Vijay and Shefali's TAtW

We heard there were some great sights at Jökulsárlón (the floating glaciers) but there’s a small problem – it’s on the other side of the island. So you know what that means… Road trip! It was amazing! We drove for hundreds of km (380 to be exact – about 240 miles) through practically every kind of terrain and weather (except sun, of course). It seemed to take ages, but that’s mostly because 1) I kept stopping to take pictures (Shefali is great with patience like that), and 2) the conditions were nothing short of treacherous at times. Seriously, you’re on this tiny two-lane road with no guardrail and a fast drop into jagged rocks or Martian terrain and, what the hell, the occasional one-lane bridge to keep you on your toes. The wind whipped around us like we were falling out of the sky, literally pushing us around on foot. The car we rented was a tiny Kia efficiency, so we couldn’t go above 60 km/h without the wind blowing us into another lane. Rain came in driving downpours, contrasting starkly with the overcast calm on a sleepy horizon and complete lack of thunder or lightning. At one point as we drove through freezing rain, red clay and black volcanic debris snaked across the road in front of us riding and outlining the wind currents sinusoidally like an alarm warning us to continue at our peril. I remember thinking at that exact moment – and this is without exaggeration – “this is it. this is hell. this is hell and we are here to die.” It was fucking terrifying. Perhaps even more amazingly – we saw people ON THEIR BIKES pushing through this. I thought to myself “Those are real adventurers. Respect.” And as they extended a thumb, perhaps pleading to our senses of mercy and karma, I thought to myself “You should have had a plan B, bitch!” And we drove and drove and drove on. It was all a sight to behold and gave sense of the true spirit of nature – raw and powerful, an unforgiving machine that defies mortal desires and control. But it wasn’t all lacking-infrastructure-this and nature’s-fury-that. The rest of the trip more than made up for all the gloomy skies and soggy sneakers. We saw horses! There are tons of farms out here, and maybe some are just wild. Either way, it was beautiful. And sheep! Sheep everywhere! FROLICKING. When was the last time you frolicked? Yeah, I didn’t think so. And there were cows too, but they’re ugly, so they didn’t make it into the gallery. The gallery at [1]. Which you will love.

Vijay

[1] Iceland – Road Trip!