Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Landscape Photography Locations => Topic started by: Eric Myrvaagnes on May 01, 2017, 05:13:00 pm

Title: Iceland and the Ring Road in 1974
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on May 01, 2017, 05:13:00 pm
In June of 1974 my wife and I took a three week trip to Iceland, the first two weeks with a hiking club tour in southern Iceland.
We traveled in a luxury bus accompanied by a truck that carried the tents and food and staff.

The first image is one of our first lunch stops. The food truck is to the left and the bus to the right. A table is being set up for lunch, consisting of traditional Scandinavian open-faced sandwiches with bits of herring, mutton, hard boiled egg slices arranged in elegant arrangements.

The second image shows our bus driver and the two women who prepared all of the meals.

In the third image our bus has stopped in the middle of this bridge over the outwash plain from Vatnajökull glacier. The bus stopped there for close to a half hour to allow us photographers to take pictures. Yes, this bridge was a two-way section of the newly completed Ring Road. There wasn't much traffic yet.

In the fourth image the food truck is fording a glacial stream to get us to the camping area at Thorsmörk. The bus has already crossed.
Title: Re: Iceland and the Ring Road in 1974
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on May 01, 2017, 05:20:12 pm
Following a "track" to get us to the base of Mount Hekla, the bus bottomed on a small ridge, so the driver got out his shovel and did some road repairs, after which the bus and truck made it over the bad spot safely.

A bit later, the bus got stuck in soft powdered lava, and the truck had to tow the bus over the soft area. No problem!
Title: Re: Iceland and the Ring Road in 1974
Post by: Rajan Parrikar on May 01, 2017, 11:58:04 pm
Eric,

Thank you for posting. Thoroughly enjoyed these.
Title: Re: Iceland and the Ring Road in 1974
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on May 02, 2017, 12:19:18 am
Not great art, but it was a memorable experience.
I'll add a few more soon.
Title: Re: Iceland and the Ring Road in 1974
Post by: Rajan Parrikar on May 02, 2017, 01:16:11 am
Eric,

I showed these to my friend Börkur who was long ago a bus driver for the Guðmundur Jónasson company. He recognized your driver as Valdimar Ásmundsson who he said now sits at the desk in their office.


Title: Re: Iceland and the Ring Road in 1974
Post by: ErikKaffehr on May 02, 2017, 01:42:19 am
Hi Rajan,

Thanks for adding to the story.

Best regards
another Erik


Eric,

I showed these to my friend Börkur who was long ago a bus driver for the Guðmundur Jónasson company. He recognized your driver as Valdimar Ásmundsson who he said now sits at the desk in their office.
Title: Re: Iceland and the Ring Road in 1974
Post by: kers on May 02, 2017, 04:29:37 am
Very nice image-story...

1974 wow !    i was 12 at that time... Did not know where Iceland was presumably.
The photos show 1974 - beautiful to see all these 1974 details...

I visited Iceland in the year 2000... with my car and girlfriend on the boat from Denmark/ Faroer islands...
How seasick i was! The boat arrived at Reyðarfjörður- just saw the crimeserial 'Trapped' that is situated in that village...

anyway... thanks for sharing!





Title: Re: Iceland and the Ring Road in 1974
Post by: francois on May 02, 2017, 05:25:49 am
Thanks for posting the story of your Iceland "expedition".
Title: Re: Iceland and the Ring Road in 1974
Post by: luxborealis on May 06, 2017, 07:21:37 pm
A great "share", Eric. Thanks! A great way to travel, too.
Title: Re: Iceland and the Ring Road in 1974
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on May 07, 2017, 12:20:11 am
Thanks everybody for the responses.

Yes, it was a fantastic trip. I had two cameras along, a Calumet 4x5" view camera for B&W (Tri-X probably), and a Pentax shooting Kodachromes, some 22 rolls of 36 exposure. Most were the familiar ASA 25, and a few were the new ASA 64.

I encountered two problems with the K-chromes. When I switched from the 25 speed to the 64 speed I forgot to reset the meter, so half a roll was overexposed.
And then, when I got home, I made the mistake of sending all 22 rolls to the nearest Kodak processing plant on the same day. So that day happened to be when something went wrong in the processing, leaving about half the images on every roll with some strange doo smeared on them randomly. Kodak had me send them the worst ones and they cleaned them up as well as they could, and sent me free replacement film. Fortunately, most of the best pictures came out OK. After that, I never sent more than two rolls to any one plant on any one day.

I'll add a few more that might have historic interest to this thread within a few days, including Myvatn and a whaling station.

Eric
Title: Re: Iceland and the Ring Road in 1974
Post by: graeme on May 07, 2017, 06:17:02 am
Fascinating.

Thanks for posting these, Eric. What a different world. ( I was 11 in 1974 ).

And a great advert for Mercedes.

Graeme
Title: Re: Iceland and the Ring Road in 1974
Post by: Kevin Raber on May 07, 2017, 07:02:47 am
Wow, have things changed.  My first trip in 2004 was not much different.  Still, many roads were gravel,  Sandwiches, and naps by the side of the road and you could go into any hotel and find a room.  Not today.  Thanks for sharing the photos.
Title: Re: Iceland and the Ring Road in 1974
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on May 07, 2017, 08:50:00 am
Hotel???

In 1974 there seemed to be hotels only in Reykjavik and one resort hotel near Myvatn. On the hiking club tour we stayed in tents every night except two, when we stayed in schools that were turned into hostels in the summer.

After the two-week hiking club tour in the south, my wife and I flew to Akureyri where we rented a VW beetle and car camped for another week. At Myvatn, my wife inquired at the Resort Hotel what they might be serving for dinner, and we were told to come back at 5 pm and they would know.

When we returned at 5, we were told that "Tonight we will serve both meat and fish." If they weren't going to make finer distinctions than that, we decided to stick with our canned stew heated over our Prius stove.
Title: Re: Iceland and the Ring Road in 1974
Post by: John R on May 07, 2017, 04:19:34 pm
Good stuff Eric. It seldom occurs to me to chronicle my trips. So I really like these and how you travelled. You would never see as much if you went strictly to tourist spots in luxury coaches. My you must be very well organized to have stored and preserved these images so well over so many years.

JR
Title: Re: Iceland and the Ring Road in 1974
Post by: HSakols on May 08, 2017, 08:55:09 am
Sounds like quite the adventure!   My wife and I road bicycles through the interior.  Someday I would like to return and photograph ice on the beach.