{"id":844,"date":"2021-02-24T15:24:14","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T14:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/overland-travel.dk\/?p=844"},"modified":"2021-02-24T15:25:26","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T14:25:26","slug":"the-adventure-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/overland-travel.dk\/en\/eventyret-begynder\/","title":{"rendered":"The adventure begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iceland 2008 \u2013 where the adventure began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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First trip to Iceland was through a travel agency - where we were almost cheated because they were on the verge of bankruptcy. But at the last minute we got our tickets where we had ticked everything that sounded exciting. We had some time with a rented car, where we drove out on our own to the most common tourist attractions. Quite nice... but not quite enough to blow us away. We had also booked a day with Icelandic Superjeep where the program was wilderness, driving on Langj\u00f6kul glaciers, caves, hot springs and beautiful fjords.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Early in the morning we waited in the hotel lobby. A luxurious 10-seater American bus with big wheels rolled up to the door. Sus and I looked at each other... the driver was nicely uniformed, there was a DVD screen in all the backrests, there were some nice steps so you could walk right in. Ummmnn, we said to each other, this isn't the one we're going with, is it? And the mood dropped a few degrees, it didn't seem very "right" to us. The guide came in, read out the list of participants and several older tourists creaking over to the waiting Luxury Monster - we were not on their list. Phew, we said, and the attention was then caught by an older Land Rover Defender which was parked a little way from the door. Uhh, it looked far more exciting, a real adventure car without fluff packaging - but with lots of soul and personality. Sus went out to ask and lit up happily when the owner conjured up our names on the participant list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We were duly installed in the back seat and greeted nicely by the only other participant on the trip, a Czech doctor who had used his last pennies to buy a single day's adventure in connection with a medical conference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Off it went, with a humming engine and 65 km\/h on the asphalt road. The driver explained that because of the large wheels, they had made the axle gearing immeasurably slow - 65 was the practical top speed - on the other hand, it crawled well on terrain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before long there was plenty of opportunity to demonstrate off-road driving. A particularly stony path led us out into desolate and majestic scenery that we had never had the chance to approach with the regular rental car. Wrinkling and jumping, we sat in the back and felt that now we had a real adventure - the kind where the smile gets bigger as a result of greater challenges having been overcome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Large lava caves \/ long tunnels were visited and we got good explanations of the geological forces that are constantly at work in the Icelandic underground. Things around us seemed wilder, more untouched, more pure and more natural than anything we had seen before. The further away from the busy roads we got, the more fascinating the surroundings seemed. After all, a good four-wheel drive was a ticket to adventure and experiences. Yes, you could also walk on your two legs, but then the changes are experienced significantly slower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our driver headed up Langj\u00f6kul, sometimes with rocky ground, but much of the time on pure snow and ice. At an altitude of 850 metres, he announced that we were now leaving the fixed underground and driving the rest of the way up onto the ice cap. On several laps he had to get out and lower the tire pressure in the big wheels so that we got a large enough footprint for the car not to sink in. After a while the climb started to level out and we were rewarded with the most amazing view. Desolate \u2013 open \u2013 large \u2013 grandiose \u2013 fantastic. We had been incredibly lucky with the visibility, it was one of the few days where you could see around to the other surrounding glacier tops, with an estimated visibility of 150-200km. It's cold at the top, but the view is damn good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With a good joie de vivre in our bodies, we sat in the back of the Land Rover and watched this fascinating country slip by. The driver was a skilled guide who also took into account that we both had large cameras which were often in use, but he also had a schedule that had to be adhered to. We talked about the possibility of trying longer trips, preferably several weeks at a time, and he assured us that when you went directly to the tour company and requested expeditions that covered a larger area of Iceland - it was cheaper than when the travel agency also wanted their bite of the cake. Thus optimistic, we investigated the matter in the evening when we were back at the hotel. We happily searched for a 14-day 4\u00d74 trip around Iceland and found the price too... about DKK 45,000... per person. Oh, well, we'll just have to think it over a bit. That price was the reason why we chose to buy our own 4\u00d74 car and become do-it-yourself travelers. Thus began the adventure in earnest. Best Planet So Far.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Island 2008 \u2013 der hvor eventyret begyndte. F\u00f8rste tur til Island var igennem et rejsebureau \u2013 hvor vi n\u00e6r blev snydt fordi de var p\u00e5 randen af konkurs. Men i…<\/p>\n

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