The first week out of 26 on this trip has seen some amazing sights, laughter, little things that make you smile and getting to know the people I’m spending the next six months with. I arrived in Reykjavik late afternoon on 31.12.2015 and met Swedish Jonatan, an engineer/IT guy, in my dorm room. We didn’t get to see Garry our organiser much as he worked night shift at the hostel. He’s an Englishman living the past ten years in Iceland and seemed interesting. But we did get to meet the truck:
Jonatan and I met Scottish Frazer our tour leader, Australian Ryan our mechanic/driver:
American Martina an art grad, American Travis who works in Antarctica and his friend Justin. We sampled the local beer Gull before setting out to find Bjork’s bonfire. It was quite a hike but well worth it. We picked up another American girl who was here for New Years on the way. There were fireworks going off the whole evening and the bonfire was toasty! It was right on the coast and we heard lots of different languages. Some children had motionless sparklers so I tried to show them how to write their name in the air and the father gave us some too 🙂
We got caught in a snow storm on the hike back so we defrosted with white rum, coke, humous and tortilla chips. For the bells we went up to the church and the amount of fireworks was unbelievable. Every inch of skyline was alight with bangs and glittering sparkles:
New Year’s Day was really chill. In cafe Paris three New Yorkan girls from our dorm room, Jonatan and I ordered food. Theirs all came and I only got cutlery. Travis, Justin, and Martina joined, ordered food, and still none for me. I had to ask four times before it finally arrived on the house 🙂 luckily I wasn’t hungry. There’s so much street art in Iceland:
The official first day of the trip on 2.1.2016 we said goodbye to Justin and hello to Tom from New Zealand. Garry hired us a jeep to drive across to the ferry point by the 6th. We were lucky we had Travis with us as he has experience driving in snow/ice in Antarctica. The truck would have been horrible in the wind and ice, and the boys needed time to get used to it. Iceland has different laws than Europe, which we found out later on, including a trip to the police station. “We found the truck,” they said into their walkie talkies. You can read about it translating the local news article here which includes a video if you’re interested to see inside the truck. Our trip from Reykjavik to the ferry point was really beautiful. We saw the crater between Europe and North American continental plates which was in the middle of a shopping mall in Hveragerdi due to an earthquake in 2008. Plenty of waterfalls:
Lighthouses:
Headlands with stacks and stumps, one which looked like an elephant. A broken bridge which had been hit by 10x10x20 meter, 2,000 tonne icebergs after an eruption. Glaciers:
A glacial lagoon where icebergs were going out to sea and then being washed up onto the black sandy beaches:
The animals we saw were mainly horses, a few geese, crows, deer, seals, one herd of cows, one herd of sheep and a handful of dogs being walked by their owners. The first night we wanted to go down to the beach to see if we could see the northern lights. Travis navigated us straight through a pile of horse manure, he was preparing us for Africa apparently. We were unsuccessful but we managed to see them on our last night in Iceland.
They were nothing like the photo in real life as it was dark but they were great to watch dancing across the sky. We managed to find a Viking movie set which hasn’t actually been used to film yet. It was made seven years ago and is being weathered.
The horses here were super cute with their billowing manes.
Once we got to Egilstrada Icelandic Maria joined us and took us to an outdoor swimming pool which is the thing to do here. We lounged around in differing temperature heated pools and even experienced walking in snow in our bare feet! Maria also took us to a bakery and it’s official Icelandic people know how to bake! I had a vegan cinnamon roll coated in chocolate. It’s been pretty impressive the amount of vegan labelling and food available here.
At the ferry town of Seydisfjordur we ate pizza (no cheese for me) in a bistro which had an art gallery upstairs. It was cool with optical illusion artwork. Next saw two and a half days onboard a ferry heading for Denmark. The seas were so rough most of the amenities were closed and we got into the Faroe Islands so late there was nothing to do or see it was pitch black. The boat can take 1400 passengers and 800 cars, the first night saw 27 people on board, then after stopping in the Faroe 225 joined. I wouldn’t recommend winter trips here, half of us got seasick, I was fine. Can’t wait to get to Malaga where we’ll be buying our supplies, meeting the rest of the people coming with us and soaking up some sun! Parting advise until next time: Always be yourself, unless you can be a Viking, then always be a Viking!
Tag Archives: Iceland
The Next Adventure – Over-landing from Iceland to South Africa
Earlier this year an amazing adventure presented itself to me – an email landed in my over flowing inbox. How easy it would have been for me to miss it. Within was an invitation to join a private expedition from 66 degrees North in Reykjavik, Iceland, to 33 degrees south in Cape Town, South Africa – the most northerly capital city to one of the most southerly. The journey will take six months or there about, and cross 20 countries, give or take – depending on visa or border issues.
The journey officially begins on 2nd January in Iceland. Our transportation is a converted ex-army Bedford 4×4 truck who will be with us from start to finish. In Iceland we will visit Vik I Mydral, Hofn and Esturstadi. On the 6th January we set sail for 19 hours to the Faroe Islands, stopping for 6 hours, and then a further 36 hours to reach Denmark. Unfortunately for my friends in the next countries we will be flying through Germany, France, and Spain (as it is the middle of winter) camping in Malaga for a few days to buy supplies and make a trip to see Gibraltar.
Then we set sail for Morocco and heading south through western Africa visiting Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Ghana where we will rest on the beaches. Once recuperated we will go east through Togo, Benin, to Nigeria where we only stay in walled compounds. Last time they stayed in some interesting places including camping in the gardens of 5 star hotels!
Moving on and heading further south exploring central Africa including Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Dominican Republic of Congo, Angola, Namibia, and finally arriving in South Africa if all goes to plan.
Surprisingly I have managed to memorise all 15 African countries! I used to play a game (click here) to learn all the 54 countries, dreaming of visiting them all. If you would like a more detailed itinerary for these countries please visit vikingsacrossafrica.com/route or follow my blog for updates. We hope to get connected at least once every two weeks if not more.
I had never thought about joining a tour group before, as the majority of my travels have been solo. This time, however, I figured there’s safety going with experienced people, there’s the shared cost of living and the fact that it’s such a long trip, the people joining me will be open minded and easy going like me.
It took me a couple of months to mull it over and some forecasting to see if my office job would provide me with enough income. I could have saved myself the energy pondering whether to go, as this trip has my name all over it. Friends I talked to about it must have thought “why is she even questioning it? I know she’s going to go!” I’ve always wanted to see Africa – the people, the wildlife, the nature, the cuisine, the dancing, the colourful textiles and music.
I will be joining 13 other people plus three crew members’ age ranging 20’s to 40’s from many different nationalities and backgrounds. It’s a get out and push kind of tour and apparently we are all allowed to drive the truck, at least for a kilometre, when we get to Mauritania – as long as there are no camels about! There’s a built in kitchen, sound system, and plenty of tents to house us all. Our tour leader is a fellow Scot who has spent over 30 years in Africa working in humanitarian aid and expeditions like this one.
Here’s an example of what my luggage includes:
- Sleeping bag and artificial silk liner, travel pillow
- Pen knife (handed down to me from my Dad) which includes a mini saw (I’m a bit too excited about this feature!)
- Travel washing line which is two ropes wrapped around each other so it doesn’t need pegs, with hooks and suckers
- Travel laundry soap flakes in a tiny box where 2-3 flakes will do one wash (!)
- Clothes, walking boots, socks, flip flops
- Swimming costume, travel towel, sunscreen
- Eco-friendly soap so I can wash in rivers and waterfalls and try not to harm nature
- Mosquito net, repellent, scarf for covering up against the weather/mosquitoes/idiot men folk
- Nail clippers, tweezers, toothbrush and paste
- Salt rock deodorant, hairbrush, hairbands
- Sunglasses, camera, ipad loaded with music, books and recipes
- Water bottle with a uv water purifier (my friend Jeannie had one and they really help reduce the amount of plastic consumed buying disposable water bottles)
- Notebook and pens
And once I’ve put all this stuff in my backpack and seen how much it weighs, I will invariably chuck some of it out and aim to keep the pack under 15 kilos! I’ve travelled with fewer kilos before but seeing as we are on a truck the whole way and I don’t plan to be walking for miles with it, I can afford to take some luxuries.
My medical practise advised me to get yellow fever vaccine and a booster for Hepatitis A & Typhoid. I’ve already been immunised against Hepatitis B, Rabies, Meningitis, Tetanus, Polio, and Diphtheria and our trip organiser recommends Larium for Malaria protection, although my Doctor recommends Malerone.
My French is getting brushed up on Duolingo, an app which lets you practise important phrases such as “I am a dolphin” and “The shark is eating a turtle.” I can’t wait to talk a bit of Arabic and see how different Egyptian Bedouin Arabic is to other strains.
The trip starts on 2nd January but like a lot of my fellow passengers we will be meeting in Iceland on New Year’s Eve. A time to see in the new year with the people I will be spending the next six months with. Apparently there is a firework display at the Bells and as I’m an hour behind the UK I might just have to celebrate twice!
Friends have already started giving me tips of things to see and I welcome any more. I’ve caught up on all of David Attenborough’s wildlife documentaries on the BBC (except for the fighting one on at the moment). The countdown is on with just over three weeks till departure. Excitement is an understatement!
betsybluetoes 