Day 96 June 26th 2018 Höfn to Hallormsstadaskogur
The discovery today was that all those Iceland Fjord ‘fingers’ take a lot of driving. Beautiful, but a lot of driving.
We left Höfn after calling in at the GamlabúðTourist Information Office. This took longer than usual owing to an unusually friendly, informative “information” man, along with a museum and movie in the centre. The staff member learned my name – unfortunately I did not learn his to thank him. Surprising me as I came into the room he said “So Melanie you want to see Puffins”. I quizzed how he knew my name -cleverly picked up from Chris and Gerd as they chatted.
Two key recommendations we got were a great spot to see Puffins at Borgarfjörður eystri, and a great spot to camp at Hallormsstadaskogur.
The movies shown included one with incredible photos and footage of the Skaftá river glacial flood that swept away bridges, roads and cut off the Ring Road.
Along the winding road as we navigated one Fjord after another we stopped to explore.
The first was a beach with towering mountains of shale on the other side of the road. We walked along the beach poking through the pebbles, flotsam, jetsam and driftwood. From the water line up through the marshy grass there were mounds of empty blue mussel shells. No reason for it found.
We also found a well water worn bone – large enough it was knee height when upright, smoothed by the water. A photo of it later shown to staff in the Husavik Whale Museum did suggest it was possibly a Pectoral fin bone of a Blue Whale. That will do me!
At another spot we stopped to view a lone basalt stack sitting beach central. Other forms were dotted along the coast but the road was narrow and pull offs were not common.
And on to Djupivogur – I was keen to see the art work “Eggin í Gleðivík” (The Eggs of Merry Bay) by Sigurður Guðmundsson. The Eggs were easy to find, a parking space was not. Finding none and all four of us being hungry and a bit jaded we decided the view from the car would suffice and set off to find table and chairs. A windy but nice spot overlooking the harbour and a group of young men precariously painting a roof in strong winds.
On to Breiðdalsvík this had been our original idea for a camping spot for the night however we decided the idea of camping lake side was more appealing and continued on. We did stop at the Old General Store for a coffee and watched as a group of young workmen barely speaking to each other, devoured an unending supply of Pizza and chips.
The store itself has memorabilia and even stock discovered in the walls during a renovation.
Another quick stop in Eggilstadir for supplies – the now familiar Vin Budin, the tourist information, N1 for petrol and the Netto supermarket. Fuelled up on all counts we headed for camp.
Photo road in
The road in was beautiful valleys lined with snow capped mountains, circs, and glacial forms.
Finally – and easily – found Hallormsstaðaskógur and the Atsvik Camping ground. The camp was on Lagarfljót is a glacial lake that covers 53 square kilometres and has a depth of up to 112 metres. Our camp for the night was right on its shores. In addition the camping ground sits within the largest forest in Iceland, . Small by most standards it is 740 hectares in total.
In the sunshine it was a delight to set up camp and settle in – complete with Palm trees – for dinner on the beach. Watching the sun move along, but not below the horizon.
