Thank you for all the information you share with us. This august is our fifth time in Iceland and we want to drive the f349. It starts just before Gullfoss, east of the Kjöllur track and goes to Kerlingarfjöll. Do you know this one?
Hi and thank you. This is what we know about F349 from our friend Nicolas: F349 is a 4h, rocky, bumpy, terrible drive in a completely remote environment. Coming from the south, I talked to a local mechanic near the start of the road who said I should take the left all the way, contrary to the very little information I had previously. I decided to follow his advice (which I suppose it’s not a bad thing to do in Iceland). Map shows you can get to Kerlingarfjöll from the east by a road that goes through Setrið hut. We didn’t take that one so I don’t know what challenges are present. It’s said to have some very steep sections after the hut, on the last few kilometers close to the mountains. We didn’t have to face that. Just by looking at the map, I also believe the journey through Setrið should be longer. The road starts after the caution sign in 349, close to Tungufellsdalur, and ends roughly in the middle of F347, west from Kerlingarfjöll. You’ll need a big car to drive this one. We had a Toyota Hilux for the trip felt at various points like we just had the minimum necessary to succeed. Though it never felt undoable or dangerous, it also wasn’t easy. The road is in such bad condition that the drive is slow almost all the time (around 25 kph tops). You’ll either get stones or potholes at all times; sometimes they even look like fissures on the ground. There are some streches where the field becomes more clear as the road runs through some red grass camps and you can go up to around 45 kph, albeit with caution as potholes galore, but you’ll mostly alternate between bad and worse sections the whole way. There are some medium-sized rivers to cross along the way. At the time of our drive, none of them were deep. The biggest one was right before the Svínarnes hut, a clear water river that could get bigger in bad weather. Still, it shouldn’t be a problem of you’re in a proper car to drive this road, but I also don’t know why you would take this road in bad weather. There’s one other tricky crossing that could get scary in bad conditions, located some 15-20 minutes after the hut. The crossing follows along the current and again wasn’t really deep, but there’s only one viable path to avoid the huge stones in the way, and the bottom of it is insanely rocky and with some holes in which the car will likely fall. Shaky as hell. One needs to keep its cool and follow good crossing principles. After that, you’ll reach a fork, in which you should take the left. At some point, you will get to. Leppistunguskáli hut. Keep going on the left side. We didn’t meet ANY cars the whole way, so it’s probably better not to look for much trouble if you’re planning to take this route. Help could be far away. There’s likely a reason no one drives it: besides being really challenging, there isn’t that much around to see and, if you’re planning to go to Kerlingarfjöll, you’ll probably want to spend your time exploring the mountains rather than suffering for long hours in a drive that seems to never end. If you don’t have a big car, spare hours and a lot of patience, it might be better to just take F35.
@@EpicIceland First of all, thank you very much for your very detailed answer. I read in a trackbook that the f349 is not as boring as the F35, so we wanted to try this route. We also rent a Hilux but we don't need it to be that exciting! 🥵I only became suspicious because I also read in this book that the last part to the Kisa River is extremely steep and that you can hardly drive it in the other direction, even with a 4WD. That's why I asked you and that was a good thing. I think we'll take the boring option and stay longer in Kerlingarfjöll.
29:24 Unreal this Stone!
yes! there are many places like this along the road
Thank you for all the information you share with us. This august is our fifth time in Iceland and we want to drive the f349. It starts just before Gullfoss, east of the Kjöllur track and goes to Kerlingarfjöll. Do you know this one?
Hi and thank you. This is what we know about F349 from our friend Nicolas:
F349 is a 4h, rocky, bumpy, terrible drive in a completely remote environment.
Coming from the south, I talked to a local mechanic near the start of the road who said I should take the left all the way, contrary to the very little information I had previously. I decided to follow his advice (which I suppose it’s not a bad thing to do in Iceland).
Map shows you can get to Kerlingarfjöll from the east by a road that goes through Setrið hut. We didn’t take that one so I don’t know what challenges are present. It’s said to have some very steep sections after the hut, on the last few kilometers close to the mountains. We didn’t have to face that. Just by looking at the map, I also believe the journey through Setrið should be longer.
The road starts after the caution sign in 349, close to Tungufellsdalur, and ends roughly in the middle of F347, west from Kerlingarfjöll.
You’ll need a big car to drive this one. We had a Toyota Hilux for the trip felt at various points like we just had the minimum necessary to succeed. Though it never felt undoable or dangerous, it also wasn’t easy.
The road is in such bad condition that the drive is slow almost all the time (around 25 kph tops). You’ll either get stones or potholes at all times; sometimes they even look like fissures on the ground. There are some streches where the field becomes more clear as the road runs through some red grass camps and you can go up to around 45 kph, albeit with caution as potholes galore, but you’ll mostly alternate between bad and worse sections the whole way.
There are some medium-sized rivers to cross along the way. At the time of our drive, none of them were deep. The biggest one was right before the Svínarnes hut, a clear water river that could get bigger in bad weather. Still, it shouldn’t be a problem of you’re in a proper car to drive this road, but I also don’t know why you would take this road in bad weather.
There’s one other tricky crossing that could get scary in bad conditions, located some 15-20 minutes after the hut. The crossing follows along the current and again wasn’t really deep, but there’s only one viable path to avoid the huge stones in the way, and the bottom of it is insanely rocky and with some holes in which the car will likely fall. Shaky as hell. One needs to keep its cool and follow good crossing principles.
After that, you’ll reach a fork, in which you should take the left. At some point, you will get to. Leppistunguskáli hut. Keep going on the left side.
We didn’t meet ANY cars the whole way, so it’s probably better not to look for much trouble if you’re planning to take this route. Help could be far away.
There’s likely a reason no one drives it: besides being really challenging, there isn’t that much around to see and, if you’re planning to go to Kerlingarfjöll, you’ll probably want to spend your time exploring the mountains rather than suffering for long hours in a drive that seems to never end. If you don’t have a big car, spare hours and a lot of patience, it might be better to just take F35.
@@EpicIceland
First of all, thank you very much for your very detailed answer. I read in a trackbook that the f349 is not as boring as the F35, so we wanted to try this route. We also rent a Hilux but we don't need it to be that exciting! 🥵I only became suspicious because I also read in this book that the last part to the Kisa River is extremely steep and that you can hardly drive it in the other direction, even with a 4WD. That's why I asked you and that was a good thing. I think we'll take the boring option and stay longer in Kerlingarfjöll.
👍👍