Iceland Part 9 - Driving

Ring road. Roads in Iceland are mostly raised.

Iceland is amazing country and the best way to see it (in my modest opinion) is by car. Car not only gets you around (and your luggage and you entourage) in comfort, but offers much needed shelter when the weather turns.

Here I would like to tell you about the infrastructure of Iceland. No amount of research will prepare you for what to expect. Even after reading my shocking report, I expect you still will be surprised what you will find. Iceland has five types of roads: Ring road, primary roads, secondary roads, off roads and terrain. You are not advised to drive in terrain, as this is heavily penalised and you can end up with a prison sentence. I’m not sure what the exact penalty charge is, but at first it may sound like a lot, but their inflation means that 1000 monopoly money (or whatever the currency is) equals to £6 in real money.

Ring road in North-east. Beautiful surface. Pleasure to drive.

Ring road is the big boy of the roads, and goes round the whole island. All the main attractions are on this route. 95% is nice tarmac like you see on the picture. A small part in the east is gravel road with massive potholes covering the whole width of the road. This was last year though, so it could be that today the whole of Rind road is nice surface.

Primary road. Some parts are surfaced, some unsurfaced. This is unsurfaced.

Primary roads - these are some parts tarmac, some parts gravel. Tarmac I do not have to explain, but will spend some time on what gravel road is. Yes it has gravel on it, but this is least of your problems. It’s quite easy to skid on it, but this is fun. The less fun bit are massive potholes that sometimes go on forever and cover the whole width of the road. To dodge them, is great fun, but only until you have an accident (like I did) and you end up reading the small print on your rental agreement and seeing what you are insured for. Or what you are NOT insured for. Once you realise, that the vehicle you are renting in NOT a dodgem, the fun is over. Your car is not likely to be covered for water damage (this means crossing rivers, not rain), wind damage (if the door gets ripped from its hinges by gale force) or gravel damage (don’t ask). If you get a puncture you have to fix it yourself, then drive to nearest service and get it changed at your expense (good luck in finding service). So basically, you are not covered for anything that is constant threat and danger to you. However you are covered for theft of the car. Island in the middle of nowhere. Like any car is going to end up in Russia by chance.

Secondary road. The better kind. When you are on the drastic kind, you are glad when you get into the rhytm and you carry on driving. Hence no picture.

Secondary roads- very similar to primary, roads except they do not have tarmac. They also have massive stones and rocks protruding from them. To be honest, I do not think I would take off road car on them, let alone 2WD I had, but the map given to me by the rental guys said it was ok to drive them. I forgot to ask the rental guys if the cars are especially adapted for Iceland roads, but we were too busy examining the damage on my car and me shaking and panicking profusely at the possible cost.

Road to Detifoss. The one for the 2WD. I sensed the road for 4WD was better, but wasn't allowed on it.

Off roads: you can only drive here in 4WD vehicles. Now I’m not trying you put you up to no good here, but few times I have seen off roads being in much better and drivable conditions than secondary roads. Unfortunately, if you are caught driving 2WD on these roads same rules as driving in terrain applies.

Terrain: everything around the roads I have just explained. This is not only to prevent erosion, but also that Icelandic flora grows at much slower rate than it does anywhere else. 1 year growth in the UK equals to 10 year growth in Iceland. So please bare this in mind and be respectful to their nature.

Now if you will be driving and want to only see the things around Ring road, 2WD is fine. If you will be venturing beyond its boundaries and can afford it, get the 4WD. You will be glad you did. I have seen better farm tracks in England than I have driven primary and secondary roads in Iceland.

Speed limits: Tarmac 90kmh/56mph, Gravel road 80kmh/50mph (though this is somewhat tricky to go as fast as that. It is ok to go much slower. You are not a chicken. I did it too, so that makes it cool), Towns 50kmh/31mph, Build up area 30kmh/19mph. I would like to stress here, that these speed limits are real, and not as guidance only, like it is in UK.

West Fjords - mostly secondary roads, but beware of the views. And make sure you put the hand breake on properly.

They have a lot of self-service pumps to refuel. Some are in Icelandic only. If you seek a bit of adrenalin, use these. Later wonder if you are getting charged even if you got no fuel out. Then  phone your bank on your UK mobile number, and pay to listen to those annoying songs while you wait for available representative. And then worry about your phone bill that you are definatelly getting charged for. If life is too easy and going well, there are so many way to spice it up, I tell you.

 Also you have to say to the pump how much money you want to spend before it lets you use the pump. My first refueling was quite a conundrum. I thought I was being a big spender putting 2800kr worth of petrol and wondering what will I do if that is like "too much money". Only when starting the car and seeing the gauge barely moved I had to have another go. However they also have pumps where an attendant will come out and fill the car for you. This cost extra (about 5kr a litre). These pumps are usually at the front, which is quite bad. In busy times if people do not want the attendant, they leave the front pump free, while other people are queuing and waiting to refuel at the back. If you are not too posh, or want to save money, watch out for the “self-service” signs.

Parking outside of Reykjavik at various places is free (hard to imagine if you live in the UK). Parking places along the Ring road (or elsewhere for that matter) are scares. Their roads are mostly raised, so “pulling over” means stopping in the middle of the road. Outside of the Golden circle, the traffic is not busy, so this is not so much of a problem.

They also have fair few bridges that are only big enough for one car to pass at a time. Here the rule is: the car that arrives first has a right of way. Do not race. You will find that the other car slows down.

Watch out for their sheep. I must say the Icelandic sheep has a better road sense than some of the people I know. The dark ones are tricky though, as they usually blend with the dark surroundings. Or tarmac even. In my whole stay, I have only come across one sheep that wouldn’t budge. She stood right in the middle of the road staring at me, and no amount of flashing and beeping the horn would make her move. After couple of minutes the scenario started to look comical, and I have decided to go and get my camera (that was in the booth of the car – mistake). As soon as I got out of a car and the sheep looked at me, it run away and so did the rest of the herd. So they might be the wisest, but are not the hardest :-)