We both slept well last night.  The wind was buffeting the camper a little, but it sort of rocked us to sleep.  We ran the heat on low all night, and it was a perfect setting, not too hot.

I woke up about 6:30 AM, and headed to the guesthouse for a bathroom break and to brush my teeth while I was there.  No one that was staying in the rooms inside there was up, so I had my choice of bathrooms.   I had started a pot of coffee before I left, and it was only half done by the time I returned, it is a slow brewing machine on 12 Volts.

I had not made much progress on the blog last night, I was just too tired, so I worked on it this morning while sipping on my coffee.  Of course, Stephanie was still asleep, but that gave me peace and quiet, and made it easier to collect my thoughts on what we did yesterday.  I have done well to keep up, if I don’t the days start to blend together and it is much harder to try and remember what we did on each specific day.  

It was not raining when I went out early this morning to the restroom, but it was still cloudy and windy, maybe not quite as windy as yesterday, but far from calm.

I woke Stephanie up at about 8:30 AM, and we tore down the bed to convert it back to a sitting area.  By this time it was raining again, go figure.  I wish we knew why we were having such bad weather, it seems unusual, but we are not sure about that.

We do not have a lot of sites to see today, it is mostly driving to get us to the southeast coastline for tomorrow and the long list of stops we have for that day.  We made some breakfast, and then headed out, stopping at the local self-service N1 station for some fuel.  We only had a little less than half a tank, but this was the lowest we had let the fuel get on the trip so far.  But, we knew there was a station here, it was right across from the campground. and we could see it yesterday when we arrived.  It was actually about as good a price as we have seen, especially for a smaller town. 

We have figured out how to use the discount key fob that came with the camper, and also how to pay with a debit card on an older automated pay machine.  It does not save us much in the scheme of things, 0.05 ISK per liter on fuel that starts out as 320 ISK per liter, so we paid only 315 ISK per liter.  It is just a feel-good thing, we have not even actually figured out what the savings is in USD, but it is the principle.  NOTE: We later calculated that to be a $0.03 savings per liter, take it to the bank!!!!

After getting fuel, we headed to our first destination for the day.  Today is going to be a “waterfall day”, most of the stops we have are at waterfalls.  We drove for quite a distance and made a couple of stops for pictures.  It was trying to turn sunny, but about the time we thought it was going to be sunny, it started to lightly rain.  We stopped at one area where we could see a river and waterfall in the distance, thinking we could fly the drone there, but the river was too far away once we walked over to the the edge of the embankment and could better see it.  It was also too windy, but it had seemed calmer when we first stopped.

We stopped off at a scenic overlook that was on our map but we could not figure out why, it was nothing but an information area.  These are periodically on the roads and have maps and signs explaining all of the things to do in a specific area, like a Google Map on the side of the road.

We headed to the next site, the Stuðlagil, which is basalt columns on the Jökulsá á Brú river.  Also, there is the Stuðlafoss Waterfall near the Basalt Columns.  There are two sides to access the falls and basalt rock formations,  One is on the East side and is a long 4 Km walk to the river and basalt columns, but it also has access to the river and falls if you can walk down the steep trail to the river.  The other is on the West side of the river and only has stairs that go down part of the way to the river, but it is 266 steps down. 

However, the steps are much closer to the parking lot on that side.  We opted for the closer side and drove a long way on a gravel road that was partly under construction.  About halfway there, there was a split that we did not notice at first, and that split is where you choose what side of the river to go on, there was a bridge there to cross to go to the other side.

I had forgotten how beautiful this area was, and only after seeing some pictures later did I realize how much better it was to see the basalt columns from down by the river.  However, we are both really leg-weary and unfortunately, it was probably not something we could physically do.  We got some great photos and I was also able to fly the drone here. 

There were a couple of other drone flyers, so we had to separate ourselves from them.  I flew the drone downriver first and then up by the waterfall, so we hope we got some good shots.  I was not brave enough to fly it down close to the river, and that was probably a mistake, it would have been more spectacular, but it was also a long way down, and hard to see. 

NOTE:  There is a great video of this area under the Drone Video Menu at the top of the Blog Page.

It was starting to drizzle, so we had to stop the drone flight, they don’t like the rain.  I had told Stephanie when we first arrived and I could see we could fly the drone there that we should do it first, but we did not, and that was not the best choice since we had not gotten any rain until I was flying it the second time.  Lesson learned.

We packed everything up and headed out, after first visiting the gift store there.  We got stuck behind a camper that was really going slow on the gravel road, and it took forever before we reached the highway.  There was a line of cars about six deep behind us because the camper was going so slow.  I did not understand why they did not try to pull over and let everyone pass, they had to know they were holding everyone up behind them.

We finally got to the asphalt road again, and the slow-driving camper went much faster.  It was about 1:30 PM,  and it was time for a lunch stop.  We found a pullover area and stopped for lunch just after we got back onto the asphalt road.  The river from the waterfall was right beside us, and I took the opportunity to fly the drone down to the river while Stephanie made lunch, I was much braver this time as got it much lower down to the water, or so it seemed.  It just takes more practice to feel comfortable going down a couple of hundred feet from where we were parked.

Lunch hit the spot, and then we were back on the road.  The next stop was another waterfall called the Rjúkandi Waterfall.  It was closer to the parking area than most are, but still quite a hike up to get to the base of the main falls.  We went up about halfway and that was enough for us to enjoy the view.  I had also taken the drone, so I waited for some people to head up and then we got the drone out to fly.  It was much easier to see the falls from the drone than it was walking up there to the base of the falls.

In case you were wondering, did we have sunshine today?   Well, the answer is a simple “maybe, sometimes, not really, yes, no, at times”…….. it was sunny for really short periods between clouds and rain.  But the rain was very light and did not last long like the past few days, so the weather was better, but still not great.  At least we were not getting soaked.

From here, the next stop was the town of Egilsstaðir.  It was a fairly large town, with a decent-sized airport that was right along the highway.  We wanted to stop at the Bonus Grocery here, as well as get some more fuel.  We had not filled up this morning knowing we would be stopping here later in the day.  The N1 gas station here was bigger than most, there were eight gas pumps.  We had to wait a bit for people to get their fuel and pulled up to a pump only to discover the “old” card reader for these two pumps was not working, it had a “broken” sign on it.  Since we did not know how to use the discount card on the newer card reader, we headed to another set of pumps on the lane next to this one.

Once again, we had to wait for someone ahead of us.  We did not pull up all the way because the card reader we wanted to use was on this end.  After using the discount card and debit card for payment, we had to choose the pump number.  That was when I figured out the card reader was not just for the pump closest to us, it was for all four pumps on this side of the lane, which made perfect sense.  We had just not been to a N1 station with this many pumps before.  The newer card reader was on the other end, and that is why we did not pull all the way forward to those pumps, thinking it was for the pumps on that end, but it was probably like this old reader, for all of the pumps on this side.  Lesson learned.  Who ever knew getting fuel could be so hard and complicated?  We sure miss our much more straightforward USA Gas Pumps.

We headed back to the Bonus Grocery, we had passed it to get fuel first.  Stephanie headed inside the grocery while I visited the Vinbodin store next door for a couple of more bottles of wine.  I took them back to the car and headed in to find Stephanie in the Bonus.  It was packed, and mostly with tourists like us, it seemed.  There were quite a few campers in the parking lot.  I finally found Stephanie and she was almost done, heading onto the refrigerated room where all of the refrigerated items are kept.  The whole room is refrigerated and gets quite cold while you are inside.  

Stephanie said that the store was out of a lot of items, and we could tell because of how crowded it was for some reason.  We are not near a starting point for people staying in Iceland, the airport was large but did not seem big enough to support a lot of people flying in here to start their visit in Iceland.  We thought that maybe it was because there might be a lot of hotels to guesthouses here, and people were using this town as a base for visiting the area and needed groceries for their stay.  Who knows, but the store was really depleted and we could not find everything we needed.  We did end up getting a two-pack of pre-made hamburger patties to grill out in the next couple of days, weather permitting.  It was nice that they also sold hamburger buns in a two-pack to match the number of burger patties they sold.

We loaded up all of the groceries and headed out.  The next stop was our campground for the night in Seydisfjordur, don’t ask us how to pronounce these town names, we have no idea.  It was about an hour away and we headed out of Egilsstaðir, and the road started climbing up into the mountains. Cars up higher on the roadway were visible to us from below as they wound up into the mountains.  It was a very scenic drive, we just wish it was sunny, and not cloudy.  We stopped a few times to take pictures.  Up at the highest point, the road went along a large lake.  As we drove, we could see that the lake was man-made, or enhanced by a dam at the end,  It must either be used as a water supply or for power, possibly both, but we could not see anything but the rock dam at the end.

We headed downward into a lower valley and there were waterfalls everywhere on the sides of the mountains.  Most were really long, but not wide, starting near the peak of the mountains and winding all the way down.  We stopped a few more times for photos of the area, and one last stop was at a waterfall we actually had on the list to visit tomorrow, Gufufoss.  We just happened upon it since it was not on our list for today, probably fallout from the map reversals I made.  We just stopped at a pullover to take general photos, and back behind the road, not visible traveling in our direction was the waterfall,  It was not that far of a walk from the parking area, but we just took photos from there, we were tired and wanted to get to the campground before it got crowded.

It was just a few more kilometers to the town of Seydisfjordur and the campground.  When we arrived in town, we saw that there were quite a few shops here, and Stephanie read on Google that there is a cruise port here, someone had commented that it could be crowded if a ship is in port.  That was not a worry today at least not this late, cruise ships would have most likely been gone already, it was close to 5:00 PM.

We found the campground reception, but no one was there, and a sign was posted saying they would return at 5:30 PM, and the instructions were like most places, find a campsite and come and pay later.  We headed into the campsite area and discovered it was not a large campground.  It was difficult to find a spot.  With all of the rain over the past several days, most of the grassed areas had large mud holes on them from people parking there before, almost looking like people had gotten stuck since the ruts were so big and deep. 

We made a circle around the campsite on the gravel road and selected a site at the end of a grassed area, but sort of also on the gravel road that was near an electrical box.  It did not look exactly like a spot to park, but it was off the main roadway far enough and it was a different type of gravel from the roadway, making it look like an official campsite.  We pulled into the spot and got out to look around at another location across the road.  There was a camper behind us while we were driving through, so we wanted to pick a site before they took it if we passed it by.  They parked in another area. 

There was another spot on the side across the road from here, it was near a grassed area that had been roped off by barricade tape that was now lying on the ground but obviously meant that they did not want anyone to park in the grassed area.  We pulled in over there, but it was not very level and we realized we would have a lot of people walking by on the way to the bathhouse, so we moved back to the original spot, just in a slightly different orientation to help block the wind.  That was it, we were finally parked for the night.

We hooked up to the electricity and then headed toward the town to look around.  There were a couple of shops nearby, but it was a long walk to where it appeared more were located, obviously nearer to the cruise port.  We did not want to walk that far not knowing if there were shops there, and if so, not knowing if they were still open, it was just before 6;00 pm.

We took a few photos and headed back to the camper.  The reception was still not open and there was another sign saying that it would not open until 8:00 PM tonight for some unknown reason.  

We thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and get our showers, it was early enough that the showers were not crowded yet.  There were dedicated men’s and women’s restrooms and each had two good-sized showers, as well as a few toilets and sinks.  The showers had once been for a fee, there was a coin machine/timer inside each one, but there was a sign on them indicating that the showers were now “free”, well at least no extra charge other than the cost to camp.

The shower worked well, there was plenty of pressure and the water was hot.  It was difficult to get the temperature set, it took a lot of knob adjustment to get the balance between hot and cold just right.  That alone would have cost a good sum if it was still paid by the minute.

After showering, we had a glass of wine while we set up to grill our last two brats. We were also having baked beans with them.  We were not sure if our gas bottle had sufficient gas remaining in it to cook the beans on our stove, we had noticed it was running low last night when we were cooking.  We have more bottles, but we wanted to run this one out first.  It still was full enough for boiling water this morning for our instant grits.

While we were outside grilling, a man walked by and noticed our Clemson and Carolina flags on the back ladder, and said we must be a “house divided”.  He was from a town north of Charlotte, we think he said Statesville, NC.  We talked for a while while the brats were cooking on low.  All of the hot dogs and brats here have really thin outer casings on them, and if you cook them on too hot of a grill, they all burst open in really odd ways.  Even on low, they split, but not as bad.

We enjoyed our dinner and wine.  After dinner, we headed to the kitchen area by the bathhouse to use the outside sinks to wash our dishes.  While I was washing them, Stephanie went to the reception to check us in since it was now past 8:00 PM.  We met back at the camper afterward and then we noticed the man who had checked us in looking around the campground across from where we were parked.  That was the area that had been barricaded off with tape that was now lying across the ground, one end had been on a short stick but it had been knocked down before we had arrived. 

While we had been cooling earlier, a woman had walked by and then pointed to the grassed area to someone driving a small camper and they had parked there.  We had known better, but they just rode right over the barricade tape and parked.  That had been a couple of hours ago, and now the reception man was knocking on their door and telling them they were not supposed to be parking there, that it was barricaded off.  They seemed oblivious to the tape, but he told them they had just driven over it, I think he thought they had actually knocked it down.  In the end, they had to move. 

Stephanie told me that the man checking us in had even asked if we were parked on gravel or grass, I think they were trying not to have people park on the grass and make ruts in the soft wet ground.  We felt a little justified because the barricaded-off, grassed area was a nice camping spot, but we were glad we had respected the tape and not tried parking there.

By this time, there was a steady stream of campers arriving and spaces were hard to find in areas that were not muddy.  It was interesting that there were so many people getting here this late.  We have come to the conclusion that the next few days are going to be much more crowded as we head to the more popular South Coast and get closer to Reykjavik as our journey comes to an end.

We settled in for the night, I worked on the blog some for today until it was time to make up the bed.

We headed to bed around 10:30 PM, we were tired and have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.

 

 

More to Come….