There is actually only one key rule for driving in Iceland:
Don’t. Look Over. The Edge.
If you do happen to glance down as you are hurtling at 60 miles per hour along a winding clifftop, something will flash before your eyes. If you see a sheer drop into a river far below, your life will flash before your eyes. If you just see a 20-foot ditch, you will flash on dollar signs whizzing toward the rental car company. Either way, you’re better off just focusing on the flimsy yellow markers helpfully defining the death edge every hundred feet or so.
There are occasionally guard rails, but their emplacement seems not to coincide in any way with the horribleness of the plunge that stalks the distracted driver in that particular stretch of road. Perhaps they are only placed in areas where it would be really, really inconvenient for the Icelandic emergency services to fish someone out of the deep hundreds of feet below.
We enjoyed the next few days driving along the southeast Iceland Ring Road.
Southeast Iceland
This is just a really pretty place – almost empty, a waterfall at every bend, the reindeer have not yet all moved to higher reaches, and most important: it was lambing season.
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One response to “Rules for driving in Iceland”
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Great photos, and fun remarks. Love the “One rule of driving in Iceland” so glad you are doing these. I’ve been reading some Icelandic books recently, and following the volcanic activities,so your trip gives me a new perspective!