Josh and Steve as they are leaving customs.

Over the past eighteen months much planning has gone into my Iceland adventure. Gear lists have been made, various items purchased, cars reserved, hotels secured, reservations changed and paid for again. It really has been a long and detailed process. Well, twelve days ago (July 1, 2010) all the planning and preparation finally paid off as my friends (Steve, Josh and Paul) and I landed in the Land of Fire and Ice, thus beginning the trip of a lifetime.

Our first day “in country” was largely spent securing provisions;  mainly things we couldn’t bring with us. Our eyes were quickly opened to just how expensive this trip was going to be when we hit the grocery store and left an hour later with a bill of over twenty thousand kroner (roughly a hundred and fifty bucks American) and about five days worth of food. We also picked up a cheap little cooler for two thousand kroner and a couple chairs for two thousand more.

The one item we had trouble finding was an affordable twenty liter (five gallon) gas can. We spent hours, yes HOURS, looking for one and were amazed at how expensive they were once we found one. The one we found was close to fifty dollars American. Come to find out, that wasn’t such a bad price considering we paid almost as much for two one and a half gallon containers.

After taking care of all our errands, I contacted my friend Klaus who lives here in Iceland and we made plans to meet outside the Hotel Floki between 21:30 and 22:00 that evening (that’s 9:30 PM and 10:00 PM for those of you who can’t tell 24 hour time.) Klaus was right on time and after a round of introductions we headed down to the Reykjavik Strip which was conveniently located a couple blocks down from the Floki.

On the way to our destination Klaus explained that driving the strip is what everyone does on a Friday and Saturday night. They cruise the strip looking for friends to go to bars with or to just stop and talk. We made one pass before finding a spot in a parking garage and from there we hoofed

Klaus listens in as Sebastian and Josh discuss routes.

it to the Danish bar a few blocks away.

Shortly after arriving at the bar we were joined by another friend, Sebastian. Sebastian is another avid off-roader so his arrival spurred much conversation about trails to take and the sights that we must see. Klaus and Sebastian had both been very helpful in the planning stages so the first few rounds were on me.

As the night progressed the beers flowed more and more freely, the bands grew louder and louder, conversation became more and more difficult and someone (ok, it was me) ordered a round (or three) of shots. How could I resist sampling an Icelandic distilled “schnapps” that the locals referred to as “the black death???”

The shots were pretty good and had a subtle hint of cumin on the finish. I must admit though that beyond that point things get a little fuzzy…

I vaguely remember another round or two of shots, one of which tasted just like cough syrup and I have a distinct memory of Spert kicking me squarely in the nuts not once, but twice and then hitting them again just for good measure. I just stood there with a dumbfounded look upon my face as I turned to Helgrid (the bartender) and stated “He just kicked me in the nuts!”

At some point we left the bar in search of sandwiches. I quickly lost interest in the search and found a nice set of steps that I thought looked lonely so upon them I sat doing my best to keep them company. Just then, a funny thing happened – I became the most popular tourist attraction in all of Reykjavik! People lined up to have their picture taken with me and all I really cared about was holding the steps down while my world kept spinning around me.

Eventually Paul and Josh managed to get me to leave my perch and got me back to the hotel. After a short six or seven hour nap I was ready to hit the trail and tackle the fabled F26, the Sprengisandur Road.

Finally, the Iceland Adventure is almost upon us! I can’t believe it my last Iceland update was back in March. Soooo much has happened since I posted last.

For starters, there has been a volcano erupting for the past three months. Its emissions have wreaked havoc on flights going to and leaving from western Europe. Airports in many nations were unable to get planes in the air for over a week due to the ash cloud spewing from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano. It has also caused some problems for those on the island as well and one of those affects us directly. One of the vents from which the volcano’s expressing itself just happens to be located directly under a glacier. The heat and lava flowing forth caused some serious melt-off and in turn the local streams turned into raging rivers. In an effort to save the bridges in their path, the Icelandic government decided to cut three large sections out of the southeastern portion of the Ring Road, the main road that runs around the island’s perimeter. Our first week of the trip had us returning to Reykjavik along that stretch of the road. Looks like we will have to reroute once we get in country. Hopefully there will be options.

This is the actual Korando we will be renting.

Another change that has occurred is that we decided against going with the Suzuki Jimnies. Instead we went with a more built up Korean job called a SsangYong Korando (or something like that.) Should be interesting. The ones we have reserved are actual 4x4s with 31″ to 33″ tires and I am assuming that they have been lifted to some degree. Can’t wait to find out just how capable these things are.

For months now, cooking has been a concern of mine. I didn’t necessarily want to get there and buy a stove, and at the same time, I don’t want to haul a stove there only to find out that the European propane canisters won’t have the same fittings as the American made. Well, thanks to one of my FJ amigos (GSFJ aka Garrett) who reminded me about the grill Luke and I used on our Can-Alaska trip last summer I found our solution..

Ladies and Gentlemen, please allow me to introduce to you the Cobb Grill!
This little grill, along with the four different cooking attachments I bought too, will create a complete cooking system that should suit our needs for the trip and will become a fixture in my normal camping / off roading gear as well. I can honestly say that I am looking forward to cooking many meals on my new Cobb.

Wondering what other equipment I am taking? That’s OK, I am too! lol

In all seriousness, I have been putting together a generic “gear” bag to take on the trip. In it I will have what I consider the essentials; tent, sleeping bag, yank strap, the Cobb.. This is basically what I will be taking…
Top Row: A Modular Sleep System (This is the same multiple layered sleeping bag system our military uses and is good to roughly 50 below zero), Battery operated lantern.
2nd Row: Self-inflating insulite mattress, MSR Groundhog tent stakes, yank strap.
3rd Row: DryDucks rain gear, Ultra-lite camp towel
Bottom Row: Spare blanket, Eureka Spitfire one man tent, 20 liter kitchen sink / bucket.
All of this stuff weighs in at 33 pounds. Add in 10 more pounds for my Cobb Grill and probably another 7 for the grill accessories and the bag *should* top out right at 50 pounds.

What else is there to tell…

Oh yeah… It looks as if Luke is back on the “Not Attending” list. No one has really heard from him since the last posting. It really is a shame. I think he is missing the trip of a life time.

Just two more weeks…

Over the weekend of May 14 Spert (aka Steve Garcia, aka the Greasy Spaniard) and I headed out to Lone Pine for a weekend of wheeling the local trails and putting together some fun and scenic runs for the big Memorial Day party happening two weeks later. I will get into the meat and potatoes of the weekend in a following post, but for now I want to share a short video of a nasty little stretch of trail.

The forty to fifty foot stretch was extremely narrow, allowing only three or four inches of ‘road’ beyond the footprint of the FJ with a ten to fifteen foot drop into a creek off the driver’s side. It was also a fairly steep grade with a sharp, ninety-five degree turn at the bottom. To add to the fun, just before the turn into the creek, there was an eight to ten inch drop down a slick rock on the driver’s side only. Oh, did I mention that the last third of the slope was off camber, or tilted, and trying to slide vehicles into the drink below? Well, it was.

Steve and I looked over the stretch before driving it. He voiced his concerns about the trail and stated that it wasn’t suitable for a large group consisting of drivers with varying levels of experience. I was a little more optimistic, noting that if we hugged the hillside and placed our driver’s side front wheel between the two small boulders at the bottom (the spot with the eight inch drop) we should be fine.

When we were satisfied with our proposed line of travel, we called Keith over and let him know the plan and he spotted Spert through the obstacle. Even with the help and taking the correct line, Steve had a brief moment where his FJ slipped towards the edge.

Next was my turn. I had intended for Keith to stay out and spot for me, but he jumped into my passenger’s seat and proceeded to “instruct” me as to where I needed to drive. Hindsight being what it is, I really should have insisted that he get out and spot.

In order to keep an eye on the side of the trail, and the vertical drop just past its edge, I jacked my seat to its highest position. As I reached the off camber stretch, I was still focusing most of my attention on the edge of the road. Knowing that I was approaching the drop towards the bottom, I started to steer into the hillside. Unfortunately it was a little too little, and a little too late. My front driver’s side wheel hit the drop on the outer half of the slick rock and I felt the FJ slide slightly towards the edge. Then the front wheel fully slid down the rock face and I felt the sickening feeling of the FJ slipping again, and this time it felt much worse. No joke, I was less than a half an inch from dumping the FJ on its side so it could play in the brook babbling on by.

I sat there, half frozen, for what seemed like a couple minutes, but based on the video, it was only a few seconds. I knew what I needed to do, but I really dreaded having to make the truck move again. Despite my desire to just stay put I cranked my tires to the right, eased off the clutch and applied the gas. My front end followed directions to a tee, my back end had other plans. I will let you watch the video to see what happens next…

Now I’m trying out the “All In One Video Pack” by Kaltura. If all goes well, I will embed a video in this post.

This is looking promising..  Time to publish and see if this works!

Sweet!  All went according to plan. The video uploaded and posted beautifully. I will continue playing with this new plugin and see what else it is capable of. I am also interested in seeing if there’s a limit to the maximum file size. If not, I may have found my new video host!

Since you viewed the above video, you can already see that the Kaltura plugin allows you to record video and upload it directly from your webcam. I will test more features and add them to this post later today.

And now I’m going to try to upload video via FTP and insert it into a post…

Test Video – Night

I am going to attempt to upload and add a video to this post..  Wish me luck!

Shot with the Kodak PlaySport waterproof HD video camera I bought for the trip to Iceland. The low light quality isn’t great. I still haven’t tried it in a full light situation.

Attempt 1:

OK so uploading anything over 8mb isn’t going to happen if I use the Upload Video option for the WordPress software… Guess I will have to try using the FTP client.

Attempt 2:

Tried the FTP, but obviously stored it in the wrong folder..  I will try again later.

Attempt 3:

Shot some short vids to upload so that I can see where the files upload to. I will need to use FTP to upload the larger ones… Wish me luck!

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I spent the better part of the afternoon adding functionality to the site. I was able to add a countdown timer for the Iceland trip, add a list of upcoming trips that ties updates automatically when I schedule new events on my calendar and I added some quick links to the right hand sidebar. I also added links to my Flickr, Facebook and Twitter accounts so that you can “follow” or friend me there.

The feature I am most excited about allows me to send notifications to those who subscribe, alerting them to new additions to the site! You don’t need to worry, there will be no spam sent, nor will I sell your email addresses. In fact, the only time you will even receive a notice from me is when I add content. And, if I am correct, only one email will be sent per day and it will catalog the changes made over the last 24 hours.

I have other ideas in mind for the near future as well. I will be adding a couple different review sections to the site. One for camping and wheeling equipment, and another dedicated to restaurant reviews. Most of the reviews will be for places I’ve eaten while on road trips, but I will slip in a few of my favorite restaurants as well.

As always, I appreciate you stopping in. Be sure to leave a comment to let me know you were here. I’m also open to suggestions so if you have some ideas to make the site better or you want me to add or test specific equipment, just drop the suggestions in the comment box.

This past Sunday (3/21) the Iceland Crew got together at Oggi’s Pizza and Brewing Company for our first meeting. Steve’s brother Paul is confirmed and he will be with us for the first six days of the trip. In fact, he booked his tickets while we were having lunch.

During the meeting we discussed a variety of topics including camping equipment, items we need to take with us and what gear we should just purchase there. We put the three tour books (links posted below) and map I purchased to some use as we hashed out a tentative itinerary that covers what we will see while Paul is there, what to see after he leaves the group and proposed nights for camping as well as the nights we need to stay in hotels. We also agreed to nail down the truck rentals this week (more on that later) and Josh said he’d give Iceland’s tourist bureau a call and ask them a few questions.

Josh, Steve and I are all scheduled to arrive in Reykjavik early Friday morning and Paul just before noon the same day. Once Paul arrives we will head over to Geysir to pick up our trucks. Unfortunately, yesterday Steve and I booked the rentals and discovered that the Russian-made Lada  Nivas that we were looking forward to renting were not available so we had to settle for the Suzuki Jimny (known in the States as the Suzuki Samurai.) When built up, the Jimny is a great 4×4 vehicle, but I must admit that I’m a little concerned about how well they will do as a stock vehicle. Will they have the necessary clearance? How well will they handle fording fjords? My biggest concern is their tires. I’m almost certain they will be street tires and not fit to wheel on. If that’s the case, we may need to purchase a couple sets of tires to use instead.

After getting the cars we plan to split into two groups and get whatever equipment and provisions we will still need. Food wise, I have a feeling we will be eating a lot of fish, lamb and cheese. I wouldn’t be opposed to doing some fishing while we are there and supplement our diet with fresh fish instead of the dried or pickled options we will need to buy. Hopefully Josh will remember to ask about fishing licenses and their cost when he talks to the tourist bureau.

Friday night will be spent in Reykjavik. I’m sure, despite our jet lag, we will be exploring the local hot spots. We may even try to hook up with my Iceland friend Klaus so he can show us around.

I’m assuming that we will plan on hitting the road early Saturday morning. From Reykjavik we will travel east until we reach Hella and from there we shoot off on the 26. The 26 is where we will start our trek to the north and east on the Sprengisandur Route (Iceland road F26). Ideally we will reach Nyidalur on where we will find a “hutte” and stay there the first night. The next day we can either stay on F26 or branch off to the far more challenging F910. If the Jimnies prove to be reliable off road, we will probably go with the latter option.

From that point on, the trip is somewhat up in the air. We know that the first day’s drive will be long, but fairly easy. Sunday should provide us with much more technical driving, numerous river crossings and only Thor knows what else may lay in store…

I seriously cannot wait to go on this trip and I know the others can’t either!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention. It is looking promising that Luke will be joining us on this adventure. He was a part of the original list, but dropped out due to health reasons. Now, he’s getting fighting the good fight and says he wants to do this! We are all excited about that news and really hope he continues on his path to wellness and is able to make the trip.

Unfortunately, I never added the last post to my Canadian Adventure thread. To make up for it, I will post the pics from Denali. Hope y’all enjoy!