Offroad driving in the Icelandic Highlands

The Icelandic Highlands are the largest uninhabited wilderness in Europe — a volcanic desert of black sand, glaciers and steaming ground at the centre of the island — and for a few months each summer two ancient routes cross it: Sprengisandur and Kjölur, the great F-roads.

Driving them is a proper expedition by 4x4: unbridged glacial rivers to ford on the Sprengisandur, washboard gravel for hours, and not a tree, a fence or a phone signal in any direction.

Between the two ice caps you pass geothermal oases, cinder cones and views that feel closer to the moon than to Europe.

These were the paths medieval Icelanders used to cross the interior, avoided in winter and dangerous in any season, and driving them today is one of the last true road adventures on the continent — self-reliant, remote, and completely dependent on the weather.

Long days of driving on rough gravel F-roads across a treeless volcanic desert, with the Sprengisandur route including unbridged glacial rivers you must judge and ford yourself.

This is remote, self-reliant travel — no fuel, no services, no signal for long stretches — in a landscape of black sand, glaciers and geothermal patches. A proper high-clearance 4x4 is mandatory and legally required for F-roads; river crossings demand care and can become impassable after rain or melt.

Weather is the constant variable, and roads open only in the short summer. The reward is Europe's emptiest interior, crossed under your own steam.

Drive the highland F-roads only in summer, roughly June to September, when they're open and passable — they're closed and impassable the rest of the year.

A high-clearance 4x4 is legally required; two vehicles are wise for the river crossings on Sprengisandur, where you should watch others cross, walk fords first, and turn back if rivers are high. Kjölur is easier, with most rivers now bridged.

Carry fuel, food, recovery gear and a paper map, and check road status and weather on the official Icelandic road and safe-travel services before and during. Driving off the tracks is illegal and heavily fined — stay on the route.