Immersion ... most Iceland visitors fail to stray far from the capital, Reykavik.Credit: Getty Images
On the deserted Route 1, Amelia Hill takes a farmstay road trip past steaming pools, volcanoes and glaciers.
'What are you doing here?" Benedik asks, gazing at us in wonder. Resisting the impulse to answer simply by pointing across the brilliantly green valley, down to the mesmerising blue fiord and up to the barren, snow-topped mountain range on the other side, we admit we have been asking ourselves the same question since arriving in Iceland a few days earlier.
It isn't that we aren't having a fantastic time or have failed to be captivated by Iceland's tortured beauty: its bleak, brutalised lava fields, looming volcanoes and waterfalls thundering over vertiginous basalt cliffs into the black sea.
But where is everyone? As we set off on a road trip around Route 1, the country's 1300-kilometre ring road, it becomes clear that a sighting of more than half a dozen other cars or a handful of travellers is a busy day in this sub-Arctic wilderness.
It's September and we wake every morning in trepidation, expecting the sunshine and mild temperatures to have been swept away by bleak, icy storms. We nervously scour the horizon for rumbling volcanoes. But nothing happens: each day breaks more beautiful than the last and still the isolation continues.
It isn't until Benedik poses the question that we discover the truth: we have accidentally come on holiday at exactly the right time.
Benedik spent 30 years driving a tour bus around Route 1. Now retired, he has a lifetime's canny advice up the sleeve of his Lett-Lopi Icelandic wool jumper. "I never understood why you tourists only come from mid-June to late August," he lisps in ripplingly soft Icelandic sibilants. "The spring and autumn are special times here. The weather is beautiful. In autumn, you may see the northern lights. In May it is warm, dry and light from 4am to 10pm. Both times are cheap: prices fall. That is all good, yes?"
More than 90 per cent of Iceland's tourists visit during summer. And that is not the only way they limit themselves: less than 10 per cent stray more than an hour from Reykjavik, sticking to the well-trodden Golden Circle linking Thingvellir National Park, Gullfoss, the Blue Lagoon and Geysir.
As wonderful as those sights are, it is a crying shame to miss Iceland's more remote offerings: wonders such as the Westfjords, with its dramatic golden beaches, which offer some of the greatest concentrations of nesting cliff birds in the world.
There's also the awe-inspiring Hornstrandir Nature Reserve, hikes across Landmannalaugar to the Thorsmork glaciers and the waterfalls of the Skoga River, or the uninhabited highlands - barren yet lovely - of Askja and Kverkfjoll. Even those who venture further, however, tend to miss out on the far north-eastern edge of Iceland: a corner of magnificent mountains and hiking trails around Borgarfjordur Eystri and Melrakkasletta.
So how best to discover these oft-overlooked gems? English tour operator Discover the World has dozens of self-drive holidays, including two-week trips circling the country. We road-test Natural Iceland Farm-stays, a new, 11-day tour around the outer rim of the island, staying with farmers, to be launched in June.
The promotional blurb says the holiday is designed for "those who relish the chance to interact with their hosts and enjoy the rural life". It gushes: "We've hand-picked a charming selection of rural accommodation. Enjoy getting to know your friendly hosts, learn about the farming community and savour fresh and natural local produce."
Well, up to a point. True enough, all the places we stay are working farms but they are far from the bucolic idylls implied. In reality, we often stay in motels with highly intensive farming businesses operating as separate, parallel concerns. Some guest books include comments from visitors whose children have been allowed to watch the cows being milked or the calves fed but our itinerary necessitates a whip-crack-away pace of late arrivals and early departures. The farms are isolated and most owners are friendly.
Given our experience, I would suggest following the outer-rim route but opting for a mix of hotels and farm-stays.
From Keflavik Airport, we drive north on empty roads to the bleak, beautiful Snaefellsnes Peninsula, past lava fields, craters and fiords, magnificent but all reduced to mere flecks in the context of the massive Snaefellsjokull Glacier looming over the landscape.
The Guesthouse Langaholt, 160 kilometres from Reykjavik, is more of a motel than a farmhouse but the views make up for the lack of home comforts: it stands on a long beach that stretches to the glacier. After a delicious - but expensive - supper of local game and fish, we lie in bed with our curtains open. We fall asleep under the crystal-clear night skies, happily still waiting to see the aurora borealis.
Next morning, after one of the best home-cooked breakfasts of the holiday - a table prettily laid with small bowls of traditional pates, marinated fish and cured meats - we drive through the dramatic Vatnsdalur Valley to Hof I, which has small, unwelcoming bedrooms and a curt landlady.
Our next farm-stay makes up for the last, however. Ytra-Laugaland is cosy, with views over Eyjafjordur, the longest fiord in central northern Iceland, where the steep hills tumble straight into the sea and the nearby, 30-metre-wide Godafoss waterfall crashes down with such spectacular force that rainbows drift up from its froth and fury.
Next stop is the Vogafjos Cowshed Cafe (a window allows you to watch the milking as you eat breakfast) and guest house, with comfortable chalets deep in the woods but within an easy stroll of Lake Myvatn, famous for its waterbirds - and midges. We spend a happy day here, clambering up Krafla volcano and around Namafjall, a geothermal area boiling with bubbling mud pools and steaming fumaroles.
It is here that, wandering over a black, broken lava field, we discover an underground thermal pool. Pulling rocks away from the mouth of the hidden cave and taking our courage in both hands, we pull on our swimming costumes and slip into crystal-clear water, almost too hot to bear.
After seeing Modrudalur, with its turf-roofed buildings and quaint church, we pause for as short a time as possible at the evangelically Christian Eyjolfsstadir guest house in Egilsstadir. Shelves in the communal area groan with crucifixes, religious self-help books, evangelical pamphlets and American magazines crackling with crusading zeal. As sole residents, we have one of our oddest yet most enjoyable evenings here, drinking what feels like illicit, duty-free red wine while reading hellfire and damnation tracts to each other.
Next, the East Fiords, on a road that curves tightly with the sea. Farm Holmur in Myrum offers a delightful little zoo of Icelandic domestic animals, perfect for family members who don't want to don crampons and clamber over the nearby glacier, though to miss that would be a shame.
We head on to the lesser-known joys of the glacial lagoon at Jokulsarlon, the volcanic wonderland that is Skaftafell National Park, the breathtaking cliffs of Dyrholaey and the thundering Skogafoss and Seljalandsfoss waterfalls.
Our final night is at the four-star Hotel Hekla, a short drive east of Reykjavik, which affords views of the volcano it is named after and of Eyjafjallajokull, which made the island a byword for cancelled holidays last year.
This is the day to do the real tourist thing: the Gullfoss waterfalls, Geysir geothermal area and Thingvellir National Park. Here again, the benefit of travelling out of season pays off: we are able to stand in rapt silence in places where, in high season, hundreds of tourists jostle for space.
How wonderful it is to discover the country almost entirely on our own. It feels as if we have slipped back to a pre-tourist era.
Scandinavian Airlines has a fare to Reykjavik for about $2750, flying Thai Airways to Bangkok (about 9hr), then on SAS to Copenhagen (12hr), then Icelandair to Reykjavik (3hr). Fare is low-season return from Melbourne and Sydney including tax. Bentour has a 10-day self-drive Iceland Circle tour from $1975 a person; see bentours.com.au. Discover the World has self-drive packages around Iceland from £847 ($1320) a person; see discover-the-world.co.uk.
- Guardian News & Media
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