Bivvi Bag or Tent for Iceland?

[ged]

.... Did I mention this is a very low budget trip? I'm going to rely on my tent (as well as any local hospitality I might receive) to keep me dry. I'll air the sleeping bag at every opportunity I get. ...

This is why I'm recommending a bivvi bag as well as a tent.

I use a goretex bivvy in my tent most of the time, more than anything because it keeps my sleeping bag a lot drier. Try it. The difference is just amazing.

If I don't use the bivvy bag, when I wake up the outer shell of the sleeping bag is pretty well soaked with condensation, especially around the feet where it's colder because it doesn't get so much heat from my body. If I use the bivvy, the sleeping bag and the inside of the bivvi are nice and dry. Sometimes I get too hot in the night and while I'm asleep I shove the bivvy away. Then I'll often wake up with the sleeping bag half-in and half-out of the bivvy. The difference then is really obvious, as the bag is dry where it's been inside the bivvy and wet where it hasn't. In fact that's what first made me realize how much the bivvy bag is doing.

My bivvi is a moderately expensive one, but I'm sure one of the surplus goretex ones that you can get for less than thirty quid would be well worth the investment. It wouldn't even really matter if the bivvi was less than completely waterproof because of wear or a bit of damage -- you'll be using it for its breathing, not to keep the rain off -- so you might be able to pick one up which will do what you want for practically nothing. Why not see if you can borrow one for a couple of weekend stints before your trip and see what a difference it makes?

 

[Martin-123]

This is why I'm recommending a bivvi bag as well as a tent.

I use a goretex bivvy in my tent most of the time, more than anything because it keeps my sleeping bag a lot drier. Try it. The difference is just amazing.

If I don't use the bivvy bag, when I wake up the outer shell of the sleeping bag is pretty well soaked with condensation, especially around the feet where it's colder because it doesn't get so much heat from my body. If I use the bivvy, the sleeping bag and the inside of the bivvi are nice and dry. Sometimes I get too hot in the night and while I'm asleep I shove the bivvy away. Then I'll often wake up with the sleeping bag half-in and half-out of the bivvy. The difference then is really obvious, as the bag is dry where it's been inside the bivvy and wet where it hasn't. In fact that's what first made me realize how much the bivvy bag is doing.

My bivvi is a moderately expensive one, but I'm sure one of the surplus goretex ones that you can get for less than thirty quid would be well worth the investment. It wouldn't even really matter if the bivvi was less than completely waterproof because of wear or a bit of damage -- you'll be using it for its breathing, not to keep the rain off -- so you might be able to pick one up which will do what you want for practically nothing. Why not see if you can borrow one for a couple of weekend stints before your trip and see what a difference it makes?

Thanks Ged,
You make a very persuasive point, and good ideas for getting one cheap. I'll look into it.
M.

 

[Martin-123]

I was working alongside the Icelandic Mountain Rescue who are very professional and well equipped, I'm sure if you contacted the local team for where you wish to travel they would give you the likely conditions and recommend places to photograph / wild camp etc.

Taking your advice, Limaed, I found this link to Iceland Search & Rescue. I will do as they (and you) suggest, recording my itinerary with them and I will hire one of their emergency radios for peace of mind.
Excellent advice. Many thanks indeed.

http://www.icesar.com/category.aspx?catID=424

 

[Beardy]

Fjóla (the missus and a local lass) says:

The answer to the question about what the locals use:

The answer ,,houses" is a great one!! We do use houses, not igloos!

But when camping out, obviously, houses are not our first choice If you want to be a proper camper you will use a tent, but a lot of people use caravans or these : http://www.efling.is/efling/frettir/?cat_id=22679&ew_0_a_id=304906. But I do not recommend it unless you have lots of money to buy petrol...

So, the answer to you question about what is recommended:
- Tent!
- Checking out the opening times of campsites in advance, and also prices! some of them are not cheap...
- Check out the weather forecast every once in a while, its quite reliable.

 

[Limaed]

Thanks Martin,

Glad to help, the PLB's are very good kit. A German chap with a broken femur used his recently whilst out walking in the Highlands, he was rescued very quickly from a potentially life threatening situation because of the accurate information relayed from the device.
Hope you have a great trip!

 

[Martin-123]

Fjóla (the missus and a local lass) says:

The answer to the question about what the locals use:

The answer ,,houses" is a great one!! We do use houses, not igloos!

But when camping out, obviously, houses are not our first choice If you want to be a proper camper you will use a tent, but a lot of people use caravans or these : http://www.efling.is/efling/frettir/?cat_id=22679&ew_0_a_id=304906. But I do not recommend it unless you have lots of money to buy petrol...

So, the answer to you question about what is recommended:
- Tent!
- Checking out the opening times of campsites in advance, and also prices! some of them are not cheap...
- Check out the weather forecast every once in a while, its quite reliable.

Thanks Beardy and Fjola,

I don't think anyone was being rude about the Icelanders, I think it was just an off the cuff remark to the quite reasonable question; "What do the locals use?" In other words; get some local knowledge, which you have provided.

I won't be using an Efling, I'm hitch-hiking! ... and a tent it will be!

Good advice on checking campsites. I have to put a bit more effort into this. I haven't yet found a website that lists all the campsites in Iceland. Do you know of one?

Thanks again,
Martin

There's no substitute for experience.

 

[Beardy]

Hello Mart, this is Beardy again, normal service has been restored!

No worries about the igloo thing, they don't mind having a bit of a laugh at themselves from time to time! I think the decision to not constrain yourself to the roads is the right one - there is a LOT of distance to get to some places here (which may be why many Icelanders go for various wagons and tent trailer affairs) but there is a lot more to this country than just the roadside.

But, something you will have to think about is how to get from A to B when B can be rather far away and public transport outside of the Reykjavik capital area can be... patchy, to say the least! I've managed to hitchhike from Rvk to Akureyri in one day (not bad I thought) and I think on Route One you will be okay but on the smaller, less often travelled roads you may have problems - we intended to go to the Westfjords but ended up in Akureyri since no one was taking that road! Other travel points: the fly bus (2000 Icelandic Krona from outside Keflavik airport arrivals last time I took it) will get you to Reykjavik, and Flugfelag Islands (http://www.flugfelag.is/) and Flugfelag Ernir a.k.a. Eagle Air (eagleair.is) can get you from Reykjavik city airport to a number of sites around the country at a reasonable price (pay in ISK with Ernir, it works out a lot cheaper than paying in Euros or Pounds) compared to the patchy bus connections, and a lot faster. If you plan it right it can actually be pretty swift and doesn't require you to overnight in Reykjavik, should you not want to. You may also need to think about ferries depending on where in Iceland you are going to (certainly for the Westfjords and the Westmann Islands, or even if you fancy sailing here from Denmark or Norway with a stop in the Faroes). Also, there are a plethora of guiding/travelling/excursion companies here that might be going somewhere near where you are heading and have a spare seat.

I will ask ref the campsite list, but most villages seem to have one, usually near the sports hall or swimming pool so the showers there are used for both purposes. Also remember that in Iceland you have the Everymans right (I seem to remember it being called such?) to camp most places, and there can be natural 'hot pots' (pools from geothermal springs) that can serve as a good place to freshen up for free, and usually in great surroundings.

Speaking personally, I haven't done much overnighting out here, although I have done a fair bit of work outdoors and on the water. For September I reckon conditions will be quite changeable for you. I have been working outside in the South in August and been in T shirt and getting rather hot, conversely I have been hiking here in October in the North and almost gotten frostnipped hands! September in Iceland certainly isn't frozen, you will be far more likely to be on the receiving end of rain rather than snow in most areas. There again, the weather is pretty unpredictable here - there was 16cm of snow in May in Rvk - and some places here seem to have their own little microclimate - Akureyri in Eyafjordur for example is regularly colder and snowier than you might expect, even for its Northern setting. Wind in Iceland is a different matter to UK conditions too, the terrain seems more open, rolling, more 'big country' and theres a lot less trees to break it up. That and the fact that a lot of places in Iceland are near the coast makes this quite a windswept little island.

ICE SAR and the Coastguard have certainly come across as very professional when I have met them (not on the receiving end yet, touch wood!) and I would recommend touching base with them if you are going off the beaten path, unfortunately every so often bad things happen, even to locals, and mobile phone coverage here can be unreliable, so better safe than sorry. Do you have any ideas about where in Iceland you want to travel to?

I realise this is turning into a bit of an essay now and I've drifted a long way from tents vs bivvys so I will step away from the keyboard and wish you all the best with your trip, this is a great country and I'm sure you'll get a lot out of it.

 

[Martin-123]

Well, thanks for all that, Beardy,

All very helpful. I've spent about 36 of the last 48 hours researching Iceland but it's always good to hear from someone with local knowledge.

Btw, I've found the campsite list, http://www.visiticeland.com/Accommodation/Camping/

In a nutshell, I want to see as much visual spectacle as possible. Geological and wildlife, so whales & birds are on the list. I read this: "Húsavík; One of the world's most reliable whale watching sites." I also hope to meet some locals but I don't want to end up in a pub. I drink very little these days and that would be the best way to waste my time & money ... and prepare myself for the SAR team.

When you say "I've managed to hitchhike from Rvk to Akureyri in one day" (I'm assuming RVK is the local abbreviation for Reykjavik), that sounds pretty damn good to me. It also helps me to 'calibrate' my scale of the map. In that case, I'd say it would take 3 or 4 days of just driving to circle the island. This means, if my trip is 12 days long, I've can afford to spend 7 or 8 days 'off route' with one day to spare at the end. I can't possibly miss my return flight but I don't want to bypass the good bits either (they're the reason for the trip)!

I'm thinking out loud here ... that means I could aim to visit, say, 3 or 4 of the 'off route' National Parks etc., as well as visiting the 'on route' ones. I will have to make judgements of all this on the fly of course, and I could always make a bee-line for the airport if I run out of time.

I'm interested in any suggestions you may have for where to go, so don't hold back. Perhaps put it in a pm, as we are going a bit off topic!

Regarding the Flybus, I'm loathed to spend £18 on it. What's to stop me from HH'ing from the airport? It will be late evening when I arrive so I might just find somewhere to camp (or bivvi) and HH in the morning.

Something else I could use advice on (from a fellow hitch-hiker) is what map I should use. I'll buy it when I get there as the best maps will probably not be on-sale here!
For hiking in the UK I use OS Landranger (but not for hitch-hiking) as they're 1:50,000! http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/products/os-landranger-map/index.html
Can you suggest or recommend a map of Iceland that is about A2 size or equivalent, covering the whole island? I'd think that would be about the right level of detail. Are they available in laminated form? Any idea of cost?

Thanks again Beardy.

Mart

 

[Martin-123]

Check out the guy in this photo! That's what I call adventurous!

I wonder if he's got room for a passenger on that?


http://www.explorer.is/en/tours/individuals

 

[Beardy]

Hello again!

I suppose there is nothing to stop you from hitchhiking from Kef; I just take the flybus as I have often had an internal flight from Reykjavik city airport to catch that I couldn't miss, either that, or I have been picked up by GF, her family or friends etc. We found that we had more luck getting rides when we were 'out of town', even if that was only walking 500m down the road, I suppose people are more likely to take pity on someone thumbing a lift then! As for maps, that is an ongoing saga for me. I find it so difficult to get decent quality mapping of Iceland for outdoorsy purposes. As for a map of all Iceland I would think you would do well in any bookshop such as Eymundsson's or Mal og Menning - I have bought a map of a region from M og M and whilst it's not a patch on the OS for hiking purposes it does give you the lay of the land. Apparently, they are also available in the UK - this could be a useful map sheet for you: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Touring-Map...=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1309808279&sr=1-6 They aren't very expensive but I've yet to see a laminated one.

The problem I find isn't so much the big picture maps but finding ones that go into any sort of detail, for someone who has always been able to get hold of OS 1:25 or 1:50 000 maps it's quite difficult to get used to. If you are interested in getting into the detail of planning a route you might find this link handy: http://www.lmi.is/pages/kortathjonustur/kortasafn/
Just drag your cursor over the area of the country you are interested in and click Leita, it should give you a list of maps you can download freely. Alternatively, if you go to the second from top drop-down menu (Kortaflokkur) and select Herforingjaráðskort then click Leita, you should get a load of 1:50 000 maps of all over. Yes they are old, but that's the best we have managed to find so far.

I wouldn't worry about not being into pubbing, they don't seem so common here anyhow, at least not outside of the handful of large towns. Meeting the locals in more than a passing sense could prove tricky unfortunately - I did so through voluntary work initially, but that's obviously not really an option with your time constraints. As for nature, if seabirds are your thing then perhaps the Westmann Islands or Latrabjarg could be one of your stops. The Westmanns also have a volcano that erupted in the 70s and is still warm, quite surreal to walk on something still pumping out heat in places, I wished I had tried baking bread in one of the vents... (a comment from Fjola: one of few places I can think of that icelanders start to chat to strangers (except drunk in a bar) are the ,,hot pots" in swimmingpools, give it a try )

For geology, I have heard the Landmannalaugar to Þórsmörk (Thorsmork) hike is impressive ( http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Þórsmörk_from_Valahnúksból_20090607.jpg ), but I've not done it myself, yet! You could also try and see fjord country, if you haven't been before and you are into rocks it's certainly worth a visit, although it can take longer than you expect to get from A to B there - I have experience only with the Westfjords but I have heard the East Fjords are similar, I believe they also have some forests and reindeer there, and the East shouldn't be so far from the South-east and it's glaciers - also well worth a visit if you haven't been before. I've also heard Myvatn in the North is worth a look (another comment from Fjola> if you go to Myvatn, ask a local about where to bath in natural springs, there is a lagoon similar to the blue lagoon wich is great, but there is also a hot spring that mostly locals use and is really great! I`ve only gone there once and cant give you good enough directions...) and the Southern coastal stretch of Route One has numerous waterfalls and some unexpectedly green countryside. Of course you have the Thingvellir-Gullfoss-Geysir trip, it will make you feel a bit touristy but in all honesty it's also a must-do.

Good luck planning your trip, there are a lot of things to pick from aren't there, and I doubtless have left many more out!

 

[Tengu]

Can you still get to iceland by ferry from Aberdeen?

 

[Martin-123]

Can you still get to iceland by ferry from Aberdeen?

I had a quick look but found nothing current.

 

[Martin-123]

Wow Beardy, There's a lot of information there! It will take me a while to plough through it and put it into my provisional plan.

I've listed all the major towns going clockwise, and I'm cut & pasting info about them, and what's in the gaps between and nearby, into the list. I shall then study them all on the map and condense the list until I can get it onto 2 (or maybe 4) sides of A4, then print it on both sides and laminate them.

Your info will greatly inform my choices. Thank you very much.

I'll be in touch when I've absorbed it all.

Kind regards

Martin

 

[Beardy]

Tengu, Smyril Line ( http://www.smyrilline.com/Frontpage.aspx ) still goes from Norway and Denmark to the Faroe Islands and Iceland and back. You would've been able to sail from Hull to Bergen to catch it, but I believe the plug was pulled on that particular service a few years ago. I don't believe there's any single operator going from Scotland to Iceland but I'm not sure just what's possible - maybe theres a ship going to the Faroes you can get halfway on, then do the 2nd half of it with Smyril? At least I know that its not considered uncommon for Faroese to visit Aberdeen on buying trips, and I think there may even be a Shetland-Faroes service, so I'd be surprised if there wasn't something going from the mainland... Either that, or stow away on an empty trawler heading back north

Cheers Mart, but I must say I'm not an authority on what to see and do in Iceland - there's a lot I haven't gotten to yet! If you dont mind parting with 15 quid or so I would recommend the 'Scandinavian Europe' lonely planet. A better buy than the Iceland book in my opinion since if you get bitten by the Nordic travel bug you won't have to expand your library later on!

 

[Martin-123]

Have I understood this correctly, Beardy?

When you say "I've managed to hitchhike from Rvk to Akureyri in one day" (I'm assuming RVK is the local abbreviation for Reykjavik), that sounds pretty damn good to me. It also helps me to 'calibrate' my scale of the map. In that case, I'd say it would take 3 or 4 days of just driving to circle the island.

Thanks

 

[Beardy]

I think so. I haven't done the whole route around Iceland yet, nor even been to all parts of it, but I think allowing for that much travelling time would be wise. You could get around the island in a lot faster time of course, but you would just be on the road the whole time and not actually doing what it is you want to be doing.

The thing is, hitchhiking can be unpredictable - there's no guarantee with it unfortunately. But my experience of it (at least the stretch from Rvk to Ak) is that you will fair much better hitchhiking on Route One than on other, less busy roads.

 

[Martin-123]

Yes,

I'll just have to make judgements on the fly, as I go along.

I can imagine a scenario where I've just been picked up, and after 5 minutes I want the driver to stop so I can get a photo! One of my first questions will have to be 'How much of a hurry are you in?'

... or where I've been waiting for hours and someone offers me a long distance lift, where I only want to go to the next landmark.

Have you hitched much outside the tourist season?

M

 

[Beardy]

Apologies for not dropping by this thread sooner!

Haven´t hitchhiked much outside of summer, since it was only the first summer that I did not know anyone here...

Anyway, best of luck with your trip! Nearly August soon so I'm guessing you're finishing up the planning