The most interesting thing that I’ve done as a local guide was probably adding another road on the map in Iceland. some people would argue that its not a big deal to add a new road. But its different in Iceland. Iceland’s population density is one of the lowest in the world. Also Iceland has very harsh weather condition. In winter, heavy snow falls often and road gets icy easily. Due to those reasons there is only one road from southeast Iceland city Höfn to east Iceland city Egilsstaðir: Road 1 which is lined alongside the coast of whole Iceland.
I went to Iceland last December with my parents as a Christmas holiday. it was really cloudy, windy day that i departed from Höfn. it takes at least 4 hours to get to our destination. But by the time we drove about 2 hours, a car that goes to the other direction stopped us and told us that the road is blocked in 500 m. we wanted to check by ourselves. so we kept going to the sign. the road was closed due to weather condition. it was not banned to pass there but there was a caution that says ‘If you drive past this sign and problems occur, assistance may entail substantial expenses.’ we were very risk averse kind people. we didn’t want to take that risk. after discussion we decided to stay around there for a day. but the problem is there is only a road to travel Iceland. there is no shortcut road. but i booked whole journey. but we had no choice. i tried to find whether there is another road to get there, but there was no any other road on the map. so we went back to find hotel to stay. not only us but all the people went back. but on the way back, there was a road that is not on google maps. on the sign it says that is it also road 1. the original road 1 was detouring the coast line but the new road 1 was a bridge that crosses the coast line and connects to origianl road 1. we were so thankful to pass there. otherwise we would have ruined our plan in iceland.
so that night i added new road on google maps to help people who entirely depend on google maps and may have trouble on their travel plan. but unfortunately for some reason my new road was not accepted. even though it was not accepted it made me feel that i’m helping travelers in Iceland. and still i would really appreciate if google maps add new road 1.