My last full day on Iceland

My last day is providing a mix of the weather I’ve experienced here. The morning was sunny, still, and pleasant enough for me to eat my breakfast sitting outside. The afternoon has brought heavy rain and wind.

Actually, I’ve had much more of the rain and wind than the sun, so it was nice to have experienced at least one calm sunny morning.

Luckily, I’ve spent my afternoon in a campsite with very few other campers and a nice common room that I’ve had to myself. I’ve been practicing ukulele, reading, watching the Danish news, and otherwise relaxing.

Before breakfast, During Breakfast, Afternoon View

I must get up at before 6am tomorrow to ensure that I make it to the ferry in time to check in between 7-9am. I don’t expect much traffic, but the route is often under dense fog and that slows me down. I’m planning to eat breakfast once I’ve checked in. I’ve learned to boil water and store it in my coffee thermos, then add to a breakfast bag when I reach a good breakfast spot.

Many may consider waiting in line for a ferry to be an unappealing spot for breakfast, but I’ll have time to kill, and I’ll feel much less stress once I know I’ve made it on time. So I expect to enjoy it there.

I’ll be eating my last breakfast bag, so my plan matched my needs perfectly. I still have about 10 lunch/dinner bags left (I’m getting tired of them, I’ll admit!). So I may have bought a bit too much, but then, the Danish government recently warned its citizens to have rations on hand for at least 3 days, in case of emergency, and the bags expire first in 2028, so these excess bags will meet that requirement.

Enjoying my last week…

I’ve actually been a little surprised to see that, after admitting to myself that I would head home a week early if I could, I’m finding myself enjoying this week even more than before.

It has definitely helped that the weather improved and I’ve had sunny days (until today, which promises unending rain again).

I think the real reason, though, is that my expectations had dropped to thinking I just had to “survive” the next week, rather than “enjoy” myself, which made it easier to just do what I felt like doing. As planned, I skipped most of the biggest tourist attractions and drove straight back to a less populated part of the country.

As a result, I’ve had lots of camp sites almost to myself.

My favorite kind of camp site

I still managed to see some beautiful areas and going for my daily walks has been nicer.

This morning I test drove the route from the camp site I plan to stay at for my last night to the ferry. Google maps was erroneously claiming it would take 2 1/2 hours for a detour, as it seems to think Route 1 is closed at one spot, but I ignored its advice and the actual time required is less than 1 hour.

There is a camp site right next to the ferry, but they are reportedly packed in like sardines on the night before the ferry, so I’m choosing a site that I expect to be less crowded.

I am still looking forward to returning home, though I’m pleased that I chose to spend 4 weeks on Iceland, which has allowed me to take a leisurely tour around the entire island, seeing spots that most tourists wouldn’t bother visiting.

One week left…

When I planned this trip, I suspected that, no matter how many weeks I put aside for it, I would most likely start wishing I could just turn around and head home about a week before schedule.

That’s probably true even if I had only set aside a single week!

Now I have a week to go and, honestly, if I could head home today I would do it.

Luckily (or not), the ferry only sails on certain days, and changing my ticket, even if I could, would require extra payment, and that’s enough incentive for me to tough it out.

Although I’ve done laundry several times on this trip, each time has presented annoyances and difficulties. I’d rather not do so again, but I will run out of clean underwear and socks on my last day, which means I need 2 or 3 more of each to make it home (it’s a 2 day ferry trip).

Therefore, I am currently sitting in a mall in Reykjavik (I had to backtrack an hour this morning to get back… I had completely skipped the city otherwise). My plan is to buy extra socks and underwear to get me home without additional laundry ordeals.

I’ve already found what I will buy, but I’m enjoying sitting in a comfy chair in a mall “rest area”.

Taking stock, I can say the trip has been very close to what I had expected. I’ve seen some beautiful locations (as the pictures I’ve shared attest). My driving plan has held up well to reality. I’ve done well to find roads with few other cars and held my driving to under 200km per day most days.

Another of my nerdy graphs

The last few days my driving figures have increased, despite, or maybe because of the nice weather.

I see my car as a bit like a sailboat. I’ve never felt drawn to sailing, but the few sailboats I’ve been on are quite small and cramped, and everything must have its place to utilize space efficiently. I’ve arranged Mai to work effectively with the amount of space available. So I actually enjoy spending time in the car when the weather outside is uninviting and I have no other options.

The main problem has been that sitting in the car for too many hours a day, either while driving or entertaining myself, is hard on my back. The seats and space are comfortable, but don’t have optimal ergonomics. Sleeping helps, as I’m finally able to relax my back, but I can obviously only sleep for so many hours in a day.

Finding a mall where I could stand, walk, and sit comfortably while not being exposed to the Icelandic wind, rain, and bugs is a nice break.

Perhaps the only other issue is that I find myself feeling like an outsider. I wondered if I would see other people sleeping in electric cars.

Nope.

One camp site manager claimed that she had once seen a woman who slept in her Tesla, but I have yet to come across anyone personally.

Sometimes people in huge campers park about a foot away from my door when I’m already parked at a camp site, assuming that this car must belong to someone with a trailer and is therefore empty. I’ve overheard confused conversations when I’m in the car with my privacy shields on my windows.

Last night, the manager ignored the car while doing rounds to collect payment until quite late, and admitted that it had not occurred to him that anyone would sleep in it.

Another time, a manager complained that where I was parked was not for charging electric cars but was for campers. I told her I would be sleeping at the campsite, would like to pay for electricity, and asked where should I park, and she was confused for a moment, then just took my payment and left.

Luckily, most camp sites have been fine with me staying and plugging in, and the few people I’ve explained how it works (that I have a full bed and I’m not sleeping in the driver’s seat), have actually seemed quite impressed with the idea. I just find myself wondering what the reaction is going to be each night.

I’m now driving through a part of Iceland that gets a lot of tourists, and I’m doing my best to find infrequently travelled back roads. The next few days I will mostly drive through the most popular areas (which I have already seen) to avoid the big crowds of tourists. Then I’ll spend my last few days in the south eastern part of Iceland, within a day’s drive from the ferry terminal. That part seems less crowded in general.

As with all good vacations, however, this has helped me to appreciate home.

Recovered…

The day after my last post, I came down with a small vacation flu.

Sore throat, cough, slight fever, cold sweats, body aches, difficulty sleeping, low energy… that sort of thing.

Never fun, and particularly not when traveling through a cold, rainy, windy country.

I made do as best I could. After my first mostly sleepless night, I drove on to a new site that was close by and set up my bed immediately upon arriving and took a nap, then spent most of the day in the car.

I struggled to sleep for 3 nights, and those days I coughed a lot and basically took it as easy as I could, still driving each day, but not doing much else. Anna, my original traveling companion on the Faroe Islands, suggested that I buy a lemon, ginger, and honey to make my own lemon tea.

[slice the lemon, cut into wedges, cut the ends off, peel the ginger, cut it into small chunks, add hot water and a spoon of honey… then add more hot water and honey to the remaining tea each time I’ve drunk most of it… lasts for days]

This was a great idea and I’ve been drinking it ever since, though for the last couple days just because I’m kind of getting fond of it.

Today was the first day with sun and no rain the entire day. I actually was able to sit outside and read for a bit, before the wind kicked up again and it got cold.

I won’t bother giving daily reports, since the days are just a blur, but here is a sampling of pictures.

Muddy Mai, Muddy Roads, Cloudy Cliffs

All but one of the above was taken from the driver’s seat

Out and about… finally walking away from the car to take pictures from a small trail

My week in review

I just realized that it has been a while since my last post. To be honest, this is mostly because things have not been all that exciting the past few days. Iceland has had lots of gray rainy weather and I have mostly been driving from camp site to campsite. A few things have happened, however, so it’s time for an update.

I wrote last on Friday, last week, and today is Thursday.

Let’s take this one day at a time.

Saturday

My plan was to drive past multiple camp sites, seeing if any called to me, but most likely ending on the tip of the peninsula. Along the way, I looked for anything unusual to take pictures of. Mostly, I’m finding that churches offer a consistent opportunity, atheist though I am, though I did find a pretty boat just standing in a field that I liked as well.

Morning at my camp, my eventual driving route, a boat out standing in its field, and a couple of those churches

Unfortunately, when I made it to the camp site I had expect to stay at (as my battery was getting low), they were closed for a private event. I had wanted to drive along the edge of the tip of the peninsula the following day, but decided to take the short route to the next camp site on my map.

But first, I stopped to have fish and chips at a local family restaurant. It was a confusing place. The owner (I assume) was no where to be seen, but a couple already there admitted they had been confused at first as well, but eventually he does come out of the kitchen.

He didn’t speak English (or Danish), but I was able to order by pointing.

Having eaten, I drove through the rain to the next camp site and when I got there, I went to put my rain coat on so that I could look at the rules for staying, and discovered that I had left it at the restaurant.

Oh no!

I had just bought that rain jacket for this trip and it really has been perfect, I hated to think that it was lost. I tried calling several times, but got no answer. I did not have enough battery to make it both back to the restaurant and to the camp site again. I decided to focus on the camp site. I used my backup jacket to get to the location needed to pay for the camp site (about a km away in the windy rain). I then continued calling and eventually the owner answered.

I asked if he spoke English and he said no, but I had prepared for that, knowing that explaining that I had forgotten my jacket and asking if he had found it, and whether could I pick it up the next day, would be difficult over the phone. So I had typed this information into Google translate before calling, and when he answered ”No” to my question, I got Google to read the Icelandic translation out loud.

“Ah!” he said when it finished it’s robotic speech. “No problem!”

Learning languages is really no longer necessary, I suppose.

Camp Site Closed, Rainy Road, Fashionable Scarecrows

Sunday

As planned, I drove along the coast back to the restaurant along bumpy gravel roads.

There were not many interesting sights to take pictures of, but I was stopped near the end of that by a woman who worked for the Icelandic tourist agency for that section of the country. She said she was just out on her own, but when she saw another car, she asked them if they would fill out a survey for her work, then happened to see me as they were doing so and stopped me as well. She seemed overjoyed to have randomly found two cars driving on these remote roads.

Near the town there was an Icelandic “Stonehenge” (though most likely arranged with modern equipment). I didn’t bother visiting, but I did like the purple flowers nearby.

I did retrieve my beloved jacket then drove on to another camp site. Again, not much to take pictures of except another fancy church in that town.

My route, gravel road, purple flowers and some stacked stones, and a church in Húsavík

Monday

In the morning I drove inland from the peninsula towards a lake with interesting stone formations. I drove a circle around the lake, meaning that I saw much of it twice. The second time around, I stopped at a scenic area I had skipped the first time around, and was glad I did. It has a very pleasant area to walk through a small forest and gave better views of the lake than I had seen from the road.

There are a lot of horses on Iceland, and I’m doing my best to capture some of them in their dramatic surroundings.

I actually booked a campsite in advance, for once, and when I got there, the owner angrily told me that he would not allow an electric car to plug in to his outlets. He would let me charge at a paid charging station he had, but not plug in as I’ve been doing elsewhere. I didn’t feel welcome and left. He promised to refund my payment online (we’ll see), but I was quite concerned that this might be a problem elsewhere. I drove on to another campsite, however, and they had no concerns.

As it happens, when paying at a later site, the guard wasn’t sure about me plugging in my electric car, but let me stay anyway. Then, the morning after, he told me he got an angry phone call in the morning, saying that the owner (a town in this case) did not allow this. The guard’s theory was that they had just spent a lot of money to install electric vehicle chargers in the town, so they want to force people to use them.

The new site that night was much better, as it turns out, and I met a nice Canadian couple there. We talked over breakfast. I ran in to them again last night and we ate breakfast again this morning. They are heading home soon, though, so I don’t expect to see them again.

Stormy coast, Shadowfax?, Green Carpet, Rolling Road, Big Waterfall, Lake and Stone Columns, Mini-Cave, and my camp site

(hint: if you’re viewing on a phone, you can zoom in)

Tuesday

I made it to the only music shop I could find outside of Reykjavik and got my ukulele restrung. Yay! I think I spent 3 hours that day practicing. You really do appreciate things more when you lose them.

I also drove around again looking for less typical pictures of Iceland and cozy cafes. That night I stayed in the town based campsite, which was literally just a parking lot in a harbor. Not so cozy.

I love bright colors, more waterfalls, cozy cafe, the view between two tunnels

Wednesday

Much of the day I spent driving slowly along the coastline. Aside from churches, I feel drawn to lighthouses, as well as the odd house in what seems like the middle of nowhere.

I got to a potential camp site quite early in the day and couldn’t decide if I should press on or take an “easy” day. In the end, I opted for an easy day, mostly because the camp site was in such pretty surroundings. Unlike many campsites on Iceland, compared to the Faroe Islands, this one had a common room where I could sit for a while, so I was glad I chose it. It was almost empty when I parked, but by evening it was packed.

This is where I ran into the Canadian couple again.

Orange Lighthouse, Little House in the Valley?, Wednesday’s Campsite

Thursday (today)

This morning, after a pleasant conversation with the Canadian couple, I took a longer drive to a site along the coast with some interesting rock formations. Along the way, of course, I took pictures of an interesting church and lighthouse.

Church in Hobbitown?, YAL (Yet Another Lighthouse)

Rock Rhino, Bonus Waterfall (placed right beside it), Tonight’s campsite

I arrived at today’s campsite relatively late by my standards, but it was empty. Since then, some other campers have arrived. I went for a walk after plugging in and there were lots of birds who did not seem happy with me.

They came at me again when I returned and I managed to get a video of them. I haven’t figured out how to include videos on these pages, but here are a few screenshots. As you can see, they got quite close, a few even pecking at my hat, which I was glad to be wearing.

Alfred Hitchcock fanplay

There were a few Dutch tourists at the site by then and they admitted that the birds didn’t like them either. They had heard that they have new hatchlings, so they are not too happy about strangers. The same Dutch guys pointed out that a whale was in the inlet. Sure enough, after a few minutes we saw the telltale water spouts and their black hump backs sticking slightly above the water. They were too far and too shy for any pictures, though.

That brings me up to date.

I’ve paid for this site and the woman who collected my payment did not complain about me plugging into their power, so it seems I’m good for another night.

Time for ukulele practice.

Tragedy!

Yes, while practicing ukulele this evening, one of my strings broke.

My wounded ukulele

While my fellow campers might appreciate this, I’m sad that I can’t practice. I’m almost done with the entire Ukulele course on Yousician. I started in August 2023 and my hope had been to finish the course before a year, so I’m desperate to find new strings. I’ve already sent a mail to the closest musical instrument shop, which I expect to drive past in 3-5 days.

Morning with the Puffins

Otherwise, today has been a good day.

It started with a visit to a popular puffin hangout, which was close to my previous campsite.

A few puffin pics

Puffins are cute, quiet, curious birds that often flock by the 100s. Although I don’t show it in any of these pictures, they were packed in pretty close on an easily accessible rocky outcropping with a boardwalk for the less cute, but still quiet and curious tourists flocking about to take pictures of them.

It was already getting crowded with tourists in the morning and I’m sure it would be packed for most of the day. I’ve already taken pictures of puffins on my original visit to the Faroe Islands, but I couldn’t resist the chance to visit with them again.

After that, I drove for several hours down dirt roads along the coast and over a mountain pass with lots of beautiful scenery and happily very few other cars.

My route and a few of the sights along the way

I got to my next camp site in the afternoon and splurged on a late lunch at the local bistro.

Can you hear my sandwich screaming, “No! Don’t eat me!”

I’ll have to find ways to avoid boredom in the evenings without my ukulele for a few days, so you may see more posts.

Sorry about that.

But thanks for reading along.

Out of the Faroe Islands

After writing my post yesterday, I went for a walk in the town I was staying in and took a few pictures of the church, shown on the right below. This morning, as I was getting ready to leave, I saw some people heading into the water on the beach in view from my campsite. Given that the air temperature was 10C/50F maximum, I felt I needed a picture to prove that this does happen (and some of you have asked).

Morning bathers and the local church

My ferry didn’t leave until 6pm and I did not have anything left that I wanted to do, so after a nice lunch in a local cafe (shown to the left below), I drove to the ferry terminal, which supposedly opened at 1pm. This wasn’t actually 100% accurate, but I eventually got in. The email I had received saying final check-in would be at 3:30pm seemed to suggest that 1pm was not all that early. You can see on the right below, that I was once again first in line for the electric vehicles.

As it turned out, I had nearly 5 hours to wait before driving on board.

My lunch cafe and first in line

I had reservations in the restaurant at 6pm but get to my cabin until nearly 6:30. I wondered if the boat was perhaps on Icelandic time (1 hour behind). I went up to check and was glad, because I was already late for my reservation.

A little while after dinner, I decided to go for a walk before bed. I hadn’t really cared about attempting to take pictures of the islands as we sailed away, thinking it might not be very interesting. Turns out I was wrong about that!

I had left my big camera in the car, so I took a few snaps with my iPhone.

Quick snaps of the Faroe Islands in the evening light

First day on Iceland

I think Iceland and Greenland should switch country names.

I read somewhere that naming Greenland was a bit of a publicity move by the Viking that wanted to convince his fellows that it would be a wonderful place to live. I believe none of them survived.

Anyway, Iceland was “discovered” first, and certainly, the name seems appropriate in the winter, but during the summer, at least where I am, it’s very green. Which is not surprising given how much it was raining when I arrived.

I left the ferry to heavy rain, then drove up into the clouds. The fog was so thick that I could barely see the car in front of me. I couldn’t see anything other than the road, which made me wonder what kind of drop there was on either side of me. Eventually, though, the fog cleared and I was treated to a very large rainbow.

Rainy welcome, big rainbow, snaps from the road and the town of my campsite

I arrived at my campsite quite early, which suited me because I did not get much sleep on the ferry. I’ve had another lazy day spent mostly in the “living room” of my mini-RV.

Tomorrow I expect to see puffins nearby, then drive another couple of hundred km north.

I’m hoping for drier weather.

My last full day…

…on the Faroe Islands.

I’m taking it easy today, just relaxing in the common room of my last campsite.

Yesterday, I left Suðuroy by ferry back up to Torshavn, then drove back to the campsite I stayed in during my first full day here.

My Driving route and Hiking route, plus a few pictures of my campsite from afar

I liked that campsite, perhaps mostly because it was quite remote and therefore very quiet, on that first visit. That night there was only one other car there, with a couple from The Netherlands staying in a tent. We had a nice conversation over dinner.

This time there were more tourists, including both a couple larger campers and later a van, plus others that must have been staying in tents. I didn’t strike up a conversation with anyone, though, and still had the common room to myself.

I decided to take one of the hikes that I had studied back in Denmark (I’ve taken very few of the 30+ I mapped out!). It was a nice walk up to the top of the hill overlooking the town. The fog was so thick that, once at the top, I couldn’t see much, though that enhanced the charm, from my perspective.

I slept luxuriously late, knowing that I have already seen everything I was hoping to see during this visit.

Reflecting on my visit, I can conclude that 17 nights was, perhaps, 2 nights too many. That is, I’ve started “repeating myself” last night and tonight, where I am again staying at a site that I’ve visited before. On the other hand, the ferry schedule limited me to either 3, 7, 10, 13, or 17 night visits, and 13 nights would have been 2 few, so I think I made the right choice.

I would rather have seen everything I wanted and have an extra two nights than miss out on something I had hoped to see.

Tomorrow afternoon, I board the ferry again to head to Iceland. I’ve been told by another tourist I met a few days back, who had just returned from 10 days on Iceland, that the campsites there are more crowded and have fewer facilities. I’ve been spoiled a bit on the Faroe Islands, where I have often been one of very few fellow campers at a site and have often had the common room to myself.

I have not done nearly as much planning for my trip to Iceland, though I have mapped out over 80 campsites. My main choice will be whether to drive north or south after arriving. After that, I’ll mostly keep driving until I get back to the place I started (on the north-eastern coast, opposite of where Reykjavik, Iceland’s capitol is situated).

That should be about 4000 km of driving, and many manage it in a week or two, so my four weeks should give me plenty of time to explore.

As for hiking or other activities, I’ll have to figure that out once I’m there.

My arrangements for sleeping in the car continue to suit me very well. My bed is very comfortable and plugging in to the camp electricity has meant that I wake with a fully charged car, just as I was hoping.

I’m continuing to draw and practice ukulele most days. Yesterday, while waiting for the ferry, I decided to attempt drawing with my iPad again (I’ve been mostly drawing on my paper sketchpad on this visit).

My iPad sketch

I chose to make the experience as close to drawing with pencil and paper as I could. That is, I used a pressure sensitive “brush” in PhotoShop with a small (5 pixel) “tip”, and never used an “eraser”, just kept adding lines. I drew from a picture I had found on Flickr which I displayed on my other, smaller iPad as I drew. I draw with an Apple pencil.

Even so, the experience is different. I have attempted to draw from this photograph before and I feel like the results from this attempt are better. That might be because I learned from mistakes I made in my earlier attempt, but I think it is also thanks to my Apple Pencil / iPad allowing for a greater range of light to dark strokes, so the early lines that were off the mark didn’t hurt as much as they do with a graphite pencil and paper.

My Nerdy Vacation

Aside from drawing, I continue to enjoy analyzing aspects of my trip that most people would find uninteresting.

I’m keeping track of what I spend compared to my original estimates. I’m way under my estimates for some things and pretty close on others. There were a few things I had not thought to estimate expenses for, but they have not amounted to much.

So even though I’ve chosen to eat in cafes and restaurants quite often, I’ve used 40% less money on food than I had guessed. That makes up for the fact that I’ve used 7% more on campsites than I had estimated. Overall, the Faroe Islands portion of my trip cost ~30% less than I had estimated.

I expect Iceland to be more expensive in general, and I’m curious to see if my estimates were equally off or not. The other tourist I had talked to said that his experience was that prices had increased for most everything on Iceland due to inflation.

I’ve also created a “driving calendar”, so that I can see (and remember) where I drove and hiked each day.

My “driving” calendar (my version is zoomable)

Basically, I managed to drive on pretty much every “major” road (and most of the “minor” roads) on the Faroe Islands (that you can get to by tunnel or ferry) and visit nearly every town.

That reminds me of a documentary I saw back in the 80s or 90s about an autistic man who was bicycling to every business in his state, alphabetically, for no reason other than to check them off. It didn’t matter to him if he had visited one next door the previous day, he would stick to his alphabetical list as his guide. I do wonder sometimes if I’m not a little bit autistic.

It’s about time…

…to show a few pictures, I suppose.

I’m still not putting any effort into processing pictures I take with my DSLR, but I’m trying to remember to take a few with my iPhone to share.

This morning I went on a hike to a famous lighthouse on the island of Kalsoy. I came by ferry last night and will stay two nights.

This hike had been the only one that I really wanted to do on this trip, and hoped to manage to do it in sunlight. I’ve been keeping track of the forecast to plan my visit and it worked out perfectly.

Left to right: With the Lighthouse behind me, On the peak shown in picture 1, Looking left from the peak, My walk map

The weather on my trip up to yesterday has been pretty gray, so I timed this just right. The camp site I am staying in is in a town that has a statue of a “Seal Woman”. According to the sign, “Seals are humans, who took their own lives by drowning in the sea.” Apparently, they return to this town once a year, shedding their seal skins to become human again, to dance and party. There is a longer story to go along, but I’ll just share a few pictures of the statue.

Aside from the statue, the town’s other attraction, photographically, is the church, which I shot from several angles.

The weather returns to cloudy tomorrow.

It’s not an adventure…

…without some discomfort, right?

Well, I guess I’m having an adventure then. Luckily, nothing major.

I had a great day on Friday, drove to the town that was close to the campsite where I woke, taking my time, stopping to take pictures along the way and still arriving at 1pm.

The campsite’s website claimed that “check-in” was first at 3pm, but I went into the management office anyway, and they gave me my pick of sites and let me set up early.

So I had a great location and used the extra time to do laundry, take a luxurious shower, then walk through that town taking pictures.

I had a fairly big dinner at their restaurant, another luxury, and I can’t say if that’s the reason, but I then ended up having a minor gallstone pain episode that night, starting at about midnight.

As previously, at first I thought I was just feeling pain of having eaten too much, but eventually realized that such pain doesn’t continue growing as this did, so at half past midnight I dug out the prescription pain killers my doctor gave me after a previous episode, and while I didn’t sleep much that night, they did seem to stop the episode before it really took hold (previous episodes often lasted 18-27 hours).

Just to be safe, I took a short trip the following day to the next town and camp site, which turned out to be a free site that did not require registration. It rained all day and I spent most of the day in the “living room” of my mini-RV (the back seat), feeling good enough to be active, and bad enough not to feel bad about not doing anything else.

My travel routes Friday to today (Monday)

After a very restful Saturday, I felt up to a bit more driving on Sunday, but still limited myself. I decided to stay at a camp site that was basically a parking lot in a harbor.

I had decided to skip this when planning, being a bit of a snob, I am ashamed to admit. It turned out to be a great place. I enjoyed walking through the town, got a nice meal, and enjoyed their small but modern and spotless “common area”, which I had mostly to myself for much of the afternoon.

I decided I was up to a big drive, so that’s what I’ve done today. The north eastern islands do not offer any campsites, so I am only able to explore them on day trips. I combined them all today, thinking I can always go back to places that I like later, if I want to.

Also I booked passage to two islands I can only reach by ferry. So two nights on Kalsoy and three nights on Sudoroy. Then I’ll still have a few more nights to fill, and I will have visited all the available camp sites (except a couple that I’m still too much of a snob to patronize), so I will have to repeat myself.

No iPhone pictures lately. I’m using the big camera more, and I haven’t figured out how to add videos to this “blog” page.

How many roads…

It’s Friday morning as I write this and I guess it’s about time to provide an update.

First, some quick general comments:

• Charging while camping is working as I had hoped (after a few hiccups in the beginning).

• I haven’t needed to visit a charging station since the first morning, and that was just to be safe.

• I’m getting better at setting up and tearing down my bed, and sleeping works well.

• Last night, there was some issue with the charging, so Mai kept waking me up asking me to unplug her and plug her back in to see if that helped (which I neither appreciated nor agreed to!) but when I got up at 8:30, this procedure did seem to solve the issue.

• I am enjoying taking pictures again. Even if the pictures themselves don’t turn out impressive, I enjoy the process.

• I am also enjoying driving down tiny deserted roads to see where they lead.

My routes so far…

Today I’m planning a more relaxed day. I’ve booked a new campsite that is less than an hour’s drive from where I am this morning. I’m planning to visit one town along the way and arriving to the new campsite quite early.

It may be a laundry day. Exciting!

Here are just a few pictures I’ve taken with my iPhone to give you a sense of what I have been seeing…

The Journey Begins…

Watching the Danish news on Friday night, I learned that Saturday was going to be a busy travel day, because schools have just let out and it’s the start of summer vacation in earnest. The airport, trains, and roads were all expected to be quite crowded.

My decision to leave early suddenly seemed very wise, or, perhaps, my consideration of waiting until the morning of my ferry seemed quite foolish.

Either way, I was happy to be less than a half hour away from the ferry terminal as I received this information.

After waking, tearing down my bed, and having breakfast, I decided to drive to the terminal, despite knowing I’d arrive an hour before they opened the gates. I wondered if there would be a long line already or if I would be the first. It turned out that I was the first.

Mai first in line, if you can call two cars a line

I didn’t mind. I had plenty of activities and I’m spending most of my time in the car anyway. One car pulled up behind me almost immediately, so at least I didn’t feel entirely silly.

An hour later, they opened the gates and I drove to another line for another even longer wait. I took the time to walk about, continue working on various activities, and took a picture of the ferry arriving.

My position in line was very close to the ferry’s loading/unloading gate, so I was able to watch as many 18 wheeler trailers, huge campers, busses, and, after over an hour, eventually a large number of cars drove off. Emptying took about 90 minutes.

Once loading began, I was not among the first to drive on. I was in a line with the electric vehicles, and it seems they wanted us in the middle, so if any of our dangerous batteries exploded, we would damage as many other cars as possible. Or maybe we are heavier than other cars so they want us in the center. I don’t know, but they did require us to inform them of the fact that we were driving electric vehicles.

Das boat arrives, the last cars to board, synchronized windmills, and dinner

Nevertheless, I was not the last car to drive on board. I was, after all, the first in the electric car line, at least, and there were still many cars in other lines too. Once I had driven on, dropped my luggage off in my cabin, and searched the entire boat, I was still able to take a picture of the last few cars still boarding (you can just make them out to the left of the blue helipad above).

I prepaid for all my meals on the ferry and I’m quite pleased that I did. The food is good, prepaying is cheaper, and it was nice not to have to make any decisions on board. At lunch on the second day, I overheard that if you did not pre-book, you might not be able to find a table, at least at the restaurant where I ate, and it would have been a shame to miss it (see pictures below).

If you look closely above, you can see that I was reading a book about the joys of living life single rather than as half of a couple. Of course, I’ve tried both, and each has its advantages. I’m certainly quite happy to be taking this trip solo.

We’ve had calm seas on this trip. I did not pay for wifi in an attempt to enjoy my solitude without the aid of social media. I slept well, despite having allowed myself to be tempted by a glass of white wine with dinner. I don’t drink often, though I do enjoy the taste of wine. The reason I don’t drink often is that it often gives me a migraine, and this is still the case. Luckily, I brought some good pills with me and taking them at 5am has helped.

My view at breakfast, my drawing exercise for the day, Scotland, and lunch

I ate a nice breakfast at the buffet with a pleasant view of our trail through the water. Drew for an hour, which I’m trying to do most days. Currently I’m mostly using my own pictures of models as source material, but since I didn’t pay for wifi and I use my website to find my own pictures, I used some pictures by other photographers I had downloaded back in 2023 to use for drawing before I decided on my multi-year Calvin project.

I took a nap after drawing and that cleared up my remaining headache. In my cabin, I can see the ferry’s current location on the TV, and noticed we were sailing by some Scottish islands, so I went up and took a few pictures from the deck, then went to have lunch. As we were so close to Scotland, my phone welcomed me to the UK and I had some internet access for a little while.

Then I went for lunch, which were gourmet versions of Danish open faced sandwiches, which I have grown to love.

I spent a few hours in the afternoon writing the above. I still had a few hours to read, have dinner, pack my bags, and read again before 9pm, when I had to leave my cabin and they allowed us to put our baggage in the car.

I kept my camera and went up on deck afterwards, hoping to take a few pictures of the islands as we sailed in. I was quite happy that I had the presence of mind to put on a sweatshirt and coat, as it was very windy and cold!

Still, we had pretty nice weather and I enjoyed taking pictures for about an hour before returning to my car once we were at the dock. I took pictures mostly with my big camera, but here are a few iPhone pictures I also took.

After the wind and bright sun, I welcomed the calm of the harbor

Getting off the boat seemed quicker than getting on it. My camp site was less than a km away, but the Tesla navigation instructions wanted me to detour to the nearest supercharger first (in Iceland!).

I may not be able to use the Tesla’s navigation system in the Faroe Islands.

When I arrived to the camp site, they did not have my name on the list, despite my pre-paying for reservations back in March, and checking via email that using their electricity to plug in the Tesla would be OK. The woman remembered my email and said they had space, so just let me drive into a spot. I discovered a little later that I had booked for the day I got ON the ferry, and not the day I got OFF the ferry. Oops. Luckily, they are pretty relaxed (though I expect I will pay for my mistake).

I had been uncertain if plugging the Tesla into camp electricity would work. At first it did, and I noticed it was set to 6 Amps, but could be set as high as 13 Amps. The outlet had a little sticker where I saw 16 Amps, so I tried increasing from 6A to 13A in the car, and the power immediately stopped. After asking a few questions of the staff here, who had no idea, I just plugged into the outlet for the car beside me (luckily, they weren’t using it), and it worked at 6A.

I went to sleep with 56% on my battery and woke with 60%, which isn’t optimal, but without having it plugged in, I would have dropped to 40%, so this is definitely better.

Now I’ve had breakfast and will start to plan my day.

Judgement day…

OK, so I’ve spent enough time now to think that it was OK to leave already on Wednesday.

I got a good night’s sleep, took my time getting moving in the morning, had a pleasant hike through the local forest.

My Thursday morning hike (I made a video but it’s pretty boring)

Later, I got a yummy lunch in a cafe and found my next campsite. I even attempted, unsuccessfully, to take pictures of lightning in the approaching thunderstorms.

All this was worth experiencing, so I feel justified in having you send me a pre-text back to Monday, June 24th, to tell me to go ahead and leave early. I’d do it myself, but I think that would cause a paradox. It’s better that you do it.

I gave up on getting any pictures of lightning as the wind and rain were getting uncomfortable in the tower I was taking pictures from (you can just make it out in the second picture below).

Is a tower a good place to be in an electrical storm?

I made it back to the car just before the rain really started coming down in earnest, so I stayed dry, and had a nice view of the sunset through rain splashed windows. Eventually the rain stopped and I was able to take a picture of my spot and another of the sunset. The rainbow picture was taken from the back seat with the window down.

My Thursday evening camp site

This morning I took another short hike and moved on, had another nice lunch, and I’m sitting at a picnic table beside tonight’s camp site.

A couple of pictures from my morning hike and my current workspace

Tomorrow it’s time for my ferry trip to the Faroe Islands.

Decision made…

I decided to leave on Wednesday afternoon.

I spent a fair amount of time on Monday and Tuesday planning all my packing. I have over 200 line items in my “car inventory” packing list, which also includes information such as where any given item is “contained” for things in bags, backpacks, and such, and where each item or container is “located” in the car.

I put so much effort into this because I’m going to be living out of my car for the next 6+ weeks, and I’m certain to wonder, at times, whether I remembered to pack some seldomly used but suddenly important item, and I doubt my ability to remember.

So my packing list included checkboxes for “in container” and “in car”, which I only checked off when I had confirmed their status. This took a lot of time, but having to check things off helped me remember at least 5 to 10 things that I nearly forgot, and making the list helped me think of many things I would have forgotten otherwise.

Much of my Car Inventory

As to whether I still forgot anything, I don’t know yet, but I’m sure I’ll let you know when it happens.

I’ll be sleeping tonight in a parking lot in a pretty forest close to a pond. At the moment, there are many other cars. I got here at about 20:00 (8pm) and it’s now about on 21:00 (9pm). The sun will set in about an hour and it’s about 22 C / 72F with a light breeze.

I hear birds chirping and Danes chattering.

The view from the picnic table on which I sit

In other words, quite pleasant.

I’d say there are about 10 other cars and I’m curious about when (or whether) they will begin to leave.

When should I go?

My ferry leaves from Hirtshals harbor, which is about a 4-5 hour drive from Copenhagen, where I live.

The terminal opens at 11:30 and I must be there by 13:00 at the latest.

I will need some time to charge Mai along the way. At least once, and preferably twice, so I have sufficient charge in the car when I arrive on the Faroe Islands.

Each charging stop is likely to take from 30-45 minutes, although I might get away with a little less, it’s hard to say for certain.

What above traffic? I don’t have any experience that can help me judge.

So, the question is this:

• Can I risk leaving on the morning of the ferry trip at something like 06:00, which should allow time for charging and potential minimal traffic delays?

• Or, is it best to leave the day before and spend the night in Mai closer to Hirtshals?

You’d think this would be an easy question, right?

Of course, “easy” to you may mean that you choose the opposite answer than someone else reading who considers the question “easy” as well.

Given that I’m going to be spending a solid 6 weeks sleeping in Mai, you might think that one more night wouldn’t matter, so I would want to play it safe, drive on the day before the ferry departure, and overnight close to the ferry.

Or, given that I’ll be spending a solid 6 weeks sleeping in Mai, you may think that I’d want to enjoy my full sized bed for one more night before starting my Mai bed marathon.

Actually, here are my reasons for wanting to leave on Saturday:

• Although I’ve slept in Mai in Denmark before, it’s not quite as commonly done or 100% legally sanctioned as in Norway and Sweden, so I don’t feel quite so welcome.

• If I wake up with a short drive to the ferry, what am I going to do from waking up to getting in line?

• Driving from home in the morning and then “directly” on board leaves least opportunity to be bored on Saturday morning.

As for leaving before Saturday, here are my thoughts supporting that plan:

• This gives me much more time to handle any contingencies (flat tire, accident resulting in standstill traffic, etc.).

• If I realize I “forgot” something during my first night sleeping, I’ll have time to buy a replacement while still in Denmark (which, expensive as it is, is cheaper than both the Faroe Islands and Iceland).

• I could see this as getting “even more” adventure out of this summer trip, in fact, I could even leave a few days earlier and do some more exploring of Denmark before heading to the Faroe Islands.

So, at the moment, my thoughts are almost equal supporting each choice. If I summarize, I’d say that leaving Saturday is the “introvert option” and leaving before Saturday is the “pessimist option”.

Seeing that I’m an pessimistic introvert, it’s not an easy choice.

At this writing, I still don’t know which I’ll choose.

You, most likely, are at a big advantage, because you’re reading this after I’ve already done one or the other (because I don’t intend to publish this journal until I’m already on my way).

So, can you help out and tell me what I did?

Just send me a quick, pre-text message for a few weeks ago (or however much time is necessary, based on when you’re reading this), so I get the message tomorrow (for me) and I’ll know what I chose. Be sure to tell me if I regretted my choice, so I can change it and do the opposite.

I’ll try to remember to indicate whether I’m happy with my choice when I write my journal entry about whatever I do/did.

And thanks!

That really helps me relax about this.

Done with Faroe Islands

…at least the planning, that is…

I was originally hoping to arrive in the Faroe Islands without making a plan.

“I’ll just see how I feel each day,” I told myself, once I had finished mapping out the locations and relative qualities of the campsites that I’ll be required to sleep in.

About a week ago, myself said, “Yea, right.”

I started getting a little nervous, with good reason, that this could lead to me just sitting in my car for most of the trip unable to decide what to do.

So I’ve been spending time during the week figuring out what activities I might choose between each day, and what routes I might take to explore.

I find Google maps to be an excellent resource for such planning, plus the Visit Faroe Islands website directed me to other resources to help me find locations where I can hike and take pictures.

Seeing as I prefer to hike alone, and I am aware that going on long solo hikes on the Faroe Islands can have various dangers (rapidly shifting weather at all times of the year, the surprising ease in getting lost, especially in the thick fog that can roll in quickly, the often steep and slippery cliffs), I’m concerned that my physique won’t hold out like it used to.

I found a site that provides GPX files for hikes, which is basically meter by meter trail guides that I can download to my iPhone and watch, plus I have an app that allows me to edit the trails, so I have modified many of the trail files to provide guidance for the first 2 to 3 km into the trail and then the return to the starting point.

I feel confident that 5 or 6 km per hike, especially in the hilly terrain of the Faroe Islands, will be quite sufficient to satisfy my hiking desires for a day.

My Faroe Islands Google maps… from the top left: Hikes, Campsites, Photo Opportunities, Driving Routes

I’m currently planning on skipping the southern-most island, which I visited with Anna back on my first trip to the Faroe Islands, so I have not included it in the pictures above. I might change my mind, but I think there is plenty for me to explore without adding another ferry trip.

I might take a short 20 minute ferry trip to one of the northern islands, if I feel so motivated. We shall see.

I have a general plan for a potential strategy for where I might go and when, although I’m also leaving things somewhat open, in the sense that I haven’t actually booked camp sites in advance. I hope this will satisfy the needs of the part of me that wants to “take things as they come” to feel that I’m still the intrepid adventurer.

The GREAT Summer Trip 2024

Welcome to my GREAT summer trip 2024 journal…

As I worked on this website and eventually put together summaries of many of my previous trips, I recognized how nice it is to both have taken these trips, and to look back over them through the words I wrote at the time and the pictures I took along the way.

I began to feel inspired to both travel again and to keep recording my thoughts, so that I’d have something to look back on.

I also remembered that writing my “public” blog back in New Zealand was a bit different than writing my “private” journal. I found I have a different voice when I imagine someone, other than myself, might actually read what I write. Actually, I realized this when my friend Anna mentioned that she liked reading about a trip in progress (both from me and others in general) and encouraged me to do something that she could check in on while I’m traveling this time.

In some ways, to be honest, I cringe over the persona I found myself adopting back in New Zealand. At times, though, I do find the person I become interesting in his own right, so I am consciously giving him a chance to report on this coming trip. For those of you reading this that are not my future self, thank you for your attention, feel free to stay as long or as little as you like.

If you don’t already know it, you’re going to find that I can obsess a bit over details that you may find uninteresting, and I don’t mind that you skip those parts. You may also find that I skip details that you consider relevant. Sorry about that. I just don’t seem to have a typical view on these things.

I have the advantage of memory that allows me to fill in the missing details when I look back, and I’m quite curious to see, years in the future, what I thought was interesting way back then.

Some Background

I had the idea for this trip back as I was outfitting Mai to be my little mini-RV and initially pictured visiting Scandinavia with her. I wasn’t so interested in driving south, seeing most of Europe as overly crowded. Suddenly it occurred to me that there might be car ferries to the Faroe Islands and/or Iceland, and a quick search showed that there is indeed one such ferry available direct from the west coast of Denmark. I put it on my “maybe one day” list, then focused on Norway.

After my 2023, three week trip in Scandinavia, I still wasn’t 100% convinced that I could make this sort of trip work for me. It had been nice, I was glad I took the trip, I just wasn’t sure that I wanted to do it again.

I let the idea simmer for many months, but, as I wrote above, adding 20+ trip pages to this site helped convince me that it was worth a try. I began my research for this trip way back in December / January.

I had lots of fears, mostly about whether I could find enough charging stations for Mai. As is typical for me, I spent long hours on the internet answering my own questions and finding new fears to consider. I quickly found out that both Faroe Islands and Iceland requires people to stay in camp sites, so I couldn’t just park Mai more or less wherever to sleep, as I did in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.

• Would camp sites allow me to sleep in my car?

• Would Mai hold a charge long enough to let me travel the distances required?

• Some camp sites offer electricity… can I use that to charge Mai at night?

• Can I bring my camp stove fuel on the ferry, or, if it’s not allowed, where can I buy it during the trip?

• Are there enough things for me to do to make the trip interesting?

• Is it OK to travel alone?

• How long should I spend in each location?

• Do I have to book camp sites in advance?

• Will I begin to find landscape photography interesting again?

• What if I want to stay longer or leave earlier?

• How much food should I bring?

• Will I have space to bring my ukulele?

• Will I start to draw again, and if so, would I enjoy doing it while traveling?

This is just a short sample. Over the weeks of researching, I found satisfying and comforting answers to almost everything. By then I had made a map of all the campsites available in both the Faroe Islands and Iceland. I had measured the distances between campsites and charging stations to make sure that I would not find myself stranded with a dead battery. I added a few “sites of interest” as well, hoping that I would not find myself paralyzed with boredom.

I put together a budget estimate and a calendar to give myself a sense of how long a week “really” is. I started with a plan for 1 week on the Faroe Islands and 2 weeks on Iceland. I initiated an order for the ferry trip multiple times, getting familiar with their schedule, various cabins, and other options. In the end, I decided on 17 nights on the Faroe Islands (I arrive at midnight the first day, so it’s more appropriate to talk about nights than days), and 4 weeks on Iceland.

By February, I noticed that the price for the ticket was going up, and noticed that certain weeks cost 100s of Euro more than other weeks, due, I assume, to their high season and slightly off season weeks. I booked within a few days of making that discovery.

So, since February, I’ve been “committed”, although this has not ended my ability to have various fears and anxieties.

Some of my research materials

Some of the food I’ve gathered for the trip

Freeze Dried Food Analysis

As the date of the trip approaches, I’ve continued thinking about my packing lists and additional questions I want answered before I leave, but also what questions I look forward to answering on the trip itself, such as:

• Will I get tired of my dried food before I’ve eaten it all?

• Will I get sick of living out of my car?

• Will I miss daily piano and guitar practice?

• Will I actually continue daily ukulele practice?

• Will I actually continue daily drawing?

• Will I actually go on any hikes?

• Will I start taking pictures again?

• Will I continue to avoid interacting with fellow travelers?

• Will climate change influence the trip in any way? (rough seas on the ferry, unusually wet or dry…)

• Will the Icelandic volcano activity influence the trip in any way?

• Will I be painfully bored?

• Will I fall off a cliff or experience other forms for unintentional death (not that I imagine multiple forms likely or possible)?

I’m hoping for yes answers to some of the questions and no to others, although I suppose it probably goes without saying for most of which is which. Others I’m just curious about.

My intentions for the trip include the following:

• To continue daily activities including: ukulele practice, drawing, walking, writing, reading, exploring, and quality sleeping.

• To enjoy driving through beautiful scenery.

• To decide with certainty whether this is a form of activity for my future.

• To get better at truly listening to my moods and needs to avoid overwhelming myself.

That’s an update of the my preparations for the trip so far. I leave in about 2 weeks, so I may give another update before the trip begins.