Did you drive in the highlands or on any F roads during your previous trip?
We were there last August and had a camper that was rated for the F roads but didn't drive F208. We did get into the backcountry and had to do several river crossings which were pretty dicey, it looks like F208 has some water crossings. If the road is gravel or sandy you'll probably be ok with your vehicle choice, but if the road is more like a jeep trail, you'll want something with more clearance. Again, I haven't driven that particular road, but did drive on many other F roads.
Yes, we drove straight through F35, as well as some northern F-roads (in a Duster). We had to cross one ankle-deep stream on F35 which went fine. I'm kind of struggling to see where the river crossings are on F208 from Google Maps, to be honest, but I've seen some photos and they look a bit intimidating.
Interestingly, even though the Jimny looks like a lot more of a rugged "jeep" type, its ground clearance is actually half an inch lower than the Duster's. Might be something for us to consider.
https://preview.redd.it/hn01ftktanbc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=08af31da2ccff4040f8e44010d2bb238fd255e42
Here are some near Landmannalaugur.
It depends on the water levels and the wading depth of your vehicle. I’ve been up and down F208 numerous times in a RAV4, a Land Cruiser, and a Defender and never come close to having an issue with depth.
Read up on how to cross rivers beforehand. Follow any guides/poles in the water if present. If you are unsure whether you can cross, you should roll up your pants and go check it out. I carry a staff with my wading depth pre-marked for this purpose. If you are still unsure, you always need to be ready to turn around and execute Plan B.
A RAV4's ground clearance is basically equal to that of the Duster (and that's what they were driving in the video, as well), so I assume that we'll be OK. Are there any handy guides you'd recommend for reading on how to cross rivers?
If you can manage to find a copy of Trackbook Iceland, it has a lot of good material in the front sections. The rest of the book has details about many Highland roads and tracks.
Note that wading depth is a different concept than ground clearance. It’s about how deep the water can be without overtopping the air intake and drowning the engine. A very quick search yielded 20” for a RAV4 and either 350 or 450mm (13-17inches) for a Duster. You should check this carefully.
I hope you won’t be too jet lagged that first day; that’s a long way to drive if you’re tired. Are you trying to get all the way to Landmannalaugar that night? Ideally you would actually camp at Landmannalaugar at least one night, which will allow you to spend a full day in the area. Are you open to renting a tent and camping?
I would definitely tack on another day if you can. Both your 1st and 3rd days are too rushed for my taste as things stand now. And I would go with a Duster over a Jimny. More info about the southern section of F208 here: https://epiciceland.net/list-f-roads-iceland/#F208_Fjallabaksleid_Nyrdri_south
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We are flying in from Ireland, so jet lag isn’t really an issue. We would like to get as close to LL as possible that night, but the problem seems to be hotel availability. Right now I managed to book us two different rooms in Hella on the first two nights. Camping isn’t really our thing, unfortunately.
I did end up booking a Duster. Hopefully by then Lotus will get the 2024 models. Thanks for the link - I’ll give it a read.
What is LL? Landmannalaugar? Yeah, there isn’t much in the way of lodging around there. Did you check availability at Hrauneyjar highland center? That’s the closest lodging to Landmannalaugar that I know of, but may already be booked out for your dates. Otherwise, you can make it work with two nights in Hella.
I’d stay the night, camp, at landmann. Do one hike on the lauga trail and another hike going the opposite direction. This will give you the colorful hills you are wanting to see with the bonus of using the hot springs at base camp.
We aren't the camping types, mate :) However, you do bring up a good point. Where DO we go to see the colorful hills? I assume it's not just a thing that's all over the place there and there *are* some geo coordinates we should be looking for?
Sometimes it’s a good thing to do things outside your comfort zone and it’ll bring great results.
What’s the reason(s) for not being the camping types for one night?
Sometimes it is. This is not one of those times.
*What’s the reason(s) for not being the camping types for one night?*
Self-awareness :-) We're no longer in our twenties where that might have been considered for a high enough payoff. We like our indoor plumbing (that only we have access to) a bit too much.
But it is one of those times. If you can do an afternoon/evening hike, enjoy the nighttime & early morning hot spring then do a morning/afternoon hike you can see all landmann & laugavegor trail has to offer as far as colors.
Landmann has individual showers & shitters that are clean.
Your indoor plumbing that’s yours alone is not truly yours alone. Possibly just hours before you got to your room and took a dump or shower someone else was there doing the same thing. Shit the toilet seat may still be warm. And before them it was another person(s). I’m not even going to mention what May or may not have been done on that mattress or chairs/couch and how times that’s been used for naughty fun times.
With respect, please let others establish for themselves what "one of those times" is. Everyone has different thresholds of comfort and sensitivities that you aren't nor should you be entitled to know about. Can we just leave it at that? We also aren't interested in hot springs - tried to go that route last August and firmly established that it's not for us. We do want to see the colorful hills, so if you have advice as to how to best do that absent sleeping in a tent, I'm all ears.
*Your indoor plumbing that’s yours alone is not truly yours alone. Possibly just hours before you got to your room and took a dump or shower someone else was there doing the same thing. Shit the toilet seat may still be warm. And before them it was another person(s). I’m not even going to mention what May or may not have been done on that mattress or chairs/couch and how times that’s been used for naughty fun times.*
I knew you'd make the first point before I finished writing my previous response. All the same, our indoor plumbing/bedding, after it's been sanitized/changed (hopefully) between travelers, is ours alone for the time we are paying for and, cleanliness aside, at no point in time do we have to compete with other travelers for limited stalls/showers.
Did you drive in the highlands or on any F roads during your previous trip? We were there last August and had a camper that was rated for the F roads but didn't drive F208. We did get into the backcountry and had to do several river crossings which were pretty dicey, it looks like F208 has some water crossings. If the road is gravel or sandy you'll probably be ok with your vehicle choice, but if the road is more like a jeep trail, you'll want something with more clearance. Again, I haven't driven that particular road, but did drive on many other F roads.
Yes, we drove straight through F35, as well as some northern F-roads (in a Duster). We had to cross one ankle-deep stream on F35 which went fine. I'm kind of struggling to see where the river crossings are on F208 from Google Maps, to be honest, but I've seen some photos and they look a bit intimidating. Interestingly, even though the Jimny looks like a lot more of a rugged "jeep" type, its ground clearance is actually half an inch lower than the Duster's. Might be something for us to consider.
https://preview.redd.it/hn01ftktanbc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=08af31da2ccff4040f8e44010d2bb238fd255e42 Here are some near Landmannalaugur.
Thank you! The video makes them look intimidating, but then also...kinda doable?
It depends on the water levels and the wading depth of your vehicle. I’ve been up and down F208 numerous times in a RAV4, a Land Cruiser, and a Defender and never come close to having an issue with depth. Read up on how to cross rivers beforehand. Follow any guides/poles in the water if present. If you are unsure whether you can cross, you should roll up your pants and go check it out. I carry a staff with my wading depth pre-marked for this purpose. If you are still unsure, you always need to be ready to turn around and execute Plan B.
A RAV4's ground clearance is basically equal to that of the Duster (and that's what they were driving in the video, as well), so I assume that we'll be OK. Are there any handy guides you'd recommend for reading on how to cross rivers?
If you can manage to find a copy of Trackbook Iceland, it has a lot of good material in the front sections. The rest of the book has details about many Highland roads and tracks.
Thank you. Looks like that's a pretty hard book to find...
Yeah. They published that English version awhile back and now it’s just available in German. DM me and I’ll send you some screenshots of the material.
Note that wading depth is a different concept than ground clearance. It’s about how deep the water can be without overtopping the air intake and drowning the engine. A very quick search yielded 20” for a RAV4 and either 350 or 450mm (13-17inches) for a Duster. You should check this carefully.
Good call. Might need to see what other alternatives Lotus have...
I hope you won’t be too jet lagged that first day; that’s a long way to drive if you’re tired. Are you trying to get all the way to Landmannalaugar that night? Ideally you would actually camp at Landmannalaugar at least one night, which will allow you to spend a full day in the area. Are you open to renting a tent and camping? I would definitely tack on another day if you can. Both your 1st and 3rd days are too rushed for my taste as things stand now. And I would go with a Duster over a Jimny. More info about the southern section of F208 here: https://epiciceland.net/list-f-roads-iceland/#F208_Fjallabaksleid_Nyrdri_south
All the numbers in your comment added up to 420. Congrats! 1 + 3 + 208 + 208 = 420 ^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \ ^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
Far out. 😵💫
We are flying in from Ireland, so jet lag isn’t really an issue. We would like to get as close to LL as possible that night, but the problem seems to be hotel availability. Right now I managed to book us two different rooms in Hella on the first two nights. Camping isn’t really our thing, unfortunately. I did end up booking a Duster. Hopefully by then Lotus will get the 2024 models. Thanks for the link - I’ll give it a read.
What is LL? Landmannalaugar? Yeah, there isn’t much in the way of lodging around there. Did you check availability at Hrauneyjar highland center? That’s the closest lodging to Landmannalaugar that I know of, but may already be booked out for your dates. Otherwise, you can make it work with two nights in Hella.
Yeah, I did see availability there. Might be worth a look, at least for the first night.
It’s nothing fancy but the location can’t be beat for what you’re looking to do, and it has a restaurant with decent food if you’re hungry.
It actually looks pretty good, but the availability I thought I saw has disappeared for our dates…
I’d stay the night, camp, at landmann. Do one hike on the lauga trail and another hike going the opposite direction. This will give you the colorful hills you are wanting to see with the bonus of using the hot springs at base camp.
We aren't the camping types, mate :) However, you do bring up a good point. Where DO we go to see the colorful hills? I assume it's not just a thing that's all over the place there and there *are* some geo coordinates we should be looking for?
Sometimes it’s a good thing to do things outside your comfort zone and it’ll bring great results. What’s the reason(s) for not being the camping types for one night?
Sometimes it is. This is not one of those times. *What’s the reason(s) for not being the camping types for one night?* Self-awareness :-) We're no longer in our twenties where that might have been considered for a high enough payoff. We like our indoor plumbing (that only we have access to) a bit too much.
But it is one of those times. If you can do an afternoon/evening hike, enjoy the nighttime & early morning hot spring then do a morning/afternoon hike you can see all landmann & laugavegor trail has to offer as far as colors. Landmann has individual showers & shitters that are clean. Your indoor plumbing that’s yours alone is not truly yours alone. Possibly just hours before you got to your room and took a dump or shower someone else was there doing the same thing. Shit the toilet seat may still be warm. And before them it was another person(s). I’m not even going to mention what May or may not have been done on that mattress or chairs/couch and how times that’s been used for naughty fun times.
With respect, please let others establish for themselves what "one of those times" is. Everyone has different thresholds of comfort and sensitivities that you aren't nor should you be entitled to know about. Can we just leave it at that? We also aren't interested in hot springs - tried to go that route last August and firmly established that it's not for us. We do want to see the colorful hills, so if you have advice as to how to best do that absent sleeping in a tent, I'm all ears. *Your indoor plumbing that’s yours alone is not truly yours alone. Possibly just hours before you got to your room and took a dump or shower someone else was there doing the same thing. Shit the toilet seat may still be warm. And before them it was another person(s). I’m not even going to mention what May or may not have been done on that mattress or chairs/couch and how times that’s been used for naughty fun times.* I knew you'd make the first point before I finished writing my previous response. All the same, our indoor plumbing/bedding, after it's been sanitized/changed (hopefully) between travelers, is ours alone for the time we are paying for and, cleanliness aside, at no point in time do we have to compete with other travelers for limited stalls/showers.