The rain started last night and continued into the morning, raining hard at times. We should have known it was going to rain since we hung our bathing suits out last night to dry. Once again, our hung out to “dry” clothes are getting rain-rinsed, we would rather have them be dry.
It was a cool morning, or at least the rain made it feel colder. We are a little disappointed we have had so much rain, when we looked at the calendar of historical weather for last August, most days were sunny. At least it has generally cleared up by later in the afternoon, but the cold rain in the morning time makes it hard to get up and be motivated to travel.
Spoiler Alert….just so we get it out there, today’s weather was not good at all. There were brief periods where there was no rain or just a mist, but it also rained heavily at times. It was the worst weather of the trip so far, maybe with the exception of the weather in New York while we were traveling.
We tried to get going by 9:00 AM, but it was hard because of the weather. We had to put on rain jackets just to go to the bathroom to brush our teeth!
We made breakfast, well it was already made, we had yogurt with granola bars and split a banana. It may seem repetitive, but cooking anything for breakfast takes more time, and we enjoy the time spent cooking at night better than for breakfast.
We were on the road at about 9:20 AM, but we had to spend about 10 minutes with the camper engine running so we could defrost the front windshield. It was really thick with vapor that had condensed during the night. First, I tried to wipe it off with some paper towel, but it got so soaked it was no longer effective. Stephanie handed me a small towel we used to dry dishes, and it worked better, but even after wiping off some of the moisture, it still took a while before we could drive. With all of the rain, and also cooking with gas inside the camper last night, we just had a lot more condensation on the inside of the windows than normal.
Our first stop today was the city of Akureyri, about 30 minutes to the south. It is the second largest city in Iceland behind Reykjavic. Some people think it is nicer because you have the larger city feel without all of the big city issues in Reykjavik has like traffic and over-tourism. However, it is only accessible by smaller regional planes, so it is not as popular.
Our only plan for this morning in Akureyri was to visit the Bonus Grocery store and get fuel for the camper.
The Bonus was right on the main road before we entered the city and it was large and looked new. We purchased our food supplies and packed them away before we proceeded onward. We missed the turn into one of the N1 gas stations near the Bonus, but there was another one farther in town, which we found in about 15 minutes. It was more expensive than the other one, just our luck.
We were finally able to get our N1 ‘discount” using the key fob we had from CampEasy. This station had the older automated payment machine, so we knew it would not work with our credit cards. Today’s plan was to try and use a debit card with a PIN for payment. It still was hard to purchase the fuel, the instructions on how to insert the card properly were non-existent. Then the touchscreen was not very receptive to touching, it was more like a hard press screen. We finally were able to get everything done in the proper order using the debit card and PIN We selected a set amount of 12,000 ISK for the maximum fuel to purchase to avoid having a large authorization placed on the debit card. We reached the ISK limit before the tank was completely full, but the fuel gauge said the tank was full anyway, probably only a liter or two short of a full tank.
In the end, the N1 discount card is sort of a hoax. Although we got a slight discount, the price of fuel with the discount was still more than the regular price of diesel at some of the other stations we saw on the way into town.
At least now we know we can get fuel at ay N1, even if they do not have the newer automated payment machine, we just need to use a debit card in the older ones. N1 is by far the most prevalent gas station chain in Iceland, especially in the more remote areas.
Our first real stop on today’s list is the Christmas House in Hrafnagil, about 12 Km south of Akureyri. It was a popular destination and there were several cars in the parking lot when we arrived, In addition to the Christmas House, there was also a farmers market store.
We had thought we needed to take a certain road there according to our map routing. Akureyri is at the end of a very large fjord, and as is the cast for all fjords, there is a river at the end that has to be crossed via a bridge. For some reason, we thought that there was a tunnel crossing under the fjord to get to the other side. There is a toll road and tunnel in Akureyri, but we found out later that it crosses through the mountains, not under the fjord. The river was quite large at the end of their large fjord, but there was a bridge crossing it. The Christmas House is located on the west side of the river on a main road, but for some reason, the GPS routed us across the river to the east bank, which also has a road heading south. It was too much distance to backtrack, so we just stayed on the east side if the river, and crossed another bridge in the town where the Christmas House is located. There was some major road construction being done in the small town, and the roads were completely rerouted from their original configuration. We missed the small temporary sign for the turn off the new road to the Christmas House and had to turn around. We finally arrived and parked.
We looked through the Christmas House and picked out one small ornament that said Merry Christmas on it in Icelandic. There were some other handmade items and one was a black cat that was part of a folklore story about children and new clothes, but it was sort of a mean cat, it ate children in the story that we were told by the store owner, so Stephanie did not want to get it.
We then looked through the Farmers Market store, we were not sure why it was called that. It sold various goods, but most were packaged, it was more like what we would consider a “country store”. Neither shop was that impressive for all of the hype and recommendations in Google Maps for visiting here We were a bit surprised that there was not a bathroom here at these stores since they were all together in a small complex, at least not one that we could see or find, but we did not ask either.
We left and headed back toward Akureyri. The visit to the Christmas House had been a slight detour south, and now we were ready to resume our route and head north. We needed to eventually be on the eastern side of the river and fjord, so we took the same road back toward Akureyri. We had the option of going through the Akureyri Tunnel for a 1,950 ISK fee, or we could take the slightly longer scenic route through the mountains. We opted for the scenic route, and it was a nice drive. Apparently the higher-in-elevation scenic route gets closed in the wintertime, and we could see gates and signs as we started to go up in elevation. Initially, we thought the tunnel was to go under the end of the fjord, to avoid a longer route to cross the river feeding the end of the fjord, but it was obviously to go through the mountain for access to Akureyri in the wintertime when it snows.
The scenic route was nice, and although it was not raining that much, it would have been nicer to see the coastline along the fjord with sunnier weather.
A little while later we stopped at a picnic area next to a body of water. it was pretty windy here, but it was time to make some lunch, and you guessed it, we had ham and cheese sandwiches. We had to strategically park so we could use the camper and front door as a shield against both the wind and from being visible, that was our potty break area. There are not many restrooms on the roads, so we have to make do with our own “restroom”. With lunch completed, we hit the road again, heading for a large and famous Icelandic waterfall. There are two different named falls on the river Skjálfandafljót, the Goðafoss and the smaller Geitafoss, downstream of the Goðafoss, and that was our destination
There are two different parking areas, one on each side of the river. We parked initially on the West bank and put on our raincoats and grabbed our camera gear. It was raining hard at times, but at first, it was not that bad, so we did not put on our rain pants. We headed to the Goðafoss waterfall from the parking lot, taking the nice pathways. The water seemed to be flowing very fast, we were sure that all of the rainfall had made the river more full, and the falls more spectacular. This was the largest waterfall we have seen on the trip so far, it was not that high, about 12 meters (36 ft) of drop, but it was really wide. There were several different viewing areas to walk to.
We then headed down another trail, heading back toward the parking lot, but along the river downstream of the Goðafoss. Not too distant was the smaller Geitafoss. More downstream from that was an old suspension bridge that at one time was the main bridge on the road crossing the river. It was now a pedestrian bridge crossing over to the other side. We headed there and crossed the bridge, and got some more photos of both waterfalls in the background after we crossed.
It was interesting to see two men fly fishing down by the river near the bridge. There was a steep set of metal steps going down to the bank of the river, but they stopped well short of where the river level was now, and there were rocks to climb down to get to the fast-flowing river. It was amazing to see how high the river could get, most likely during the melting snow period in the spring. Even with all of the rain, the river seemed to be at least 20 feet lower than it could be based on what we could see about the water levels on the banks of the river.
We wanted to see the waterfalls from the east bank, but it was too far to walk from the bridge, so we headed back to the camper and drove over to the west bank parking area. It was a little farther walk to the Goðafoss from that parking lot, but the trail was nicely paved, it was much better for handicap access than the other side, which was mostly only dirt trails.
By this time, it was really raining. We had planned to put on our rain pants when we drove over to this side, but we forgot because it was not raining when we parked there. We took a few more photos and the views of the Goðafoss were probably better from this side, we could see more of the river upstream. We were tired of being out in the rain, so we headed back to the camper. There was a gift shop/cafe near the parking lot, as well as a couple of hotels. Stephanie wanted to go into the gift shop, so we parked there and went inside.
We forgot to mention that we had seen an Alda Cruises ship docked in Akureyri this morning and were surprised there were not many tour buses at the waterfall. I think it was maybe too in the day, and they might have already been here. There was a bus or two here, but not as many as we would have thought for such a large ship. Akureyri is a popular cruise ship stop, but since it is at the end of a long fjord, it probably takes a while to sail into and out of the port, so maybe they were leaving earlier in the afternoon.
When we left the gift shop, it looked like we might get a little sunshine, there was a small patch of blue skies in the distance. It would have been nice to photograph the falls in the sunshine, but there were a lot more clouds and rain in the area than that small patch of blue sky, so it was unlikely it was going to clear up enough to warrant waiting here for better photos.
We were only about 30 minutes from our campground called Heidarbaer, and we headed that way. It was about 3:30 PM, and we ran into even more rain as we drove. When we arrived, there were only two trailers parked in the campground, and we could tell they had already been here from last night or were semi-permanently here, there were no cars parked with them. We drove past the main building so we could look at the camping area, which was a large grassed field with a bathhouse in the middle. It was surrounded by a tall hedge to block some of the wind. We saw where we wanted to park next to the hedge and a power plug station, so we headed back to the main building and Stephanie went inside to check in. She sent me a text to come in so we could both look at what there was inside there. The building was a restaurant, a bar, and also a bathhouse, with access to a heated outdoor pool and hot tub.
We went to the reception desk, which was also a small bar in the seating area and they had two different beers on tap. A young lady came out from the area behind the reception and we talked about the campground and pricing. We checked in, one adult, one senior, and electric power for a night. We also had the option of paying to use the pool locker room for showers, There was a “happy hour” from 5-7 PM, and draft beers were reduced in price. We were going to pay for a shower then, but she told us just to come back and pay later when we came to use the shower, it was easier for her to remember who had paid if we paid right beforehand.
We drove the camper into the large field and pulled up next to the hedge, and just across from the bathhouse, which was only toilets and sinks, all in individual stalls lined up on a long row, with two sinks on the end of the building for washing dishes at. There were limited electrical stations along the hedge, so we parked as far away from the one in the middle as our power cord would reach, wanting to lessen the walk to the main building for our showers. There was no one else here, so it was not hard to select the perfect place to park.
We hooked up our electrical cord and headed inside, we were pretty wet from all of the rain. We turned on our diesel-fueled heater to warm up and try to dry off some of our rain gear. We were planning to go and take showers around 5:00 PM, so we had to wait a bit. We were planning on going to the “happy hour” right after our showers, we did not want to walk to the building twice.
Around 5:00 PM, we headed to the main building in the rain, wearing our rain pants and raincoats. We were just planning to wear our rain pants after our showers.
Stephanie headed to her designated women’s side and I headed to the men’s side for showers. The locker room was set up more for showering before going to the pool. It was a common shower area with about 6 showerheads. There was one shower with adjustable hot/cold knobs, and the others were hot water only, with a ball valve for turning the water on and off. I started with the adjustable shower, and it took a long time to get any hot water, and then it was just warm at best. There were a couple of partially open windows in the locker room and shower, so it was not that warm inside either. I kept thinking the water might get warmer as the pipes, which were stainless steel and uninsulated, warmed up,
I had only used the hot water side of the faucet, and it did not continue to warm up over time. I turned on one of the hot water-only showers trying to see if increasing the flow might get me more warm water, and maybe it helped slightly, but it was not enough to tell, maybe I was just hoping it was hotter. It was not bad, but it would have been better if it was warmer since it had been such a cold and rainy day of travel. I guess they have to regulate the temperature since most of the showers were only hooked up to the hot water pipe, and couldn’t be adjusted.
I shaved in the small bathroom in the locker room area. The entire facility was really clean, and since I was the only one there, it was relaxing, I could take my time.
Stephanie was already done when I headed back onto the main seating area. She was finished quicker because she could not dry her hair, there were no receptacles in her locker room to plug the hair dryer into.
We both tasted the two beers on tap, and I liked the slightly darker beer, and Stephanie liked the lighter beer. We ordered a beer each and paid the reduced happy hour pricing, which was a pretty large discount.
We asked the girl what the buildings were across the street that we had seen from the road when we arrived. They were long buildings, with glass sides with really bright lights inside. She said they were greenhouses to grow different types of vegetables, including some of the small tomatoes that were in a basket next to the reception area. She gave us one each of the small red tomatoes, and even smaller yellow tomatoes, which were more like grape tomato-sized. They were really good. She said the owners of the greenhouses were also the campground owners, so having the tomatoes there, which were for sale, made sense now.
As we were drinking our beers, several families came in and sat down at the tables. There was a menu on the wall, and they served several different types of burgers and other sandwiches. We ordered another beer and in the meantime, two young ladies came in in a “pop top” camper to check in and also take showers, now there were two campers here for the night, it was really getting crowded!.
Several more families came in to eat, and we decided it was time to head back to our camper and cook dinner. We thought about eating a burger there, but the prices were kind of steep, about $18.00 for a hamburger, plus we had some food that we needed to eat, we are not sure how long we can keep things like meat in our ice boxes, even though they stay really cold.
We got some plastic cups so we could take our beers with us, and walked back in the rain to the camper. Tonight, we were making chicken quesadillas again, and we did a better job this time since we knew how things needed to be cooked on our limited-size gas stove. We were also having black beans, and chips and salsa. The only problem was we had forgotten to turn on the gas for the stove, and it was in the back of the camper. We removed the table and set it up, and that gives us access from inside to the back storage area of the camper. I was able to move a couple of things around and I reached way back to the side and turned on the gas, which kept us from having to go outside in the rain to do it.
We heated the pre-cooked chicken in a frying on this time, and it helped to remove some of the excess water. We wrapped that in foil to keep it warm. While the chicken was cooking we also heated up the black beans on the back burner. We rinsed out the frying pan, we needed to use it to heat the flour tortillas for the quesadillas.
When everything was done, we sat at our table and ate. It was really good.
After dinner, there was a break in the rain, and we needed to wash our dishes at the outdoor covered sink at the end of the bathroom complex. It also gave us the opportunity to use the restrooms, which were really clean inside. We did take advantage of having our small portable “urinal” that Stephanie had bought before we left home, and it worked really well. It was just raining too hard to walk over to the restrooms before we got the break in the rain to wash the dishes.
We enjoyed some wine after we returned and we settled in for the night. It was windy and rainy outside, and we were glad we were not tent camping and had our heater to keep us warm inside the camper.
At about 10:30 PM, we called it a night. Stephanie made up the bed and we retired for the evening. We were originally planning on doing a whale-watching tour in the town of Husavik tomorrow. It is only about 30 minutes drive from here. However, with the weather forecast, we are opting out of that, and plan to sleep in and then visit the town, maybe to eat some fish and chips for lunch there. It is supposed to have one of the best fish and chips restaurants in Iceland. It will be nice to have a relaxing day with nothing to really do, and not have far to go to our next camping area, just north of Husavik.
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