It was 11am before the sun rose. We thought, great! A good time to drive the first leg of the Icelandic ring road while it’s still dark. Nope, not having it said the Defender. The beautiful low light was only in the sky for five hours a day in Iceland so we had to factor this in to our plan… or so we had thought. This is a tale of two British people who weren’t familiar with real artic conditions and what mother nature is capable of. This is perhaps our first real adventure.
This was the first time both Max and I had visited Iceland so we didn’t really know what to expect. I have wanted to explore Iceland during the winter months for as long as I can remember; amazing light, unpredictable weather conditions and dramatic landscapes. I knew this would offer me a dynamic palette for a lifestyle shoot, so I decided to take a few brands with me. Dryrobe, Nite Watches and Thrudark were all excited to be part of our Iceland adventure. The aim was to capture the natural moments, the believable moments, the dialogue and the quiet times that we were expecting to face during the adventure.
This was one of Icelands coldest winters reaching -25 degrees most days. Straight off the plane to pick up our Defender 110 camper van, we were greeted by the hire company who drove us a short distance to the HQ which was close to Keflavik Airport. Little were we aware, that what was coming up was the first hurdle of many during this trip.
Driving past a sad looking Defender upon arrival, greeted with news of a failed starter motor and heading out the door in a Mitsubishi Shogun after a whole morning of replanning, wasn’t the news we had hoped for. We eventually started our journey on the ring road, changing our route from East to West last minute due to alerts of bad storms and Easterly winds.
The wide, tranquil roads brushed with snow looked magical, like a postcard. Backdrops of mountains and peaks for miles. We drove 2.5 hours, with several photo opportunity stops, to our first campsite. The entire journey we were surrounded by waterfalls and fields of horses. Houses were placed sparsely amongst the base of the mountains and set back in the fields away from the road, or anything as a matter of fact.
We had good news! The Defender was fixed and on it’s way to meet us at our first campsite in Búóardalur. We made plans North for the following morning and waited for its arrival. I could also continue to plan my shoots knowing we had a more aesthetically pleasing vehicle to be more fitting with the three brands. Max was a Defender hater. He told me, “Defenders are rubbish, they are unreliable as already proven and we should keep the Mitsubishi”… Maybe this was some what true but a Defender owner like myself would not have it!
I won… and we were in the Defender at this point, with further plans to drive four hours North at 6am the following morning, we slid out of the tight sleeping space, froze for a moment, discussed how much of a bad idea a wild wee would be, cooked some porridge on the stove, packed up and got ready to drive the next leg of the Ring Road. Turned the key… not a thing… guess who was in the bad book.
I looked over and saw Max’s look of disappointment, and tried to find the solutions quickly. I ran a mile to the mechanics, down the road from the campsite, to find some jump leads. I stopped off at the petrol station to holla at a man on his way to work who kindly drove over the road to lend us a hand. An hour later in the -23 degree climate we gave up and rang the hire company to sort us out. Soon enough, the guy that sold me the jump leads hitched us up and towed us back to the workshop where we wasted another four hours of our trip.
A new fuel filter was fitted and anti freeze in the fuel was applied to prevent the fuel from freezing again. We were on our way but apprehensive whether this issue was going to let us down every morning. Was travelling further North a good idea? We drove a couple of hours in land, very slightly North, to Langjökull Glacier. A smile on Max’s face began to appear again, despite being a ‘touristy’ spot, we got to experience a piece of Iceland and head to the top of the glacier in a huge artic truck previously used for carrying missiles. The trip lasted four hours which meant we returned in the dark, with little expectation that we would be stuck in the car park all night. The Defender once again, failed to start. By this point it wasn’t just Max that was getting fed up. I called up the Hire Company and the Greenhouse Hotel, South of Iceland and chose to revert to a hotel for this trip. Our spirits lifted, The Greenhouse Hotel in Hverageròi was lovely. Situated in a beautiful town dressed in fairy lights and Christmas trees. There were mountain hikes which is where I ended up creating most of the content I promised brands and a Geothermal pool not too far away. Camping in winter was probably not the best idea and the more time we spent trying to keep the Defender alive, the more frustrating the trip became. This decision was made under the Northern lights that evening we were sat in our Defender eating a Freddo Frog and a cup of soup. The clear skies meant that our luck began to turn and Aurora Lights danced for the evening. This was definitely a trip with a story and one that we will be returning too to experience more of the beauty that Iceland has to offer when the Spring appears.
