Another week, another video – I’m driving over the mountains from EgilsstaĂ°ir to Skaftafell. It’s a longer drive than I planned so I break the journey with a little nose around JökulsárlĂłn.
There’s plenty of behind the scenes here
- I really wish I could have stopped and filmed more of the mountain road but there just wasn’t anywhere to park. I spent most of those 19km wailing “Why can’t I stop??”
- My camera really started playing up today. I don’t know what upset it but its little wheels and gears wouldn’t engage, it made hideous noises, it refused to focus. In places, I’ve just got out my phone instead but honestly, there’s only 24 hours left in this camera. In fairness, it’s been misbehaving since I lost my temper with it while filming the volcano stuff in April 2022 and I replaced it at the beginning of this year. Sadly, its replacement completely died and I had 24 hours’ notice to decide to make the best of it with my old camera.
- It’s a really long drive! I didn’t eat enough, I probably hadn’t slept enough, I certainly hadn’t stopped to smell the roses enough and one of the bits that got cut out is me absolutely raging at Skaftafell. Maybe I should have camped somewhere not too far east of JökulsárlĂłn which would have saved me a bit of a drive and definitely saved me a drive on Friday morning.
- Yeah, Skaftafell. The ground is very stony. The reason I say that the pegs are only just in the ground is that it’s just too stony. I used a rock as a hammer and still couldn’t get them in any further. No mallets available at reception. Tent wouldn’t stand up. Toilets closed for cleaning. Half a mile to the visitor centre and back, twice. I did literally throw myself on the floor and wail at one point but I didn’t film it. I did film – and then absolutely did not include – myself stomping across Skaftafell in a fury, ranting and swearing. I was very tired, very hot and extremely hangry.
- When the tent was (kind of) up, I had a cheese sandwich. Then I went to the cafe and enjoyed a bottle of Coke (Pepsi?) and a gigantic slice of chocolate cake before setting off on my evening walk. This definitely alleviated the hanger. There’s very little in the way of shopping between EgilsstaĂ°ir and Vik, tomorrow’s destination, and although I’ve got a bag of food in the car, I haven’t had time to eat it and it’s not really satisfying food anyway. It’s what I could find in an out-of-the-way Kjörbúðin that didn’t have anything I was looking for.
- Egils Appelsin is an Icelandic fizzy orange drink. You rarely see Fanta, although you see all its Coca-Cola Company siblings, because Appelsin dominates the fizzy orange market. It’s a brighter orange than (European) Fanta (which, for the Americans out there, is definitely yellow on this side of the pond) and tastes a bit more chemical. Fanta is so much tastier.
- I bought the Skaftafell t-shirt, carried it down to the glacier rather than make the epic journey back to my tent to drop it off and I put it on when I was freezing down at the glacier – that’s why you see a greyish t-shirt on the way and a red one on the way back. I’m wearing it over the grey t-shirt, you can still see the collar.
- I meant to have a shower and wash that Soley conditioner out of my hair that evening but I was so cold when I got back from the glacier that all I wanted to do was wrap up in my sleeping bag with a book.
And video time!