Day 13 – 8 Dec 19
Myvatn to Akureyri
It was quite a cleanup after the overnight snow. There must have been 200mm of snow on the car! We headed off in search of Grjótagjá : the Game of Thrones thermal cave. My GPS mark was correct this time. Unfortunately the road had a lot of snow across it and the drifts were building up. Momentum is important but judgement is necessary as it is easy to get stuck. We reached the car park and I climbed down to the cave only to find that it essentially was black. I needed to use a tripod and my smaller camera in order to get the image of the turquoise water. We didn’t stay long as the snow was building up across the road. Plenty of momentum required in places.
It was surprising that the highway was also getting snow buildup. We came across sections where the snow was quite deep and we needed to use the vehicle momentum and keep the motor revs high to get through the drifts. I sometimes had to steer the vehicle side to side in the snow to get better traction. Quite a challenge and the road probably should have been closed. The snow kept on falling.
We headed to Husavik which was the whale watching capital of Iceland. The weather was not good and it was still snowing. The best part was seeing the wooden boats used for whale watching in the harbour. We stopped for lunch on a hill overlooking the bay but no whales. We headed off to Akureyri where we were to stay.
There was an indication that tonight would be the best chance to see the Aurora Borealis in Iceland for this trip. We missed the first one at the start of the month so I have been watching the magnetic charts very closely for the last week with no activity. Last night there finally was a variation about 0900UTC so we headed out from Akureyri backpackers in search of darkness and clear skies. The cloud cover forecast showed that Akureyri would not clear until midnight so we headed south for about 20km into clear skies. We could see the Auroral was active as we were driviing and found a snow covered pullover area with reasonable darkness. The temperature was about -10degC but no wind so it was cold but not unpleasant. The auroral activity increased and we watched a Kp 3 level aurora for about 30min then it finished. We waited for another 30 min but there was no more activity so returned to the hostel. I viewed the magnetic activity this morning and there was an even larger event at 0200UTC which was a Kp 4 level which we missed. Such is life. The objective was for Vanessa to see an Aurora Borealis and this was met. I have included the magnetic chart for reference. There is a larger event predicted later in December when we are on the ship in Norway so fingers crossed for clear skies and good weather.
We like the red stoplights in Akureyri. Isn’t that odd? I don’t normally like red stoplights. The reason is that they are heart shaped. They were part of a optimism campaign during the financial crash in Iceland in 2008.
Day 14 - 9 Dec 19
Akureyri to Hvammstangi
Despite my initial grumbles about staying in inner city Akureyri it actually is a really pretty city. We really like the architecture and it is situated on the longest fjord in iceland. The city is covered with snow and the temperature was -12DegC this morning which made for hard work cleaning the ice off the windscreen. The boot of the car had so much ice on it we had to chip it off before we could open it! We visited the Christmas house this morning.
We saw determination and stupidity meet this morning. Someone at the hostel was heading off to ride to meet the ferry at Seyðisfjörður on Wednesday. This was a journey of 250km through some of the coldest regions in Iceland. We had recently travelled these roads and there is a lot of ice and snow and the temperature was often colder than -10degC. The hostel staff manager was warning him of the storm that was going to sweep across Iceland in the next couple of days but he did not see to understand. He was well prepared for a summer ride and perhaps as he rode off the hostel staff were taking bets on how long it would take before he abandoned the trip. It reminded us of the tourist who used to arrive at Darwin who would confidently tell us that they would be riding around Australia: we used to bet on whether they would reach Katherine the next large town.
The drive was about 200km today. It was quite interesting in many ways. The weather changed along the way. We were sometimes in fog and snow drifting across the road; sometimes it was snowing; sometimes the wind was gusting and the road was not visible; the temperature rose to +2degC and it was raining by the time we reached out destination; and the clouds to the east looked like a snow storm was developing. The terrain was mountainous then dropped into a flatter region that met the coast. It really was quite challenging to drive today as the roads were snow covered and slippery in some places.
One of the more unusual events was as we were driving out of the mountains. The road looked as if steam was coming off it like a hot road after summer rain. Yet it was -10degC and the steam was swirling snow drift.
We stopped off at the Víðimýrarkirkja Turf Church and Glaumbær Farm and Turf Houses. These were quite interesting as they were not just buildings with grass seed thrown on their roofs. The turf was across most of the building and provided insulation. Much of it was covered with snow when we visited.
We arrived at Hvammstangi with storm blue clouds out to the ocean. It had been difficult to see much of the surrounding terrain due to the snow falling for the last couple of hours. The accommodation was overlooking the ocean. Our host was concerned as there was a large storm expected to sweep across Iceland tomorrow and we should consider our options.
Day 15 - 10 Dec 19
Hvammstangi to Reykjavik
UPDATE: We are now safely in Reykjavic
There is a catastrophic storm warning out for the next two days and we have been advised not to travel. A storm is expected to sweep across iceland from west to east and we are staying in the worst affected area.
We are no longer in the red zone
https://en.vedur.is/alerts
Look at the simulation for Tuesday 10Dec19 1200 for the next 24hrs. Winds up to 130km/h are expected.
https://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/elements/#type=wind
We spent a lot of time working out the risks last night. The owner of the accommodation was quite concerned as they had never seen a storm in the red zone. we were welcome to stay longer but we were concerned that the house was not cyclone rated and there were large window for the view over the inlet and the second was that the roads would likely take at least a day to clear before travel could continue. We decided the best plan was to outrun the storm back to Reykjavik where there would be good services to deal with the storm cleanup and easier access to the airport, Vanessa booked an apartment and arranged an early checkin late last night and i refuelled the car ready for an early start. We headed out at 630am and ran into some heavy snow along the way but the snow clearing trucks were active so there was not a problem with travel. It was a relief to arrive at Reykjavic at 930am as planned. We arrived at our accommodation but required internet access to obtain the access key. It turned out that a local petrol station had free wifi and we were able to obtain the access key so are now safe and waiting for the full power of the storm to hit us.
We were listening to an interesting radio segment on the way which we thought was a Ted talk. No something not right. Maybe a church service? No. It was an alcoholic’s anonymous conference. Yes the whole conference including rest room breaks. We also had recently stopped drinking. Our bottle of duty free Baileys irish cream had runout. Yes we had thrown that bottle away. We had no need for it anymore. We were free. We lost the station by choice when we moved back to the Christmas channel for some more Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers Christmas songs.
The weather forecast was very close to the actual weather. The storm hit Hvammstangi at 11am and Reykjavik at 5pm as it swept across the island from west to east. The west and north have been hit the worst and all roads external to Reykjavik are closed until the wind stops and the snow clearing commences.
We just sat inside the room looking out the window watching the storm approaching and the city disappearing as the wind increased in speed and snow fall became heavier. The streets emptied and most of the vehicle traffic stopped by 6pm. It really would have been unsafe outside.
