Þjóðvegur 1. Hitchhiking Around Iceland

Þjóðvegur in Icelandic means "a national road". It is also called Hringvegur - "a round road". This 1,332-kilometre section is simply the national route no. 1, which surrounds the whole island. Recently I hitchhiked Þjóðvegur 1, so I these are my experiences and memories from that travel!

Þjóðvegur 1_{Source: Wikipedia}

I work in Reykjavík in 7 on/7 off mode, which means I work 7 days in row and then I have 7 days off. This mode has many advantages and some disadvantages, although in my opinion the advantages definitely outweigh disadvantages. Who would not want to have a 'holiday' week every two weeks while still working full-time? In one of my first free weeks I finally decided to explore the island a little bit and leave Reykjavík of which I was getting slightly grow tired already.

When I finished my shift on Monday at 8 AM, the shops were supposed to open at 9, so half alive after 12 hours of work, I wandered around the awakening capital of Iceland, drinking the abandoned beer I had found somewhere. My brain was washed out too much for me to plan my shopping for this travel, so I put as many dry things in my basket as possible - cranberries, peanuts, bars, crackers. I have no idea how this happens, but when I sit at home I eat a lot, I could basically chew some snack non-stop. But while travelling, my hunger seems to disappear. Perhaps it is the emotions and the intensity of my experiences that feed me as I discover the world. Sometimes I force myself to eat because there is simply no time for it / I forget to do that it. Then somewhere there a thought appears "damn, I think I should eat something, I should consume some nutrition because my body needs it". Unlike at home, where the more frequent message in my head is "hey, you shouldn't eat that anymore, that's enough!"

I was thinking for a while about whether to pull an all-nighter or rather a ("all-dayer" in my case) and not to go out hitch-hiking straight away. However, the vision of falling asleep in every car and being so sleepy during travelling effectively discouraged me from this idea. Fortunately, there is practically no night in Iceland, so I just went to sleep for a couple of hours knowing that I will be able to hitch-hike up until midnight. About 4 PM I woke up and finally I found myself at the exit about 6 PM.

I have already hitchhiked this southern section of Route no. 1 twice, so it was not a completely unfamiliar part of Iceland for me. Without much hurry I put my thumb out and after just 3 or 4 minutes I found myself in the pick-up of an Icelandic farmer. I tried to chat a little bit in Icelandic, as much as I could - Hvað heitir þú? Ég heiti Jakub!. While I learn Icelandic very slowly and can say and understand just a few sentences, I am proud of myself because I have mastered quite fluently the difficult phonetics of this language. At least these few sentences I have spoken are being understood by the Icelanders.

Anyway, the farmer dropped me a dozen or so kilometers further, where this time a young Swiss guy, who just had got off the plane and got into the rented car, stopped and picked me up. Therefore Iceland was still quite "fresh" for him. I did not hesitate to boast that 3 months earlier I had visited his country and even visited CERN. We talked about his country, about his first impression in Iceland and soon we arrived at Seljalandsfoss.

This waterfall is unique in that it can be completely walked around (and under). Quite an interesting experience, completely multisensory, since the blowing omnipresent wind doesn't care at all that a tourist passes by under the waterfall and with joy it strikes the falling water all around.

Iceland has at least as many waterfalls as Europe has churches! You can quickly get used to their widespread presence in the landscape. But there are a few of them that are unique in their manner and that stand out in some unusual way.

From Seljalandsfoss you can reach one of these gems. A few hundred metres away, Gljúfrabúi hidden itself. To get there one has to walk a dozen or so meters along the river coming out of the cave. The atmosphere inside is truly mystical, I mean it would be mystical if we had been here alone. However, the reality is brutal and at least a few tourists are constantly in the cave. It must be much more interesting there in the early morning or around midnight.

My companion decided to spend the night on a nearby campsite and then go trekking from there into the interior of the island. I went back to the roadside of Route 1 and put my thumb out again. After a while I was sitting in a car with three young Jewish guys and we were heading for the next, yes, indeed, waterfall - Skógafoss. It is only 30 kilometres from Seljalandsfoss, so after a while it appeared to us.

For 900 years, there has been a legend in Iceland that a treasure full of gold hidden behind this waterfall. It seems that everyone is afraid of the powerful force of Skógafoss and has never gone to the other side to confirm or overthrow these revelations.

The waterfall can also be seen from above after climbing the steps on a special platform. From there we also went for a short trekking on the trail to... see another waterfall. I talked a bit with the boys about the geopolitical situation of our countries, about the history and vague promises of Trump's taking visas off from your countries 🤣. As it turns out, Israeli citizens also need a visa to travel to the United States, which surprised me quite a lot.

It was slowly approaching midnight, but I wanted to get to another place where I planned to spend the night. This place is virtually unmarked, there is only a small parking lot by the road on which several cars stood. There is a several-kilometre gravel path leading to it through the completely black wilderness, where I believe I met some astronauts who had just arrived on our planet!

The object I was aiming for was a wreck of an American US Navy Douglas Dakota DC 3 aircraft. Since World War II until the 21st century American troops were stationed in Iceland. On November 21, 1973, in not entirely clear circumstances, one of the planes stationed at the base in Keflavik crashed on this black beach. Luckily, everyone from the crew survived! The cause is likely to have been fuel shortages, although some reports mention bad weather or other mechanical damage.

Despite the late hour (about 11 PM), the plane was visited by quite a lot of people. My plan to sleep inside wouldn't work. I spent a noticeable time in there to saturate myself with the extraordinary atmosphere of this place and to see the aircraft thoroughly from all sides. Like many others, I gouged something out on it's side.

I was already solidly tired after an exciting day, lack of sleep and quite a tough week at work. Not far from the plane I found a river along which a specific mixture of moss and grass grew, creating a perfectly soft base for the tent. The vision of sweet, golden rest was motivating enough, so that even annoying wind could not spoil my humour while putting up the tent. I spent this rainy night fulfilled. After a few weeks without travels, I finally got back to the game.

To be continued...