Iceland Trip October 2017

Day 1

From Reykjavik to Hellisandur 

Arrival Date: September 29th, 2017

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We left Halifax, Nova Scotia 9:30pm, September 28th and arrived into Reykjavik at approximately 4:45am on September 29th.  Booking the cheap flight was a great idea, but not the arriving before everything opens.  LOL

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We sat around for a few hours and then took a bus to the bus garage drop off point and received a taxi to CampEasy.  After about an hour we were on the road in our Campervan and heading to our first destination.  We drove in a clockwise direction around Iceland, but not by choice.  There was a bridge out near Vik which would not be open for a number of days, which would mean that if we drove to Vik we would have to turn back around on the road we just came on.  We decided to go clockwise and hope the bridge would be repaired by the time we reached that area.  Going clockwise turned out to be, what I believe, the best direction to take because of how each day progressed, the weather and the fact the bridge WAS repaired by the time we reached it. 

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WESTERN REGION

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Raudfeldsgja

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Our first stop was at this waterfall that can only be seen from a short distance inside the crevice.  

According to Wikipedia, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rau%C3%B0feldsgj%C3%A1] Raudfeldsgja is a natural wonder, but is also a place named in an Iceland saga written over 600 years ago about an event that took place 12 centuries ago.  This saga was about a father who lost his daughter, angered by this lost he threw his two sons over the cliff into this ravine.  

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Abandoned Building

Dafverdara Homestead

There was something special about this abandoned structure to us, and we all thought if these old walls could talk, what a story they would have.  This photo was taken near the monument marking families that had once owned this farm "To the Memories of Hjonin from Dagverdara".   It was not until returning home that I learned that the son of Hallgrimur was considered the last Sorcerer in Iceland.  An obituary [written in Icelandic] by son Stefán Hallgrímsson from Dagverðará about his parents HELGA Halldorsdottir [1903-1991] og HALLGRÍMUR Olafsson [1888-1981].  The story of these parents can be found here.  http://www.mbl.is/greinasafn/grein/737184/ 

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It should be noted that in Iceland the last name Halldorsdottir represents daughter of Halldors and Olafsson rerpresents son of Olafs.  This can be said for all Icelandic names [See Wikipedia site for more detail:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_name]. 

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Snaefellsjoekull National Park

Londrangar [Svalpufa - Pufubjarg]

This was a beautiful last stop which was at the first part of the Park.  Sun setting with the clouds made for an incredible photo of the basalt cliff from the Londrangar View Point.  The Londrangar are a pair of rock pinnacles that are shown in the picture in the background.  These pinnacles are remnants from a bigger crater that have eroded away.  This information, and more details can be found at Wikipedia website:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%B3ndrangar  

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Snaefellsjokull

View of Snaefellsjokull volcano in background

This was the view looking behind the Londrangar.  What an incredibly beautiful area.  So much time could be spent in this area and it was only our first day!  

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After leaving this site, we drove through the National Park and arrived at our first campsite in Hellissandur.  The sun was just starting to go down when we arrived at our destination.  To our surprise the campsite was open and an individual stopped by the camper to collect money.  We were charged approximately $15.00Cdn per person to stay at the campgrounds.  

 

Day 2

From Hellissandur to Stykkisholmur 

Date: September 30th, 2017

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Got up in the morning and went for a short walk before breakfast.  Walking behind the campsite and up a small ridge this was the view.  You could not see any of this from where we were camped.  What a beautiful start to the day.  Snowcapped mountains with green moss covered rocks in the foreground.  

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Olafsvik

First stop on Day 2, September 30th

Olafsvik was a very quiet community.  We stopped by a unique designed Church, observed a waterfall behind the town with a stream running directly through the town to the harbour.  A very quaint community.

To learn a little history about this town check out the Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93lafsv%C3%ADk

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Black sandy beach 

Just outside of Olafsvik was this beautiful black sandy beach showing the town of Olafsvik in the background.

The interesting thing is to see the path that was carved in by tourists that walked out to this point most likely for a selfie.  The blackish clay and grass were very slippery with a cliff on each side of this point, meaning that one slip and there is a minimal possibility of survival.  It was certainly not worth taking a selfie on, besides the scenery was much more enjoyable from my location.

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Also, the path worn takes away from the natural beauty of the area, and this has been a huge concern for the Icelanders.  Many tourists walk off the trails and create paths in the old moss that took years to grow and will take many years to replace.  Please, tourists be aware of where you are walking and avoid the damage you could do to a beautiful country. 

 

Abandoned Building

Near Kirkjufell Mountain

On our way to the next exciting location, the sky mostly cleared for a beautiful day!  As we rounded a corner, a vehicle was stopped in the middle of the road and a tourist was partly down a ditch taking a photo!  This was the ultimate in laziness and unnecessary.  This guy could have caused a serious accident just to save a few steps by pulling off the road.  We drove to the a road side entrance, pulled off the road and walked up to take a photo of these old ruins, horses and Kirkjufell Mountain.  Tourists!  Please be responsible and pull off the road so everyone has a safe holiday.  If you can't pull off, don't get out of your vehicle in the middle of the road, it is not worth it!

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Kirkjufellsfoss

Amazing Reflections and Falls

As we rounded the corner we stopped at this incredible location.  Interesting the parking lot is so small that when a tour bus parked it blocked over half the cars in.  No one was upset as this difficult to say the least and the site was worth it.  We ended up parking on the other side of the little causeway, which turned out to be the best spot to capture the reflections.

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Bjarnarhöfn Shark Museum

Eating Fermented Shark! Hakarl.

This was quite a unique stop.  When you enter the building they have a display of their families heritage.  Outside near the water is our first siting of Iceland ponies ... excellent backdrop for taking photos of these beautiful farm animals.

All three of us indicated that we would not attempt to eat the fermented shark (Hakarl), but we couldn't resist. LOL

This is a delicacy in Iceland and truly an interesting process.  Here is a little more information  about Hakarl.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A1karl

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When you go behind the musuem you can visit this shark drying building.  Yes, that is shark drying before the next stage in the process of preparing this national dish.  Often served at Icelandic weddings.

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Stykkishólmur

Lighthouse and panoramic view

We stopped, and camped, at this amazing town  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stykkish%C3%B3lmur

The nearby mountain of Helgafell is the burial place of Guðrún Ósvífursdóttir, a saga about an Icelandic heroine.  The saga is believed to be of historical significance, and is quite interesting (to read this saga, connect with the link below).  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%C3%B0r%C3%BAn_%C3%93sv%C3%ADfrsd%C3%B3ttir

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Stykkishólmur

Sunset to End Our Day

Before we set up camp we took a drive up a back road and found a beautiful spot to stop and have supper.  While Ron was preparing supper, Ken and I took a stroll and came across sheep on the banks, certainly photo worthy.  Ron cooked an amazing fish with vegetables ... what a meal and incredible ambiance.  This was  a delight for the end of our day.

 

Day 3

From Stykkisholmur to Reykholar

Date: October 01st, 2017

 

Krossholaborg

We left Stykkisholmur late morning and made our way to the intersection of Highway 60 and onto the backroad 590.  Road 590 was a gravel road that circumnavigated a western peninsula just south of the western fjords.  A short drive down this road we stopped to see what the cross on top of the hill was about.  Located at the base of this hill was a plaque telling a story about Laxdaela (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laxd%C3%A6la_saga ).   This hill is located in Krossholaborg, and the story was about a lady, Auður djúpúðga, that used to go to the top of this hill to pray.  It was indicated that this hill was a holy place and explains how the stone cross memorial was placed by women from Dalir to honor this amazing lady from the past.  (see https://www.west.is/en/west/place/krossholaborg

After taking a few panoramic shots by the cross, I observed an octagonal wooden structure a little further up the gravel road.  As we drove near the structure, we stopped to see these were sheep pens and a crowd of the locals were mostly in the center of this area. The locals were auctioning their sheep and other locals who bought them had their own individual pens to put their newly owned sheep in.

 

Driving further down this bumpy gravel road, I was curious about all the man-made rock pillars in the fields.  I stopped to take a few photos of these and later found out that these were the old boundary markers.  A little further up this road, the view of the ocean inlet was spectacular …crystal calm waters forming a mirror of the sky glistening off of its surface.  Just passed the reflecting water there is a small community with a church and a couple of other buildings with a bluff in behind it, this was a very

serene and pretty area.  Right beside this small community was a waterfall dropping a long way from its precipice.  After looking at the amount of water flowing over this waterfall it brought forward the question, here it is in October, where is all that water coming from as there was no snow in this entire area and the hills were not extremely high. 

 

We continued our drive and stopped at the point.  We walked up to a high point to look at the view of the ocean and the islands surrounding this peninsula, it was a very unique area.

 

We completed the peninsula and just got back on Highway 60.  When we rounded the first bend we had to stop.  At the bottom of the hill to the right of the causeway it was starting to rain over the large inlet.   A rainbow was starting to form over the water.  After a few photos we then crossed the causeway but had to stop on the other side as the rainbow became a full double rainbow, what a site!

 

Reykholar

We continued on our path to our final destination for the night.  We headed down highway 60 and turned onto highway 607, to Reykholar.   We set up camp in Reykholar Campground and ate supper.  Looking out of our camper van we could see that it was raining in one direction and the sun came out in the other.  Again, this made for another great full rainbow.  This is certainly the land of rainbows.

 

After cleaning up the table, we went next door to the geothermal swimming pool and hot tubs.  The sun had set and we enjoyed a swim as well as the hot tubes that early evening.  Talk about enjoying the cool fresh air.  We were eventually joined by three other people in the hot tubs.  The couple that I talked to have their own campground nearby, we thought there was only one campground in this area.  A young lady, who joined us in the hot tub, was studying in Iceland and staying with a family in the vicinity. She mentioned a drive to the end of the road to a wharf and recommended that we check it out in the morning.

 

Day 4

From Reykhólar to þingeyri

Date: October 02nd, 2017

 

Reykholar

While breakfast was being prepared I took a walk on a path beside our campsite to take some photos of a nearby pond. There were over 50 white snow geese on this pond.  When I got closer the white geese moved over to the further side. However, while I was on this path there were some small rock foundations that I decided to explore. When I approached the small foundation, it was made over the top of a geothermal hot spring. This hot spring is named Einireykir.  It is not certain what these rock ruins were for.  Beside these ruins and by the hot spring running out from the ground, there were purple flowers here.  It turns out that these flowers, known in Iceland as vatnamynta, are protected as they can only be found in three areas of Iceland.

 

Staður harbor

After breakfast, we drove to the end of the side road as was recommended by the young lady we met at the pool. She did not disappoint, this was a beautiful area and we spent over an hour taking photos from the wharf, reflections off the inlet and a boat in the small harbor, and of seaweed covered rocks with mountains in the background.  This area was very photogenic and certainly a worthy stop.

 

Hrafnseyri

We continued on our journey along the coastline on highway 60.  Close to Flokalundur we stayed on highway 60 to avoid driving around the first peninsula.  It was an uneventful, but beautiful drive until we got close to Hrafnseyri.  The highway 60 turned into gravel 60, which turned out to be the case for a greater portion of the road through this section of the western fjords.  After passing Hrafnseyri, we began our ascent up the winding gravel road towards our next destination. The views on the climb up this mountain were phenomenal. We stopped at many pull-offs to take photos.  I couldn't get over the fact that there were no trees in this area, it was quite barren land for this leg of the journey. The drive up this winding road and down the other side was quite interesting.  It was a steep gravel road that had no guard rails on it!

 

Dynjandi Waterfalls

After our descent down the winding gravel road we came to Dynjandi Waterfalls (Fjallfossas), the biggest waterfalls in the western fjords.  The word Dynjandi means thunderous, which I believe is self explanatory, but for detailed information on this check out the following site (https://guidetoiceland.is/connect-with-locals/regina/dynjandi-the-jewel-of-the-westfjords ).This was a short drive off the main gravel road into a large parking lot.  This waterfall was absolutely amazing. There were a series of waterfalls that changed at different levels, meaning that at the top of this waterfall, it was a huge cascade waterfall, part way down the waterfall was like a narrow channel where the waterfall dropped into a narrow gorge and at the bottom area there were different smaller waterfalls where the water broke into different fingers before they all joined together into a river running into the ocean.  This waterfall made for some amazing photos with the colored bushes surrounding the falls. This is also a great area for seeing the panoramic view of this particular basin.  There were quite a few people in this area.  A group of three ladies stopped and chatted with us.  One lady asked the same question, where does all this water come from?  I started to laugh and informed her we had this similar conversation and my response was that I swear they must be pumping the water back up the hill to keep the waterfall flowing.  LOL  We spent a great deal of time in this area … what a treat, and one site that should not be missed. 

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Þingeyri

We reached our destination just as the sun was setting.  We set up camp at Þingeyraroddi Camping Ground.  While supper was being prepared, I went to the swimming pool to determine if we had to pay to camp there.  I was shocked and a little upset that they charged approximately $17.00 per person to camp there.  They had no hot water at the campsite along with no heat in the bathrooms.  I was truly disappointed with this outrageous charge.  I returned to the van, very displeased about this, as were my buddies.  We received tickets to use the showers in the pool. 

After supper, I was in need of a cool down and opted to have a shower then instead of one in the morning.  I went in and realized I must have dropped my towel outside.  On my way out, I asked the lady what time they closed and she indicated in 12 minutes, I was surprised and said I would gather my stuff and have a shower in the morning.  She indicated it would be no problem that they were cleaning up anyway so to go ahead with having a shower.  I quickly went out and found my towel on the ground, went in and had a quick shower and braved the cold crisp air back to the van. 

 

Day 5

From þingeyri to Drangsnes

Date: October 03rd, 2017

As an observation, the campsite was completely surrounded by bushes and there was an opening through the bushes that took you down towards the water.  After breakfast, I walked through the path in the bushes and came across a recreated Viking site. There were poles with carvings on them are laying down on the ground, a round building on the top of the hill that overlooked the inlet, and remnants of a foundation in front of the round building. When I walked up to the round building I observed that the bottom part looked like it was filled in with hides from animals. A very interesting site, a great way to start the day. Little did we know that this was going to be a full fun amazing day.

 

After leaving the campground we again drove on Highway 60 until we came to some tunnels. The interesting thing about the tunnels is that it was over 5 km long going through a mountain and halfway through the tunnel there's an intersection that you could take which ended at Suðureyri, a different Peninsula than Ísafjörður. We drove into the tunnel and after approximately 2km turned left at that intersection on to Súgandafjarðarvegur Road and we drove to Suðureyri. We looked around the town did a few stops to take photographs including the harbor and the church, and followed the road through town until we reached a gravel road that took us along the shoreline. We explored this road which eventually came to an intersection that looked like only lead to two different homesteads.  It seemed that whenever we went off the beaten path we always seemed to find something interesting to see. At this gravel road intersection,we came to a site that was of a sod building with a drying rack beside it. There were sheep that were walking along the beach, by the buildings and up into the hills. On the dry rack there were some fish but mostly fish heads hanging from it.  This was a very interesting stop.

 

After leaving this structure, that was in the middle of nowhere by the water, we drove back up towards the tunnel entrance. This was an architectural marvel.  The tunnel had 3-part intersection that was over 5 km long but at the this section of the tunnel there was also a waterfall right beside the tunnel. When you come out of the tunnel at this entrance, there's a very beautiful landscape view.  We stopped here to take some pictures from inside the tunnel as well as outside the tunnel.

 

After driving back into the tunnel we turned left at the intersection back on to the main road until we reached Ísafjörðu.  At this intersection we took a side detour onto highway and headed to Bolungarvik.  To learn more about this community, visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolungarv%C3%ADk . This community is considered to be one of the Icelands oldest fishing areas. In this community we drove around to see what was there.  We stopped and shopped for a couple items at the local hardware store. It was closed for lunch so we took time and drove around the community.  After picking up a couple items, we decided we would go visit a local museum, but couldn't find the one we were looking for.  We were interested in local history museums.  We stopped at a store and asked where there would be such a museum on local history in the area. They recommended the Ósvör Museum located just outside the town.

 

We left the community and drove down to Ósvör Museum and were quite impressed with the Vikings structures, the Viking vessel, and various tools and artifacts related to the Viking settlement. We took a lot of pictures in this area. Across the road there's a path that went up to the top of the hill. On the top there's a small Monument that identified via arrows what do you would see. I took some landscape shots of the beach with the town of Bolungarvik in the background. When I was about to leave I looked over the fence and spotted some foundation rocks in a pile. Back in the van, we drove up the hill a short distance from the Ósvör Museum to a lighthouse.  This was a Spanish Lighthouse painted in a fluorescent orange color as was indicated by a plaque that was secured to a boulder commemorating the lives of some Spanish individuals that lost their lives in this area.

 

After leaving the lighthouse we made the decision to go as far as we could do to the fact that the pass that we had to drive on was expected to have snow that tonight. When we backtracked to Ísafjörðu the road changed from Highway 60 at that intersection to highway 61.

Along our drive we saw a few unique little sites but the one that I found very interesting was on the top of this Plateau was a structure in the middle of the field. This field was nothing but rocks and the whole area was covered with small lakes and I believe was remnants from winter. The structure was made out of Rock and had a wooden roof and front back on it with saw it's filling in the holes. Not sure what this building was used for but still found it to be very unique.  Along the way there were no trees to be found but the bushes around the area had a beautiful fall color to it so you had green mixed with red and orange and yellow and brown created a nice effect.  We followed Highway 61 along the coastline, covering the majority of the western fjords, and over the pass to the intersection highway 643. 

On highway 643 we turned off onto highway 645 and drove along the coast until we arrived in Drangsnes at approximately 9pm. To learn a little about this community, visit: https://www.westfjords.is/en/moya/toy/index/town/drangsnes.  We found a campground in this small community and had supper. The  Drangsnes Campground  collector stop by for us to pay for the site  and informed us about the hot pots at the waterfront that they were open 24/7, and where we paid for the campsite we were permitted to use them for free. This campsite had a camp kitchen on the side of the building and at the end, in the basement, they had a bathroom, washing machine and dryer, showers and a place for us to wash our dishes. It was a very nice layout.  Around midnight, we made our way down to the Drangsnes Hot Pots and soaked in the warm water with the cold misty rain that fell upon us (at one point it felt like snow). By 2:30 in the morning we decided it was time to head back to our campsite. This was an amazing experience to soak in the hot tubs with the waves crashing against the rocks beside us.  What a great time we had. This was certainly a full day... and certainly a fantastic day.

 

Day 6

From Drangsnes to Kálfshamarsviti

Date: October 04th, 2017

 

In the morning, after breakfast, we stopped at the Hot Pots to take a picture of our fun time only now we have the opportunity to see the hot pots on the waterfront during daylight. We drove for about 10 minutes and stopped on the side of the road as we saw some harbor seals on the shoreline. We were able to get some interesting shots of the seals before they went back into the water and swam a little further away from us.

 

Continuing our drive on Highway 61 we came to an intersection and turn onto highway 68 that took us past Bordeyri.  Shortly after this community we drove to a t-intersection and we turned left onto highway one. There were many stops along the way to witness and photograph some amazing scenery.  We followed highway one until we reached the turn off onto highway 711 … another gravel road.  We drove up to Hvitserkur and pulled into the parking lot.

Hvitserkur is an incredible rock formation on the black sand beach.  The legend goes that Hvitserkur is a petrified troll.  For details on the story and also on this rock formation, please check out the following website: https://guidetoiceland.is/connect-with-locals/regina/hvitserkur-up-north .  We parked in the lot and because of how cold and windy it was, had to dress a little more appropriate for a 2km walk. At the point looking down the cliff the rock formation looked like a creature drinking water. After taking a few photo’s. we decided to take the path down to the beach to take more pictures of this incredible structure from a different perspective.

 

We returned to our van and headed back on the gravel road we turned at an intersection onto road 717, off of 711.  We eventually got back onto Highway 1 and had the conversation about finding a campsite somewhere by falls or nice view.  We decided that we did not want to pay for a campsite that was not organized if we can find a half decent place that was doable to pull over and park. We drove through Blönduós and shortly after driving through, we turned off of Highway 1 onto Highway 74 which was paved.  Eventually this highway turned into secondary road 741. We drove watching for different sites.  Eventually we saw a lighthouse in the distance and decided we would drive down to take a couple of photos. When we got to the lighthouse, at Kálfshamarsviti, I was extremely excited about this stop. We parked the car as close as we could get to the lighthouse and walked the rest of the way. On the path to the lighthouse there were a variety of rock foundations with sod on part of the top, which was crumbling. These foundations were of a community that was established in this area in the late 1800s to the early 1900s.  I have made many attempts to research these ruins, but with no success.  I cannot seem to locate any history on this area on line, only information found was on the plaques located at each historic structure.  When we got to the lighthouse to take a few photos we could see that the basalt rock formations were very interesting and took some amazing Lighthouse photos.

 

We reversed our walk back to the van and while supper was being prepared I decided to take a walk where I believed very few people would go. Along the way there were a variety of the old rock foundations and I found one area on a rock beach that was quite eroded.  It had patterned rock placements that looked like they could have been boat house foundations. Walking through this area I came to a top of a hill that had a rock wall and more sod-rock foundations. What a beautiful area. Walking back to the van along the rocky beach, I came across what I believe to be an ancient Viking artifact. I discovered a rock with a hole strategically in the center.  Near the end of our trip I had a conversation with an individual who worked at the Museum in Reykjavik.  It was determined that it could possibly have been an anchor for a boat or a fish net weight. I took a couple of photos of this rock and left it in its original location.

 

Special note:  One thing that we found very disappointing and we heard many people inform us that the Icelanders are upset about the number of people that went to the bathroom outside almost anywhere you step. Part of the problem is there were no bathroom facilities in many of the areas, but that does not mean that people shouldn't be more appropriate when using any area to use as a bathroom. We were disgusted with how many people had used the historic structures as bathroom spots.  Toilet paper was found throughout the structures. We found this to extremely disrespectful to the locals and to the historical sites. The people from the past had harsh living conditions in that time and showed a lack of respect for the present locals of Iceland. Tourists … please dig a hole if you need to use the bathroom and do not disrespect historic sites even if they're not registered.  Find a spot that is away from everything … it is not that difficult and would certainly be appreciated by all.  To the government of Iceland, I would like to recommend bathrooms be placed strategically around the country to avoid this from becoming a huge problem. 

 

Day 7

From Kálfshamarsviti to Ljósavatn Mirror Lake

Date: October 05th, 2017

 

This morning I got up early to take photos of the sunrise and revisit the lighthouse along with the Cliffs of basalt and the ancient ruins.

 

After breakfast, we continued our journey driving around the peninsula and made our first stop not too far on our drive, through a region called Hafnir.  We stopped because of a large plaque that was displayed in a pullout.  This plaque described the region, the farms plus the religion that took place in this area.

Just before arriving at this site we had been discussing why were there piles of driftwood along some of the beaches.  This led us to discuss the question of how the Icelanders managed to get wood where there has not been many trees  (only surrounding homesteads) for the trip thus far.  On this plaque it described how a great deal of drift wood floated down the currents from Siberia and much of it landed on these shores.  In the past this wood was gathered and sold to locals for their homes, fences, etc.  

An archaeological dig in Hafnir, revealed that had been cabin abandoned between 770 and 880.  This cabin provides the earliest known archaeological evidence of settlement in Iceland. 

Apparently as another interesting story of this area, in the 1800s an American ship ran aground in this area with no persons found on board. To learn more about the dig and the ship, check out Wikipedia site:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafnir .  Also, a detailed story about the dig can be found at, http://icelandreview.com/news/2011/06/04/new-view-origin-first-settlers-iceland .

 

We continued to drive around the point and eventually came across a sign by the road that indicated a Point of Interest in this area called Ketubjorg.  For some information about this area, please visit the following site:

https://guidetoiceland.is/connect-with-locals/regina/disappearing-landscape-ketubjorg-and-dalshorn

There were no structures in this area, but after climbing a ladder over a fence I walked about a half of a kilometer to the cliffs.  The natural bridge and cliffside view was amazing. 

 

As we continued our Drive we stopped a few times to take some pictures of the unique landscape. We also stopped to take pictures of a herd of Icelandic horses. The backdrop was a cliff and the ocean Inlet with mountains in the background, what a beautiful area. The horses seemed curious and came over to the fence where we were located.  This allowed us to take some close-up shots of the horses. The interesting thing about Icelandic horses is that if they are shipped off the island they are not permitted to come back to the island for fear of bringing diseases.  No other horses are permitted to be brought onto the island for fear of the same.  This is the only place in the world where the horses known as Icelandic horses are pure bred.

We continued our journey down this road and took more pictures of the sheer cliffs and of the island in the distance.  Apparently, in this region, the cliff side is considered Iceland spar and one requires permission in order to remove any of it.  It is only found in this area.

A little further up the road we came across a beautiful scenery called Selvik Cove.  This cove has historical significance. In the year 1244 Floabardagi, known as the Battle of the Bay. It was the only sea battle during that era. For more information about this, you can read about it here, https://www.nat.is/selvik-cove/ .

We continued on the road 745, turned left onto 744 and after a short drive ended up on road 75 to Glaumbær.  We had an unexpected stop at Glaumbær farm, which is known to be the traditional Turf houses of Iceland. The inique structures had rock foundation, but a thick wall of sod with a wooden frame.  This was a very interesting stop.  To learn more about this historic site, visit:  https://guidetoiceland.is/connect-with-locals/regina/glaumbaer-in-skagafjorur-in-north--iceland.  In doing further research, I discovered that this site is considered a UNESCO World Heritage Centre.  For details about this site, visit: http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5589/ .

 

After spending about a half an hour at the turf houses and the Church next to them, we made or way to the number one highway.  We turned left and went directly to Akureyri (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akureyri ). We spent the late afternoon and most of the day in this second largest urban area in all Iceland, next to Reykjavik. We ate in our first restaurant since being in Iceland and tried their fish and chips … they were excellent! The price was reasonable, it worked out to be approximately $20 per person with no drink.

 

After shopping, sightseeing and taking a variety of photo’s in the community, we made our way to our final resting spot for the night. We stopped at a pull off in Ljósavatn Mirror Lake and set up camp for the evening. The sunsets were lovely with the moon rising and creating a beautiful reflection off the lake.

 

Day 8

Ljósavatn Mirror Lake to Dettifoss

Date: October 06th, 2017

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Busy day today. We visited the Godafoss Waterfall before sunrise, then headed to the thermal fields of

Hverir, viewed the incredible water in the crater of Krafla and then visited the Myvatn Nature Baths

before lunch. We then visited the Dettifoss Waterfall and camped nearby.

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Woke up this morning to a beautiful sunrise. The panoramic shot gives a true image of Iceland … Fire and Ice.  After taking a few reflection shots of Ljósavatn Mirror Lake, we drove a short distance to Goðafoss Waterfall.  Godafoss is translated to mean the waterfall of the gods.  It is believed from a myth that statues of Norse gods were thrown into the falls.  More information on this story can be found linked to the following: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go%C3%B0afoss .  The path on the main side of the waterfalls was very slippery. We saw a father and son get very close to the edge of the cliff to take a picture. The young lad who took a few steps further back slipped and almost fell into the water, but this didn't seem to deter them from continuing to take pictures.

 

We drove to the other side of the falls and I had to walk a little distance along a paved path to get close to the waterfalls. This side certainly had a different perspective, full view of the waterfalls.  It was a beautiful day to visit this waterfall first thing in the morning, even with the icy-slippering conditions, listening to the roar of the falls and having the mist coming off the waterfalls as well.

 

We drove for quite some time and stopped at a couple locations to take a few candid pictures of the unique landscape. Eventually we came to Myvatn Nature Baths a man made facility and bath. The building was not opened yet, and opened in about an hour … time to go exploring.  We drove back to the intersection of the Myvatn Nature Baths road and Highway #1.  Across the highway Myvatn Geothermal Area where a small Blue Lake had formed from the plant. We kept on driving and went over Mt. Namafjall and once down on the other side, we pulled right into the parking lot of the Hverarond Geothermal area.  This area is full of hissing fumaroles with a great deal of steam coming from them, and bubbling mud pools.  When you walked past the fumaroles, the smell of sulfur is very strong.  There were a variety of geothermal activity happening in this region, a very unique landscape indeed.  To get a better understanding of the volcanic activity that has taken place in this area over the years, visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krafla .

 

We drove a short distance further down the number one Highway and turned left onto the side road for the Krafla Power Plant. We drove through the plant and up a steep a place called krafla. This area was at the top looking down a crater that was filled by blue water.

 

We drove back to Myvatn Nature Baths and while the others went swimming for about half an hour, I took a drive down to the Blue Lake and took a picture of the Myvatn Geothermal activity here. I returned to the Nature Baths and took a couple outside pics. 

 

We drove to our final destination for the day, Dettifoss, which is considered the most powerful waterfall in all Europe [See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dettifoss ]. We walked approximately 2 km to get to the waterfalls from the parking lot.  The waterfalls were quite amazing. The scary part to witness was tourists stepping over the barrier to have their picture taken as close to the edge as they could get. This was quite foolish and there were a lot of people doing it. The soil which was wet was very slippery and just one quick movement would be the end of that person. Not recommended and certainly frustrating for the locals that are required to search for the bodies. Other than that, it was an incredible view of the waterfalls and area.

 

We went back to the parking lot and that's where we ended up staying for the evening. There were outdoor toilets onsite which made it a very tourist friendly spot to stay for the evening.

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Day 9

Dettifoss to Seyðisfjörður

Date: October 07th, 2017

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This morning after breakfast we headed out fairly early. We had an uneventful drive until we got to Egilsstaðir. From Egilsstaðirr route one we turned off onto Route 93 and drove to Seydisfjordur. For a little background on Seydisfjordur: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sey%C3%B0isfj%C3%B6r%C3%B0ur 

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The drive was climbing on a windy paved road up a mountain. When we started going down the other side, we had to stop ... what an incredible view! We stopped at  a pull-off, Monument to Þorbjörn Arnoddsson.  The memorial was erected by the community of Seyðisfjörður to remember the traveller Þorbjörn Arnoddsson. He was a pioneer of winter travel over Fjarðarheiði mountain pass. Þorbjörn Arnoddsson was born March 13, 1897 and had died August 31, 1976.  Most of the years that Þorbjörn Arnoddsson travelled on this route, there were no roads.  You get an incredible view of the valley and the small community, that is at the mouth of the inlet, from this spot.

 

We drove down the twisting road into the community and spent the rest of the day exploring. We encountered unbelievable reflections off the completely calm mirror-like water. The harbor had a few fishing vessels,  which made for some nice pictures with the mountains in the background. There is a unique place where a metal telephone booth was built into the side of the mountain. There was a small waterfall running beside it. For supper we decided that we would eat at the Skaftfell Bistro. We ordered pizza and beer, beer was around $12 per glass.

 

We walked around the community taking many pictures of the church with the color pathway and some very colorful buildings.  After a lot of exploring of the community we drove down the left side of the inlet until we came to a parking lot next to some ruins. We set up camp in the parking lot and I walked over after dark to the shore to get some night shots of the town.  The ruins seemed to indicate a large community had settled here at one time.  In further research, this is what I discovered about this deserted community ...  https://is.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestdalseyri

 

Day 10

Seyðisfjörður to Jökulsárlón Glacier

Date: October 08th, 2017

 

This morning I got up early and climbed up part of the nearby mountain to get a few photos of the three small waterfalls that could be seen from our campsite.  I walked past some ruins and climbed up the hill until I came to the three waterfalls. To my surprise when I got around the corner it turned out to be four waterfalls!  The fourth one was fairly big. All four waterfalls ran down into the same ravine, what a beautiful spot.  You could not have any indication what it looked like unless you climb up to this spot. When I started to walk away from the waterfalls along a bluff, I noticed some mounds. Walking over to the mounds I came to realize that it was a foundation, a large foundation. I continued walking and taking pictures and came across some more foundations. When I looked down towards the camper van in the parking lot, there were four tiers that you can see until you reached the lower leve.  I was standing on the fourth tier looking down.  There turned out to be foundations on each level. At one time this was certainly a very large and active community. I truly enjoyed this start to my day.

 

Eventually, we started to drive to our next destination.  We drove for about three hours and stopped the odd time to take some scenic photos.  Many of the sites along the way were quite similar to other places we had been in Iceland, until we got near the glacier ... Wow!  What a different site. A few interesting spots for taking pictures included The Thórbergur Center was a site that had focused on a famous Icelandic writer from the area, Þórbergur Þórðarson.  For a little more information about him, check out this site:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9E%C3%B3rbergur_%C3%9E%C3%B3r%C3%B0arson  that one side look like books.  Just across the highwas from the Center was on Monument that was built in honor of this author. I walked out past the monument and took a few beautiful photos of the low cloud cover on the side of the mountains, with the few trees that are growing in the area. 

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We continued a short way down the highway #1 until we stopped at this area where you could see a reflection of the mountains on some small ponds. There was also a huge glacier in the distance. In about 15 minutes we drove until we reach the Jökulsárlón Glacier (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B6kuls%C3%A1rl%C3%B3n).  This was an amazing spot and our final destination for the evening. We walked around the area for approximately two hours taking photos of the floating icebergs. We got into the vehicle and crossed the inlet on the bridge and pulled into the other side of the glacier to take more photos. The sun was getting close to setting and we drove across the highway to Diamond Beach and is also known as Jökulsárlón Ice Beach (https://guidetoiceland.is/connect-with-locals/regina/iceland-s-diamond-beach) . I was amazed at the waves hitting the iceberg fragments that had come out of the glacier lagoon.  I was only going to take a few photos, but it was so amazing to watch and capture some awesome moments.  Some of my favorite photos were taken in this area.

 

We drove back into the Jökulsárlón Glacier parking lot and set up camp for the evening. This is the first time that we saw a lot of vehicles in a parking lot camping. There were probably over 30 camping here this evening.

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