The GR 20 is about 180km long.
The walk for most people takes around 15 days. I’m hoping to finish in 8 or 9 nights.
It’s a busy track this late in June, alpine huts and hot meals available. The first few days, including the “Cirque de la Solitude”, are the most intensely scenic. Unfortunately that’s when my pack will be heaviest. 🙂
Sarkozy willin’ and the ferry don’t sink, I’ll start trekking Sunday afternoon, June 26th.
I was a week in Galway, my first visit to the McCharles ancestral homeland. All four of my Grandparents were Irish.
I was hosted by Iro-Canuck Rob Fuller and his family. Thanks mate.
more photos from Galway
My random photos from a number of days wandering quirky ReykjavĂk.
… the capital and largest city of Iceland. Its latitude at 64°08′ N makes it the world’s northernmost capital of a sovereign state.
… population of around 120,000 (and over 200,000 in the Greater ReykjavĂk Area) it is the heart of Iceland’s economic and governmental activity. …
Much of the action is centred around Laugavegur, the main shopping street.
You can watch them via slide show … or skim the thumbnails.
With this set, all my photos from 2wks in Iceland have now been uploaded to flickr.
Delta Air Lines is now flying JFK New York to Keflavik International 5 times a week during high season. More competition for those wanting to get to Iceland is a good thing.
Icelanders laughed when I told them I was flying the discount airline, Iceland Express. IE is famously BAD compared with full service Icelandair. And not always cheaper.
What happened to me is that my direct flight KEF to EDI EI0255 on the 17th was (for some reason unexplained) rerouted via Oslo, Norway making for a much longer flight. AND a missed connection.
I arrived at my final destination, Galway, Ireland, perhaps 6hrs later than my original itinerary.
If you are considering visiting Iceland one day, some tips:
• consider shoulder season (before June 15th or after Sept 15th) or even off-season to get great prices and near unlimited availability of accommodation.
But be aware that many tours only run high season.
If you do go in the Icelandic summer, it’s probably best to book all transportation (aside from bus) and accommodation (aside from tenting) months in advance.
A standard short itinerary is the Golden Circle near the capital.
Much better is what I did, a week or longer in a rent-a-car touring the Route 1 or the Ring Road, something that many Icelandlubbers have not even done.
Cheapskates will like the rent-a-car / hostel package as I did.
Alternatively, you can take a bus around the Ring Road, tenting and hosteling as you go, but most feel a private vehicle is worth the higher cost.
Be award that regular vehicles are not allowed on the truly heinous (F rated) mountain roads. For that you need a high clearance rental.
Leave a comment if you’ve additional tips on this wonderful holiday destination.
These are a few of my favourites from a collection I called Iceland Random. You can see them on the slideshow, or click on any of the thumbnails.
These photos come from all over the island nation over a period of two weeks.
See all 122 pics in this collection on flickr. On that site you can see both date and geographic location.
Today I fly to some other island that starts with “I” …
But the next one is an economic disaster.
My Iceland hiking trip reports are posted on BestHike.com
Dave Adlard would love Iceland.
Pretty much anywhere on the island you can reach out the car window and grab a lamb by its wooly nape.
… the breed is very cold-hardy. Multiple births are very common in Icelandic ewes, with a lambing percentage of 175% – 220%. A gene also exists in the breed called the Thoka gene, and ewes carrying it have been known to give birth to triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, and even sextuplets on occasion. …
Here’s that same lamb (the one on the right) I later enjoyed in ReykjavĂk. Like Mark Zuckerburg, I like to look my lunch in the eyes before chomping.
I was treated to this feast by gymnastics coach / judge Gummi BrynjĂłlfsson.
New Zealand has a lot of sheep, but almost all is exported. Iceland seems to keep a few of theirs for the platter.
This island nation has about 450,000 sheep, 300,000 people and 500,000 (2008) tourists.
Skaftafell in Vatnajökull National Park is the most popular wilderness in Iceland. I’m offline hiking there the next 3 days, 2 nights. … If you can call them nights.
It’s breakfast in funky Reykjavik, a lamb & ham sub at 3pm.
In the Iceland of the Midnight Sun, day and night become fairly irrelevant.
Enjoying a lazy Sunday off, I’m still pondering whether or not to hike over to the ‘hot pots’ for a soak.
Tomorrow morning I’m contemplating a Puffin McMuffin breakfast before heading back out trekking.
They eat Puffin and Minke in Iceland, don’t you know.
My circumcision of the island is going well. Sheep, WIND, ponies, seabirds, WIND, cliffs, beaches, WIND, WIND, licorice candies, …
But I’ll be posting mostly over on my hiking blog …
