Iceland 4: July 18 - July 25

Day 20, July 18: Today we had a tour booked on the northern most part of the Western Fjords to an old abandoned village called Hesteyri in Hornstrandir Nature Reserve. In the morning we walked to the dock from our hotel where we met our guide, Sheridan, and 2 other guests that would be joining us for the day. The goal of the tour was a combination of hiking and photography of arctic foxes - if we could spot them.  Given the size of the camera lenses of the other couple it was clear what they were mostly interested in. 

Once we made it to Hesteyri we walked to the "Doctor's house" which seemed to be the meeting point for many as well as the local cafe (so even though the village was abandoned- it was still quite active).  After a quick stop, we walked to the old whaling station because there was a known fox den. Along the way we learned a lot about the plants and the birds in the nature reserve and saw two sunbathing seals. 

Wild orchid along the coast

One of the two seals - who was also watching us

The abandoned whaling station

One we made it to the derelict station we spotted a fox - but very far away and pretty skittish. After watching the fox for a little while, we went back to the Doctor's house where they served us a local fish soup with bread for lunch.  

After lunch we headed out for another hike in the opposite direction, again towards a different fox den, but we spotted no fox. The skies were gray- covered by a poisonous gas that was being emitted from the erupting volcano in the south which made it almost impossible to see far. But had we been able to see, apparently there was a beautiful glacier across the fjord. We eventually made our way to a waterfall and then back to the doctor's house for a snack of Iceland pancakes- which were yummy.  

The waterfall in Hesteyei

Rather than heading out on another walk, we just waited at the doctor's house for our boat - which was supposed to arrive in about 45 minutes. One of the servers at the cafe then told us there was a fox so we went out to see it- it was so close to us. Ironically, we got better pictures with our iPhones than the couple with the massive lenses. 

The Arctic fox

Our boat finally arrived so we made our way back to Isafajodor.

Day 21, July 19th: Today is our last full day in the Western Fjords as we are going to the western-most point.  We started off with a stop at Önundarfjörður Fjord, though, about 20 minutes from Isafjörðor. It was really beautiful despite the fact that the gases were still very thick and we couldn't see far.  

Önundarfjörður Fjord - it was peacefully erie

Notice the white sand - a rarity in Iceland

Our next stop was the Dynjandi Waterfalls- as all waterfalls in Iceland seem to be- this one was beautiful but crowded- full of cruise ship passengers. We did the walk up to the top, took our pictures and headed back to the car.

Dynjandi Waterfall

In front of the falls

Yesterday Sheridan had mentioned that our route went past the best Fish and Chips restaurant in Iceland, Vagamót, (which was also his grandfather's town) so we stopped there for lunch and the Fish and Chips were - as promised-  tasty. We made it to our hotel about an hour later after crossing a very bumpy gravel road up and over the mountains through the foggy gases (it was pretty stressful). 

After checking in and relaxing for about an hour we decided to go the Látrabjarg Cliffs. They were about 45 minutes away (on a gravel road, over a mountain range and through the foggy gases again), but supposedly was home to multiple seabirds and the western-point in Iceland.  We mostly saw puffins and black-legged Kittiwakes.

Mostly black-legged Kittiwakes but a few puffins co-mingled on the cliff (it was important to be up-wind)

Day 22, July 20th: After breakfast we drove to the ferry station for our 12pm ferry to Baður. 

Along the way we stopped at the oldest steel ship in Iceland - which had been built in Norway in 1912 and beached in ‎⁨Patreksfjörður⁩ in 1981.

Garðar BA 64

We arrived at the ferry and were surprised by how chaotic it was. While there were signs telling you what lane to get into, there were no lanes, so it was a bit of a free-for-all. Regardless, we made it onto the ferry and crossed the Denmark Strait to Stykkishólmur.  We booked dinner at Sjávarpakkúsið, a small seafood restaurant along the waterfront.  It was a treat- we did the 6-course tasting menu which included 3 small dishes: scallop ceviche, cod cheeks; and lumpfish roe as well as 2 big dishes: mussels and wolfish; followed by a Lemon posset for dessert. It was so good that after the meal we asked to meet the chef so we could thank him.

Dinner at Sjávarpakkúsið

Sjávarpakkúsið - and that might be Filicki sticker on the top left of that metal box in front of the restaurant

Day 23, July 21: Today was our day to explore the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. We started towards the Kirkjufell mountain- which is the "most photographed mountain in Iceland" - but we didn't take a picture (or stop), because the volcano haze made it difficult to see. We continued to the end of the peninsula into the national park and visited a couple of beaches, Skarðsvík Beach and Djúpalónssadur Beach. They could not have been more different, but both were beautiful. Skarðsvik Beach was a small golden beach among the black cliffs and Djúpalónssandur Beach was a large black, rocky beach.

Skarðsvik Beach

Skarðsvik Beach - we almost had it completely to ourselves

On Djúpalónssandur Beach

           Filip making a heart in front of heart at Djúpalónssadur Beach 

After visiting the beaches we parked in a small parking lot in the town of Hellvick and took a hiking path along the rocky cliffs into Arbastapi, another small town. The hike was an easy 4-mile. mostly flat out and back with lots of beautiful rock formations as well as many sea birds to watch.

Gatklettur Stone Arch

Cliffs along the beach

Cliffs and birds

The sounds of the birds were intense

After our hike we made our way to hotel for the night, the hotel Buðir. We had a lovely room with balcony overlooking the sea complete with some sheep and some ducks. The hotel also had a lot of comfortable open comfortable space for peaceful sitting. We would definitely recommend this hotel. 

The view from our window

Day 24, July 22: We had seen a crowded gorge yesterday leaving the Snaefellsnes national park that looked interesting, so we backtracked to check out before leaving the area - and we were happy we had.  We were fortunate to have it mostly to ourselves as we did the rock scramble up a waterfall. We went as far as we could without getting our feet underwater. It wasn't a long climb, but it was definitely a unique challenge. 

Inside the gorge

Micki climbing up the gorge

Filip climbing up the gorge

We continued on to Husafel and grabbed a pizza at our hotel, Husafell Hotel. We had tickets to see the Viðgelmir Lava Cave at 3pm so made our way there after lunch. The tour was about 90 minutes and about 600m into the cave. As with all cave tours we got to experience ultimate darkness, which in this instance was nice as we haven't been in the dark for a month.  At the deepest part of the cave the guide offered to take group pictures or said we could head back. That was probably the best part as we opted to skip the picture and we had the cave to ourselves for our hike out.

At Víðgelmir Cave entrance

Stairs into the cave

On the last platform- the cave continued for another 1000m

On the walk back- although difficult to tell those are ice structures on the ground

After our cave tour we went back to the hotel for dinner.

Days 25-26, July 23-25: We went back to the blue lagoon and spent 3 days being spoiled at the Retreat.  On our way there we stopped at Hvalfjörður Fjord for a short hike.  The hike was on a peninsula, Þýrilsnes, into the Fjord.  The views were beautiful, the sheep and horses were delightful and the birds were entertaining.

Once at the retreat, we enjoyed our time sitting our private lagoon, working out (we were pretty sore) and enjoying their culinary delights. After a couple of hiccups we also had a great helicopter tour of the volcano.

The lagoon off our room

Ready to go see the volcano

On our last night we had dinner at Moss, their Michelin restaurant. Our reservations were at 5:45 but when we walked up to the restaurant there was a sign that said it didn't open until 6. We asked the attendant - and said, "Oh are you Filip? That is because your meal comes with a tour, please wait a minute."  The sommelier then walked out and escorted us down the volcanic-walled wine cellar for a glass of champagne. 

In the wine cellar of Moss

Also in wine cellar at Moss

He then brought us up to our table - the chef's table- in front of the kitchen. We looked at each other a little surprised as neither of us remembered booking this. Christopher, our private chef then prepared a marvelous 7-course meal in front of us. Everything was very fresh (including the lambs tongue) and he said they used no creams nor butters.  About half way through the meal he mentioned that we must have booked this table a very long time ago because it wasn't an experience that they offered anymore.  We had a great time and left comfortably full, but not stuffed.

 

The chef's table

With Christopher (on the left) and his friend - both of whom had Michelin Stars tattooed on their arms after they got the award

Day 27, July 26: After a relaxing morning, we returned our rental car in downtown Reykjavik after driving 3,793 kilometers and walked to the port to board our boat.