It’s time for the seventh video in the Iceland summer 2023 series and this is the one I’ve been looking forward to seeing the most. Today is the day when I’m off kayaking Jökulsárlón! Then I drove two or three hours across the south coast to Vik – you don’t see much of that – arrive just in time for the 3.30 Lava Show, settle into my tent, do some shopping, wander on the beach and go for a swim. It’s nice to be back in civilisation after two days in the wilds.
As usual, let’s take a peek behind the curtain.
- This is the day when my camera just stopped working. I filmed a certain amount but it was uncooperative all day and down on the beach in the evening, it just went. That’s partly why I haven’t filmed as much as I would have liked. Oh, the video’s long enough but there should be more of me in the car, more of Vik and the campsite.
- The last couple of days have been a bit cold and miserable but the further you get from the big glacier, the nicer the weather gets. I spent a lot of Friday evening sitting with my tent door open, reading a book and eating a baguette.
- I had to laugh watching this. I only learned this summer that you’re supposed to hold your kayak paddle firmly with one hand and loose with the other so you can manoeuvre it more easily – and it turns out I’ve been instinctively doing this all along without even realising.
- I went for a swim. Vik has a nice little pool an easy walk from my tent. It’s 16.7m long which means I have to do some maths before I go in. I wanted to swim a mile. That’s 1,609m, which is 96.35 lengths of Vik’s pool. As I don’t swim part-lengths and I’m not in the habit of climbing out of the deep end, that’s 98 full lengths. And are you seriously going to suggest I swim 98 lengths and not do two more for the full 100?
- Vik’s pool also has a nice hotpot. It’s Iceland. Of course it has a nice hotpot!
- As well as the supermarket across the road from the campsite, Vik has a giant souvenir warehouse. It started life as the Icewear outlet but now it’s full of any kind of tourist stuff you could want – t-shirts, books, magnets, postcards, enamel mugs, serious outdoor gear, camping kit, you name it. I tend to go “Ah, I remember Vik before this existed”. Having looked through all my trips, I conclude I may have come here once before the Icewear building opened, which was possibly 2012 or 2013. The supermarket is new since I last came through but it turns out that was 2018.
- Tonight was the night I finally thought to book a hotel for Saturday night. I like to have a hotel near the airport because a 7.30am flight means I have to be there pretty early and I don’t want to be packing up a tent in the middle of the night. Leaving it until less than 24 hours before arrival means pickings are very slim and incredibly expensive.
- The video makes the campsite look pretty empty. That’s because no one arrives before at least 6pm – except me. By 11pm, the place was like a car park. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Almost everyone in Iceland these days camps in a van, not a tent.
Time for the video!