French Tourist Trapped In Car For 5 Days

A cautionary tale if ever there was one, a French tourist is homeward bound after spending five days snowed in his rental car on the road between Dynjandisheiði and Hrafnseyrarheiði mountain passes. Five days.

“I arrived here Saturday evening, it snowed all night and on Sunday morning I couldn’t get away,” Thomas Chretien told RÚV. “I was prepared with food and drink for the whole trip, so that was alright. I waited, I read, I worked on my computer and let the time pass.”

Eventually however, Chretien was forced to brave the snow and leave behind his rental. He was lucky to catch a ride to Bíldudalur with a postal boat that irregularly serves the isolated Mjókárvirkjun hydro power station.

The 20-kilometer stretch of road past Arnarfjörður, between the Dynjandisheiði and Hrafnseyrarheiði mountain passes where Chretien got stuck, are plowed only when the snowfall slows down near springtime.

Now that both passes have been cleared Chretien has been able to reach his rental and drive it back to the dealer, almost two weeks after getting stuck.

Chretien insists that all the tourist information that would have prevented him getting stuck was available to him, “but it was up to me to actually read it.”

If you’re thinking of driving around Iceland, please make sure that someone knows where you are, where you are headed so that if you don’t show up people are alerted to you being missing and always check the Safe Travel site for road information and advice on how to plan your road trips.