Snæfellsjökull, Stykkishólmur, Þingeyri, Ísafjörður & Hólmavík: Westfjords, NW Iceland
Easter break began this week, very welcome indeed. Since this may well be our last opportunity to see a little more of Iceland we took a look at the weather map, www.vedur.is for road conditions, weather & aurora levels, which pointed us in the direction of the west and north for sunnier skies. A traditional music festival in the far north west fjords, in Ísafjörður, also calls because we haven't ventured that far north yet.
Wed, Mar. 27th: Drove west thru Borgarnes, hiked over a lava field & found small caves in the lava. An afternoon soak in a hot pot in a field where Icelandic horses were grazing was ahhh so relaxing. We ate apples & peanut butter while marvelling at what seemed to be a green algae microbial mat on the geothermal pool & sulfurous hardened surface around the steam. Passed Snæfellsjökull volcano and glacier, on the south rd along the ocean (instead of the mountainous rd we all took last August). A huge, tall hallowed out volcano crater on the beach called for another amazing hike. Niall tried to climb as far up as possible, lots of coastal birds hanging out on the cliffs (crater rim remains). At dusk, the most incredible hues of blue, grey and sunrays finding their way thru the clouds on the calm ocean were a photographer's dream. Iced waterfalls beside the rd...Niall got very excited once, he said "there's the Ice God!!", noticing an especially massive one. He'd learned about Ice Gods in school, how they created winter - I got to learn all about it. We stayed in Stykkishólmur for the nite, a smaller ocean-side village.
Thurs, Mar 28th: relaxed in Stykkishólmur, at the bakery, the geothermal pools for a swim, then hiked a cliff to a lighthouse before taking the ferry to the West Fjords, via Flatey Island. Leave it to Niall, he found his way to the captain on the ship where we spent most of the trip while the captain & his shipmate drove the ship. The captain owns 21 islands out of the 2700 islands that sit in the bay. When a glacier sheet covered all of Iceland, it carved canyons as it retreated which left islands and canyons gorged all in the same direction. A beautiful sunny, calm day was perfect for handy binoculars to see all the birds, seals, dolphins that played on the sides of the ferry and on islands. The captain (sorry, I don't know his name), was born on Flatey Island where only two families live and the oldest library in Iceland exists where the ferry stopped briefly. They hunt and eat seal, many birds & eggs I'd never heard of, and fish. A drive across the mountains felt like driving on the moon with only snow, rock in deep canyons - the rd is usually closed yet weather permitted access. A village, Þingeyri, had a cafe with warm soup, coffee & hot chocolate - a welcome site after such an isolated feeling in the highlands. The young couple that own the cafe, from Denmark & Belgium, bought the old house for $30, fixed it up & made it cozy for travellers.
Fri, Mar 29th: Woke up to huge snowflakes falling down so hit the road early in case they closed roads! There were no tracks in the road - just white on white. The only color were high yellow pilons on each side of the rd. My life in Canada and driving hundreds of times thru the rocky mountains in the winter prepare me to not make a big deal of this, but I felt so good when finally another pair of tracks on the road appeared! Then came a tunnel, the longest I'd ever seen (6km), in the middle at the 3km mark, there was an intersection with highway signs going to different towns! Upon exit of the tunnel, what d'ya know? A little ski hill was opening up in the early morning beside the road on the mountainside - one t-bar lift but lots of powder! Reached Ísafjörður while it was still 'sleeping' in the snowfall. Music festival was a fun event Fri and Sate nite, altho we just stayed for a couple hrs Fri nite before heading south to Reykjanes by dusk.
Sat, Mar 30: Drove to a remote hot pot (hot spring) that I'd been told of that's not marked on a map, just following a very deep fjord. It was like finding diamonds, to find such a place in the wilderness - a farm was not too far away. The snow=ice crystal covered grass was right next to green grass surrounding the hot pot. Beautiful!!! Ahhhh...relaxing. After freezing our butts off getting re-dressed (it was about -8 C), we stopped in Hólmavík, the home of the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery & Witchcraft The Westfjords are well-known for its magic done by witches, sorcerers & vikings over hundreds of years - watch this video to get a feel for what that was like. Magic such as making oneself invisible, getting rid of ghosts, stirring up storms, accumulating wealth by objects such as necropants (the skin of another man), raising the dead, stones for mixing blood from sacrificial practices are to name a few. A beautiful drive of white-on-white snow and ice valleys followed until we made to it to Budadalur did it feel we were nearing civilization again. Our favourite dairy farm, Erpstadir, was fun as Niall jumped on the trampoline, played with their farm dog and cat, watched their new baby chickens and purchased four flavours and almost 3 litres of fresh farm-made ice cream (mint, vanilla, licorice & chocolate). Further south, we hiked through three volcano craters that erupted only 3000 years ago. Driving thru Borganes and under the ocean thru the 6-km tunnel just before Reykjanes peninsula and arriving home to Reykjavik completed a wonderful 4-day journey of the W and NW Iceland. So good to be home!
Wed, Mar. 27th: Drove west thru Borgarnes, hiked over a lava field & found small caves in the lava. An afternoon soak in a hot pot in a field where Icelandic horses were grazing was ahhh so relaxing. We ate apples & peanut butter while marvelling at what seemed to be a green algae microbial mat on the geothermal pool & sulfurous hardened surface around the steam. Passed Snæfellsjökull volcano and glacier, on the south rd along the ocean (instead of the mountainous rd we all took last August). A huge, tall hallowed out volcano crater on the beach called for another amazing hike. Niall tried to climb as far up as possible, lots of coastal birds hanging out on the cliffs (crater rim remains). At dusk, the most incredible hues of blue, grey and sunrays finding their way thru the clouds on the calm ocean were a photographer's dream. Iced waterfalls beside the rd...Niall got very excited once, he said "there's the Ice God!!", noticing an especially massive one. He'd learned about Ice Gods in school, how they created winter - I got to learn all about it. We stayed in Stykkishólmur for the nite, a smaller ocean-side village.
Thurs, Mar 28th: relaxed in Stykkishólmur, at the bakery, the geothermal pools for a swim, then hiked a cliff to a lighthouse before taking the ferry to the West Fjords, via Flatey Island. Leave it to Niall, he found his way to the captain on the ship where we spent most of the trip while the captain & his shipmate drove the ship. The captain owns 21 islands out of the 2700 islands that sit in the bay. When a glacier sheet covered all of Iceland, it carved canyons as it retreated which left islands and canyons gorged all in the same direction. A beautiful sunny, calm day was perfect for handy binoculars to see all the birds, seals, dolphins that played on the sides of the ferry and on islands. The captain (sorry, I don't know his name), was born on Flatey Island where only two families live and the oldest library in Iceland exists where the ferry stopped briefly. They hunt and eat seal, many birds & eggs I'd never heard of, and fish. A drive across the mountains felt like driving on the moon with only snow, rock in deep canyons - the rd is usually closed yet weather permitted access. A village, Þingeyri, had a cafe with warm soup, coffee & hot chocolate - a welcome site after such an isolated feeling in the highlands. The young couple that own the cafe, from Denmark & Belgium, bought the old house for $30, fixed it up & made it cozy for travellers.
Fri, Mar 29th: Woke up to huge snowflakes falling down so hit the road early in case they closed roads! There were no tracks in the road - just white on white. The only color were high yellow pilons on each side of the rd. My life in Canada and driving hundreds of times thru the rocky mountains in the winter prepare me to not make a big deal of this, but I felt so good when finally another pair of tracks on the road appeared! Then came a tunnel, the longest I'd ever seen (6km), in the middle at the 3km mark, there was an intersection with highway signs going to different towns! Upon exit of the tunnel, what d'ya know? A little ski hill was opening up in the early morning beside the road on the mountainside - one t-bar lift but lots of powder! Reached Ísafjörður while it was still 'sleeping' in the snowfall. Music festival was a fun event Fri and Sate nite, altho we just stayed for a couple hrs Fri nite before heading south to Reykjanes by dusk.
Sat, Mar 30: Drove to a remote hot pot (hot spring) that I'd been told of that's not marked on a map, just following a very deep fjord. It was like finding diamonds, to find such a place in the wilderness - a farm was not too far away. The snow=ice crystal covered grass was right next to green grass surrounding the hot pot. Beautiful!!! Ahhhh...relaxing. After freezing our butts off getting re-dressed (it was about -8 C), we stopped in Hólmavík, the home of the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery & Witchcraft The Westfjords are well-known for its magic done by witches, sorcerers & vikings over hundreds of years - watch this video to get a feel for what that was like. Magic such as making oneself invisible, getting rid of ghosts, stirring up storms, accumulating wealth by objects such as necropants (the skin of another man), raising the dead, stones for mixing blood from sacrificial practices are to name a few. A beautiful drive of white-on-white snow and ice valleys followed until we made to it to Budadalur did it feel we were nearing civilization again. Our favourite dairy farm, Erpstadir, was fun as Niall jumped on the trampoline, played with their farm dog and cat, watched their new baby chickens and purchased four flavours and almost 3 litres of fresh farm-made ice cream (mint, vanilla, licorice & chocolate). Further south, we hiked through three volcano craters that erupted only 3000 years ago. Driving thru Borganes and under the ocean thru the 6-km tunnel just before Reykjanes peninsula and arriving home to Reykjavik completed a wonderful 4-day journey of the W and NW Iceland. So good to be home!