We really enjoyed our night at the Mosskogar Campground. It was perfect for the first night, and although we thought we did not want to be next to the bathroom building, it was actually better, we could see when it was available without going outside and waiting in line.
We did not sleep in too late, even though yesterday and the day before had been very limited sleep days. The weather was mostly sunny in the early morning, and that was nice, nd we wanted to take advantage of that.
We got up and had some muffins for breakfast, and I made a small pot of coffee with our 12V coffee maker, which works pretty well, but is a little slow to make a pot of coffee, even though it is only a 4-cup machine.
I was up a little earlier than Stephanie, mainly so I could take advantage of the empty bathrooms. I made the coffee and tried to work on the blog a little before I got Stephanie up we needed to get on the road.
At breakfast, we made the call to head north and go in a clockwise direction around Iceland. This was mainly due to it being sunny and also a Friday, and we thought that going the other direction and doing the popular Golden Circle route this morning was going to be really busy with tourists.
We headed out of the campground at about 10:30 AM, and when we got to the main road, there was a lot of traffic, all heading to the Golden Circle sights. There were cars, cambers and tour buses, all going in that direction. We even had to wait a bit to be able to turn left against the onslaught going the other way.
Today’s route was about 4.5 hours of strictly driving time, and there were about 12 sights we had listed to visit, which would add total time to the driving time.
The first sight we had on our list for today was a small waterfall called Fossarett. It was about 45 minutes drive north and we had no problem finding it using Google Maps. It is nice that we have the ability to use Android Auto in the van on the large display screen through Stephanie’s phone, so all she has to do is choose the place we want to go to next from our Google Saved Places list for each day, and off we go.
We found the waterfall and parked in the small parking area. There were some construction trucks parked unloading some equipment and that made it a little congested. The waterfall was not very spectacular, and for some reason, I thought this was the waterfall where we were supposed to hike to see other waterfalls upstream. We could not find any trail going farther upstream, everything was fenced off, so we gave up, disappointed.
We headed back to the car and went to the Google Saved Places for today and realized that I had been mistaken, this was not the waterfall that had more to see, that was it.
The next place on our list was indeed the waterfall with others to see called Hraunfossar. It was about 90 minutes away, and at one point, we had to go about 20 Km on a gravel road, which seemed odd.
One area was fairly scenic and there was a gravel area to stop, so we pulled over and had lunch, ham and cheese sandwiches we made in the van. There was a river running through a deep ravine next to the parking area and a waterfall some distance upstream from where we were. It was a perfect place to fly the done for the first time. I hand-launched it and headed upriver to get closer to the waterfall. It was a little nerve-racking because it was the first time I felt like if something went wrong, the drone was not going to be able to be retrieved, it would be far down below in the river, not that it would survive, but I knew I would not be able to get even the remains, it was far to steep to go into the ravine from where we were parked.
All went well with the flight and I was able to hand catch it for landing, and only then did my heart stop beating so hard. I was glad we were able to find somewhere without any people around for the first flight here in Iceland
We finally made it to Hraunfossar and it was beautiful. It is not a tall waterfall, but more like a series of cascading rapids going through the lava rock that had been eroded over thousands of years. The watercolor was sort of a milky blue color and was very beautiful. The lava was pure black and the contrast was what made it unique. Unfortunately, it was a little cloudy, and had it been sunnier, it would have really been a sight to see.
There were several trails and viewing platforms, but once again, I thought there was more hiking distance to see the various different sections of the falls, all of which have different names. However, the trails were fairly sort, and although we saw several different sections, it was not still what I had imagined based on reading about it.
I was able to fly my drone there and waited until some of the tours had left and there were not many people around. We chose the farthest away viewing area and only two other people were even there while I was flying.
We were able to use the restrooms at the shop/restaurant there, which was nice.
We left there and entered the next destination into the Google Map Directions, Gerduberg Cliffs, which are vertical columns of basalt from a long-ago volcanic eruption. It was about 45 minutes away, and off on a short gravel road. It was interesting, but not that spectacular, maybe from a geologic perspective, but with the cloudy sky and dark rock, it was just drab. There was a small church we could see in the distance, and Stephanie wanted to go there to take some photos, so we did. It looked more like private property than church property, but we could not really tell, but it was a cute little church with a red roof.
From there we headed to the next destination, Ytri Tunga, which is a beach where seals are usually found swimming. On the way there, we saw some steam coming from an area around a building, and there was a sign for a Hot springs spa.
The steam was actually from boiling water which was flowing out of some rocks at the surface. It appeared to be going into a building that had insulated pipes going from it to somewhere, we could not tell if the pipes were feeding hot water to a town or to some type of power plant, there was nothing really close by.
The water was fenced off, but we could still get close and it was quite interesting to see it bubbling up from the ground in several places, something really flowing out about 4-5 feet high. Up the hill from the boiling water area was a spa that obviously used the moderated hot water for their thermal baths.
We headed back to the car and continued our journey to Ytri Tunga. We arrived there about 30 minutes later and there was a large parking area, and it was paid parking. We had to go over to a small enclosure and use their automated machine to enter our vehicle type (camper van) and our license plate number and then pay by credit card. I don’t think I ever saw how much it was supposed to be, but maybe there was pricing listed by diagram for each classification of vehicle there was to choose. I was getting out the credit card while Stephanie was doing that part of the entry, so I never saw any pricing. We had seen camera forward and backward-facing cameras at the entry to the lot, so that was how they made sure people paid for parking, by photographing the license plates.
After paying, we headed to the beach area and had to walk a ways before we arrived at a rocky beach that protruded out into the water. Everyone was going out to the end of the protrusion, apparently, that was where the seals were lying in the sunshine. It was a tough walk, the rocks were about a foot in diameter or so, and then in between were smaller rocks. We had to go slowly and be careful, the rocks sometimes moved and caused you to get a little off balance. It was at least 150 yards or more to get out to the seals and it was tough. We did not go all the way out, but stopped at one point where there were three seals basking in the sun. We could get pretty close, and there were several other people there taking photos of the seals. A bit later, another seal swam up and got onto the rocky beach to join the others.
We walked back through the rocks and it was both physically and mentally tiring. You really had to pay attention to each step.
We walked along the shore back to the van and put our next destination into the navigation system, Bjarnarfoss, another waterfall. It was about 35 minutes away, and we headed out.
We arrived at the falls and it was spectacular, especially since it was so sunny. It was quite large and very high. There was a large parking area and a walkway going through a field up to the base of the falls. We decided this was a good spot for a photo of us with the tripod, so we packed up the camera gear and walked toward the base of the waterfall. It was not a steep walk upward, but it was longer than it looked from the parking area. We got about 80% up and decided it was a good spot for the photos, we did not want to get too close since it was very high to the top, and might not get into the photo we wanted. And yes, we were tired of walking too.
There were also several sheep near the actual base of the waterfall, and Stephanie wanted to get a bit closer for a photo, but the sheep were pretty skittish and moved away about as quickly as Stephanie approached.
We headed back down to the car and entered in our next destination. By this time, it was already 7:00 PM and we were getting tired from the long day and lots of walking. However, since it was sunny, we wanted to see as much as we could because we wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather while it lasted.
The next stop was Buda Beach, which was famous because it is one of the few beaches in Iceland where the sand is golden yellow, and not black from the black lava. It was not too far and was in the direction of the campground.
We arrived at a parking area and nearby was a small church and cemetery. There were some sheep near the church, so Stephanie went over to them for some photos as we walked past the church and cemetery and headed to the beach. Sheep are everywhere in Iceland, so maybe she will have enough sheep pictures in a couple of days, and we won’t have to stop every time we see some!!
Once past the sheep, there was a trail leading to the sandy beach. It looked similar to beaches in Florida as we walked through the dunes, they were covered in sea oats. The sane was a more yellow color.
At the beach itself, it was much different, there were sections of lava along the shore, as well as sandy areas. It was about a ten-foot or better drop down to the beach, so I let Stephanie head down there while I just took photos from above, my legs were too tired to make the descent, and then have to climb back up again, I was perfectly happy seeing it form here. It was nice out in the sunshine.
After Stephanie rejoined me at the top of the dune, we headed back to the camper. It was getting late, but with all of the daylight, it did not seem as late as it was.
Once we were back at the camper, we put in the location of the campground we had selected to stay in for the night. There was one other sight to see, but it was really close to the campground, so we just decided we would see it tomorrow. It was about 8:00 PM when we arrived at the Arnarstapi Campground and looked for a location to check in. There was a sign saying to check in at the nearby hotel by the same name, so we drove about two blocks to the hotel and went inside. The receptionist at the hotel said that the check-in for the campground was online, and there was another newer sign with instructions and a QCR code for the online check-in.
The check-in was done through an App called Parka, which we had already put on our phones before we left, it is used for all sorts of payments from parking, camping, and even some of the attractions that require payment.
It was a bit confusing, we had to first figure out which of the four sections of the campground we wanted to stay in. We decided we would get electric power again, and that narrowed down the choices to one area. Zone C was the only one with electric hook-ups.
We entered all of the information into the app and it assigned us to campsite C4, we had no other choices, that was the only one we saw available on the App. We headed into the campground and saw a sign for what we thought was C4. The campsites were roped off to designate large areas with four campsites in each area and the way the signage was, it looked like we could just pick any one of the four in the group, so we selected one a little farther from some other campers and parked.
While we were plugging in our electricity, we noticed that maybe there were more specific campsite designations, and after looking at some more signs, we realized we were not in C4, we were in C8. The only issue was that someone else was already in C4, there were chairs outside their camper, but no people there to ask.
We sent an email to the campground email address to let them know we were in C8, and that someone else was in C4. That took two efforts, I misspelled the email address when I was putting it into the email on my phone, and received an email delivery error the first time.
A couple of more campers arrived, one parking next to us in C6 and then another one in the large sections over from us, I guess in C10 or C12.
We were just going to have to stay put, and hopefully, there would not be an issue. The people came back to the C4 spot, and we could hear them talking in another language, we thought it pretty useless to try and get things straightened out, especially since it was already after 9:00 PM and we did not think any more campers would be arriving that late, and we were correct.
We never heard back from our email, and the only reason we sent it was because the instructions said there was a security check of people staying in the campground to verify payment, etc. We wanted the to know we had paid but were in a different campsite than we were assigned.
Our plan for tonight was to grill some of our Icelandic hot dogs, so we set up the table and chairs and the grill. We also enjoyed some wine and relaxed a bit before cooking dinner. Dinner was pretty tasty, and the special Icelandic mustard was really good on the hot dogs.
After dinner, we headed to the bathhouse to wash some undies and to take baths with our special soapy washcloths Stephanie had seen before the trip and purchased from Amazon. There were two bathhouses and each had two showers and several toilets. One shower in each was for handicapped persons, and there was also a sink and a toilet in those shower areas. We decided to use the sink in one of the handicap showers for our modified sponge baths. We did not want to pay the 500 Krones fee for a timed 5-minute shower, which was pretty short, and we wanted to try out the bathcloths.
They worked well. I was even able to wash my hair in the sink with Stephanie’s help. Before all of that, we had washed our undies in the sink, so when we were done with our special baths, we headed back to the camper van.
The bathhouses were new and really nice, but for the price of the campground, showers should have been included, and we had seen that very statement made in many of the reviews we read about the campground.
We relaxed in the camper and before we knew it, it was close to midnight, and of course still somewhat light outside.
We finally called it a night, it had been a long and tiring day.
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