A Drive North on the Ring Road in Iceland [Part 3]

We spent the first full day in Iceland traveling through Iceland's Golden Circle, and I have shown you that in parts 1 and 2 of this travel series. After a full day spent on the road it was time to head to our accomodation which we booked through AirBnb. It was a lovely farm located far away from civilization. I will start of part 3 with images from this farm, and then we will head out on our drive along the ring road. The ring road circles the parameter of the country covering 828 miles (1332 km). The landscape changed constantly, providing perfect photo opportunities at every turn. This post will cover our drive north to the city of Akureyri.

This is only a part of our big travel series to Iceland

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This is the part of our drive covered in this post:

Our stay at the Farm

When we booked the farm "Hestur" I knew that we were in for a treat. It's located 15 minutes east from the closest town Borgarnes on a secluded patch of land. We really did enjoy our stay here and had great hosts. We had the upper apartment all to ourselves, with 3 rooms, a kitchen, living room, dining room and bathroom. Very spacious. The farm has sheep and horses. I would highly recommend staying here.

A Journey around Iceland Begins

One of my early goals was to find some places in Iceland that weren’t written about as much, or where I might escape other tourists. Luckily for us, we were traveling in the autumn season, which generally has fewer people visiting. That way we had most of the places to ourselves, though the main attractions were still filled up with tourists.

On the morning we drove out of the farm we used a local road to get us to the main road Nr. 1 which is the ring road. During the drive on the local road we saw so many wonderful things. Things that weren't even planed on. I loved exploring the wilderness of this country. I spotted some mountains on the other side of the lake we were driving by. So I had to stop to take some images. It was so calm outside. Just the sounds of nature. Even though I only stopped for 20 minutes or so I felt at ease and relaxed.

Horses of Iceland

After the first stop we started turning to the ring road, but before that we spotted some horses on the side of the road. I was adamant to take pictures but also pet them. One of them was really close to the fence. We went towards the horse in awe and respect. The horse responded relaxed and happy, we petted him, gave him some bread (which the owner of the farm told us to do in case we see them).

 But once the other horses saw that we were feeding one of them, slowly one by one they all started to come towards us. Suddenly 10 or more horses were in front of us. We were feeding them and they were all so cute and adorable. Later we found out that Icelandic horses always stay in the open fields and that they all lead happy and long lives (even though a small percentage is used for meat production, but even those horses live their lives in the open).

Landscapes of Northwest Iceland

After our run in with the horses we eventually entered the ring road and started our 3 and a half hour trip to Akureyri. We stopped after 20 minutes for another unusual sight. Huge fields were covered in green moss, surrounding both sides of the street. Of course we had to climb the stones and explore.

 

Our drive continued north. There are not many towns or villages along the road, and gas stations were also few in these corners of Iceland. We did manage to find one to use the restrooms, something you also have to be conscious of when driving the ring road.

 

There are secluded and icy spots here in the north of Iceland, but the road was always clean. Of course if you travel here in the off-season checking the road conditions is a must. Luckily for us we had sun the whole time of our trip. Even the people there said that we had a lot of luck, and that they were experiencing a mild autumn.

One last stop before heading into Akureyri. There wasn't even that much space to park the car on the side of the road, but somehow we managed. We stopped and gazed at the beauty of the surroundings. Tall sharp mountain peaks were looking down at us, and were in perfect contrast to the soft tall grass, that bathed in the warm light of the sun.

Entering Akureyri

The town of Akureyri was our next destination and besides Reykjavik the only bigger city from our journey to Iceland. More on this city and our stay there in the next post...

End of Part Three

To be continued

Where I'm Lining To