Iceland Day 8 – Rainy & Sunny Northwest Coastline

It was really windy when we were heading to sleep last night, and then sometime in the middle of the night, it started raining.  I woke up at one point and could hear the rain falling on the roof and windows of the camper.

I woke up at about 6:15 AM and needed to use the bathroom, so I had to don my raincoat and walk to the main building.  The rain was not falling hard, but the wind was also blowing.  The weather does not look good for today.  Luckily, it is another mostly-driving day.  One of our stops is another outdoor hot spring, and that will probably be nice even in the rain.

I made a small pot of coffee and started on yesterday’s blog, getting caught up.  I also was able to download all of the drone pictures and videos to the laptop and actually posted one drone video of the waterfall we hiked to yesterday. It still hurts my legs to even think about that hike again, but the video is pretty cool.  I was able to finish yesterday’s post and actually get a start on today’s. Well, at least up to the point where we had breakfast.

Because it was raining and cool, we heated up some water on our stove and made instant grits for breakfast.  They hit the spot, especially being warm.  We also had some yogurt and bananas.

We headed to the bathhouse for our morning routine and now it was raining pretty hard and water was starting to pool up on the grass of the campground.  We replenished our water bottles and were ready to head out.  Once again, having to run the engine of the camper a bit to be able to get warm enough air to dry off some of the fog on the inside of the windshield.

It was about an hour and 35 minutes drive to our first stop, a natural hot springs called Grettislaug.  It was rainy at first but then turned into a light drizzle as we drove there.  We had to pass a car after we initially turned off the main road while were still on asphalt.  It was tough because the driver wanted drive really slow and ride down the middle of the two-lane road for some reason.  I had to flash my headlights and put on a turn signal before I could get the driver to move over so I could pass.  

When we finally passed, we could see the reason for the bad driving, the occupants were apparently from either India or another country in that area, and they were obviously scared to drive on the narrow roadway.. We don’t like to profile, but drivers from India, and Asia are the worst on vacations, we think it is because they live in areas where they don’t need to drive, and then go to foreign countries and really struggle to drive there.  Maybe they usually drive on the other side, and that was the reason for going down the middle, who knows?  The last 15 Km or so was on a dirt road that was not in the best shape and even got a little worse the further we went.   

We finally arrived at the hot springs and walked around to check it out. The name on the sign was spelled Jarlslaug, so it is either more phonetic or means something else.  There were showers for men and women, and there was a large natural hot springs pool and a smaller one next to it.  We decided it would be nice to soak for a bit, especially our sore legs.  

 

There was a small cafe there and it was also the place to pay for the hot springs.  The man inside was really nice and told us all about the bathrooms, showers and changing areas.  The price was 2,000ISK per person, a little steep, but about the norm for anything here in Iceland.  There was also a campground there, and it probably would be nice to stay at and be able to spend more time in the hot springs.  We knew we couldn’t stay long, it would tire us out and we had a lot of driving to do today.  

We actually changed in the camper but brought all of our shower necessities with us in a bag.  Since we did not have showers last night, this would make up for the ones we missed.

The hot spring was nice, it was about 2.5 feet deep and had rocks all around the inside perimeter to sit on.  The man told us it was about 40 degrees C, and that is about 105 dg, F.  The smaller one was supposed to be slightly warmer.

There was one other couple in the large hot springs before us, but they soon went over to the smaller spring.  We were glad we had passed the slow car because they arrived at the hot springs area about 30 minutes after we did.  There was a man and two ladies, but they did not go to the hot springs, we were not sure why they were even there, there was not anything else to see that we knew of.

We soaked for about 30 minutes, trying to stretch out our legs, well at least I was. It was interesting, the water was really clear, but there was slick algae on all of the rocks inside the springs, the ones for seats, and others on the bottom.  There were patches of a sandy bottom, and at times, there were places where bubbles rose from the bottom.  We also found one area between some rocks that was obviously the source of the hot water, it was really hot coming out from there.  There was a small pipe constantly flowing cold water into the spring area, most likely to regulate the temperature.

We got out of the hot springs and went to our respective showers, which were nice.  It was good to be clean again after missing our showers last night.

After we were all cleaned up, we headed back to the camper to change and then had some lunch since it was about 12:30 PM.  We had sandwiches again, they are easy and quick to make.

After lunch, we headed to our next destination, the Glaumbaer Farm and Museum.  It was about 45 minutes away.  We were not quite sure what to expect, but it got a lot of good reviews on Google.

We arrived and paid for admission to the museum.  It was actually pretty interesting.  It was not a typical museum, there were old houses and they had rooms inside with period items and clothing, some from the original owners, and some from donations made to the museum.  There was one building with a restaurant inside of some of the original rooms.

One building had several hundred photos on the wall of prominent persons in the town, some were actual photos and some were drawings, but they dated back about 150 years or more.  There was also an old pipe organ and some vestments from the original Luthern church.

The next part was the best, there were buildings constructed in the original sod/turf style, and the walls and the roof were made of interwoven pieces of turf about two feet thick.  They were cut in a special way so they were intertwined.  Each piece was not that large, but two feet long, and they were stacked at an angle one way, and then the other.

There were small buildings that represented things such as the blacksmith, and woodworkers dhps.  Then there was one really large multiple-room building, all made of the same sod wall and roof construction.  It was pretty amazing, and apparently, 80 % of the structures in this area were made this way until about 1915.

It was actually pretty neat to see this museum.  These buildings at the museum were built more recently by groups of restoration people along with some engineering students at a nearby university. 

We left the museum and Stephanie wanted to visit the small church next door.  We could take nice photos from the museum property, but couldn’t actually get from there to the church, there was fencing around the museum to control entry.

We drove right next door to the church and Stephanie took photos outside and inside while I waited in the camper.  

By this time, the weather was clearing and we could see glimpses of sunshine at times, and it was not raining anymore.  We headed to our next destination, which was a Black Sand beach in the town of Sauðárkrókur.  We arrived in the small town and first went to the local Vinbudin only because it was convenient.  We then headed to the Black Sand Beach, and it was not worth the stop, nor us even writing this about it.  It was high tide, and there was hardly any beach exposed.  There was a large boulder seawall along the road and the waves were almost going all the way to the wall, leaving hardly any beach exposed.  We did not even take a photo.  Apparently, on Google, there are some misrepresentation photos of this beach, it was not as described, and people are not starting to comment as such in the reviews.  It was along the road we were driving on anyway, so it was at least worth a look.

Not too far away was our next stop,

, which is the oldest church in Iceland.  It is no longer a consecrated church and has been restored, but it was interesting to see.  We parked in a really small parking area, we just barely fit, only after a couple of other cars left.  There had been several people at the church when we arrived, but they all left and it was us and another couple, who were already there when we walked the 200 yards out in a field to the church.

It was really sunny now and it was nice to get some photos in the sunshine.  As were walking back to the car, a fairly large tour bus was driving out to the parking area.  We were sort of amazed it was there since the lot was so small.  It dropped off its passengers and then had to pull forward on a small road so we could get out, as well as the other couple there with us.  We had to wait for all of this to occur, but the driver and guide understood they were blocking us in, and moved as quickly as they could. 

On the way out to the main road, we now saw there was a gate closed across the road, and Stephanie had to get out and open it, and close it after I drove past.  It had a sign on it saying the parking area was full, so we guessed it was there for when tour buses arrived to keep out more cars so they could turn around and be able to leave.  As we got to the main road about 50 feet farther, there was a car trying to pull in, we did not wait to see how they dealt with the gate and large bus blocking the parking.

Most of the areas we had been in today were farmland, and fairly flat in between some lower mountain ranges.  Now, we were starting to get back into more mountainous areas.  The drive along the coast was nice, it was beautiful with the sunshine on the greenish-blue water of the sea.  There were not a lot of places to pull over to take photos, sometimes we had to just pull off the road a bit and take some, but there was not much traffic, so it was not an issue.  Unfortunately, as we passed through some really scenic areas, we could not even pull off the road at all, there were no shoulders tp stop on.

We passed what we originally thought was an island, but on the Google map, we could see very small spits of land going out to it from two sides.   As we got closer, there was a pullover area, and we could see that the thin strips of land looked like seawalls made of boulders, and people appeared to be walking on them, so it was not a road, at least not that we could see.  It was a long way out to the “island”, it would be a long walk if you even could make it all the way out there.  We will do some research on this after we get home.

The next stop was a lighthouse called Trollaskagi.  It is painted a bright orange color, and the lighthouse itself was larger than the typical tall skinny lighthouse.  We could see it from the road, and it looked like it was right next to someone’s house, there was farm equipment in a shed.  The drive to take down to the lighthouse involved making a really sharp turn to the left, and it was really steep.  The turn was back in the opposite direction of our travel, it would have been much easier going the other way.  We were concerned the camper would not make the sharp turn, so we opted not to go.

We came to a small town and they had a small grocery, it was a Co-Op grocery like we see a lot of in Europe, but it had a different name outside.  Stephanie wanted to get some baked beans for our dinner tonight, which we hope will be brats cooked on the grill. 

I parked in a small lot and she headed inside.  I almost thought she had gotten kidnapped, there were people going into and then back out of the store with groceries and she was still not anywhere to be seen, and all we needed was a can of beans.  Finally, she came out with a bag of groceries, not just one can of bens.  Apparently, they also had a souvenir aisle, and she had spent some time looking there.  

We decided not to stay at our chosen campground tonight called Tjaldsvæði, in the town of Siglufjörður, and to make more progress driving.  We selected three other campsites in the next three towns and initially stopped at one in the town of Ólafsfjörður that had great reviews on Google.  It was an alternate campsite we had picked during the planning of the trip to the Tjaldsvæði campsite.  However, there was no one even there for the night when we arrived, and it was in the middle of the town and looked more like a parking lot than a campsite, so we drove onward to another one we just found on Google in the town of Dalvik.

The Dalvik campsite was only marginally better, it was just a field, and unfortunately, several areas were really muddy.  There was one bathhouse, at one end.  We actually pulled in and drove around trying to find a good spot, and to be able to park so we were not in the wind.  We pulled into one area, and then reoriented the camper in a different direction, and were getting ready to make camp.  I had thought I had smelled a fishy smell when we first got there, but it was not bad and Stephanie did not even notice.  All of a sudden, there must have been a change in wind direction because the smell got really strong.  Neither of us wanted to camp overnight with that smell and have it get into the camp, so we got back in and left.  Apparently, there are a lot of fish processing plants here, hence the smell.  Dalvik is also one of the towns where people go to whale watch.

We put the next campsite into the GPS and headed there.  It was off the main road a bit and not in a small town called Hauganes, and we did not see any fishing docks to speak of when we arrived.  The campsite had gotten mixed reviews, but overall seemed nice.  The town was near the fjord, and there were a couple of restaurants here. 

The campground was mostly an open field, in two sections, one of which had electricity hookups.  There appeared to be several campers here that were permanently set up, and there we also a few staying for the night that were parked already.  We found a spot to park and it was good, but we moved to another location after we got out and surveyed the campsites better on foot.  We moved and were able to orient the camper so it blocked some of the strong wind, to be expected being this close to the water.

Check-in instructions were on a large sign, and it was all done online.  There was no one at the campsite full-time.   The bathrooms were close by and were interesting.  There were individual A-frame bathrooms, and then a set of Men’s and Lady’s restroom buildings with multiple stalls inside.  There was one building with a single shower, but we had already showered today at the hot springs, so that was not needed. 

We set up camp and then enjoyed a glass of wine inside, looking out of our side door window at the view of the nearby water.  It was too windy to sit outside.  It was mostly sunny, but got cloudy at times, 

Stephanie did some exploring.  We knew there were some hot tubs for a fee nearby that were also associated with the same operation running the campground, and payment was a separate online fee for the hot tubs.  While she was gone, I set up the table and grill next to the camper, out of the wind as much as possible.  We were still going to try and grill out our brats

Stephanie returned and said the hot tubs were full of people.  There were two traditional-looking hot tubs, and then another large one in the shape of a boat.  These were not solely for use by people staying at the campground, plus, there we not that many people staying here for the tubs to be that full.  It looked like there were a couple of hotels here, and people living in the town could use them.

We started on our dinner, I was able to successfully grill the brats outside, and we heated the baked beans on our gas stove.  It was a good dinner.  We sat at our table and enjoyed the meal looking out the side window at the water we could see in the distance.  

After dinner, we did some computer work, and looked at the route for tomorrow.  We have the choice of going through the tunnel at the town of Akureyri for a fee, but we are already heading south on the roads once used to get around the river that the tunnel goes under now to shorten the trip. 

There is a Christmas shop south of Akureyri that we plan to visit.  We looked up the fee for the tunnel, and payment is online, there is no payment at the tunnel itself.  You can pay two days ahead and two days after you transit the tunnel, or if no payment is made, the bill goes by mail to the registered vehicle owner.  This will give us the flexibility to make the decision tomorrow since we do not have to pay in advance.

We were worried about the weight since the tunnel fee had three weight classifications, but then we realized that we were the same as the “car” fee, the next weight limit up was for small trucks, based on the images associated with the three tiers of fees.

It was getting late, so we put everything away and got the bed made.  It was really windy outside, and occasionally, the camper shuddered in the wind gusts.  Not a night to be in a tent, and there were not any tent campers here, maybe they knew this was a windy spot.  We did see one car with a tent on top that folds out upward.  They are slanted when opened.  The two occupants did not set up the tent on top, they were just sitting inside the vehicle.  We affectionately now call these “pop tops” since the top ops up into a tent.

We headed off to bed at about 11:00 PM.