You’ve got to want Iceland….
Day 11:
We have an easy start to the morning- we have decided to skip the Troll Peninsula because of bad weather and low visibility there.
Instead we opt to go to the Glaumbær Farm & Turf House, (a short drive up 75) which is way more interesting than it might seem. There has been a house there since 900 AD, the current ones were built in the 1800s using cut turf and rock and partially underground. Even unheated it was pretty snug and comfy inside.
Going back to Hwy 1 we and moving west we turn onto 715 to Kolugjúfur Canyon and falls. There is a cafe/gift shop with a for pay water closet- it only accepts cards though, no cash that I saw.
Due to the weather conditions we had been debating whether we wanted to do the West Fjords or not, but we decided to keep moving towards them. We ended up pushing farther than we planned and drove all the way up to Holmavik- it was a long rough road, hard winds and heavy rain- the most wind we’ve had. It’s like Patagonia, but there the wind pretty much goes west to east. In Iceland it might be coming down from the mountain, then sudden shift 180 degrees and come harder from the opposite direction. Because of this, and the taller profile of the camper, I found it harder to drive here. We got to our campsite in Holmavik, happily paid for a hot shower (we also hand washed clothes here) and settled in for what would be a long, very windy, very rainy night.
Day 12:
We checked the road conditions in the morning- you should do this every day regardless- and saw that all the roads out of town, in every direction, had high wind warnings. Our camper rental forbid us from driving in winds over 20 m/s (44mph) and all the roads had winds over 25 m/s (56 mph) and the the shortest route back to Hwy 1 was a high pass that had winds over 30 m/s (67 mph). So we made the only choice we could, which was to hunker down for the day- our only venture out was to the Museum of Sorcery & Witchcraft, which was certainly worth going to! After that we parked Thor headfirst into the wind, took advantage of the campsites Wifi and wondered what tomorrow would be like….
Day 13:
Another night of rough winds- worse than the night before! But at 5 AM it just sort of…stopped. Like no wind at all. We checked the weather and road conditions and everything looked much better so we decided to make a long push through the Western Fjords. In our initial plans we were going to stay in Skordum, but since we’d pushed further than planned on Day 11, and we’d lost Day 12 to weather, we decided to drive all the way to our only big stop, Dynjandi.
Dynjandi was one of the most amazing waterfalls we saw, and probably Melinda’s favourite- and I can’t argue with her about it. The size is big, and the proportions just seem right- like the golden ratio would fit it perfectly. The bad part is that I was flying the drone at waterfall near Dynjandi and the wind flipped it over and it fell somewhere in a moss covered lava field. Because I didn’t have a good visual on it and you aren’t supposed to walk on the moss I had to abandon it- with a lot of great footage that I hadn’t saved to a hard drive! Grrrrrrr! So if you’re in Iceland and you find a drone, let me know!
But between Holmavik and Dyjandi was a LOT of driving. The fjords are beautiful of course but after a while they become sort of repetitive- beautiful mountain going down to beautiful ocean, go around the corner and its another beautiful mountain….
There are two tunnels on this road, and they are one lane tunnels with traffic in both directions. It sounds worse than it is, there are a lot of pull outs so if you see lights coming towards you (and you’re doing the ring road counter clockwise like us) then you just pull into the pullout and let them pass. Don’t speed in here, there are several cameras waiting to give you a ticket!
We spent the night in Búðardalur, at a campground that is adjacent to a school and across the street from a grocery store. Clean showers…and I left my Eddie Baur rain jacket there, so if you come across it ket me know!
Day 14:
Today we will drive the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. There are a few quick stops along the way- Kirkjufell, said to Iceland’s most photographed mountain, Berserkjahraun lava field, the Black Church, the Londrangar basalt cliffs and spires and Grabok Crater- which was a nice hike but it is a dry crater. We, and several other people there, assumed it had water in it, but it doesn’t!
Our favorite part of today is the lava cave tour at Vatnshellir Cave. It is about 45 minutes long and very different than the limestone caves we are used to in our area. We had thought about doing an ice cave tour, but there were no recommended ones in the summer because of potential ice falls- and sure enough a tourist was killed in an ice cave while were visiting, so be careful with what you do here!
We drive out to, and spend the at night at Húsafell campground. The bathrooms are a little beat up but clean, and tons of hot water available. Tomorrow is our last day of “adventure” and tomorrow night is our last night in Thor, so we are winding down and mentally preparing for returning home…but we have at least a couple of cold…I mean cool adventures planned!
Day 15:
Just down the road from our campground are two waterfalls- Barnafoss and Hraunfoss– which is really cool because the falls- and there are a lot of them- just come out of the side of the cliff, fed from an underground river and through the porous lava rock. It’s hard to describe but really beautiful! Another hard to describe waterfall is just down the road- Glanni falls, a home to elves and fairies, has a clear area of water going over the rock (about 2 ft deep) that is completely transparent until it starts breaking on the rocks below. Again, hard to describe but there is a picture below…
We drive to our last campground in Akranes. They are paving the road in front so we can’t get in yet but we walk over and the lady working there recommends the local hot tub, so we drive over there… once we find it was well worth it! The Guðlaug Baths are very warm, 40C (104F) and look out over the ocean- and at the time we were there, an erupting volcano off in the distance (in SundhnúksgÃgar), so it was an amazing experience. Also, because the beach is “blue flagged” that means the currents are safe to swim in and then get back in the hot tub. Of course the ocean water is only about 9C or 50F, but Melinda and each went in three time, each time getting progressively deeper and staying longer- on the third time I even did a back float, albeit very briefly! But thanks to the encouragement of a local (who was staying out for 10 minutes at a time) I went out one more time, swam under water and then joined him for some conversation before coming back in- I made it about 7 minutes and felt like I had gotten my inner Viking on!
We finally got into the campground around 7:30 because of the roadwork, parked backed up to the ocean was really pretty!
Day 16:
Today is packing and cleaning day, so we stay at the campground for a while longer while we got all that situated. We drove back to Keflavik, filled up Thor with his last tank of expensive diesel ($9.00 per gallon) and returned him to the rental company. They pointed out a small scratch that they said was not covered by our insurance (don’t skimp on the insurance) because it was man made, not sand or gravel. I argued we shouldn’t have to pay for the first two days at all since we had so many issues and lost a lot of time. In the end I didn’t pay for the scratch and they didn’t discount the lost time. i don’t have negative things to say about the company we rented from, but I also don’t have a lot of positives so I won’t mention their actual name.
We took a taxi to our BnB in Keflavik- Raven’s BnB, a really neat eclectic place that we recommend, but they don’t have a website. We had a fancy end of the trip dinner at The Library and had a good night sleep. What we didn’t know is that the sky was going to clear and the northern lights would be out, so we totally missed them! Oh, well, we’ll get them next time…
Day 17:
An easy trip to the airport, easy trip through security (except for some confusion over duty free liquor) and an easy flight home. You’ve got to want Iceland, because it is not easy, but it sure was worth doing!
