 58km/h (~36mph). Why are these numbers important? Considering the speed limit in Iceland is 80-90km/h and fuel consumption on the road was under 7 l/100km it’s indicative of what kind of roads you get once off paved roads. While the speed limit on gravel roads in general is 80 km/h you’ll rarely reach it in reality. That’s why ETA estimates on the GPS are somewhat of a joke. For instance it might tell you that it’s possible to drive from Gullfoss to Hveravellir hot springs on the F35 in about an hour. Well… multiply that by 2 or 3 for the real time needed on what’s actually a quite decent road.

My original idea was for us to stay in one area for the whole week, do some multi day hiking and not drive around all the time. But highland road closures and the lovely Eyafjallajökull eruption (more accurately the consequences of it) changed that plan a bit. We couldn’t get close to places where we wanted to hike so had to settle on driving as close as possible. And eventually that turned into driving around the whole island with multiple highland incursions and weird roads that weren’t really roads.

But those roads get you to some amazing locations. You drive through a black desert in the middle of nowhere and suddenly there’s a bunch of lakes in front of you. With massive numbers of mosquitoes, nesting birds and just stunning scenery.

OFF-ROAD

We certainly pushed the Hyundai to its limits, including water crossings around and possibly over its maximum allowed depth of 50cm. However, a few situations will remain in memory for a long time. The first one was on the very first day (or perhaps night if arctic midnight could be called a night) when we were driving towards Þorisvatn on a track parallel to the main highland road F26. We got on it because we were hoping to find a place to sleep nearby. The trail got gradually worse, the tire tracks gradually disappeared and we were eventually driving inside a dry river bed, with very soft, wet volcano sand and steep sides. Stopping wasn’t an option as we would get stuck in the sand. Simply going forward was one alternative but since we only saw that track on the GPS (and at that point we had no idea how accurate it might be and that it would lead us somewhere) and seeing how we were getting deeper into unexpected, unprepared and untested trouble I wanted to turn around as fast as possible even as we were going uphill. Easier said that done as the saying goes… the sides were cut quite deep into soft sand and the channel itself wasn’t wide enough to turn. That meant I had to somehow bump the car onto higher terrain, hoping we wouldn’t get stuck in an even worse position and even deeper or softer sand. Thankfully I kept enough momentum to get it up and over, make the turn and back into the channel. We got out of it and I only wish that I could have it all on camera. But I don’t as neither of us was prepared for it and I certainly wasn’t going to repeat it.

Another little off-road challenge was a short (100m) hill climb. Basically a shortcut next to a main highland road designed for ego boosting of Icelandic monster truck drivers and to frighten their paying passengers. Well… the Santa Fe almost made it to the top, had to back off only due to clearance issues crossing a ditch running perpendicularly across. I had to reverse before turning around half way down which was much harder than going up. I felt a bit disappointed afterwards, since that ditch was the only major obstacle but only until I saw how one of those huge monster trucks came to an embarrassing halt even lower down the slope. Granted he made it up in the second try but it sure felt good to see him fall flat on his face right in front of our softy.

The third off-road memory will be of us facing a river channel and the GPS telling us the trail continues on the riverbed about 20km upstream. Up to this point we crossed a few small streams and halfway across the wide riverbed with several shallower channels. When we got to the main channel it dawned on us the trail doesn’t cross all the way to continue on the other side. Seeing how the albeit narrow channel was way too deep for comfort (and without a second vehicle it would probably be a very costly lesson) and how we had no idea where and how the trail continues beyond what we could see we beat a retreat. The car was certainly out of its comfort zone in such terrain, a rock strewn riverbed and deep water.

WATER EVERYWHERE

At this point you might think Iceland is all about off-road driving. To a certain extent, for me, yes. I have never seen so many huge cars with huge wheels driving over such demanding terrain. But there’s more to it. You could do it all on horseback. The country is beautiful, full of contrasts over short distances. And full of horses, birds and waterfalls. It’s funny how most tourists only bother to see two or three well known waterfalls when there’s 10 equally or more impressive around the corner. Actually all those waterfalls contributed to “waterfall fatigue”. Eventually you just don’t notice them any more. Something that would be hailed as a natural monument and a big attraction in many other countries just fades into the background and you begin to wonder if it’s worth stopping to take a closer look.

Dettifoss was one of them. By the time we got to the north of the island we really couldn’t be bothered any more. But it was on our way, another reason to turn off the main road, so we stopped. For dinner. The weather was miserable but I went down to the edge to shoot some video and photos while Jonna got the pasta ready. And below is the result.

HIKING

We didn’t do as much hiking as I hoped in the beginning. We were there too early in the season and getting to certain trail heads was out of the question. So we took whatever we got. Every day we took at least a short walk to break the monotony of driving, to get away from the roads and to just enjoy the scenery.

I’m constantly amazed, but I really shouldn’t be any more, how random hikes towards somewhere that doesn’t look all that promising at first sight lead to interesting discoveries. Geldingafell was such an example… it didn’t look like much. Especially compared to the scenery around it. Bláfjell on one side, the impressive Insta-Jarlhetta group and Langjökull on the other. But with changing weather, no preparation and no real climbing gear it would be foolish to attempt either of them. Bláfjell was inviting but we chose the much lower Geldingafell for a short and safe introductory walk. Once on top we were treated to an amazing view towards Hvitárvatn and beyond towards the interior of Iceland. But also right there, inside a depression, was a small lake on top of melting snow. Haven’t seen that before…

I also discovered an old cairn marked trail running on the ridge above Hengifoss. I was watching this 118m beauty from below (where most people see it) and decided I needed more exercise before lunch. So I found a way up to the top to get a closer look and there was a trail that didn’t seem to be used very often. But the view was much nicer from up there… As was the view from the top of Snæfellsjökull. This 1446m glacier covered volcano sits at the end of Snæfellsness peninsula. On a good day you can admire it all the way from Reykjavik. As we discovered it’s really popular with snowmobile riders (understandably so) and there’s a snowmobile trail leading to the top. We took a slightly different approach. We noticed an old ski lift running halfway up the slope. It was also the approach with what looked like the least amount of snow and ice in the way. Avoiding crevasses altogether was a priority for us. At first we said we’d only try to get to the lower peak right above the ski lift and avoid the glacier. There was hardly any snow to cross on the way there so it was a safe choice. But once we got to the top of that one we got a clear look at the glacier, the crevasses we’d have to avoid and the top. Which wasn’t that much further so we went for it. All in all it took us between two and a half and 3 hours from the car to the top and 20 minutes to slide down and another 10min to the car. A beautiful climb. If a bit wet in the shoes.

The rest of the photos as slideshow:

In November a friend from way back in my swimming years asked me for some help with an interview. Turns out the worlds most respected swim coach/scientist Guennadi Touretski (think Alex Popov & Michael Klim) was running a training camp in Maribor, in a pool just across the street. It was a rather unique opportunity to interview him from a perspective that’s not quite typical of his usual press engagements. Two ex swimmers, one super coach.

Interview with Touretski from Jernej Burkeljca on Vimeo.

I’ve been having problems with fGallery plugin since I first started using it. The code is badly structured, full of bugs and the author apparently gave up on it altogether. Overall it’s not a bad gallery plugin, actually it’s quite good in a limited environment, however as the number of images increases the user is soon facing two huge issues. The first one is non-existent album nesting which would improve navigation, the second a more serious overwriting of photos with identical file names. If you shoot with two cameras, or simply shoot so many images that the counter starts again from zero, you inevitably bump into this limitation. One solution would be to rename all images but that’s just silly… And since I haven’t managed to solve the coding problem myself and I haven’t received any sort of feedback from the author (or any other user) in over a year I decided it’s time to switch to another gallery system called NextGEN. Which comes with its own great deal of ridiculous problems, least of which is importing all previously uploaded images. And solving these issues takes time I don’t really have and that’s why the Scandinavian road trip report comes delayed by a few months to put it mildly. And that’s why there’s very little going on content-wise in the gallery itself and will continue to remain in the same state for a while. The only section of this blog in constant motion despite everything is my Google Reader shared items feed which I hope one or two people enjoy.

The trip

With that preamble sorted out, here’s a rough overview of our roadtrip in an old Volvo 440. Altogether about 4600km on the meter done in a week.

View Larger Map

Which makes people think all we did was drive all day. True to some extent :) but we also hiked the 12km Pieni Karhunkierros (small bear loop) trail in Oulanka National Park. We drove there in a day from Lahti (stopping for a quick tour of major cities on the way), hiked in the northern summer twilight to the nearest campsite next to Pyöreälampi lake and continued to complete the loop clockwise (which is smarter as you avoid walking up a fair number of steps) in the morning. Before sleeping though, I also took the opportunity of the disappearing twilight for a midnight trail run and do some light painting at night on Myllykoski rapids.

After completing the scenic loop in the morning of day two, we drove to Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park, via Rovaniemi city tour. Getting there well after the lights went out and reindeer started running around, we were looking for a dry hut or shelter with a view next to Pallasjärvi lake (as the map suggested) however the place either did not exist or it was the one that was locked and available upon reservation only (which was not mentioned in the map). It wasn’t until Jonna took the map from my hands that she found kota (this being the Finnish word for a small hut/shelter that I didn’t know at the time) written clearly on the map in another part of the park. Except the map didn’t have an icon of a hut in that location… which made it a bit of a gamble. Could it just be a place called Kota rather than an actual hut?

Since it was only about 20min drive and 10min hike from the lake we decided to relocate there anyway and not camp out on the (dry) porch of some abandoned looking cottage. The hiking portion to the hut started next to NP visitor centre so at least we had options.

The next morning (day 3) we scrambled up 240 vertical meters past herds of reindeer to the top of Palkaskerro, hiding in a cloud that obstructed our view of the park somewhat. It was quite a sight regardless. Completing the 7km loop back to the car didn’t take that long and we were pretty soon back on our way to Kilpisjarvi and Saana fell.

The original plan was to go up to Saana (1029m) in the evening, sleep in a hut on the far side and complete the loop the next morning but an employee at the visitor centre told us it wouldn’t be possible to sleep in the hut (for reasons I can’t remember but it could have been something to do with reservations). Seeing rain clouds (again) on the horizon we figured sleeping in our poor tent wouldn’t be an option so we continued towards Norway.

The landscape changed dramatically, to say the least, as soon as the border crossing appeared. It was a mountain fairytale and the roads were beautiful to drive (something for the Top Gear bunch). Thus we continued down to the sea and south towards Narvik. Sometime just before sunset at 11pm we found a beautiful spot on the beach, just off the main road, where we pitched our tent. It was some sort of protected nature reserve with camping prohibited signs and all that, but since we were armed with a plethora of excuses (ornithologists on a mission etc.) and the fact the tent was hidden behind bushes just meters inside the zone (and meters off the road) we felt confident nobody would kick us out during the (very bright) night. The Lyngen alps were stunning in the sunset light.

On day 4 we continued south-west towards Narvik for some supply shopping before setting off for Lofoten islands. Turns out Narvik (in addition to being a historic WWII site) has a pretty decent ski area just above the city. As it’s all in a fjord it is also quite steep. Sweet, have to visit in winter sometime.

Lofoten islands have been a dream destination for me ever since I saw a Rossignol calendar with some amazing photos taken there. They most definitely didn’t disappoint. It is the most amazing island chain I have ever seen. And the sea is as translucent as air. One might say it’s a bit cold, but not that much thanks to the gulf stream. We had a brief swimming/lunch break in one of many rest areas with a grand view of the mountains surrounding the fjords and continued towards Svolvær on AustvÃ¥gøy island. It’s a ridiculously expensive town to say the least. And if they could charge you for breathing their air they probably would.

Since it was raining heavily pretty much all day we chose not to sleep in a drenched tent and took off on a mission to find the cheapest accommodation possible. We decided on one of the “authentic” fishing huts (sjøhus or rorbuer) just outside of town. It wasn’t cheap.

But it was comfortable and dry and warm and had electricity to charge GPS and camera batteries. So we dozed off. But before I went to sleep I simply needed to see what was around us. So in proper heavy rain expected of the north Atlantic/Arctic Sea I climbed up some sea cliffs overlooking the approach to the harbour and began taking photos next to some abandoned concrete bunker which I suspect was last used during WWII. Long exposure photos of a ship on rough seas didn’t turn out quite the way I expected (I honestly don’t know what I did expect) but photos of waves crashing over rocks did. At least I hope. Because I like taking night photos at sea and I like the results and I wish I lived next to the sea where a proper storm can develop.

Since the rain didn’t ease on day 5 we abandoned hope of hiking up one of endless number of mountains around us, and we abandoned hope of a whale safari, kayaking, snorkelling or anything else that required ridiculous amounts of money the day earlier. So we went back to the mainland and up to Abisko National Park across the border in Sweden. We started the hike along Kungsleden trail from Abiskojavri lake in glorious sunshine and made our way to Teltlagret mountain shelter some 1.5h away, half way up to our goal of summiting Giron (1543m). And pretty much at that point it started to rain again so we just went to sleep.

We had a family of reindeer for a breakfast visit on day 6, then got back on our way, off-trail (as that ends at the shelter) to the top of Giron. Unfortunately the constant rain and soggy terrain didn’t offer much encouragement so we abandoned the attempt when we got on the north ridge. It just didn’t seem worth it to continue in the circumstances so we turned around and started finding the best, though not the shortest way back on the Kungsleden trail down in the valley. Needless to say we were soaked after slogging through the swampy terrain (with very welcome bits of permafrost thrown in), to the point where we just didn’t care how wet we were. The moss, which makes up most of the terrain in the area, is capable of absorbing enormous amounts of water and when you sink into it knee deep you quickly realize GoreTex isn’t really waterproof and start believing in the local custom of hiking in wellies. I was however just a bit worried about the cameras although they performed flawlessly even after the sensor washing cycle lasting all day.

After a very brief swim in the freezing cold waters of Abiskojavri we continued south-east to Kiruna for lunch (no reindeer burger available that day I’m afraid) and onwards to some rest stop around Overkalix. I opted for sleeping outside, Jonna slept squished in the front seat of the car and since I couldn’t sleep for long in my uncomfortable position I just started driving again around 4am on day 7. And we didn’t really stop for the next 17 hours until we got back to Lahti. Breakfast in Tornio, a quick swim in the Baltic sea and lunch at Kalajoki sand dunes and dinner in Jyvaskylla. By the end of the day I could hardly sit in the car anymore. I was going crazy. I was ready to give up on driving anywhere for at least a month. I lasted less than a day :)

Here’s the rest of the photos