Ok guys here is something for you to think about.................... I am planning an expedition to Iceland by Land Rover - whatever version you have - and have mentioned it to a couple of people who have said to run a group trip! Winches and balloon tyres are not necessary to drive in Iceland either! The round Iceland trip is called the Rundtur.
So here it is:
I hope to be back on leave in August and September 2007, which is the best time to go to Iceland to get some good weather and the rivers at fording depth. The intention is to go by ferry from Aberdeen to Lerwick (£500 return with single cabin) then Lerwick to Thorshaven in the Faroes and on to Seysidfjordur in SE Iceland. So far I have been unable to get prices on the Symril Line cruise ferry that operates on the service, but expect about £1000 return. Ok so nobody said this was going to be a low budget holiday! On the way back you get 36 hours in the Faroes to see the place.
There are various "packages" available if you take your own car or you can do your own thing. Everything from prebooked hotels and farmhouses through B&B to camping (there is no "free" camping in Iceland BTW, you have to use campsites) all of this is also pretty expensive (I worked in Iceland for a year and I can tell you nothing is anything less than expensive!). So, if you would be interested in coming along and making a group outing but making your own arrangements then I would be happy to have some company! There are strict condition imposed on visiting 4x4's in Iceland and you cannot just push off the beaten track (and many of the roads are just that, tracks covered with lava ash and not tarmac) so offroading is likely to be a fairly rare thing................ considering most of the roads in the interior are worse than our Forest tracks and it could be seen as "gentle" offroading all the time.

If you want to find out more about taking a Landy to Iceland then the Fery Company Smyril Line's website is www.smyril-line.com and if you search in Google the Icelandic Tourist board has loads of advice. http://www.visiticeland.com/
and there is this site run by an Icelandic LR owner:
tp://www.islandrover.is/islandrover/visiting%5Ficeland/ 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

I've been in contact with the Icelandic Land Rover Club for some more info and here is the reply I have received - the X Iceland trip sound fun, but could be a bit of an endurance test!


>Hi Tim
>
Arnar Einarsson here from the Icelandic Land Rover owners club.
Regarding preperations to your car, i would recommend the following. Good
tyres, a snorkel and some underbody protection.
The tyres you should have on are not the low-profile tyres that come with
the RR Sport, some higher M+S tyres are recommended. Last fall i had the
opportunity to try a Discovery 3 with the Land Rover experience
modifications done, and the tyres they have on there are wery good.
Unfortunaetly, i can not remember what type of tyre that was, but they we´re Good Year brand.

Snorkel, why? Well, you will probably be crossing the inlands of Iceland,
and there are many rivers and streams who don´t have a bridge, and getting water into your engine is probably the worst thing that can happen to your car, fitting a snorkel will ease those worries.

Underbody protection, Well, it´s Iceland. That means rough gravel roads,
lava and rocks. It´s much easier to hear that crunch sound coming from under the car when you know there´s protection there.

Accomodations. Around Iceland should not be a problem except in the capital area, there might be a problem finding available hotelrooms. Book hotelrooms in Reykjavik in advance if you can, then you should be ok.

Camping is o.k. might be a bit cold, but dress well and enjoy the Icelandic countryside. The average temp in August is about 15°c. It does start to be a bit colder in September, especially at night.

For further info, check out these sites.

http://www.islandrover.is/islandrover/visiting%5Ficeland/
http://www.icetourist.is/

You might like to know that the Icelandic Land Rover club are thinking about planning a 2-3week trip around Iceland in the summer of 2007. The idea is to call it "crossing Iceland" as the idea is to do just that, drive across
Iceland as it would look like an X over Iceland on a map, from the most
north-eastern point to the most south-western point, and then from the most north-western point to the most south-eastern point, crossing the most rough and inhospitable, yet most beautiful outbacks of Iceland. The areas we Icelanders know about, but is not found in brochures.
This is still on the "idea" stage, but we are looking into if somebody would
like to participate.
If you´re interrested and would like to participate, let me know. If there´s
enough positive feedbacks, we´ll go ahead with this.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards

Arnar 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW