30.07.2015 / F-roads in x-modes and horse hair allergies don't fade...

We left in time this morning to pick up our exchange car in Höfn at the given address and to our surprise no Europcar station had popped up over night. I asked a friendly neighbor for support and he explained that this was indeed the private address of the Europcar Manager at Höfn. We waited for a couple of minutes and then the Manager showed up with an unexpected upgrade car. A 4x4 Subaru Forester. We quickly exchanged the car, tried to inform him about the issues but got the impression that his English was not the best. 

So, we left, happy, for our next stay close to Egilsstádir.

Jens and the car were getting along well and we decided to give an F-Road a try.

F-Roads in Iceland are an interesting category. You are only allowed to drive them with 4x4 cars as they might lead you over high mountains, small roads, steep roads, gravel roads in all sizes, curvy roads, bumby roads with rocks, rivers to cross,.... anything that a normal car would not be able to handle. An F-Road is clearly marked and even your GPS navigator asks you whether your car is ready to go for a F-Road.

So, we chose a small one of only 15km. At the beginning, we were still making fun of it but it turned out to be a tough one after 5 min. The road got extremely difficult with large gravel, steep climbings and a difficult serpentine. After 30 min we decided to go back. It is known that many tourists just overestimate their own ability of driving under such conditions and cannot handle their car. I was worried about the steepness of the serpentine but Jens was more worried about the tires of the car. We found out about the X-mode support of the Subaru (a button to press for additional support in hilly situations). We decided to go for safety first and turned around to get back into normal driving mode. Phewww.

We continued safely our trip to Egilsstádir when I spotted Islandic horses on a paddock close to the street. We jumped out to cuddle them. Such pretty and friendly horses.

Two hours later in our modern, clean and very cosy accomodation Jens' old allergy to horse hair broke out again and for another three hours he was unable to see clearly out of his swollen red eyes. Poor boy, we thought he had grown out of it....

So, no horseback riding for him during this trip!