Trekkin

Day 37 – 15 August 2023 –  Holabrekka (Hofn area) to Napur, Iceland

The day dawned with clear blue skies & no wind, perfect as today is glacier day for us. At breakfast we could see the nearby Flaajokull glacier clearly through the dining room window, no clouds on the glacier. Driving down the highway the size of these glaciers is overwhelming, we are only seeing the huge glacial fingers of the primary glacier, Vatnajokull. Vatnajokull is the largest glacier in Europe with an area of 770 square kilometres & a maximum thickness of 950 metres. Vatnajokull has a total of 40 glacial fingers & seven volcanic systems underneath this massive ice cap.

We pass glacier after glacier, each amazingly large & all different. Each of these glaciers has a large fast flowing stream carrying all the glacier melt water to the sea. We stop at Jokulsarlon, a huge glacier lake fed from the massive Breidamerkurjokull Glacier. The carpark is packed & again we are lucky to grab a spot as someone is just leaving. The glacier lake is full of ice & icebergs, the big ones stranded on the lake bed, the small ones floating out to sea. One of the big ones near to the shore is the size of a large house, it is massive & we are only seeing around 10% of its size out of the water, the rest is underwater. Just before the road bridge is a jam of icebergs stranded while trying to flee out to sea. We expected to see something amazing but this was more than amazing & well above our imaginations & the other tourist were awe struck too. There are boats full of tourists plus kayakers on the lake, the icebergs tower over the boats.

We watch as a larger iceberg slams into the ice jam under the bridge & starts a chain reaction of smaller icebergs breaking through & floating out to sea. The size & weight of these large chunks of ice is amazing. We walk down onto the black sand beach at the mouth of the river & look at the chunks of ice washed up onto the beach. It is extraordinary watching all of these large icebergs floating around. Over at the face of the glacier there are six power boats full of tourists, the glacier face must be 50 metres high, towering over the boats & making them look like insignificant specks.

Down to the next glacier lake, Fjallsarlon, smaller & not as much ice, but just as magnificent & imposing, again the face of the Fjallsjokull Glacier towers above the boats on the water, these glaciers are unbelievably large.

Continuing on we pass our hotel & have to backtrack again, these signs are so small (my excuse again). Iceland is terrible with their signage. After booking in we take our luggage to our room, very spacious modern room with one side floor to ceiling glass windows overlooking beautiful views. We head down the road a bit further to Dverghamrar, a small but impressive canyon with hexagonal basalt columns. Legend has it that these “Dwarf Cliffs” are the dwelling place of supernatural beings, either elves or dwarfs. Looking down along the canyon walls back towards the mountains is a small waterfall & the rock face resembles the head of a troll (these legends starting to get to us, we are starting to imagine images of trolls in many rock faces) with the water running down onto the nose & between the eyes. Could the legends be true?

Back to the hotel & a good dinner after another long day & lots of walking, around 7 kilometres today. Most days we average 7 to 10 kilometres, Tereza reckons she will be a lot shorter by the time we get home, because her legs are wearing away, but she doesn’t want to miss out so she pushes on.  Summer arrived today to Iceland, we had a sunny hot 20C. Another fabulous day.

Day 36 – 14 August 2023 – Faskrudsfjordur to Hofn area, Iceland

This morning is sunny with clear blue skies & a light wind as we have breakfast. Afterwards we visit the French Museum on one side of the foyer in our hotel. Upstairs is storyboards of the buildings & their importance during the French fishing expeditions in Iceland. There is a hospital bed set up with a display of medical instruments plus a waiting room with models of French fishermen with various injuries. There are photos & models of French ships that used this port. A computer storyboard tells the tale in parts by video of why & how the French fisherman came to Iceland. The story is very poignant as over 4,000 French fishermen lost their lives over the years of the French fishing industry in Iceland.

Downstairs the museum continues on in a tunnel to the building on the other side of the road. This part is set up firstly as the cramped crew quarters on a fishing boat, with men sharing a bunk. Next is a model of the open deck of the boat with appropriate fishing related equipment & a large video of a raging sea alongside. The floor is slightly tilted to add to the effect. This museum is brilliantly put together & has won the European Union prize for Cultural heritage in 2016.

The old French Hospital had been relocated from another site in one piece by truck, then restored on the present site, very close to the original site. The French Doctor’s Residence was on site & restored. Before we left town we visited the old French Cemetery, there are only a handful of marked graves, most of the sailors were lost at sea when ships sank. Some of the sailors were unknown.

We continue driving up & down fjords, each turn seeming to have another WOW factor, this place is stunningly beautiful. The mountains are so high & so steep, in some places the huge scree slopes reach right to the edge of the road.

At Breddalur we learn that Algerian pirates attacked the settlement in 1627 & succeeded in abducting three people. We can only imagine what sort of unfortunate fate befell them.

Our next stop is Blabjorg at the side of the road & running into the water, it is an exposed green coloured tephra layer of volacanic ash formed during a pyroclastic flow of an erupting volcano & is very hard. It is estimated it formed between 9 & 10 million years ago. A bus full of Israeli tourists stopped to look when we were there.

More mountains & more stunningly beautiful scenery before we called into the town of Djupivogur for a look. A Holland America cruise ship was anchored offshore so the small town was packed. We drove around to the wharf area & discovered a display of 34 granite eggs of different sizes & shape. They are part of an art installation called Ëggin/Gledivik & each of the eggs represent a different bird species that is local to the area. We stop for lunch a little further on at a roadside rest area, steep mountains close by on one side, sea on the other. The park bench is next to a large cairn of stones, I take little notice of it until I read the sign. The site is called Djaknadys (Deacon’s Burial Mound) in Hamarsfjordur & is the supposed site of the burial place of two priests of different districts that fought each other to the death. Each passer-by is supposed to add a stone to the mound to help them not lose their way. We each added a stone.

More mountains & more stunningly beautiful scenery then into Hofn. The town is surrounded by lakes & waterbird nesting areas with a number of large birdwatching hides on the edge of the waters. From here we look across the fjord & we see the tongues of five glaciers poking down from the mountains & we get excited, we are now in serious glacier land.

We start driving past the glacier tongues, they are seriously large glaciers, as we pass the third I stop & check our map, I have just driven past the guest house we are staying at tonight. The guest house is a farm off the road & the sign is small (my excuse). We book in, settle into our room & have dinner at the guest house restaurant, simple yet adequate. Another good day.

Day 35 – 13 August 2023 – Lake Myvatn to Faskrudsfjordur, Iceland

A foggy start this morning as we had a good breakfast whilst chatting with an Australian couple we met. It was very pleasant & we talked for ages with them.

 Lake Myvatn looks as pretty as a picture this morning as the fog lifts so we stop & take a few photos. There are lots of islands & amazing lava formations. To think Lake Myvatn was only formed 2,300 years ago by large basaltic volcanic eruptions is a little bit daunting, that is really not that long ago. There are old volcanic cinder cones all over the place, both large & small. The associated lava field Dimmuborgir is extensive & has lots of walking paths through the old lava.

In the distance we see plumes of steam rising from the ground near the geothermal power plant, also, the smokestacks have lots of steam billowing from them. The mountains behind the power plant have steam escaping from various fissures on the mountain, with the yellow colour of sulphur distinctive around the steam on the bare mountainside.

Namafjall is the name of the mountain but also the geothermal area & just over the mountain is an area of bubbling hot mud springs & steam vents with more sulphur deposits & sulphuric acid in the air. It is not pleasant to breathe all these gases in, it takes our breath away & we start coughing from the noxious fumes so we decide not to walk around the roped off areas. Lots of others are though.

It is only a short drive to the next geothermal power plant, Bjarnaflag, which is using the heat from the Krafla volcano fissure. There are pipes everywhere coming out of the surrounding mountains & steam from the pipes & the overflow water. We drive through the plant area & up onto the rim of the Viti volcano, a dramatic explosion volcano in the Krafla chain that now has a blue crater lake. Beautiful, but sobering, we can’t imagine the power that must have been unleashed when this volcano exploded.

Driving east from Lake Myvatn is like driving through a moonscape with seemingly a never ending lava field with sheets of lava & jumbled rocks everywhere with only a bit of moss growing on some rocks & a bit of grass in places where the lava has weathered down a bit. We notice lines of stone cairns & I thought they may have been built to aid people travelling before roads, but no, they mark the boundary between separate states in Iceland. People have done one heck of a lot of work gathering rocks & building these cairns.

After a very long drive the Studlagil basalt canyon is next, it is off the main road & the bitumen turns to dirt, then rough dirt before ending in a farmer’s paddock. The small carpark is overflowing but we manage to get a spot just as someone was leaving. The farmer was on some big machinery extending the carpark. I imagine he will start charging for parking soon. The walk to Studlagil is long, around 3 kilometres but the view is worth it. Today though, it does not look like the postcards, the water is raging through & is a dirty brown colour, rather than the clear, placid shallow stream in all the postcards. The walk there is a long way & cold but pleasant, the path is reasonably level at places, with lots of people coming & going.

There are a few nice waterfalls along the way & lots of cluster of three sheep, always three. Studgasil is amazing, basalt lava columns, 15 or more metres high, are on both sides of the river channelling the glacier melt water through. People are on both sides, I think we have the best view, those on the other side also have to walk down hundreds of steps. The basalt columns are bent & twisted in some locations giving us more insight into the wonders of nature. The power of the water over countless years to cut down through the basalt is amazing, the river is a long way down from the mountain tops. The walk back is just as cold & sitting back into the car was a relief. We stopped just as we re-joined the bitumen & had lunch, overlooking the oldest steel bridge in Iceland, built in 1908 after being specially made in the USA & imported to Iceland.

A little further on we stop at another large waterfall, Rjukandafoss, it is 139 metres high & looks spectacular as it drops down from the mountain. More driving & when we reach Egilsstadir we turn & follow Lagafljot, a long & narrow lake, down to the carpark for Litlanesfoss & Hengifoss. It is about 2.5 kilometres up a very steep hill & a lot of hard work.  Tereza had enough walking for today & when she saw how steep & how many step there are, she said you go up there sweetheart & take lots of photos. I turned around about the 2 kilometre mark, right at the very top of the Litlanesfoss & headed back down the same path. Hengifoss, a little further up was clouded over. The view from the top over Lake Lagafljot & the surrounding valley is amazing. I was up there for about an hour.

Back to Egilsstadir, turn off & then another road up over a very high mountain range, above the snow again, more spectacular scenery, then down into Seydisfjordur, a very charming town full of beautiful old buildings & a Swedish Consulate in a charming old building. I don’t know why the Swedish Consulate is in this out of the way town. There is a large ferry terminal here though, but it is a long way from Sweden to here in Iceland.

Back up the huge mountain, more spectacular scenery, then on the road to our destination tonight, Faskrudsfordur. This town was founded in 1880 by French fishermen as they set up accommodation at the site for their fishing enterprise in the Icelandic waters. Our Hotel tonight is the old French hospital with the reception being the old French Doctor’s residence with the old French Chapel next door & the old French morgue also there. The restaurant looks out over the fjord & the backdrop of mountains surrounding the fjord. Dinner was good, fish & lamb for a change (haha). After dinner we watched the sunset behind the mountains on the pier outside the restaurant, the colours were amazing. We still had daylight for a few hours, it is strange how long it is light. Another good, but tiring, day.

Day 34 – 12 August 2023 – Siglufjordur to Lake Myvatn, Iceland

A very pleasant start this morning as we were invited upstairs to have breakfast with Helga, the owner of the Herring House, & another guest from Germany. The views over Siglufjordur are even better than our room. We had a nice breakfast & a very pleasant chat with both ladies, we felt like family. We highly recommend the Herring House for accommodation, it is the best we have stayed at in Iceland. The sun was shining brightly & it looked like a very nice day in front of us.

The drive back through the three long tunnels seemed quicker this morning, however, the sky was clouded over & the temperature dropped as we headed towards Davlik. Police roadblocks were set up on the outskirts of Davlik to keep cars out of the centre of town for the Fish Festival being held today. The town seems even more crowded than yesterday with more campervans & more people. The diversion took longer than expected as I followed some other cars, thinking they knew the way to go. Wrong, I had to backtrack a bit to find the way out of Davlik, the Police had not done the detour signage very well at all. In fact Iceland isn’t good for signage to indicate special things to see. On the road out of Davlik towards Akureyri was flooded with cars headed toward Davlik. I can’t imagine how crowded it will be in Davlik for the festival as we were there at 10 am, very early for Icelanders.

Akureyri traffic was quite this Saturday morning with two new cruise ships in, though there were plenty of people on foot staring at maps with a puzzled look. We drove through town & headed east toward Husavik, passing through a 7 kilometre long tollway tunnel under the mountain range. Our first stop is at Godafoss, a big volume waterfall that was named after old Norse religious artefacts were thrown into the waterfall after Iceland was converted to Christianity. The falls are around 30 metres wide & has a drop of around 12 metres with a thunderous roar & plenty of water spray in the air. There are loads of cruise ship & tour buses at Godafoss this morning plus heaps of cars so there were plenty of people there, however, we had no trouble moving around. The paths are level & well maintained.

Husavik is our lunch stop on the Tjornes Peninsula. Just our luck, a cruise ship is moored offshore & this small town is packed with cruise ship people. Whale watching tours are also conducted from this small port & there are also busloads of tourists from the cruise ships in Akureyri in town as well. We find a crowded café to buy some lunch at & have some local savoury crepes (big pancake is made on the hot plate & ham, cheese & a raw egg, the pancake is folded over & cooked on the other side) was good. The church in Husavik stands out & has some real character, it looks good from the street & also inside is striking with its simplicity. The poor Vicar or Priest is busy vacuuming the carpet in the front entrance, so many cruise ship people have walked into the church. She should have put out a box for donations.

As we drive around the tip of the Tjornes Peninsula we start coming across lots of old lava fields, amazingly farmers are using every bit of ground that is not lava to grow their hay. Asbyrgi is our next stop & this place has some striking geology, a huge canyon in the loose shape of a horseshoe, with the walls short at the open mouth gradually rising to around 100 metres at the end & about 4 or 5 kilometres long inside. Legend has it that this mark on the landscape is from one of the hooves of the eight legged horse that the Norse god Odin rode.

Next is the nearby amazing looking Hljooaklettar rock formation, these are large odd-shaped basaltic rocks with interesting mosaic like patterns on them formed when a volcanic fissure opened along the glacial Jokulsa River. The formation runs for around 6 kilometres but we only walked around a kilometre of the track, the small flies here were very annoying, first time we have experience flies in Iceland. We have never seen anything like these amazing rock formations before.

The road on to Detifoss is like new, it is a pleasure to drive on such a good road. Dettifoss is an extremely big, fast flowing & noisy waterfall with masses of spray flying into the air. The river is in flood & dirty brown water is rushing over the drop. The walk to the falls is a bit over one kilometre through a moonscape type environment, no trees or plants, just rocks. Detifoss is around 100 metres wide & has a drop of around 45 metres & is fed from the largest glacier in Europe, Vatnajokull. It is spectacular, the closer you get, the wetter you get from all the spray in the air.

Selfoss is a few hundred metres upstream from Detifoss & is beautiful, though not as spectacular as Detifoss. The Selfoss falls are also around 100 metres wide but only have a drop of eleven metres, still very noisy & still lots of spray. It was an easy walk there & back & we took it slowly over the rocky parts.

The next part of our drive was like driving through a moonscape, the lava fields are extensive & no vegetation exists on them. We pass some smoking fields plus a largish geothermal power station, with pipes & steam. A few volcanoes are standing sentient over the landscape. We then pass by the shores of Lake Myvatn, formed by a volcanic eruption only 2,500 years ago, still very new. More volcanoes standing around & more lava fields, it is all so spectacularly beautiful.

Our hotel is standalone out in the middle of nowhere, I had to pull over & check that I was still travelling in the right direction, it was only a kilometre ahead, that lonely looking building on the next rise. It is a modern dark coloured big hotel. We check in & make a dinner reservation for 15 minutes time, there are two busloads having dinner in the restaurant tonight. The food on the menu is either fish or lamb, what a surprise, so fish & lamb it was, both delicious, both very well cooked, it was enjoyable eating it. The fish was Blue Ling which I had not tried previously. After dinner we chatted to some fellow travellers from Australia for a fair while before retiring to our spacious room with its own big modern bathroom, how exciting!!!! Another good day.

Day 33 – 11 August 2023 – Saudarkrokur to Siglufjordur, Iceland

After an average breakfast this morning after two busloads had cleaned up most of the food we headed back up the mountain range we had crossed yesterday afternoon & drove towards Blonduos. The drive next across to Varmahlid was picturesque, lots of lush green farms, lots of newly baled hay in fields with farmers working picking up & transporting bales then stacking them neatly. The last few days we have been passing farms that have lots of Icelandic ponies, many with young foals at foot, we don’t know what the farmers do with so many of them. (Google says that they export them overseas as riding horses).

We continue on to Akureyri, the second largest city in Iceland, stopping a couple of times to stretch our legs & admire the view. Akureyri has a beautiful backdrop of snow topped mountains along the fjord & is bustling with tourists, a cruise ship is in port & there are groups of people with maps in hand looking puzzled, all this reminds us of us just about 2 weeks ago. We take the opportunity to refuel both the car & ourselves, then find out that we can wash the car for free at the fuel station. Our car is filthy with layers of red & brown dust from the multitude of dirt roads we have travelled since we arrived, so I took the opportunity to wash it. The windows are now clean & we don’t get dirty clothes when we brush against the car. It was nice washing the car in beautiful sunshine. An interesting thing Tereza noticed, in Akureyri, the red traffic lights are heart shaped, we have not noticed this anywhere else.

A short drive south of Akureyri is Hrafnagil that boasts a Christmas house & we spent a bit of time in the underground shop marvelling at the Icelandic Christmas items. Instead of Santa there are 13 Yule Lads that have Trolls for parents & a pet black cat that is pure evil. Expensive to shop there though, so we left disappointed & empty handed. They also have a farmers market selling tomatoes, capsicum & cucumber. Plus a souvenir shop & café, all unbelievably expensive.

Did I mention how wonderful the landscape looks, the mountains are steep & huge, the farms look picture perfect. Some farms have churches built on the land, there are lots & lots of farms in Iceland with their very own church. The town of Dalvik, north of Akureyri, is buzzing with people & so many campers, it is packed to the rafters. Tomorrow is a fish festival with music & other entertainment, it should be even busier.

After that we came to the tunnels, the first is a one way tunnel & we have to give way to trucks & cars a number of times along the 5 km tunnel. The next tunnel is 7 km & is two way then we only just pop out of that for a short drive & then another 4 km two way tunnel. The town of Siglufjordur comes into view, our stop for the night. It looks beautiful, with colourful houses, mountains, harbour & fishing boats. We drive through town before turning & heading back to the Herring Museum, supposedly the best museum in Iceland. Siglufjordur was a booming herring fishing town during the 20^th century & was the busiest port in all of Iceland. After the herring were overfished by Iceland, Denmark & Russia & the fish stock collapsed, the fishing industry died & most of the fish factories closed. The museum is spread over a number of buildings & has a lot of the original equipment used in the processing of herring. In the first shed a variety of herring fishing boats are on display in a mock wharf area inside. It is all very well done.

Time to find our accommodation, Mr Google shows us the way & it is only 3 minutes to drive. The Herring House is a private residence with four rooms for accommodation downstairs plus a shared bathroom & kitchen. The owners live upstairs. The house is very modern inside, tastefully decorated, has a lovely garden, very comfortable & clean, the bathroom is spacious & roomy, so beautifully set up.  Guests are asked to leave our shoes in the corridor, we are set for this, we brought light slippers just for this, Ron’s cousin forewarned us that this is the custom here. Our room looks out over the church & town with views of the majestic mountains across the fjord, beautiful.

Our host showed us where the four restaurants in town are & made a suggestion of the seafood café. We walked the relatively short distance there along the wharf front & enjoyed the food of the Harbour Café, seafood soup plus oven baked cod, both delicious. The beer is locally made on the wharf area as well, a craft beer called Segull, also delicious. Outside the café is a signpost with some different cities of the world plus the distance to them. To our surprise Canberra is on there & is 16,494 km away. It was starting to cool down as we walked back to the Herring House, the sun had gone behind one of the giant mountains surround the town. It is after 10 pm & it is still light outside. Another good day.

Day 32 – 10 August 2023 – Drangsnes to Saudarkrokur, Iceland

It was windy & cold this morning as we ventured from our room across to breakfast, at least the window view was good, looking out over the fjord & the whitecaps on the water. The drive this morning was more driving down fjords & then back along the other side, one of the fjords was quite long. It is all amazingly beautiful, still no trees though. I have never been to the moon, but I think it is something like a moonscape, with all the lava rocks around. We have noticed that the sheep wandering around are mostly in groups of three. If there is more than that it is two groups of three close together, not like the huge mobs of sheep in Australia where they all seem to group together.

After a long drive along a long, narrow & windy dirt road this morning our first stop is at a seal colony at Illugastadir. Out with the coats & gloves & beanies, the wind was coming off the North Pole, it was freezing, the temperature in the car showed 6C but it felt like minus 6C. The walk across to where the seals were was about a kilometre along the seashore, a nice view, but cold. The seals were doing what seals do, laying on rocks out in the water & sunbathing, asleep. Not very exciting. There were both the harbour seals & the larger grey seals. A couple of seals were a little closer to us in the water, but they only had their heads out some of the time. The walk back was bracing into the wind, we needed to freshen up anyway I kept telling myself. Near the carpark was a small creek with Arctic Terns nesting in the grass, we were lucky to spot a large chick being fed by a parent. The parent wasn’t happy that people were close to its chick & flew overhead & complained bitterly.

We continued driving around the tip of the Vatnsnes Peninsula then down the other side looking at more spectacular views of mountains, farmlands & an angry fjord with the very strong wind whipping the waves up. There was a crowd of people & cars at Hvitserkur, a large basalt rock stack off the coast of the Vatnses Peninsula. Hvitserker stands about 50 feet tall & is said to be a troll who found himself in sunlight on the way to tear down the bells of a nearby convent. It certainly looks like a troll. We didn’t stay here long either, so cold & windy. Lots of others walked down the steep path to the rocky beach to get a little closer.

Our next stop down the dirt road on the Vatnsnes Peninsula was Borgarvirki, a large volcanic plug on top of a mountain with a large hole in the centre that was used as a natural fortress by the ancient peoples that lived in the district. There was some additional stone fortifications & stone wall building remains inside the rock structure. I climbed up to have a look & then climbed to the very top. The 360 degree views are stunning, but my goodness, if I had stretched my arms out I could have flown anywhere it was that windy. And cold. Tereza decided the climb wasn’t worth the effort whatever was up there.

Finally off the dirt road & onto the bitumen & our next turn–off is to go & see Kolugljufur Gorge & the Kolufossar waterfall, both named after the female troll Kola. Both the gorge & the waterfall are beautiful & spectacular with the noise of the water & the water spray adding to the spectacle. The gorge is about a kilometre long & around 50 metres deep, just running through some hay paddocks. We walked along the edge to get some better looks, the falls are actually a series of falls that run along the gorge, we could only see a small part, but it was amazing.

Pingeyrar is a stone church that was dedicated in 1877 & we arrived just as the visitor centre closed, so only had information from the storyboard outside. It is a long way from anywhere, apart from the farmhouse nearby. Apparently this was the site of an Assembly that guided the governance of Iceland for around 300 years from about 930 A.D.

Not far from Pingeyrar are a lot of small hills, mounds of dirt & rock, called Vatnsdalsholar. The parking lot just there doesn’t tell us anything about them, disappointing. Apparently they were formed from a series of landslides from a large mountain that stood there many aeons ago. There was a sign here that told us that this was the site of the last executions in Iceland in 1830.

Back on the highway & the road is wide & bitumen, so it is a quick drive through & over another really high mountain range, again above the snow line, to reach Saudarkrokur. Another fishing village with a few large trawlers in port & lots of small fishing boats. I have to stop & Google the hotel, then drive the short distance to the address. When I stopped at the location I still couldn’t see the hotel, it was only when I started to drive away I noticed the sign that blended into the exterior. On checking in we found we are in a guest house, Mikligarour, about 200 metres away. Another short drive & the brightly painted front drew our attention. We are in a room on the 2^nd floor with two shared bathrooms & two single beds on either side of the room, not good. On the middle floor is a very large kitchen/meals/lounge area. Back to the Hotel Tindastoll for dinner at 7 pm for a choice of Arctic Char or Lamb plus dessert. The restaurant is downstairs & very rustic with lots of old memorabilia crowding the room. The waitress was very pleasant & friendly & the meal was good. The Hotel Tindastoll was built in Norway & shipped to Iceland in 1820 & erected elsewhere. After the Hotel was moved to a few different towns it was finally erected on this site in 1884, very rustic. Another good day.

Day 31 – 9 August 2023 – Sudureyri to Drangsnes, Iceland

A big fog this morning (couldn’t even see 50 meters ahead) blanketed the fjord.  We drove back up the fjord & then through the tunnels to Isafjordur. We had a short drive around town, hoping to buy some snacks from the super market but they opened at 10 am. Too late for us. There were two new cruise ships at the wharf & more lost looking tourists walking around with maps in their hands. The roads today are all bitumen but still a long drive as we go from the mouth of the fjords, drive all the way down to the source, then drive all the way back up the other side of the fjord. As the crow flies you have travelled two or three kilometres, but to achieve that you have to drive around 40 kilometres, or 60 kilometres.

The scenery is yet again stunning with clear blue skies & hardly a breath of wind, so the fjords are like mirrors & the snow on the mountains stand out clearly. We have great views of the Drangajokull Glacier across the Isafjardardjup fjord, the glacier is amazingly thick at the face, it must be hundreds of metres deep.

In one of the finger fjords we see a small pod of five or six whales feeding with a flock of birds hungrily feeding off the scraps as they surface. We pull over to the side & watch for a long time, they must be about a kilometre away, yet we can hear clearly as they exhale & a plume of sea spray is blown into the air.

There are lots of isolated farms & houses lining the fjords, we wonder what they live from & how they keep warm & cook their food. There is no electricity, there are no trees to burn wood & it is a very long way to any town. We stop a few times to get out & stretch our legs & take some photos, one stop is at the very first road tunnel in Iceland, started in 1933. It is a very short tunnel but took a long time to dig as the rock was so hard, it was a slanted volcanic dyke.

Reykjanes on the map looks like a small town with all the amenities, however, when we get there we are disappointed. An outdoor heated pool with a few people lazing around & the long building looks tired. We go inside & there is a restaurant with only two people in it, both employees & having their lunch. We ask if lunch is available & there is a selection of very basic salad items & cauliflower soup. We go for the soup, it is OK & fills the spot with a couple of slices of toast (we have to serve ourselves). Good thing we found something to eat & this is a once only.

One more fjord to go down either side then we drive up & over a very tall mountain with no vegetation & rocks everywhere, with a few snow melt lakes & small rocky streams. It is ruggedly beautiful. Down the mountain to another fjord & we cross a bridge, leaving the main road to a small town called Drangsnes, our stop for the night. I luck it in by turning down the right street, along the waterfront & stop at our guest house for the night. The accommodation is neat & clean, all four bedrooms are on the one level with once again a shared bathroom but this time two toilets but only one shower with a shared kitchen, dining area & lounge looking out over the waters of the fjord. The four rooms are occupied by a Ukranian couple, a NZ young lady & a German young lady & us Aussies.

Dinner is very nice, our table was at the window overlooking the fjord & the food was superb, lamb fillet was delicious & the halibut fish was extremely tasty, I have not eaten halibut previously but will again when I can, it was that good. Fish & lamb is Icelandian’s traditional food. Another good day.

Day 30 – 8 August 2023 – Patreksfjordur to Isafjordur, Iceland

Away around 9 am & our first stop is the “Ghost Ship”, an old fishing boat that has been stranded in the top end of the fjord since the 1980s. We are driving to Latrabjarg this morning, some very high sea cliffs with millions of breeding seabirds. The road turns to dirt very soon after the ghost ship & we start hugging the side of huge mountains with enormous drops into the fjord far below. It is slow going & we average around 40 km/hr on the rough dirt road with steep climbs & descents & lots of slow corners, plus it is narrow & oncoming cars are a challenge.

We pass an old local museum that has a wrecked US Navy plane looking very forlorn outside plus a couple of old wooden fishing boats that are falling apart. The road is terrible, however the views are amazing & we finally make it to Latrabjarg. There is a tall white tower & we walk to that to read the information pages then walk over to the cliff. There are seabirds everywhere in the water below plus seals. Seabirds are flying onto & off the cliffs below us. Then we see the puffins, these small seabirds are so cute & they are right on the edge of the cliff at the top nesting in the dirt in burrows. We are so close to them we spend ages just watching. We talk to others there & go wandering a little further down looking at the seals before heading back up for one more look at the puffins, they are adorable.

The roads back out are just as bad with lots & lots of vehicles heading out to Latrabjarg. We wind in & out along fjords, up & down over high mountain passes, drive above the snow patches on the mountain tops, the scenery is stunning, the driving is strenuous. We stop at numerous places on the road to take photos then we stop at Dynjandi, an amazing large waterfall with a big water volume falling a long way, it looks spectacular. There are lots of tourists here enjoying the view & having picnics in the sunshine.

Just after Dynjandi the road turns to bitumen again & the drive is more pleasant until we come to roadworks, then another slow 15 km of very bad soft dirt as new road is being rebuilt over the top of a huge mountain range. The road is bitumen the rest of the way thankfully. Outside of Isafjordur we enter a really long tunnel that is single lane, around 7.5 km. Thankfully there are lots of turnout points for oncoming traffic & everyone obeys the rules. We exit up the side of a mountain looking down onto the Isafjardardjup & the harbour has two big cruise ships in it, one is the Holland America ship the Zaandam. There are lots of tourists walking around the town of Isafjordur, some with maps in hand looking lost. Towns are few & far between, this is the first place where we hopefully can get something to eat, it is 3.30pm & we haven’t eaten since breakfast, we are starving. We stop at a shopping centre & order a shawarma & falafel from the local Lebanese shop (as you do in Iceland). Well, that was a mistake, it was so salty (Tereza couldn’t eat hers) & we washed it down with a Basil seed drink flavoured with sour cherry – something we had not even seen previously.

We then drove back into the tunnel to drive to our accommodation for the night, however, turned off inside the tunnel at a T intersection to drive through another tunnel about 4 km long & again exited on a mountain looking down at a lush green farm at the head of yet another fjord. Sudureyri is our town for the night & we are staying at the Fisherman Guesthouse, we only drove past it once before finding it on the way back. Sudureyri is another small fishing village with a small boat harbour & a large cluster of houses. We booked in & our room is upstairs with a shared bathroom downstairs, shared with five rooms. Tereza grumbled that she never stayed in a hotel where she shared a bathroom let alone 10 people, 1 shower & toilet in the same room, but we are in the middle of nowhere in Iceland. We though that would be a real problem but the main issue we had was walking up & down the steep staircase (everyone avoided the bathroom as much as possible so luckily we had no traffic jam). We shared a nice fish & chip meal at the café at the Fisherman Café then back to our room. The room was very warm, we had to open the window as the sun was shining in it until around 10 pm before the sun went behind the mountain, but at 11 pm it is still light. In the morning it is light by about 4am.  A long but great day.

Day 29 – 7 August 2023 – Arnarstapi to Patreksfjorour, Iceland

A somewhat average breakfast at the hotel then on the road around 9 am.  Our first turn-off is in to see Hellnar, it doesn’t have a lot going for it, a small decaying town. The next turn-off is in to Laugarbrekka, a farm where the first white woman to give birth to a child on the American continent, was born. She & her husband sailed to Vinland (America) & settled there with other Norse settlers (Vikings) around the year 1,000. Christopher Columbus wasn’t even close to being born when these people were living in America. There is a small cairn with sculpture to mark the spot.

Our next stop is easy to see, two giant volcanic plugs right on the seashore, they are huge & are named “Londrangar”. From the viewing platform we spot lots of nesting seabirds on the cliff faces with some chicks & some eggs. The view along the coastline is beautiful. Then we stop at a cinder cone near the road that has a carpark plus stairs leading to the top, the climb up is breath taking in both senses of the word. There is a large depression in the top & views all round to the mountains & the sea.

More mountains, more waterfalls, some of them are stunningly beautiful & we drive through an extremely large lava field, “Berserkjahraun” with jumbles of rock covered in moss – no trees, no grass. The mountains are amazing, so steep, lots of scree slopes, the colours & shadows on the mountains & the roads, so much up & down & around with steep climbs & descents. Our first destination is Stykkisholmur today & we stop at a bakery for a late lunch, it is very hard to find somewhere to eat, not many towns around.  We refuel before boarding the car ferry across the Breidafjordur waterway saving a drive of hundreds of kilometres.

There is hardly a breath of wind & the sea is very flat as we sail out of the harbour with only around two thirds a load of cars. There are rocks everywhere as we sail across this giant fjord, I am certainly glad the captain knows his way. We sit out on the back deck in the sunshine with lots of others enjoying the warm day. There are seabirds all the way across with lots of little puffins swimming & flying around the boat, a real treat. The boat stops about two thirds of the way across at an island called Flatey & drops off around a dozen people plus some freight & pumps what I think is drinking water onto the island of around twenty houses. Again there are lots of rocks all round & it is superb seamanship sailing through this maze of rocks. I can’t imagine how hard it would be in bad weather.

The trip takes around 3 hours all up before we come into a tiny port called Saeferoir on the other side with a huge line of cars waiting to catch the ferry, no idea how they could all fit onto that boat. More beautiful scenery & up & down some really high snow topped mountains before we finally make it to Patreksfjordur & our hotel for the night, a new looking Foss Hotel on the water edge. We have a really tasty dinner in the restaurant & fall into bed exhausted after a long, but good day.

Day 28 – 6 August 2023 – Reykjavik to Arnarstapi, Iceland

Breakfast at 7 am at our hotel was great, the food was really good, typical Scandinavian, we enjoyed it all, it set us up for the day. We waited until we were picked up at 9.30 am to take us to the rental car company, waited again, then finally got our car in Iceland, a small red Mazda 2. Our bags fit nicely in the boot & we are away, a few wrong turns & I eventually find my way out of Reykjavik & into the countryside.

My goodness Iceland is beautiful, the tourism photos look fabulous, reality is hard to comprehend. The mountains are so high & sheer, the lakes, rivers, streams, waterfalls all exceed expectations. Iceland has lots of farms with sheep, goats & lots of horses with pasture & loads of hay being baled, we come across lots of fat sheep & goats wandering the sides of the roads. We drove the 7 km through the Hvalfjordur Tunnel under the fjord before I realised I had to turn off before I entered the tunnel, so had to turn around, go back through it & turn down the correct road. The roads are good with a 90 km/hr speed limit & we take our time driving along the sides of the Hvalfjord, it is all stunningly beautiful. In the distance we see lots of steam in the air & as we get closer we see it is a small geothermal power station so we drive in to look.

It turns out that there are hot spring baths & a small hotel with restaurant attached. We have a look at the boiling hot water erupting out of the ground with lots of sulphur smelling steam emitted. We wander up & having a great Scandinavian lunch, smoked salmon, smoked goat meat, goat cheese, pickled vegetables, goat fat & cottage cheese, yum. The name of the hot spring is Deildartunguhver & has the highest flow rate of hot springs in Europe pumping out 180 litres per second at 100 degrees centigrade & is also used to heat homes in West Iceland & to generate power.

Our next stop is at Hraunfossar, a series of numerous waterfalls that emerge from under the edge of the lava field & flow into the River Hvita. Just upriver is a natural waterfall on the river called Barnafoss & it is very noisy as the glacier melt water pumps through the narrow gorge. We continue on driving through a very large old lava field (800 A.D.) with the backdrop of a large glacier capping the mountain tops. The scenery is amazing.

More amazing mountains, more lava fields, waterfalls, rivers, creeks & lakes with lush farms, fat sheep & goats plus lots of horses on farms. The rain is on & off as we drive north to Arnastapi & check into the hotel for the night. Afterwards we go for a walk (the sun doesn’t set until 10 pm & it is still light afterwards for a long time), there are lots of nesting Arctic Terns flying around as it is nesting time & they are nesting in the long grass around the hotel & around the small town. There is a clifftop walk that we take & the basalt cliffs are teeming with nesting seabirds with amazing rock formations as a bonus. One rock formation called “Gatklettur” looks extraordinary. The path takes us all the way to the boat harbour & we walk back to the hotel along the road, more nesting Arctic Terns & we spot one pair with a curious chick on the ground, it is very cute. A thoroughly enjoyable walk to cap off a great day.