Day 4: Tröllaskagi Peninsula

                      I tip my hat to the view too!

I've been car camping the last few nights - it's freed me up enormously in planning my itinerary (who really knows how long it takes to drive from A to B, and how long the sights in between will take to see?). The first night I spent in a campground, the second on a quiet peninsula beside a church, but last night was the best yet: a quiet roadside rest stop with picnic tables, a forested glen with walking trails, and a little toilet complex with facilities on one side and a protected sink and countertop for washing dishes on the other. I shared the spot with a young man from Germany who was biking around the whole island, sleeping in his tent. He didn't really seem too happy with the whole affair - the cool temperatures and ever-present wind were very challenging, but renting a car was too expensive for him.

                    Home for the night, 11pm

                       Al fresco lunch

So I slept somewhere just before Blonduos, near the NNW coast. I thought that'd put me in great position for an easy drive today but it was all so glorious it was still 6pm before I arrived to check in at my evening's guesthouse, and 8:50pm before I returned for dinner!

This northwest part of Iceland is so different from most of the Snaeff. Hardly any hint of the volcanic nature of Iceland, instead the landscape has become largely pastoral. Late afternoon yesterday I was thinking it reminded me of the highlands of Scotland - barren mountains, green farms and rivers. Totally denuded of trees but in places there seems to be some small attempts at tree farming. Then today, when I turned left to circumnavigate the Tröllaskagi, it was all about horse farms. And perfectly picturesque red-roofed homes and barns set against green snow-capped hills. And the blue ocean. I swear I took 3 dozen photos just of the ocean.

         And how is this for the best public pool ever? Hofsós 

At the tippy-top of the peninsula was my favorite town of the day: Sïglufjördur. The sun was shining, cafés were spilling with people, the roofs were colorful, the harbor picturesque, and they had a super cool herring museum. Does life get any better?

                 Hot date from the Herring Museum

The barista at my cafe showed me a picture of snowman he built on June 2nd - just 3 weeks ago! May was the coldest in 35 years, and even last week was yucky weather. How lucky I am...

After Sïglu, I tackled the slightly scary series of tunnels going south. The big ones, ie 5 miles +, were 2-lanes, but the smaller couple were single-lane only. With 2 lanes of traffic. Which means that the subservient direction had to pull over quickly into the many pull-outs as soon as they judged the oncoming headlights rushing towards them were close enough that they had to avoid a collision. Meanwhile, the dominant lane had to keep a steady speed, a steady grip on the wheel, and a prayer on the lips that the other fools knew what they were doing. I like being dominant.

Further south I barreled thru a couple of smelly fishing towns before arriving in Akureyri, my destination. Tonight I have the luxury and convenience of a guesthouse. I knew this is where I wanted to be tonight, so I went ahead and made a reservation. My hostess recommended a nearby wooded park where I could stretch my legs after sitting behind the wheel all day. I'm just starting to walk again for exercise after being laid up all winter with a ruined ankle, so I took advantage of the permanent daylight to put a few clicks (kilometers to my American friends) on my peds. 2 hrs later my ankle and tummy were saying "enuf!". The perma-sun plays tricks on you...

Day 3: Stykkisholmur

A taste of the sea for me today - I headed east bright and early this morning to Stykkisholmur for the Viking Sushi Tour. It's a 2 1/4 hr boat cruise in the island-studded bay of Breidafjordur to experience the ocean's splendor, see all kinds of nesting birds, ie Puffins, and they throw in a little treat of a seafood tasting buffet too. Midway through they drop down a basket to the seafloor, drag it a bit, haul it up and serve anything that's edible! 

I had my scallop & urchin roe sushi style w/ soy & wasabi

Some serious birders on board!

Birds nesting in unique horizontal 4-sided basalt columns

It was a gorgeous day but brrr, that wind was cold. And note to any women traveling to Iceland: bring headbands! The wind blows non-stop. Really.

                 Or headband, hat, and hood :-)

Luckily, I pre-warmed myself this morning by having a good long soak in the Stykk's community pool. Icelanders take their bathing very seriously. Any hamlet of any size has a geothermal swimming pool, consisting of a warm lap pool and a hot tub. And they take their cleanliness to a whole 'nother level. First you must shower, naked, with soap, before donning your suit to go into the pool.  And they have diagrams posted showing you all the bits to remember to wash, just in case you're not sure. Then you dash outside into the 'fresh' air and hop into the nearest spa. After you're parboiled to a fine degree, you get out, dash back inside, scrub down again, and emerge fresh and pink and clean like a new born baby. I think I'm going to plan where I stay around community swimming pools...

Anyway, I wasn't done tasting after my Sushi boat tour. Next I drove down to Bjarnarhofn to the famous Rotten Shark Museum to try putrefied Greenlandic shark. When in Rome...  

              (I don't think I liked it too much...)

The museum was kinda fun. It's a family farm, a family that never threw anything away so there's all kinds of antique farming tools, fishing tools, typewriters, rusty household junk, stuffed animals, etc. on display. The enthusiastic host said his family were farmers/fishermen minding their own business when tourism created an interest in the rotten shark business (Icelanders don't actually eat the stuff but us crazy tourists do!), and voila! A biz was born.

By this time it was past 3pm and sadly time for me to make tracks. I took the sage advice of the tourist info lady in Stykk and headed south an hour + to then head north on Route 1 in order to stay on the paved roads on my way to "The North". There is a gravel road that cuts due east but I drive like a granny on gravel and it is a rental car whose paint job I'm responsible for...so tarmac it is.

                     Bleak interior...

                   Then a beautiful fjord

And bleak again. The view in Iceland is constantly changing...

Day 2: Western Snaefellsnes

Raudfeldsgja Gorge. Coffee and a walk at the crack of 10am. I passed this yesterday afternoon as it was all in the shadows and there were lots of tourists in the parking lot but I had it to myself this morning. A creek comes out of a small crack in the cliffs forming a gorge that you can slither in to. High water flow and a big plug of snow stopped me from getting beyond the first corner but I guess it could be neat.

There's a great 2km walk that connects the towns of Hellnar and Arnarstapi so I walked that and back.

                   Budir Church

And then a little sightseeing before my next adventure:

Londrangar - legend says 2 fighting trolls

forgot to hide once the sun came up and they turned to stone

                Malarrif lighthouse 

Well, last night I went on top of Snaefellsjokull, today I'm going under!

Vatnshellir Cave - 1000's of years ago lava filled this cave system and the stalagmites are unique as their caused by lava bursting up, not water dripping down.

More short hikes into lava fields; more walks to black stone beaches, more mini craters (one road dead ended in a parking lot right inside a crater!). As the day got later the sunlight just got more spectacular. By 7pm I was tired and wanted to find a place for the night but everything just looked so beautiful in the soft light I kept driving till 9:15!

Day 1: Iceland!

WOW! And I'm not talking about the airline. Iceland is stunning. I've had mostly glorious weather since I've been here (all of 40 hours) and that's just been icing on the cake to the stupendous scenery.

I landed at 4am in Kefalik (the international airport is located about 45 mins away from Reykjavik), picked up my rental car and headed out into the drizzly mist. Jet lag was on my side for a change as it was only late evening California time so I planned to drive until I got tired then pull over for a nap. My first thought departing the airport was "barren", there just wasn't anything to see but crumbly fields of lava rock. Civilization slowly came into view in the forms of isolated houses, then apartment blocks, then big box stores as I approached the capital but I deftly swung out and around Reykjavik and headed north and west to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. The city can wait.

Once you leave the suburbs there really are very few people, and at 6am on a Saturday morning, few cars. I relaxed enough in the rental car to enjoy the scenery - green & grey. Bright green farms, (hay? Sheep?), sharp dark green volcanic cliffs to one side and the grey cold waters of the Hvalfjordur on the other. I decided to go around the fjord rather than taking the new tunnel as it had history as the Allied hiding place for 100's of subs hidden there during WWII. I also wanted to hike to Glymur, Iceland's tallest waterfall, which was at the head of the fjord.

The drizzle had kindly let up by the time I reached Glymur so with fingers crossed that my ankle would hold I set out on the walk. After about 30 mins of cautiously stepping over nubbly rocks, jumping small streams and ducking through a cave (!), I came to a raging torrent of water with the Glymur sign pointing straight across! Sure...if only someone would replace the first half of the log bridge that had been swept away! Urg. I turned to retrace my steps and the rain started. Double urg. Oh well.

Back in the car no worse for wear, and on I go. And I see amazing snow-capped mountains in the distance, a little perfectly formed extinct volcano to my right, more cliffs with tumbling waterfalls cascading down - and so little I can photograph as there is literally no shoulder to the road and virtually no pull-outs. I've learned since yesterday that because traffic is so sparse, tourists just stop right in the middle of the highway to snap a quick one, but yesterday I can passed those Kodak moments on by.

I detoured off the road to visit Gerduberg - a huge long wall of hexagonal basalt columns. A nice secluded spot with minimal tourists so it seemed the right time for a quick power nap.... I rented a station wagon and brought along an air mattress and sleeping bag so I could 'car camp' as desired. This was a perfect opportunity to try it out.

Funny, I woke up 1.5 hours not only refreshed but the sun was coming out! Fantastic. Onward Ho! Farms, waterfalls, gorgeousness. I saw I sign for Lysuholl's hot pool so I decided to try that out - basically it's a small community outdoor swimming pool  of warm geothermal water, with a hotter 'spa' beside. It was lovely to soak away the jet lag in the warm sunshine. Air was still cold, btw, about 15°C, but the sun was nice. 

I tried to see the seals at the famous Ytri-Tunga seal cony beach but they weren't having any of it, so I went on to look at the black church of Budir. Spectacular setting, between the beach and a crazy grassy lava field. I had a little wander there out to an ancient fishing village. 

After my walk I decided I'd spend the night in/near Arnarstapi as I wanted to go on a snow mobile ride the next day, and as the company's based there, I'd better go see what their schedule was. When I arrived I learned that the snow mobiles stopped running June 15th, but they had huge Snow Cat tours, in fact one that night at 11pm, did I want to try that? Uhm, okay? As it was 7pm by that time, and not having slept on the plane, I was dragging. Time for power nap #2. 

10:45pm, dressed in 7 layers on top, 2 pairs of pants, and 2 pairs of socks, I waddled onto the Snojfell bus to head up to the glacier. There were about 15 of us crazy people heading up into the Midnight Sun. My seat was facing backwards so I could see down the mountain as we chugged ever further upwards, the view expanding such that I could eventually see the whole peninsula. It was so frikkin' cool!

              We went up to very tippy top!

1:45am. Bed. Now. 

Day 0: Off Again!

             Well, yes.  Yes, I am!

In Boston now having a quick salad and wine before boarding 3rd flight of the day. I'm lucky to be here, my plane was 40 mins late leaving Palm Springs due to a mechanical issue, leaving me only 17mins to change planes in Salt Lake City! I ran to my gate as much as my poor ankle and heaving lungs would allow (I really need to start exercising properly!). Sooo glad my luggage made it too. 

My suitcase passed thru the stringent weigh-in requirements of WOW Airlines with .5 lbs to spare; I loaded up my jacket pockets with half a dozen Clif bars, wore my fleece and carried my copious notes and iPad so as my carry-on could come under the 11 lb limit. Geesh, no frills is no joke!

Next post: Iceland!!!