Winter Expedition 4x4 “The Ring Road”: from Keflavik to Egilsstadir, Iceland

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We arrive at Keflavik Iceland and immediately presents itself: long dark, slightly disturbing the incessant rain and the wind howl.
Yet these conditions are best suited to immerse in the warm waters of Blue Lagoon, that is already very impressive, it is even more with the bad weather. The Blue Lagoon is a huge puddle of water fed by hydroelectric power Svartsengi and heated by underground lava. Water has a heavenly color because of the silica mud, white and slimy, deposited on the bottom of the lagoon. Because of the cold clouds of steam rising from the bath are particularly impressive. The Blue Lagoon is a unique experience, definitely not to be missed! In what other place you can easily paddle in a scenic swimming pool surrounded by lava fields, with a temperature of zero degrees and in the rain?
Let the first of the many natural wonders to see other andarne collected in what is called the "golden circuit" A Grindavík turn the first road 427 and then the 42 crossing the peninsula Reykianes. These are dirt roads and through the black volcanic soil. Bandied, in fact, between stretches of lava covered with an unreal mantle of soft green moss and lichen thick.
Once in Hverageroi paved the way back and c'immettiamo in the "golden circuit". The first attraction we meet, natural course, is the crater Kerið profound about fifty meters and a diameter of one hundred. Within the lake is completely frozen, the walls were black hue, red, green, brown and yellow. Overcome the diocese of Skalholt and arrive just before sunset the sun to the waterfalls of Gullfoss, the largest tourist attraction throughout Iceland. The feature, besides the huge mass of water, is a double jump, the second of which plunges into a terrifying 70-meter-deep canyon.
Seven miles south is Geysir an area full of springs where hot water springs. Here you can see, about every ten minutes, the explosion of Strokkur that shoots jets of steam to a height of 30 meters. The show is already visible in the distance along the road, but when we arrive is now dark, will visit the field of geo-thermal Geysir, from which originates the international word "geyser", the next day. At dawn, ie 08:30, we see three eruptions of steam Strokkur and observe closely the pools where the water bubbles so as to create small high jets ten, twenty centimeters as in the case of the geyser of litle. Let Geysir direct Pingvellir. The road No. 365 is blocked by a transenna with a symbolic sign: "closed". Indifferent dell'avvertimento continue, but after a few kilometers we have to step back. Heaps of snow c'impediscono continuing. We are then compelled to Pingvellir to take the No. 36, we wanted to avoid, because the deviation involves a considerable stretch. Pingvellir, slightly 'disappointing, is a rocky place of prime importance to Icelanders. Here was established as far back as 930 D.C. the Alping, the first Icelandic parliament. It is worthwhile to travel the path that develops in the throat dell'Almannagjà, if only to have the feeling of walking along the tectonic ditch that separates each year a few millimeters, the American continent than in Europe.
Continues to rain along the way, does not meet any means and the metaphor that often s'abusa "there is no living soul" in our case is by no means over! The roar of the rain along with the noise of the engine of our 4x4 is interrupted twice and in the short stretch of a few kilometers from the noise of two powers of nature, the waterfall Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss seen already from Ring Road. At first we approach andandoci well as heedless of the spray of water already being soaked wet. In the Skógafoss going up the steep and short skirts that trail to observe the flow from above. If the height of the waterfalls is not relevant, the highest, that of Skógafoss, measuring 60 meters, the flow of water is, however, impressive. Before reaching Vik a detour on the road 218 leads, after a dozen miles, the cliffs of the walls Dyrhðlaey rushed for more than 100 meters to the sea. We are to observe silence in the fearful storm in the sea whose waves arrive to lick the cliffs. Water withdrawal from the beach leaves a black white foam presenting a scene that seems unreal. A Vik, the southernmost village in Iceland, we are enveloped by fog, so we must give up the walk leading to the viewpoint of the three stacks.
Monotony is the loneliness and isolation, the road continues to be one of our exclusive and say that it is as if we were crossing the highway Milan - Rome, however, the landscape changes constantly. Now we are going through a large area characterized by flat sand, gravel and rocks the Sandur, "which will feature the landscape until after the lagoon Jökulsárlón.

Spend the night in Kirkjubæjarklaustur. In the morning, now is not new, the low clouds limited visibility so much that we find to be in the vicinity of Vatnajökull only when we see on the roadside at the core of one of the three bridges of the Circular Road destroyed by the flooding created by the eruption of Gjálp in 1996. The Icelandic Government, to witness to others the next casualties and devastation caused by the force of nature, he thought of leaving here.
At Park Skaftafell finally sighted the glacier. A storm of rain and wind c'impedisce to make the two-hour march to reach the front of the glacier and the waterfall Skaftafellsjökull of Svartifoss, but we will be repaid from the lake of glacial Jökulsárlón, sprinkled with icebergs coming from one of the fronts of Vatnajökull, to be enthusiastic. Before we see these icebergs, which float in the lagoon close to the sea and are, instead, trapped in ice in the area next to the front of the glacier, with a show that does not seem to belong to this world. The iceberg lagoon sparkle of a thousand shades: white, gray, blue, blue and green. After the bridge of the Ring Road that crosses the lagoon, just after we turn left, ford a small stream and along the lagoon to where the ground conditions permit. We will venture to walk on the frozen lake where mushrooms emerge as the iceberg.
We continue our march on the Ring Road and arrive at Höfn. Nell'ostello completely available to us, take advantage of the afternoon to rearrange your luggage and to dry the stuff so far used. The idea of spending a night out drinking a beer is abandoned after a brief tour. The streets are deserted.
A Breiðdalsvik find the Ring Road stopped we have to continue to Egilsstadir along the road No. 96 and along the fjords of Fáskrúðsfjörður and Reyðarfjörður. The deviation, however, allows us to witness scenes of Iceland winter characteristics such as small ports where the waters of the sea are still partially frozen. At the end of the day, having tasted nothing for four days that landscapes come to Egilsstadir, 1800 inhabitants, the biggest city so far encountered