© OpenStreetMap contributors

© OpenStreetMap contributors

The youth hostel ist poorly soundproofed. Late last night a group of Chinese people arrived who woke up the whole floor before continuing their conversation in the room next to us. You could understand each word.

We get up at 6:30, probably waking up our Chinese neighbors this time. We slowly pack our stuff and head for the ferry's check-in.



The Norröna arrives and the first cars are being unloaded. Just after 9 o'clock we are about to drive onboard.




We are on the car deck that will be moved up

We cannot go to our cabin yet, as it is still being cleaned. We wait on the deck in the sun.
Unfortunately we get an inside cabin, exactly what we have booked.


Goodbye, Iceland

We say goodbye to Iceland. It has been an exceptional trip. The weather was almost always good. We only had rain a few times. We always were able to charge our Twizy if we have asked for it and the people have been extremely nice and friendly.
We have been photographed numerous times. We do not know what people did with the Twizy when we didn't watch - we know what some people did while we watched or even were sitting inside.

We walk around the ship and visit the duty free shop and buy some gummibears. Finally!
We rest a bit before getting dinner in the fast food restaurant. Lars doesn't trust his stomach and we share a Burger with fries.
This wasn't the worst idea as the burger wasn't very good and the fries failed as well.

We get a bier and a soft drink in the duty free shop and look at the sea for a while.

As discussed the previous night, we are going to the highlands today. Stephan has promised his mother to climb down the Hafrahvammagljúfur canyon. That's far beyond what I am capable of doing. We therefore go hiking with Silja and meet up later with Stephan and his mother, before continuing with his Land Rover Defender on the highland roads.
We meet with Silja in Egilsstaðir and shop groceries for the ferry back to Denmark as well as for a picknick later in the day:
The Twizy gets charged at Silja's place while we are in the highlands.


I am glad you can buy German magazines in Icelandic supermarkets

We go with Stephan's Volvo. Stephan is already on the road with his mother in his Land Rover Defender to visit the Hafrahvammagljúfurt canyon. On our way to the highlands we stop at a really nice and unusual forest.

The weather is perfect. Blue sky, the sun is shining, although we have a little wind.

Silja navigates us to Laugarfell Hut, around 2 km off the paved road to the Kárahnjúkar power station. They even have a charger here.


If you ever have the need to charge here: N 64° 53,1331' W 15° 21.0941'

We hike for about 1,5 hours and see a number of waterfalls, which get bigger and more impressive every time.







We go back to the car, follow the road 910 to the dam. We are now in the area of the Vatnajökull National Park, which we have already visited in the south.


Highland

We stop at the main dam of the Kárahnjúkar power station, we walk around and take a look at the Hafrahvammagljúfurt canyon. SIlja makes some coffee and we wait for Stephan and his mother.


Hafrahvammagljúfur canyon


Beware of dangerous dams!

Stephan and his Land Rover safely takes us over the highland road F910, before we turn into another road for Laugarvallarlaug, a beautiful, natural hot pot.



We stop at a small river fo a picknick. We grill sausages, have some bread and enjoy the surroundings and the weather. The sausages are delicious!




It's only a few meters to the parking area. You follow a small path with a steamy rivulet and end up at the Laugarvallarlaug hot pot, Idyllicly located right next to a river with sheep in the background. We relax in the hot water.


Perfect hot pot

It's getting late and we head back to Egilsstaðir, We have to be at the youth hostel in Seyðisfjörður before 9 o'clock in order to be able to ask if we can charge the Twizy. The reception closes at 9.

We thank Silja for the great experience today and the exceptional hospitality (we have also done this to Stephan and his mother when we parted) and drive with the Twizy to Seyðisfjörður. It's a steep, long climb. We arrive at the youth hostel in time and we can charge.


Youth hostel in Seyðisfjörður, a former hospital

Tomorrow we go on the ferry back to Denmark. We will arrive in Hirtshals on Saturday.

The weather is the same as yesterday evening: low hanging clouds, it's cold and the guest house is still kind of spooky.
At least one of the two toilets are not in the best state, apart from that it is really cold inside. There might be a good reason why the windows are open.

Just a short important note: The toilets, the rooms, kitchens and whatever have so far been exceptionally clean on our trip around iceland.

We reduce our morning routine to an absolute minimum and head for Egilsstaðir. 52 easy kilometers. It is 12° Celsius but not really a problem today.
On the road an oncoming car signaled us to stop. Neighbors from back home, whom we didn't know before the trip until they realized through the Islandreise-Forum that we live a couple of hundred meters apart. Our sons loosely know each other from school.
They have a blog and they a did a cook book about icelandic recipes. It's a small world after all.

After some climb and some more downhill we arrive at Egilsstaðir's swimming pool with 17% battery. The free charger is blocked and we park the car without charging. It's great to shower again. And to have hot tubs!
The charger is still blocked when we leave the pool and wie drive to the charger from ON and charge there.We are getting photographed again and again. There seem to be a special interest for cute & tiny electric cars in Egilsstaðir.

We have now completed the ring road in Iceland. More than 1700 km with the Twizy!



We get something to eat, buy some groceries and get a coffee before heading to our guest house 12 km south of Egilsstaðir.

We relax a bit and enjoy the room and the surroundings!

Stephan, whom we met in Seyðisfjörður when we arrived by ferry, invited us for dinner. We went to a fine restaurant in Egilsstaðir. His girlfriend Silja and her son joined us. The food was excellent! And I feel really bad about his generosity.

The sun is shining, it's quite warm and almost windstill. Ideal for today's tour! We have to cover 111 km without the possibility to charge at an outlet.
We get up early and start earlier than planned. After only 5 km and 10% less battery we charge at the last charger at Mývatn Nature Bath before the wasteland begins.



The swimming pool is still closed and we wait for the cafe to open. We get a coffee.
Fully charged we head east. it's around 27° Celsius in the Twizy and we are sweating!



After 45 km we stop at a sightseeing point and use the generator to charge the car. The generator whirs, it is still really hot and we are in a really good mood because everything seem to work out well.






Twizy Lunar Lander: East of Myvatn, Moon (Thanks, Alex R.!)

We charge for around 100 minutes and head eastwards again. The next rest area is 37 km away at the junction to Vopnafjörður. The landscape is really beautiful!





It is cloudy. We charge with the generator for 120 minutes and it is getting quite chilly. Lars is reading in the Twizy while I try to keep warm outside.



30 km to go to the guest house in Skjöldólfsstaðir. This is also the first gas station since Reykjahlíð.

The guest house is quite basic but it's ok for a night. There are only 2 toilets and one shower for eight rooms and we decide to head for the swimming pool in Egilsstaðir first thing tomorrow morning.

We have the usual burger with fries in the attached restaurant.

It is cloudy in the morning. We want to visit areas of interest around the lake today.



First stop is at Hverfjall. The volcano erupted 2500 years ago leaving a 160 m high crater with a diameter of 1000 m. We walk up to the top of the crater and have to realize that we are not as fit as in previous years. Both of us!





The sun comes out and it gets really warm until we arrive at the top of the crater where there is quite some cooling wind. We don't stay long, go down again and head for Dimmuborgir.

Dimmuborgir ("dark castles") is about 2000 years old. A volcano erupted and the lava got in contact with some wetlands and created some explosions. That caused the landscape to be what we see today. It has been much more complicated and complex but I don't want to describe that here.

Akureyri must have gotten another cruise ship today. Numerous busses with cruise shipping tourists with numbered badges walk around Dimmuborgir. Fortunately the smart cruise shipper takes the shortest route around Dimmuborgir leaving the longer walkways almost empty.



Our thermometer shows 25° Celsius an. It's getting quite hot but we will not complain.


Chinese people everywhere …



We stop af Höfði right next to lake Mývatn. It's a landscape that is not quote typical for Iceland. A combination of forests and grasslands with a great view of Lake Mývatn.



Last stop for today are the pseudocraters Skútustaðagígar. They were also created by lava meeting up with water, resulting in an explosion.
Again, we are being joined by a large crowd of cruise ship tourists.


Twizy in front of some pseudocraters


Cruise ship romantic moments: This is where the individual counts. At least when it comes to the badges with the bus number.

We buy some groceries for tomorrow's trip and fill the gasoline canisters for the generator. Ahead of us are 111 km without any possibility to charge.

We decide to visit Mývatn Nature Bath again. The sun is shining and we have some time to waste …

We have Pizza for dinner. Again.

Sunshine is waking us up. We have breakfast and start to encounter the area around Mývatn.



We head for Krafla, 15 km away, part of a volcanic system of around 100 km. The road is very steep and our GPS shows a pitch of 20%. The Twizy is having problems getting up. Fortunately we have unloaded the trailer last night.

We park at Leirhnjúkur volcano who last erupted between 1975 and 1984. The lava is still warm and there is smoke everywhere. You can smell the sulfur. We walk around the lava field for about an hour.





Back at the Twizy we drive a few hundred meters to the crater lake Víti before heading back.


A quick shower …

We visit the geothermal area Námaskarð, where you can see more of the bubbling, steamy and smelly mud puddles, as well as some fumaroles.







We head back to Reykjahlíð and park at the Mývatn Nature Bath to see if the charger is working. We think about using this charger the day after tomorrow when we have to cover 111 km without any chance to find an outlet.


Size comparison

Back to the guest house we shop some groceries and relax a bit.

In the afternoon we go swimming in the Mývatn Nature Bath, which is kind of a lame copy of the Blue Lagoon close to Reykjavik. But as it is less crowdy and much cheaper it is the better alternative.





Back in the guest house we prepare tacos and a salad for dinner.

It's raining. We have our Skyr/Joghurt breakfast, we pack our stuff and are ready to go by 10 o'clock.
A cruise ship has arrived at Akureyri and has once more unloaded hundreds of passengers that will are being cramped in busses to visit Mývatn in the few hours they have.
It's crowded at Goðafoss. We ask at the gas station/restaurant/cafe/souvenir shop if we could charge. They think about the options, check if it is possible but finally we are denied to charge. We were being recommended to try at a gas station some kilometers down the road.


Goðafoss in the background

It is still raining. We decide to park the Twizy and visit Goðafoss. While we walk past a house a car arrives and someone is about to enter it. I ask if we could charge and he agrees. I get the Twizy, we charge and we go to the cafe to warm up a little bit. It's been 8° Celsius this morning in Akureyri and it was quite cold in the Twizy.

After putting on our rain gear we go to see the waterfall. Most of the tour busses have left and it's not that crowdy any more and it has stopped raining.





We are still freezing and we decide to get another hot chocolate and wait for the Twizy to finish charging.
It is raining again, we have head wind and some steep climbs in front of us. I try to save energy and at the last dozen kilometers I drive extremely slowly, saving as much energy as possible. We pray for not getting a steep climb (weg got climbs) or no one blocking us (no one did).

We arrive with 0% battery and 0 km remaining range after 50,1 km and 604 meters cllimb at the camp site's reception. The last few meters we had to let the car coast to a stop. This was really close!


0 km range, no battery


0% battery


Precision landing in front of the reception!

We get our rooms and charge the Twizy close by.
We wait for the Twizy to be charged a bit before we head into Reykjahlíð to shop groceries.

It was raining all night long and it was quite windy. I wake up very early and must think about going on a whale watching tour in rain.

It still rains in the morning. After breakfast we drive to Hauganes for the whale watching tour. We can charge at the whale watching base station. Very nice!
It has stopped raining and it is not as windy as before.



With special suits we enter the ship and start sailing. After around 45 minutes a Minke Whale appears which the ship will follow from now on. It's a bit like in Moby Dick. Where is the whale? Who will see it first? In between is silence.



The whale dives for about 3 to 4 minutes before returning to the surface somewhere. Therefore you rush from port to starboard and the other way round. We do this for quite a while.



In the mean time more boats arrived on the scene. They are also in the whale-camera-hunting-business. They all have promised their customers to see whales and there do not seem to be too many alternatives to our whale around.
Our guide keeps us interested in the one and only whale. It's ok. I can still recommend this tour. We are just not lucky when it comes to watching he wild life.

After some time they decide that the whale has enjoyed enough of our presence and they let it go. We head for the sea for a short time before it will be decided that due to fog this doesn't make too much sense and they call it a day and return home.
It's now time for coffee, hot chocolate and cookies. Whale hunting watching does make one hungry!



We see some Puffins flying over the water. They are just cute!



Back at the harbour we get rid of the special suits and drive to Akureyri where we won't have burgers but greasy pizza. A good healthy diet is important!
We charge at the town hall.



I shop some groceries and Lars prepares a mixed salad. I missed having a fresh salad. Lars gets a hot dog afterwards

At 0:55 at night the earth shakes. There was an earthquake of magnitude 4,6 around 100 km north, 20 km northwest of Siglufjörður (was corrected to 4.3 later in the day). Even unusual for this area. I wake up.
No damages whatsoever.



© Icelandic Meteorological Office - the green star shows the epicenter of the quake

We drive to Hofsós. It's cloudy but it doesn't rain. There are no charges and we plan to charge at a cafe which turned out to be closed. A neighbor, driving an electric car himself, saw our Twizy and offered us to charge our car. Really nice!

We are able to get some coffee and then explore the area a bit. With an 80% charge we continue our trip. It's windy and the head wind causes us to charge again after 35 km at a gas station with an attached restaurant.



We are slow today and we have to charge for 2 hours before we head for Siglufjörður.


Charging at the back of the gas station

The road to Siglufjörður is like a roller coaster ride. Up and down, up again. Additionally they work on the road and scratched off the tarmac, leaving unpaved segments.
Once we've got the momentum an unpaved part comes up and you end up in gravel with 70 km/h. Or you have a gravel segment and a 10% pitch up. It's fun. Additionally it starts to drizzle.


GoPro picture before the drizzle and the dust messed up all other pictures

We cannot make it to Ólafsfjörður without some short additional charging stop. 20 minutes later we head to Ólafsfjörður and complete the 11 km tunnel without any problems and arrive at our hotel.

It is cloudy today but it is not raining. Cloudy doesn't matter. It is colder than before.

59 km and a 400 m climb lies ahead of us to get to the free charger in Blönduós.
It is quite chilly in the Twizy, only between 11 and 12 degrees Celsius. It's getting quite uncomfortable after a while.
Will we be able to make it? The remaining range keeps being lower than the distance to cover, but close. A few kilometers before Blönduós some roadworks scrapped off the tarmac and we have to drive on gravel which again costs range.

1,5 km to go, we can even see the building with the charger, with 1% battery and a range of 1 km there is another road construction work with a traffic light, and single lane bridge. We give up and charge the Twizy for a couple of minutes with the generator. It was so close …



We charge at the free charger right next to the swimming pool and get something to eat. We haven't had breakfast yet.



We go swimming as we have lots of time to waste and we are still cold.

I realize that quite a number of Icelandic people are overweight. I like that. "Blend in with the locals!"

After our relaxing time in the hot pots we get some lunch and wait for the Twizy to be charged completely.

Next stop is 30 km away, a 230 m climb. There is a free charger which turned out to be not working. The owner of the place offers us to charge at the camp site for ISK 700, €5. This is the first time on this trip that we have to pay for the little amount of energy that we consume, apart from the official chargers. We will survive it.
We charge 1,5 kWh.


Farm dog


Sheep pen

21 km and another 320 meter climb later we arrive at our Hotel in Varmahlíð. We unpack our stuff and charge the car.

We get breakfast and start our day with a 39 km long trip to a Hotel with a charger. There is a segment ahead of us without the possibility to charge the Twizy as there is no infrastructure whatsoever.

We arrive at the hotel, plug in the Twizy and get some coffee in the hotel's restaurant, before we decide to sit in the sun for the remaining time.


The small house for elfs and trolls is in the background - it might also be for the dog

It's a nice surrounding with sheep, chicken and a farm dog. We charge for a bit longer than 2 hours.

The farm dog successfully tried to catch attention - he brought us a stone

We have a distance of 54 km ahead of us with an uphill climb of more than 400 meters without the possibility to charge in between.



We drive extremely slowly and the head wind doesn't help making it to our destination. It's a constant climb. The remaining range displayed by the car melts down fast. At the mountain pass wie have 20% battery, a remaining range of 11 km and more than 20 km to cover. But it's downhill from now on and we arrive at the gas station's charger with 16% battery. Not too bad. 20 km downhill definitively helped a lot.

The charger is blocked by an Audi Q7 Hybrid who does not really need to charge. I try to explain to the icelandic driver that we need to charge. He says that he will finish his hot dog and will then disconnect his car. He does as promised and we are finally, with a short delay, able to charge. Even Audi Q7 drivers in Iceland are cheap asses - the charger is free.

It doesn't matter after all. We can charge, we get something to eat and drink, we have toilets and can easily survive another 2 hours of charging.

We continue to our hostel in Hvammstangi. Just shortly before reaching Hvammstangi a tourist car took over, without seeing the need to keep distance. I hit the breaks. That was really close. Not the first time in Iceland but definitively the closest. The driver apologizes.




On the left and the right you can see the beginning of the windshield

We arrive safely at the hostel, check with the owner if we can charge and unload the twizy.

Someone is having a very early breakfast in the guest house. You can hear everything, the walls are thin. Everytime you leave the room you see new faces that you have never seen before and very likely will not see again. I always ask myself in which rooms they stay. I have been told that there are two more rooms outside the apartment. More people sharing the only bathroom?

We went to bed too late, we are awake too early and are tired now. Again. We get breakfast and pack our stuff. The weather ist extremely nice again.
First stop is after only 13 km. That's the last available charger before Akranes. 34 km to Akranes including a 6 km long tunnel under the sea in which we would not like to get stuck without power.

We sit in the sun and wait for the Twizy to be charged.

We successfully pass Hvalfjörður tunnel.



We charge in Akranes and walk towards the sea. Akranes is having a beach! I haven't seen a beach in Iceland before!



They have showers and the even have a Hot Pot! Lars takes off his shoes.




Sand structures

We continue to Borganes. Birds cross the street and we stop. A mother and two chicks.

Unknown bird species

We are too early to directly go to the hotel and decide to get something to eat in Borganes. A short drive later we arrive at the hotel. It's a hotel with a view! And a complimentary breakfast! And a hot pot!

I walk around the beach at sunset.


Unser "Hausberg"

I'm a bit early for this. The sun takes it's time over here. Such a drama queen.


Snæfellsjökull volcano

We are allowed to charge the Twizy at the hotel.

We have aslow morning. The sky is blue, the sun ist shining.


Hallgrímskirkja, artwork

We walk through Reykjavik after breakfast, go inside Hallgrímskirkja and go to see the Solfar close to the sea.


Solfar

A few hundred meters away a cruise ship has stopped by and unloaded its content. It's crowded in Reykjavik.

We walk through an indoor flea market which is kind of strange, pass by the Laundromat Cafe which closed in 2018 but is rumored to reopen soon. The Laundromat Cafe has been the only place in Reykjavik where you could wash your cloths while having great food.


Laundromat Cafe, currently closed

We go back to the guest house to pack our stuff for the snorkeling tour to Silfra at Þingvellir: Warm underwear, two pair of socks - the water only has 2 to 4° Celsius.

Pickup is at 15:30 at Hallgrímskirkja.

Silfra was created by the drift of the eurasian and north-american tectonic plates.The water comes from the Langjökull glacier and is filtered by 50 km of lava stone. It offers exceptional visibility of more than 50 meters.

We arrive at the diving center in Þingvellir. We get our gear, put it on with some (a lot!) of help. The weather is still great!



Fully covered in neoprene, including gloves, masks and flippers we head to the Silfra rift.
We are a small group of only 6 people. After proper introductions we finally go into the water. You float like a ballon thanks to the big, huge but warm dry suite.
It is just great to snorkel through the clear water. It's like a dream came true!











Back at the diving center we get hot chocolate and cookies! Delicious.
The people from dive.is have been exceptionally helpful an nice! it's a great mix of people from Malaysia, Italy, England, Schottland, Germany, …

They drive us back to Reykjavik, we are tired and happy!

We plan to have a relaxing day today. No alarm clock will wake us up.
The breakfast is included. You just take what you want from the fridge. There is a selection of skyr, joghurt, milk, muesli and corn flakes, some cheese and ham.
The weather isn't bad nor good and we decide to go swimming. Most of the swimming pools in Iceland are open air only with a pool of 15 to 25 meters length and some hot pots of various temperatures.
Laugardalslaug is the largest pool in Reykjavik. It has an indoor pool and some other facilities.
We relax in the hot pot, it rains and the sun is shining in exchange. It's 15° Celsius but it feels colder. Outside. Not in the hot pot!

It is really relaxing!

After Laugardalslaug we drive to Kringlan, Reykjaviks shopping center. There are chargers (which turned out to be free) and you can eat there. Lars and I share a pizza and we hang around some time. We don't do any shopping as we lack the ability to carry more stuff, than we already have.
We are both really tired.


Twizy in front of Harpa

We drive back to the guest house with a short detour via the concert hall.


The handbrake does it's job

We go downtown for dinner. The sky is blue, it's warm and nice and I do Lars a big favour: We have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe Reykjavik.



A big hype, nice decoration and real good burgers. It's almost been a quarter of a century since I've been to a Hard Rock Cafe.


Hallgrímskirkja in he background

We are filled up and happy and go back to the guest house …

Our first stop at a free charger after only 13 km at Hveragerði was not successful. The charger didn't work. We estimated that we would make it to our next stop without a recharge but right after we wanted to turn on the ring road there was a detour. Instead of another 13 km to go we had to cover 30 km to get to the geothermal power plant from Orka náttúrunnar (ON) in Hverasvæðið.

At the power plant the chargers didn't work and the CEE16 plugs around the parking lot didn't work either. I asked inside and they let us charge at the chargers for internal use.


Geothermal power plant Hverasvæðið

We charge local. Fresh energy, Free. Couldn't get better!



We did the tour around the plant six years ago and skip it this time. We have one two coffee,
We head for Reykjavik. Quite fast, compared to previous' days, heading for a swedish restaurant with good value. You can also buy candles there.

We look for the chargers. There are chargers for their own rental transporters, chargers for disabled and chargers for families. There is one fast charger we cannot use therefore we use the charger assigned to families without feeling too good about it.



We get some Köttbullar and salad and are happy. We made it to Reykljavik!

Leaving IKEA we finally see a long row of charges for everyone. 26 Type2-chargers. Unbelievable! IKEA Frankfurt has only two!

Wo go to the harbour to pick up our tickets for snorkeling in Silfra on Saturday and then head for the guest house. It's a building from the first half of the last century where the apartments have been converted into bedrooms with one bath and a kitchen. It's only a few blocks away from Hallgrímskirkja. We park the Twizy in front of the House on the street We will not be able to charge it here. We have to find a solution for this.


Hallgrímskirkja

After unloading the Twizy we visit the church and walk through downtown Reykjavik. We remember, where we have already been and what has changed (a lot!). Lars gets one of the famous Hot Dogs from Baejarins Beztu Pylsur.


Harpa

We visit Harpa, Reykjavik's concert hall, buy some groveries, check for chargers and finally go back to the guest house. We are tired.

After the complimentary breakfast we pack our stuff.



It's getting more and more packed each day. More groceries and we somehow don't manage to reduce it.
"We could prepare that for dinner. That's easy and yummy."
"We get another one of these. They fill you up.
"Do we have enough tuna cans?"
"Take another leaf of bread, just to make sure."



We are looking forward to Reykjavik. A few days without sitting in the car all day!

Some locals stole bras after a heavy night out and put them on a fence. The "Bra Fence" was born. Tourists seem to extent that monument regularly.



We stop at Seljarlandfoss, another highlight in this area. Back in 2013 there were just a few cars, now there is a parking lot with a parking fee of 700 ISK, around 5 €.



It's really a very beautiful waterfall and you can even walk behind it.



Lars doesn't want to become wet. I don't want to become wet either but for a good picture I don't care.

While driving we could see the Westman Islands on your left. You can take a ferry from Landeyjar to Heimaey and even take your car. Usually it's fully booked in summer.
1973 the volcano Eidfell erupted on Heimaey. Even today the earth there feels warm.
We skip the Westman Islands this time as we have visited them in perfect sunshine in 2013. But there are always worth a visit.

We initially planned to charge in Hvolsvöllur but make it to the free charger from Orkusalan in Hella.



Hella is the starting point for busses to Landmannalaugar. Not too far away is Hekla, a vulcano that erupted in 2000 the last time. It usually erupts around every 10 years. She is overdue and she doesn't give much notice, before erupting. Usually between 30 to 90 minutes. We charge for 2 hours.
We are having one of those delicious gas-station-burgers. Bigger gas stations tend to have fast-food-restaurants attached where the food is good and not too expensive. Icelanders love fast food.

We drive to Selfoss and arrive too early at the Hostel. We shop some groceries (see above) and get some coffee.



We charge and do our clothes in order to get not too smelly.

It started to rain heavily over night.
We have never camped in rain before as we have always been lucky in northern Sweden or in Norway. We are not prepared for this.
Usually you have condensation in the inside tent which go away with ventilation. With 100% humidity there is no chance. Whenever you touch the inner tent, drops of water form and fall down on your gear. Therefore the sleeping bags are getting slightly wet.

The tent's, the sleeping pad's and the sleeping bag's covers are in the trailer so I put on my rain gear and get them. We pack everything including the soaking wet tent, have a light breakfast and head for Vik.

It's 12° Celsius in the twizy, we are still a little wet and we are freezing. The first time on this trip.

We can't make it in one charge and there is no infrastructure in between, we therefore need to charge with the generator for about 80 minutes. It is still raining heavily when I unpack and start the generator.


Generator with rainbow rain cover from IKEA

We arrive at Vik and charge at an official charger from ON.



Right next to it is the gas station/restaurant where we have eaten burgers in the past, when we were in Vik. They are really good.



After 2 hours of charging we drive to Skogafoss. There is much more traffic on the streets now. Reykjavik is only two hours of driving away and the drive down to Vik is a tourist's must.
We skip some of the attractions along the road as we have seen them on past trips. We are also quite tired.




There is a chinese person on almost any picture


Lars is getting wet

We drive to our hotelI, only a few kilometers away to dry our gear and call it a day.

We enjoyed sleeping in the tent. I didn't freeze and Lars slept without a shirt. He is never freezing.

We get up at eight, have breakfast, shower and decide to go for a hike before packing our stuff. We do a short walk to Skaftafelljökul. We have never done this is the past. The last time we tried but my walking boots failed me by disintegrating.
While we started with a T-shirt, we put on the fleece jacket shortly after we started, followed by the jacket as it was getting quite cold. it is 9° Celsius with some wind. The glacier ist nice, but that's about it.



Back at the tent we pack our stuff an head for Kirkjubæjarklaustur. We won't make it without a charge in between so we stop at a very fance hotel where they even offered us free coffee. Very nice!

We stay in Kirkjubæjarklaustur and camp again. We set up our tent and charge the Twizy. There is a restaurant and we decide to geht some decent food. It's just money.

Thanks to Justin Bieber, who shot a music video in 2015, the following hype about the location and the temporary closing of the area in mid 2019, I read about it and thought that it would be nice to see Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon. We visit it and where really excited. We have missed this on our past visits to Iceland. The road was unpaved and the Twizy had a hard time.





They make-up the roads in Kirkjubæjarklaustur at the moment. This is an explanation why we have problems with potential windshield damage continuously on our trip. They put a thin layer of tarmac on the road and loads of gravel right afterwards. Rinse and repeat until you have enough gravel on the road. Crazy stuff.


Roadwork in Iceland

Back in Kirkjubæjarklaustur we go swimming and enjoy hot and very hot hot-pots.

We get up early. A long day lies ahead of us.

First stop is at a free charger. Unfortunately the hotel doesn't have one. They still allowed us to charge. We sit in the sun, trink coffee and talk to German tourists.

Today's highlight is Jökulsarlon, the glacier lagoon. There is charger from ON that we plan to use. We can start the charge but unfortunately our Twizy won't charge.

We ask around if we chan charge somewhere and are finally successful.



We think about taking a tour. As there ar not too many icebergs in the lagoon we decide against it. We walk around and head for the beach where usually icebergs strand, but not today.

We get some fish & chips which were really expensive and really delicious.



We head to Skaftafell. As we won't make it in one charge therefore we stop at a very nice hotel for another charge.
We get a coffee and have a nice talk with the lady behind the reception. She only does this for the summer months and in autumn she goes hiking in Georgia, followed by months long hike in New Zealand.

We drive to Skaftafell National Park where we get a camping site with electricity and put up our tent.



We get out our gas stove and cook Tortellinis with an instant sauce. The Tortellinis are good, the sauce is awful.
We go the bed quite early and enjoy the smell of the barbeque next to us.

We get up an hour early as we have more than 100 km ahead of us.

After only 13 km we arrive at a guest house with a free charger. This is too early but we will need to charge today wherever it is possible.
The short road to the guest house is unpaved which is enough to mess up the trailer and parts of the Twizy.


Iceland-Patina

We charge the Twizy to 100% as we need to cover 60 km. This should be feasible.


Short stop …


… to watch some sheep

At the beginning the remaining distance calculated by the Twizy is higher than what Google Earth tells us. But after some stops and detours we were not sure if we could make it.


Fauskasandur



We stopped at a farm house but unfortunately no one was at home. A few kilometers later another farmhouse came by, we stopped, asked and were allowed to charge. We spent around 45 minutes there before we headed to our initially planned charging stop at a hostel. We had a longer stop there. I sat on the gras in the sun, Lars was sitting in the Twizy, reading.

Icelandic people are really nice and helpful!

In Höfn we planned to cook instead of having fast food again. Unfortunately the kitchen turned our to be a tiny kitchenette. We bought some Tortellini and instant tomato sauce. The latter was not a good choice.

Another really long day tomorrow. We need to camp and carry all food with us as there is no possibility for shopping groceries or to have fast food.

We sleep a bit longer as usual, have a great breakfast (toast with peanut butter, unfortunately creamy and not crunchy). We head for Breiðdalsvík, just 19 km away. We ask in a Cafe+Supermarket, if we are allowed to charge our Twizy. The lady behind the counter is a bit suspicious bot finally allows it. We have a coffee and some apple cake.



The Twizy needs to be fully charged, we have 65 km ahead of us. There is no town in between, where we could charge. We fill the generator and the fuel canister to be prepared in case we don't have an alternative.



In the beginning the remaining distance from Google Maps was higher than the Twizy's estimation. This slowly changed and made clear, that we wouldn't make it. This was not much of a surprise.
After 20km we saw a sign for a hostel and cafe. We stopped and asked to charge our car.
The cafe Havari is located in an old barn. Nice background music, good coffee. Lars orders some rhubarb-crumble with coconut cream. An excellent choice. Delicious!


Rhubarb-crumble with coconut cream, cafe latte, soft drink

The Twizy's battery is almost fully charged an we head for Djúpivogur. It started to rain.

At around 4 pm we arrive in the guest house in Djúpivogur. We can charge the Twizy. We stroll around town, shop groceries and prepare dinner. We are the only guests tonight.


Artwork in Djúpivogur


Artwork with a whale sceleton in Djúpivogur

You don't realize it's main season around south east Iceland. This will very likely change the day after tomorrow once you come into the touristic vincinity of Reykjavik.

With calm seas no one got sea sick. We had to leave the cabin at 7 o'clock, therefore our breakfast was reduced to a slice of toast with creamy peanut butter (I miss crunchy peanut butter!). It didn't take long before we have left the ship and completed customs and immigrations.

Right outside, Stephan, whom I know from the Islandreise online forum welcomed us. He ist Austrian and has been living in Egilstadir for a number of years.
He was so kind to pull our trailer up the mountain.



Lars went with him and they used the opportunity to make pictures and to film the Twizy slowly climbing up the mountain.



The free charger in Egilstadir was blocked by a hybrid-car. We went to Stephan's girl friend's place where we were able to charge the Twizy. Stephan invited us for an ice cream before we headed for Reyðarfjörður.
In Reyðarfjörður the free charger was again blocked by a hybrid car. We tried to find the owner for about half an hour until a car drove to the charger, someone got out of the car and unplugged the hybrid car. It was his colleague's car and the owner didn't want the charger to be blocked all day.

We get something to eat and waited for the Twizy to get fully charged.



We started for our last trip of the day. 44 km to Stöðvarfjörður. It is alway thrilling if you can make it as Google Maps can tell you the exact distance but not if there are steep climps along the way. And this is Iceland - there are steep climps. Always. Unexpected.
We did it and arrived with a remaining 30% charge in Stöðvarfjörður. I guess it will stay thrilling until we leave the island.

The guest house doesn't look too good from the outside but the rooms are excellent! Really nice!

There is not much to see in Stöðvarfjörður. A small grocery and fast food joint, a gas station, a collection of rocks and a lot of car wrecks.