Day 5:
Most of today was spent driving around the East fjords. They were absolutely stunning, lined with rugged, terraced mountains with peak formations that looked like ancient moss-covered temples. I was mesmerized the whole drive. There was very little civilisation along the way, and we saw one lady drop her drawers on the side of the road due to the lack of bathrooms for several hours! We stopped at a vast, grey and black pebbled beach (Hvalnes Nature Reserve).
Later on we arrived in Hofn, a very cute little seaside town famous for its “lobster” (actually langoustine, which I think is similar to lobster but smaller?). We found a cool little “local food store” in a warehouse near the wharfs, which had a museum-like display of old fishing gear in the bottom, and a little store and coffee shop in the top. There we had a cup of tea and a piece of cake (Icelanders love cake. I am in heaven) and bought some lobster soup base and lobster (again, actually langoustine). Our accommodation for the night consisted of a little cabin on a farm. With no internet, it gave us time away from our computers. I spent the night studying (boo). Corree and Daren spent the night taking apart my fried hair dryer, and temporarily fixing it by replacing the burnt fuse with a paper clip. (Mom uploaded/looked at our pictures for the trip.) We made the langoustine soup, and it was pretty good but a bit bland. I have decided I like langoustines better than lobster.
Day 6
Today was an interesting day. Twenty minutes away from our previous night’s accommodation, we felt the road get reeaaallly bumpy. Daren assured us it was just the road, but I knew this sensation from a previous time and indeed I was correct – we blew a tire. Completely blown. Destroyed all around the side wall. Hub cap exploded off, never to be found again. Rim resting right on the ground. Great. Luckily we had a spare, so we unloaded all our luggage from the trunk, took that out and put it on. From then our journey was a lot slower, at the now maximum speed of 80 km/hour. We also had to avoid gravel roads, which is pretty difficult in Iceland. We called the car rental company, and they told us to stop at this one tiny town that was a couple hours away to get a new tire. So we kind of rushed our sightseeing along the way to make sure we arrived in time. We stopped at Jokulsarlon, a lagoon that joins an offshoot of the giant glacier Vatnajokull to the ocean. The glacier breaks right off in large, bizarrely shaped chunks, which then float in the glacier and eventually out into the ocean. So basically it was a lake filled with cool icebergs, very neat. I would have liked to have more time to explore it via boat, but oh well. We also saw a sea lion swimming around in there.
We also stopped at Skaftafell park near the glacier, where there is supposed to be a really cool waterfall that pours over a backdrop of black basalt columns that is reached by a return 1.5 hour walk, but alas we did not have time to do it :( :(. I was very disappointed. Continuing on to Kirkjubaejarklaustur (I know, longest word ever – like all Icelandic names, it is merely a combination of descriptors - church farm convent), where we were supposed to get a new tire…but didn’t... They didn’t have the right tire. The next nearest town that had our tire, Selfoss, was another few hours away, after the place we were supposed to spend the night, so we continued on our slow journey with the spare. First, however, we stopped and looked at the “church floor” Kirkjugolf – a pile of flattened basalt columns that lie in the middle of a grassy field. The hexagonal shapes form a network of stone tiles that look like an old church floor. I forgot to mention that before arriving at K…klauster, we passed through a massive barren black sand desert, Skeidararsandur. I didn’t really think it was very black or sandy, it was more like grey pebbles, with occasional mini black sand dunes. It was formed by a volcanic eruption melting part of the glacier, and sending a river of “sand” all over the flat landscape, leaving miles and miles of useless land.
Next stop along the journey was Vik, a very cute little town near the ocean, which is famous for its interesting sea stacks that lie off the coast near the cliffs of the large plateau Reynisfjall, and its black sand beaches. There was a very pretty white and red-roofed church which sat up on a hill, and provided a pretty foreground for the backdrop of large, green mountains. Just after Vik, on the west side of the plateau, was one of my favourite places in Iceland – Reynisfjara. It consisted of a dark pebbly beach with a nice view of the sea stacks, towered over by basalt column covered cliffs, and a cave. The basalt columns formed a giant church pipe organ, and on the top of the pipes was a grassy area which PUFFINS flew back and forth from!!!! They would launch off the grassy area, and fly (they are funny little flyers) into the ocean below, and then come back and do it again. They also had little hobbit-like homes (burrows in the side of the grassy slope). With adorable puffins soaring overhead and the gorgeous natural wonders all around…it was a really amazing place. I also found some cool volcanic stones there, which I am taking home with me.
The landscape following was reminiscent of the Shire (in Lord of the Rings). The surrounding mountains were smaller, with light green moss covering, and frequent waterfalls broke through the rock and trickled down the slope. Grassy sheep covered hills with little red and brown farmhouses formed the foreground, and there were also several hobbit holes!! i.e. dwellings built into the hillside, with triangular front walls with doors. Iceland is actually the place that inspired the setting of JR Tolkien’s books. He took a tour around Iceland in a horse drawn carriage, which at the time was the only way to get around the country. We could definitely see the different scenes from the books in the landscape throughout the journey. The final stop on our very long day was at the giant waterfall, Skagafoss. A flat rectangle of water pounded over moss covered cliffs into a river bordered by black sand (actual black sand this time). It was stunning.
Too tired and limited by the late hour that was approaching, we skipped the remainder of the sights along the way, deciding to backtrack once we had our new tire the next day. We arrived at the farm accommodation we were staying at, Vatnsholt, at 9:30pm. It turns out the website was wrong, and there was no kitchen, but a restaurant which was just closing. Mom insisted that we had to cook our lobster and eat dinner, so they let us use their restaurant kitchen! That was quite an experience. The head chef was super nice, giving us utensils and pots to use, and even garlic and spices. We made an AMAZING meal of lobster, onions and peppers cooked in a cream thai chili sauce, served over quinoa. Even the chef liked it. The dining room at the restaurant was magical, with beads of white lights strung across the ceiling, and a large, spherical white lamp rising from the ground. Our table was covered in a white table cloth strewn with candles. It was a nice end to a long day.
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