The MG Owners’ Club Iceland Adventure

David Martynski 29/07/2014 | 0

The MG Owners’ Club Iceland Adventure

They call it ‘the land of Ice & Fire’ but there was also plenty of wind, rain, sun, fun and great motoring for the fourteen club members who took seven MGs to Iceland last August.

Essential car preparation finally completed we set off for Aberdeen, taking two days to cover the 560 miles from Norwich. Others were coming from as far as Holland and the Isle of Man. On a very sunny late Monday afternoon we all met up at the dockside for the first time, three MGB Roadsters, three MGB GTs, and one MGA…’The Magnificent Seven’, plus Helen Burman, our ‘shepherd’ from the Travel Club, in her MG TF.

The Northlink ferry left on time at 6pm and as we basked in the evening sun on deck it was an opportunity for everyone to get to know each other and consider the sanity of our decisions to take small sports cars to a country where 4x4s are king of the road. We had been assured that the main route around Iceland, Route 1, was fully completed apart from a small stretch, still unmetalled, but that this would be OK for our cars if driven sensibly. Any deviations from the main route had to be our own decision but as we were to discover some side roads appeared OK at the start but soon deteriorated.

After a calm 12 hours at sea we arrived early morning in Lerwick, capital of The Shetland Isles, to be greeted by Maurice Mullay and others from The Shetland Classic Car Club. After a hearty breakfast at the local Co-op Maurice kindly took us on a day long tour of part (never realised it was so big) of the Isles. Our thanks to him and his fellow enthusiasts.

We spent the evening in the pub listening to local fiddlers. Midnight finally arrived and so did our massive ferry from Bergen. The Smyril Line ship, the Norröis cruise liner standard and was our transport for the next 30 hours. We stopped off in Torshavn in the Faroes for 4 hours ashore en route to Seydisfjör, east Iceland, arriving early Thursday morning and feeling that we had already enjoyed some interesting times, well it was 5 days since we had left home, and we still had seventeen more days to experience before landing back in Aberdeen.

Our excitement at finally embarking in Iceland was tempered by some pedantic customs activity. It is a small port so maybe the arrival of such a large ferry only once a week is a local highlight?

Being advised to top up our tanks whenever a filling station was sited, most of us did so before heading up the winding road out of the fjord, glancing back to see the ferry dwarfing the small port. The Roadsters had their tops stowed and we were driving on the right (the Icelanders ‘moved across’ in the late 1960s) with mandatory dipped headlights (at all times). It certainly felt strange driving our MGs so far north of the UK.

So began 15 days of touring a land full of amazing contrasts, with the one constant being water. Waterfalls, lakes, rivers not forgetting steam from geysers and the hot bubbling mud of Hverarö This was the area around Lake Myvatn where we all spent three days exploring the natural richness of the area either by walking, hot water bathing, climbing volcanoes (one still showing signs of recent activity), to whale watching from Hùk, or accepting the challenge to drive fifty miles along a ‘volcanic’ road to Dettifoss waterfall (with the greatest volume of water in Europe).

This was to be the pattern for the rest of our tour, exploring, then moving on. So active were we that on more than one occasion people asked us if there was an ‘MG Convention’ in the area as they reckoned they had seen around 30 MGs driving around (‘the cars’ were definitely ‘the stars’). We met up with Kristjan & Ellen Kjartansson (they are the MGOC of Iceland) and their immaculately restored (by Jon Sigurssteinson) MGB Roadster that had been languishing for 22 years in store at the USAAF base after it closed. Our thanks to them for their very homely hospitality and for the pleasure of their company when visiting the remotest car museum most of us have ever visited, at Ystafell. Not only has Sverrir Ing_lfson restored some interesting vehicles but he has many outside ‘climbing ‘ the mountainside to keep him and his family busy for many years to come.

We met Jon for the first time at the museum and were taken to Akureyi to view his restored 1954 MG TF, 1960 MGA Twin Cam Coupe and Jaguar XK120. Words cannot describe the highest standards of restoration he has achieved with these cars, they were spoken of in revered terms by members of the Icelandic Antique Automobile Club whom we were to meet later on in Reykjavik.

After a rare group picture at the Godafoss waterfall and a wet overnight stay at Akureyi a long drive of around 230 miles ensued through the northern farmlands. Sheep scattered everywhere (why do they gather in groups of three?), small communities of a few houses gathered around a farm, and inevitably the white church with a red roof. The turf houses at Glaumbaer Museum (there are a lot of museums in Iceland, they cherish their history) gave us a fascinating feel of earlier living in this harsh environment.

The hot tubs at hotel Glymur relaxed us at the end of a long day and as we soaked ourselves we were able to enjoy the remarkable views across Havlfjör, where whales were once hunted but now admired for its scenic beauty.

The two night stay here and the short hop to the capital Reykjavik for a three night stay meant we could choose our own itinerary (but not the weather, sometimes sunny, but also wet & windy, with open top gale force driving an experience not to be forgotten).

From Reykjavik (meaning ‘smoky bay’) it is possible to easily drive to a number of popular places frequented by the daily visitor to Iceland, some flying into the country, others arriving in the harbour on exotic cruise liners. We now found ourselves sharing car parks with tour buses at the historic Thingvellir National Park, the ‘cradle of the nation’ a place of breathtaking natural beauty, then again at Geysir (meaning ‘gusher’) from which all other natural steam eruptions around the world take their name. A little further down the road is Gullfoss waterfall on the river Hvitá This is a two stage fall and with Geysir and Thingvellir forms the popular ‘Golden Circle’ tour.

A car club visiting Iceland with their cars may not have happened before, so the Iceland Antique Automobile Club were our hosts for an evening of car talk and a cruise around the streets of the capital. We visited the fishing museum (no hard feelings about the ‘cod wars’) and finally to the old bus station, meeting up with another eclectic gathering of cars. The American Forces influence is much evident with a good number of big ‘barges’ but some GB cars from the sixties era were also to be found. All seemed well cared for, not an easy task considering the difficulties in having to get spare parts from a long way off. The owners love to tell you of the long trips some have made to capture that ‘special’ part.

After shopping (nothing too big please) and sightseeing in the capital (some of our party had taken the opportunity to take a ‘big-foot’ 4×4 trip to Mount Hekla, another two competed in the 10k road race) the time came to depart on our final stages. The scenery now started to change again as we headed back east along the south of the country. Optional routes via the coast or more inland meant different views. We took the coastal route, flat at first with powerful North Atlantic rollers crashing onto vast black sand beaches, totally void of humans but with seabirds in abundance. After our overnight stay within earshot of the waterfall at Skogar, we rallied around to change Folly’s clutch slave cylinder in about 45 minutes, a Gunson fluid bleeder kit being produced from the depths of Colin’s GT (what space compared with a Roadster).

As the coast became rockier some attempted the road up to the top of Dyrhóy and were rewarded with views of the natural rock arch, the home of puffins (when breeding) and other seabirds.

With views of Mount Hekla (last eruption 2000) in the distance we found ourselves being drawn toward the country’s spectacular glacial scenery. The largest glacier in Europe, Vatnajöl, dominates the skyline. In 1996 one of Iceland’s most active volcanoes, Grimsvö erupted through the icecap and melted enough of it to wash away the road (now rebuilt) on which we were crossing the black lava plains to our stop at Skaftafell National Park. Peaks of the glacier dominated views from the hotel windows but so tired were we from walking to the glacier or seeking inland waterfalls that we slept without worrying about volcanic activity.

Arguably the peak of the holiday was about to arrive as we left Skaftafell, sun shining, the top down and driving along in the shadow of Vatnajöl to the glacial lagoon of Jösáó It is difficult to describe the sensation as you cross over the road bridge and park your car alongside the lagoon containing icebergs, some the size of football pitches that have broken off the glacier and are slowly melting as they drift out towards the sea. A thrilling boat trip out amongst the icebergs is a must to see the gleaming white, mottled with sediment, cobalt blue or jade green ice. Then a short walk to the black sand beach where small icebergs are washed up and you can hold 6,000 year old ice. The lagoon exit to the sea was blocked a few years ago to allow the water to freeze over. The setting was then used to film the ice sequences for the James Bond movie ‘Die Another Day’.

So we reluctantly left Jösáótill to enjoy wonderful views as we motored up and down the fjords to our final night in Iceland at Egilsstadir. The sun and warmth of Jösáóave way to a windy and stormy night (cold enough now to see the ‘Northern Lights’ for those who stayed up late). On our morning drive over the mountains to the ferry we encountered the first snowfall of winter. Storms had delayed the ferry for six hours but as we eventually sailed out of the fjord the weather settled and we all gathered on deck to say goodbye and recall our favourite ‘Icelandic’ moments.

Maurice looked after us again for another day in the Shetlands and we celebrated our wedding anniversary on the Northlink Ferry by all of us having dinner together and just maybe it was the sea that made our walk to the cabin appear a little unsteady? Next morning The Magnificent Seven embarked into a dull and very wet Scottish Sunday morning after fond farewells all round.

So after just over 3 weeks and 3,000 miles we arrived back to a late sunny Norfolk summer, our only problem being a broken spoke. As this was being written in late September, many of the inland Icelandic roads were already snowbound but what an adventure we all experienced. Thanks to a great group of pioneers, you all helped to make the holiday what it was. The Travel Club (thanks, Helen and all) are doing it again in 2007, so start preparing now.

Peter & Christine Harrison