Iceland Trip Part 2 - Beginnings
Beginnings are always strange. Prepare as you may before a big trip, you’re never quite ready when you arrive. Everything can, at the same time, seem both familiar and new. This trip was no different, except we had to deal with debarking from the ferry and . . . not have to deal with customs at all. We made a short stop in Sey∂isfjördur to program our GPS and to log in our mileage (is kilometerage a word?) with the Icelandic Tax Authorities. That done, we headed up and over the surrounding mountains and down into Egilssta∂ir to buy groceries (given we were expecting to prove to customs we were below the very low amount of food we were allowed to bring into the country; we had maxed out our high limit of beer and liquor). Food shopping done (nothing like your first real experience in a country being a trip to a grocery store packed with people you recognize from the ferry trip) we hit the road.
From Egilssta∂ir we headed out Road 94 towards Bakkager∂i in the north. The drive introduced us to the open plains, mountains and rugged coasts we would become so familiar with over the next two months. The coast and the Norwegian Sea to the north were beautifu
Why Bakkager∂i you may ask? One simple word - puffins. We knew that the puffins start leaving Iceland in August and we decided to make sure we saw some puffins before we couldn’t. And one of the best places to view puffins, particularly since it’s so far north and away from where most people will travel, is Bakkager∂i. Even more so because you can walk on a boardwalk mere feet away from the puffins that fly in and out of the rocky cliff side.
They are cute little creatures, but we found that a little bit of puffin action goes a long way. So we decided instead of becoming wildlife photographers we’d head over to a cafe and have some coffee and watch puffins fly in and out from a distance.
Our campground in Bakkager∂i was little more than an open field with a services building - no assigned spaces, only a few locations with power. We found out that was the norm for almost every campground we stayed at. Not bad when it’s not crowded and a nightmare when it is. Fortunately, the campground was located near a hiking area so Ann suggested we grab our cameras and go out for a late afternoon walk. It was an excellent suggestion.
The landscape was beautiful and the clouds rolling by gave us ever-changing shadows to work with.
At one point, Ann and I got separated, but I eventually found her around a rock outcropping with a lovely view framed. While we were waiting for the sun to strike the mountains in the distance, I pulled out my iPhone and stole a rough approximation of Ann’s shot. It sure was a beautiful introduction to Iceland.
The next morning we headed back towards Egilssta∂ir, destination Hengifoss to the south. We got there early enough to find a good spot on the far side of the parking lot. But then it pretty much went downhill (well, actually, uphill from there). Ann and I (based upon my “brilliant” idea) decided to bring the heavy gear for the hike because the waterfall is interesting with red stripes across the walls of the falls - so we were carrying a heavy pack. And we underestimated just how steep and long the climb actually was (or out of shape we actually were). Well . . beautiful as it was, there were no really good photographs to be made. Pictures, yes, photographs no. Believe me, we took the opportunity to pull out our point-and-shoot cameras at every rest stop we could . . . for the breather if anything else.
And while you can see why I thought it might be good to bring the cameras, the images are nothing to praise. The conditions were poor for interesting photography, the light was bad, there were way too many people (something we quickly discovered would be the norm) and we were too exhausted for good photography. But the views were lovely.
Even the hike downhill was grueling, Ann slipped on some gravel and by the time we got back to the vehicle, my left knee was killing me. So much for that great idea.
Fortunately, having anticipated that we might need a relaxing day following our first big hike in Iceland, I’d planned to spend the night in the fjord just to the south of the one we came into, at a small town Mjólfjör∂ur. The best part of the plan was that we were going to take an extra day there to do laundry. We needed it for recovery time too. But what a place to just hang out!
There wasn’t any place to eat, but we could walk around the fishing village and enjoy the sites.
The next morning, we headed back out of the fjörd, stopping to take a photo of the route out and the waterfalls we’d be photographing along the way.
The view looking back was just as lovely.
As were the Klifbrekku Kaskade Waterfalls.
Ann and I spent quite some time waiting for the clouds to break. For some reason, a fog bank from the next fjörd to the south kept creeping over the mountain and obscuring the sun. Eventually, we got a good fifteen minutes of intermittent streaks of sunlight.
We called it good and headed out for what was to be a long driving day. We headed back north again, this time turning west instead of east. The landscape changed as we rose in elevation and we turned into a valley, heading back south towards Stu∂lagil Canyon, another site I was very excited to see.
As we drove towards the canyon, we noticed the long trail of vehicles in front of and behind us. Near the turn-off for the south entrance we saw a cafe and decided to have coffee and lunch. As we ate we watched car after car pass by, some turning towards the south, some continuing onto the north (where there was another visiting area). We concluded it was going to be packed, so we decided to drive on past to continue our planned round-about trip (the drive confirmed that, indeed, both the southern and northern parking lots were packed, as were the trails leading to the basalt cliffs).
As much as Stu∂lagil Canyon, I was looking forward to driving on our first F roads. The F-Roads are non-maintained roads that (in theory at least) require a 4-wheel drive vehicle to drive on. A few miles past Stu∂lagil Canyon we approached F907 where we saw the big warning sign - 4-Wheel Drive Required, Drive at your own risk, Do not expect emergency services to come quickly, Recovery and repairs will be expensive. And we saw a “road closed” sign, on the open gate. We pulled over to consider whether the closed sign was for when the gate was closed or whether the road, indeed, had been closed for some reason. By the time we started thinking it we play it safe and should turn around, a couple of vehicles came down the hill and gave us a thumbs up. So we headed up and over the hill, and entered a new landscape.
It was as wide and vast as anything in the US. We felt at home on the single track with occasional pull outs. We drove for quite a while, rounding hills and mountains then across more flat land.
We eventually lowered to a less desolate landscape and wound up at the Saenautasel turf course where we enjoyed a delicious pot of hot cocoa! And yes, the insides smell very earthy.
After our hot drinks we continued onward to end the day at Mö∂rudalur/Fjalladur∂, one of the last remaining farms in this part of Iceland (part farm, part resort, part campground . . . all to make a living in this harsh environment). The morning light there was lovely, not to mention the fact that, even in early August, at that elevation it was biting cold!
When I said it seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere, we were. Here’s a screenshot of where we were at.
From Mö∂rudalur, we headed northward to check out some waterfalls on the way to Asbyrgi, our destination for the day. First stop was Dettifoss. It was an impressive introduction to Iceland’s massive waterfalls. We quickly realized that, as amazing as they are, we rather much prefer more modest falls with water that isn’t brown.
That said, the place had its own beauty.
And you can see the effect of thousands of years of etching through lava fields the river has made.
We made another short waterfall stop, and then headed to Asbyrgi, an enclosed canyon area etched thousands of years ago by the previous route of the river that now flows over Dettifoss.
The valley floor was covered in trees and it was lovely to wander through the various trails.
We took our time enjoying the lush green landscape and ignoring, for the most part, the groups of tourists that passed by. We did, however, listen in on one guide, speaking English to her American group, who explained that Icelandic blueberries were just starting to come out and that you can just pick them and eat them off the ground - which she did for the group. That tip was to come in handy later in our trip.
We camped at Asbyrgi and we used our afternoon hike as a scouting trip. Early the next morning, we headed towards the pond at the end of the valley floor, Botnstjörn, to photograph.
I’ve posted some images from that photo session in an earlier blog post. It was a lovely morning of photography.
From Asbyrgi, we headed over to Hljó∂aklettar, a small park on the river that an Asbyrgi Ranger told us had a wide range of interesting lava formations. She was right!
From there, we headed north to the coast to drive around the peninsula, stopping occasionally to enjoy the views.
We ended the day in Húsavik, of the movie Eurovision Song Contest, the Story of Fire Saga fame.
It was quite the town. A joy to wander around and photograph, with decent food and a microbrew pub to boot!
In Húsavík we also came across something that we came across a few times during our trip . . . Iceland has some meal-related naming that just doesn’t translate well into English. No, we didn’t try it.
From Húsavik, we headed back south again to the Lake Myvatn area. There are several different things to do in the area so we decided to start by exploring the Hverir geothermal area.
Although not as diverse or as vast as the geothermal areas in Yellowstone National Park, it is impressive and offered a variety of subjects to explore with our point-and-shoot cameras. We decided that we’d come back early the next morning to really photograph it before the crowds arrived.
We drove onward to the Krafla Crater and the Leirhnjukur parking area only to find both parking lots packed full of cars and no where evident to park something the size of the bimobil. So we decided to head back to Lake Myvatn.
There we had a couple of options. Conceptually I’d thought we might want to hike up to the rim of the Hverfjall Volcano (dormant), but seeing just how high the climb was, and remembering my knee pain after the Hengifoss fiasco, we opted to drive a bit further down the road and see what the Dimmuborgir lava field had to offer. It was a good choice. The trail descended into the lava field and offered a range of routes (generally level) through the field.
And, coming out of the field, the area offered a lovely view of Lake Myvatn.
Lake Myvatn has several campgrounds around it, but being August, some of them had already started to close. We opted for one on the north side of the lake located next to - you guessed it - a lava field.
As you can see from above, by late afternoon storm clouds were rolling in and that night we saw quite a bit of rain. We woke up to rain, though it stopped while we were having coffee. We decided to stick to our plan to return to the Hverir geothermal area. It was windy and cold, but we got out there.
But not for long. Within an hour the rains returned and we retreated. Our morning photo shoot was good while it lasted.
One of the things I have to give Iceland credit for is their weather forecast system. They have an app that is surprisingly accurate. When it says showers will hit your area from 11:30 to 2:15, you can count on the rain ending by 2:20 at the latest. It was rarely wrong. The problem that day was the forecast was for rain, for two full days.
We decided to test the forecast so we drove back to Lake Myvatn. Rain. We decided to drive around Lake Myvatn in the opposite direction than the previous day to check out a location we wanted to shoot at on the southern end of the lake. Rain, pouring rain, the whole way. We decided that the forecast was likely accurate and we were not going to get any good photography or exploring done that day (visibility was miserable so . . . not even any views in the rain).
Time for a change of plans. We were hitting the point where it was time to do laundry again. I’d expected a full day of shooting, followed by a short drive north to a campground with washers where we’d do laundry the next day to recover. That would be followed by a continuation of our trip down F899. The forecast didn’t look good, especially for the F899 area. Time to change plans.
We decided to drive up to Akureyri (Iceland’s second largest city), do laundry the next day, roam the city the day after and then resume our planned F899 excursion if the weather pattern followed the forecast. You really don’t want to be driving down an unknown F-Road with rising streams and rivers.
The plan worked splendidly. We took the long road to Akureyri just to see as much of the landscape as we could, despite the rain, which wasn’t nearly as bad as in the Myvatn area. Our laundry day went smoothly enough in the morning for us to visit the Akureyri Botanical Gardens - one of Ann’s finds (as noted, we hadn’t even planned on stopping in the town other than to visit the grocery store) - in the afternoon.
One of the reasons for heading a bit north was because the forecast here was for only intermittent showers over the couple of days we’d be there (as opposed to the continuous rain in Myvatn), so we timed our visit to the gardens accordingly. We both brought our lighter cameras and wandered around taking our time enjoying the plants and trees and making the periodic photograph.
And, as usual, taking time to stop off at the cafe in the gardens for some warm coffee.
Ann and I have taken to enjoying gardens and are now on the alert whenever we hear there is one in a town. What was especially nice about the Akureyri gardens were the diversity of trees they had and the section of native Icelandic plants. Of course, the greenhouses had lots of non-native plants to enjoy as well.
It rained hard again that night and the forecast was correct - cold and showers greeted us the next morning. We had some errands to do (like food shopping) so we hopped around several spots in Akuryeri taking care of business. At one point, after Ann observed that I’d been drinking a lot of beer on the trip (not really), she said she was going to limit me to one beer a day. After we passed the Viking Brewhouse, I agreed - one beer a day.
After we were done with our chores, it was time to explore the city. We had to park a ways from downtown (damn Google maps drove me through the downtown area . . . in the bimobil) and walk. We like walking so that’s not a problem. We passed by an interesting water fountain that just called for a photograph.
And we came across some troll trash can covers.
He kinda looks like me!
Akuryeri is a pleasant city that is very walkable, at least in the lower areas.
It was there where we saw the first of the big cruise ships that sail around Iceland. We noticed that the ships that were there when we drove by the previous day had left and were replaced with two new ships.
We continued walking along the fjörd and enjoyed the periodic sculpture.
And having nothing better to do, I played with image making.
After lunch we stopped by the botanical gardens again on the way back to the campground. By that point, the skies were starting to break a bit.
So we again took our time wandering through the gardens. They were a nice change of pace from the downtown area just a couple of miles away.
And that ended our second day in Akuryeri.
We went back to the campground and made ready to take off early the next morning. The night forecast was for light, periodic showers, with cloudy skies but no rain the next day, followed by evening rain and then clearing for the northern part of Iceland. The next day would be our run up F899 to Flateydalur.
PS - Everyone, have a Happy New Year’s Eve and thanks for reading.