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.