Þorlákshöfn Campground
6 July 2019
We left Reykjavik on the Rt 1 Ring Road, heading off to the east before cutting south toward the coast to make our way to the Þorlákshöfn campground. It wasn’t a far drive, just over a half hour from the city. Convenient enough, yet still putting us out of city traffic to start off tomorrow.
There are many campgrounds all throughout Iceland. Some are private owned, some are little more than just parking areas, and some are organized by the towns where they are located. There are many options to choose from, at varying costs as well. We chose to pick up a Camping Card while we were in the city. We debated if we should get one or not, and settled on buying one to be on the safe side. Essentially, the Camping Card is a prepaid camping plan, that is accepted at many campsites throughout the country. You pull up to the site, present the card, and you are good to stay. We debated with getting one since only select campsites are part of the program, but we found these to be spread out enough across the country that we should have no trouble using them as waypoints throughout the journey. By the end of the trip, we had found that the card wasn’t really necessary and didn’t save us any money, but we didn’t know that up front. Next time we probably wouldn’t get the card, but for our first time camping in Iceland it did help us to plan our route and gave us some peace of mind.
We found the Þorlákshöfn Campground easily enough, but as this was our first time at an Icelandic campground, we really had no idea what to do. We pulled the van into an empty spot we found and sought some advice from other campers. We learned that what we did is pretty much what you do here, find an open spot and park. There are no designated plots, just be respectful of the other campers. More than fair as far as I’m concerned!
There were all sorts of campers at the site. We saw bigger RVs (though nothing like the monsters in the US), smaller campers, converted vans like what we had, small tow-behind trailers, and even a couple people who set up regular tents next to their cars. Some of the campers had big tents that attached to the side, even connecting to other campers, making for giant rooms that they gathered in. I know Europe had a faithful camp following, and it was nice to be part of it.
We had already eaten at Skal! so the table and cooking gear were going to stay packed for the night. Instead, we decided to take a little walk around the area. There was a church next to the campground and a trail that went down to the coastline behind it. We took pictures on our phones with the timestamp displayed. 11:45 pm and the sky was still bright! It is truly amazing the amount of daylight we had!
We made our way back to camp and snapped another shot. Midnight, the sun had just set behind the horizon, yet it was still enough to keep the sky bright and red. This was as dark as it was going to get tonight. Over the course of our week here, the night would grow longer by about 15 minutes per day, and the sky would get a little darker each time. By the end of our trip, the night will be about an hour and half longer than it is tonight!
We got back to the van and started prepping for our first night sleep in the camper. It had cooled down a bit from earlier, but it wasn’t cold really. We typically zip our sleeping bags together to make one big pouch to share, though that is more difficult in the mummy bags. We closed up the blankets hanging over the windows, turned on our little accent lighting, and changed out of our day clothes. Changing in the back was a bit tough with the low headroom. I could imagine making a van like this, we’d want the bed to convert to a bench like a futon. But for this trip, it’s easy enough to adapt.
It was an incredibly long day, from the flight to walking around the city to driving out to the campsite. We cut the lights and crashed out pretty quick.
The next morning, we woke nice and refreshed. The mattress in the van was very comfortable, and the sleeping bags made for a nice night as well. We poured out of the van and made our way to the bathrooms. Apparently, the campground had recently had a fire which destroyed some of the facilities. I think they had a shower before, but now there was only the two toilets and the dish washing area. It was a pretty stripped-down campground, but we expected a few of those. We filled our bottles and took the toothbrushes back to the van, figuring there may be a handful of days where we won’t get to shower. Hey, that’s camping!
I pulled the table out and set up the little butane stove for a quick breakfast of eggs on toast, with a side of the skyr. I like yogurt sometimes, but find it can be a bit upsetting on my stomach. Skyr is not a yogurt however, though it is yogurt-like, and I much prefer its texture. And it doesn’t get me upset like yogurt does. I think we are going to have a lot of skyr on this trip!
We changed partially in the back of the van, partially outside. If those girls at the beach yesterday could strip out of their bikinis out in the open then surely we can pull on our pants outside and leave some of the bashful American stuff back home. We packed the gear back in the van and got ready to head out, noting that no one came to take any payment or check our camping card. We did get a nice start with learning how the camping works here, and we drove off from Þorlákshöfn knowing our next camping stop would be done with a lot more confidence!
