TROUBLE FROM THE START….
We have a late evening departure from Charlotte, a layover at JFK and then a redeye to Iceland. You can’t fly directly to Reykjavik- there is no international airport there. Instead you’ll fly 40km south to KeflavÃk. Not a big deal but good to know for planning purposes. The airport is fairly small and easy to go through.
First Pro tip: If you want anything consumable that they sell in duty free- like alcohol or chocolate- you might as well pick it up here and save a substantial amount of money. We like to have an adult beverage in the evening and while we like supporting local businesses we aren’t always going to be near a local brewpub. We bought some Brennivin, which is an Icelandic liquor- think liquorice in the flavor. You may or may not like it.
Second Pro Tip: Don’t bother changing money. The only place we needed cash was for a shower at a campground, and they just added it to our bill and gave us the coins. Use a credit card (not debit) for everything. If you feel the need to have some krona just in case, only change 20 bucks or so. They seriously use cards for everything here.
The flight was uneventful, going through customs was a breeze- it is so helpful that everyone spoke English! We never wanted to assume, and always asked if they did before we started speaking to people, but nearly everyone does to some extent.
It was 9:30 when we arrived, so we took a taxi straight to the Camper Iceland to pick up the 4×4 RV we had rented. The young man helping us was pleasant and easy to deal with. Then he took us to our truck…..and that’s when the fun started!
Now we live in a fairly rural part of North Carolina. Both of us went to school here and while we have moved around we ended up back where we started… an area we think of as at least slightly “redneck”. Not necessarily meaning anything bad, it’s just kind of a lifestyle & culture we are used to…. and our truck looked like the most redneck vehicle I could imagine from our small town area. A Dodge Ram, with “Punisher” graphics…. Realtree Camo logos… and for the ultimate in classy touches, a custom flame grill. Not to mention a gas sucking 5.7 liter Hemi engine. It was not, in fact, what I expected to drive in a European country.
It was already named for us – Thor. And so we loaded up Thor with our gear, got a lesson from the young man helping us (although I suspect we have more Dodge experience than he ever will) and we headed down the road on our great adventure!
About 20 minutes in, the truck had a “Check Engine” light come on. I’m pretty mechanical, and know from experience that these tend to be related to sensors, and not necessarily a major issue. But we let the company know and they told us they’d had some sensor issues with the truck but it should be fine. Undaunted we pushed on… we’ve planned a light day since we knew we’d be tired from traveling. Out first stop is the Bonus grocery store, then the Hellisheidi Power Plant– most of Iceland is heated and electricity is generated from this plant- at least Reykjavik is, which is most of the population. It was interesting, but not really worth the cost of admission.
We were tired from flying and pull into our first campsite of the trip, in Hveragerdi. The campground is pretty full, but very clean. Just up the street we get a delicious pizza at Olverk Pizza and Brewery- just what we needed! Afterwards we settle in for the night- like all campgrounds the people are mostly quiet and considerate, but we have some very noisy neighbors who pull in very late and proceed to argue into the wee hours of the morning, but with jetlag kicking in we sleep well regardless of the noise.
The next morning we make breakfast and start our day- the truck starts up just as we expect, and we decide to head back over to the pizzeria and use their wifi for a few minutes to check the weather and road conditions. They have the wifi turned off there, probably to avoid that exact thing from happening. So we decide to head back to the Geothermal Plant, since it’s on our way and has good wifi. The truck hesitates on starting but it does start and we head on our way.
After a quick stop at the plant, we head out again…except the truck will not start. I don’t really think it’s a battery issue since we started earlier, but when we contact the company, that’s their first line of defense- I understand but am pretty sure that’s not the problem. We get some jumper cables from someone in the plant, but most of the people that come in the parking lot either have hybrid/electric cars that can’t jump us off, or they have fancy rentals that they don’t feel comfortable letting us do that with- and I understand that. So we wait…
Finally we get a plant worker to stop and help us, we get jumped off and decide we at the very least need a set of jumper cables and a battery test- there is no way we want to be stuck in the highlands or north country with a dead battery! So we head back into Reykjavik, find an auto parts store- get our battery tested (fine) and buy some very expensive jumper cables. We start and stop the truck several times and it seems to do fine, so we hope we’ll be ok.
NOTE TO RV RENTAL COMPANIES: You are sending people into remote areas with your vehicles- even if they stay off the F-Roads there are still times when they will be the only vehicle around for miles. You should include a very basic tool kit and some jumper cables, or even better, a battery jump box. You might save your company from an expensive tow, repair or even someone’s life.
The gas guzzling Hemi already needs fuel- we don’t really want to go much below a half tank, just to be safe. So we stop in the nearest gas station and while I fill the tank I do some mental math gymnastics and figure how much this beast is going to cost on our trip- and it’s a lot! But I needn’t have worried, because the truck wouldn’t start, again. Several people tried to help jump it to no avail… so I waited around another Dodge work truck parked nearby until two guys showed up- obviously tradesmen and comfortable with fixing things. They were incredibly nice and helpful and were determined not to leave until we were running again. Eventually the truck started up and we decided we were NOT driving it anywhere other than back to the rental company. If they wouldn’t help us we’d figure out another plan. So we let them know we were on our way and headed back to KeflavÃk.
When we got there we pulled into the garage and they told me we had left something on and the battery had died (we hadn’t). I pointed out that if that was the case it wouldn’t have started easily first thing in the morning. Again, I’m no mechanic, but I’ve puttered around on cars my entire life so I know a fair amount. After a lot of testing and back and forth they determined there was a problem with the computer in the truck, and despite them telling us there were no other vehicles available, they suddenly found a brand new Isuzu diesel truck and decided we could use it. It had the exact same camper on the back, also named Thor (they have different names for different size campers) and we quickly transferred our belongings to the new truck and were on our way again, basically two days behind schedule. I argued we should get two day discount and they pointed to the contract that said no refunds due to vehicle failure… but I figure I also saved an expensive tow and diagnostics for them. Anyway it didn’t happen. We decided the first truck was really Loki (the Deceiver) and now we really had Thor. The Isuzu was a 6 speed manual, diesel and flawless for the trip.
The day was basically shot at this point, we are both tired. So despite our original plan to skip Reykjavik until the end, we went into town and stayed at a campground right in town. It was large and full of campers, but it was clean and comfortable. We walked into town and checked out all the standard tourist sites- the church, the artistic Viking ship statue, Rainbow Street. We’re glad we got see all of it, but we didn’t spend much time at any of them and were okay with that.
After two frustrating days we awoke refreshed and ready to really start our adventure this time… the Isuzu fires right up and off we go!
