The Westfjords: We were now in the most remote part of Iceland - the north-western corner known as the Westfjords. Few tourists visit this area and apparently few locals come here either. There are not many roads and many are gravel with corrugations to make some Australian outback roads look like highways. We started on the southern coast heading to the westernmost point of the island, in fact the westernmost point of Europe if you exclude some little m...

The Snæfellsnes Peninsula 26-28 Aug 2012 We awoke to a bright blue sky after a freezing night - it was down to 3° C in the van in the morning! Our thermals are getting much use lately, even at night. At the start of the Snæfellsnes peninsula is a little town called Borganes. Here was a small museum called the Settlement and Saga Museum. This was one of the best presented exhibitions we have seen with an audioguide included. Surprisingly the voice sound...

Moving North: North of Reykjavik are a couple of deep and very pretty fjords and we took the long road right around them rather than the short-cut tunnel. It is probably a combination of moving further north and the approaching winter that the temperatures have fallen and the last few days have been getting steadily colder. On the mountains lining the fjords are patches of remnant snow from last winter - has it never been warm enough this summer to melt them...

Reykjavik: The campsite was right in town and turned out to be crammed full of young backpackers and cyclists either just arriving and getting sorted or just finishing their trip and packing up for home. Small tents like coloured mushrooms dotted the grassed areas and the kitchens, bathrooms and seating areas were full of the chatter of people asking for information and advice or telling stories of their travels. The common language is English in all kinds ...

The Rekyjanes Peninsula: The peninsula to the south west of the country is where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge rises from the Atlantic Ocean and cuts diagonally across the land. The land closest to the ridge has the youngest rocks and the rocks get progressively older as you move away from this diagonal towards the north-west or the south-east. So this part of the country is mostly fairly desolate, wind-swept lava plains. Again the contorted, convoluted rocks w...