Iceland Day 5 – On to Seydisfjördur

Disappoint?… Not A Chance

We had a wonderful night sleep in our little cottage, listening to the sheep baa and the birds sing. It is so strange that the birds are still singing after midnight.

In the morning, I headed over to the main guesthouse to get wifi to upload the blog and some breakfast hat was on offer; Jenny stayed behind happy to have some Cheerios and relax a bit more. And then to see if she could coerce one of the sheep dogs to come over for some scratches… Of course she succeeded!

The owner and I got to talking and he invited us down to his sheep barn to have a look around. Upon telling Jenny, she seemed a bit reluctant, but went along with me. It turned out to be a very nice experience for both of us.

The barn held at least a hundred sheep, separated out in smaller holding pens as almost all the ewes had given birth recently so they were in with their lambs.

There were six lambs that were orphans that the farmer fed by attaching a bottle nipple to a milk container (three orphans were his and three were the next door neighbor’s but he said it was better to put them all together so he cared for them), and then there was the youngest lamb, having been born at 5:30 this morning – tiny and adorable. We viewed a few of his rams and then Jenny got to snuggle on another lamb. All the time the sheep dog moved around inside with us; he had laser sharp focus on all the sheep and watched intently as we interacted with them – especially the babies. These dogs are truly remarkable.

As we pulled out of the valley we looked towards the east and at an enormous cloud layer that hung low in the sky. We came to the fast realization that our blue-domer days had come to an end, and we would have to be content with the clouds and wind and rain. But as we headed into the fog bank, we broke through on the other side maybe 10 minutes later and we basically never had clouds again; it turned out to be another absolutely glorious day weather wise.

We stopped in Vopnsfjordur for gas and the supermarket where Jenny and I got a kick out of the three women standing inside the door when we entered who stared us up something awful followed by the young girl working the cashier who looked at us the way we looked when we stepped out of the car and the stench of fish hit us. We had some good laughs about this on our way out of town.

We missed our first planned stop – neither one of us ever saw the sign nor did we notice if the GPS was telling us to turn but by the time we figured it out we u-turned only to realize we had missed it by a lot so we u-turned again. I would love to have some sort of tracking device that follows us along on all of our trips and shows all the u-turns, backtracking and roundabout ways we take while roadtripping!

We made a quick stop at Rjúkandafoss Waterfall since it was on the side of the road and we were ready for a break to stretch the legs.

We briefly contemplated taking a detour to a canyon whose turn off was on the way but was ultimately an hour or so down the road so I put the kibosh on that after realizing the time and considering our other planned stops and as it turns out it was a good thing.

As we headed toward the northernmost peninsula of the Eastern Fjords, we hit road construction. We laughed at the prospect of this being in the US where one side would be held up forever waiting for a flagman to lead them through but here it was basically a free for all, dodging dump trucks and bulldozers and trying to choose the path of least resistance.

Once we cleared the construction, the drive was pretty nondescript until we looked ahead along the shore and didn’t see the town we were headed to. Scanning the area for any signs of where we were going, I saw the road heading up into the mountains. “Are we going over those mountains?” I asked Jenny. A quick glance at her maps app confirmed that indeed we were.

The pass we took yesterday was nothing in comparison to this one; and I mean nothing! 10% gradients, spots with no guardrails, hairpin turns, all the while trying to focus on the road and not the scenery made for one heck of a drive, especially with someone who suffers from acrophobia to some extent, especially while in a car. But I can honestly say the views were the most spectacular of the trip so far (I know I keep saying it but they honestly keep getting better and better).

After making it down into Borgarfjörður Eystri we stopped for a snack and some coffee. The day was incredible, if not a bit blustery, but the building blocked the wind so we were able to sit outside at a picnic table in the sun and enjoy the waterview.

The whole purpose of us coming here was that I wanted to see Puffins. Jenny and I had a few good laughs sitting in the construction holdup and me white-knuckled coming over the pass saying that those freaking little Puffins had better be there. I had read that this was one of the best places to see Puffins in all of Iceland and we were there at the right time of year so I decided to take the chance.

After our meal, we continued even further along the fjord where I pulled into a parking lot with loads of other cars and looked out across the small harbor to some grass topped cliffs that were dotted with thousands of little white things ( I had already slammed the brakes on once barreling down the highway and threw the car in reverse because I had seen some sea stacks dotted with hundreds of white things hoping they were puffins only to pull my binoculars out and see they were seagulls).

We made our way towards the cliffs and over to the stairs that took us up on top and immediately we were face to face with hundreds of adorable puffins! They are so cute the way they look at you and move around on the steep slope. They would dive down into their burrows and literally disappear from sight. We just loved them and got such a kick out of watching them come in for a landing, with their wings wildly flapping.

The town was super cute. Just some photos from there:

The drive back out was just as spectacular as the drive in, and just as white-knuckling but I would not have given it up for the world.

We made a quick stop at a solar powered vending machine hut that some man placed out in the middle of nowhere as a welcome stop for people making the trek out to the peninsula. It has since turned into more of a place for people to leave nice notes and messages and just say hi while traveling.

Our final stop for the day was to be where we would stay the night tonight, a town out on the Eastern Fjords called Seydisfjördur. This town, like all the towns out on the fjords also required a drive over a pass and while this one was not quite as scary, it was just as breathtaking but in a different way. Once on top, you travel along a rather level area that was still absolutely snowpacked but with bits of teal blue lakes and rushing water breaking through, plus some art installation in the middle of it all. Dropping down into Seydisfjördur was a total change in scenery as the mountains had greened up and there were enormous waterfalls every couple hundred of feet.

Jenny could not stop saying how beautiful the drive was and declared that the first day and this day were her favorites so far, as far as scenery went, but that today’s drive probably takes the cake. It is hard to imagine that so many places can elicit such responses but in Iceland, I assure it is true. I tend to agree with Jenny, that both drives over the passes and down into the two port towns today were simply magical. Of course, it would not be the same had we not had incredible skies again but we feel so lucky we did.

Our airbnb is a funky house, that has a lot of character and is perfectly located in town. We decided tonight to go out for dinner even though we had a full kitchen to cook in. We kept it simple – pizza, but it got good reviews and it completely hit the spot.

Seydisfjordur is where the ferry from Denmark (via the Faroe Islands) arrives in Iceland. Jenny and I were looking at it out the windows of the pizza place (and out the windows of our airbnb) and talking about how fun that would be to take. When I pick Jenny up at the airport, Jenny told me of these beautiful islands she had flown over and that she needed to figure out what they were. Turned out, it was the Faroe Islands. Maybe a future trip!

At 10:15 I decided to take a little walk around town. Part of the reason I had ditched the idea of going to the canyon was that I knew I was going to enjoy this little town and just spending some time in it. I only spent about 30 or so minutes out and about, but it is definitely charming and certainly someplace I will come back to for a few days when I return with Billy. One gets the feeling it is making a move – there is a definite artsy feel here and may of the building are undergoing a renovation yet you can still get a feel for the more simpler town that was. I always have mixed feelings about this – progress as many call it; there are so many sides to the debate.

It is hard to imagine our trip going better. We recognize, on a daily basis, how unbelievably lucky we have been with the weather. I had read a few reviews of Iceland where the people said it disappointed. We have traveled to some truly stunning places scenery wise (Alaska, Montana, Patagonia, Peru) and I am completely shocked by this assessment. I said to Jenny, the only thing I can imagine, is that they must have had nothing but sky to ground clouds and saw nothing but the barren earth because otherwise I am utterly astonished that anyone could surmise that Iceland disappoints – it has done nothing but thrill!