Aug 31 – Two Peninsulas

Today we hugged the coast of the two nearby peninsula to check out the scenery.

The weather was cloudy with a bit of rain but luckily never when we were out of the car. Later in the afternoon it actually turned sunny and warm for us in the low 20s.

The first peninsula  is much less populated so the road quickly changed form paved to gravel but it was fairly smooth.

We always have to watch out for sheep or other animals on the road. As soon as they see a car they scatter. It was so funny to watch their woolly butts shake back and forth as they ran for cover.

Our first stop was Kiafshamarsvik, which is a very old abandoned settlement. Now there is a lighthouse and the shore is covered in interesting patterns of basalt columns,

There rare emains of some of the buildings.

A photosphere.

Another photosphere.

It was a very cool place to explore.

Back on the road.

We passed by so many lonely looking houses and farms.

Our next stop around on the east side Ketubjorg Cliffs. At the viewpoint parking there was an open gate and a road that went closer. As we drove in a lady farmer came over to politely tell that it was a  private road and the gate was only open so she could get in. So back to the parking lot.

Just past the cliffs is the Ketubjorg Waterfall. A small stream winds its way to the cliff face and falls into the ocean.

Some more dramatic cliffs behind us.

A photosphere.

The sky lit of the shore of the next peninsula showing some interesting islands.

The end of this peninsula is mostly flat. as we same to the bottom we hit the mountains and headed inland as we rounded the bottom.

Our next stop was Hofsos. Ordinally it was just for a pit stop but then I remembered that it had a pool and hot tub. At $15 we were sold.

The hot tub as almost full when we got there but almost everyone left. We chatted with a lady from Ontario that was doing the ring in the opposite direction.

Heading further up the coast it gets a lit more mountainous.

 

We stopped at this bright orange lighthouse called Suadanesviti, trght at the top of the peninsula

A cruise ship was letting guest off to check out Siglufjordur.

Around here the mountains are so high they have to use tunnels. I think we went through four. Two were single lane. There are pullouts every so often for vehicles heading north or west. If they see a vehicle heading towards them they have to pull over until the other has passed. One of the single lane tunnels was 3 km long and straight so you could see cars a long way off. It was hard to judge how close the other cars were. It wasn’t a problem for us as were were going in the priority direction.

One of the two lane tunnels was 7 km long and straight. It seemed to go on forever.

Back out to much better views.

On the final drive down the coast to our campground in Akureyri the weather got much nicer.

Aug 30 – Barnafoss and Changed Plans

To get the spare tire mount fixed we told the campervan people that we were headed towards the Snæfellsnes peninsula so they called a repair place in Olafsvik, which out at the far end.

We decided to hit a few of the places on our list first, that were on the way out there.

First were the Hraunfossar waterfalls and the close by Barnafoss. To get to them we could take the easy way on the highway or take another dirt road through the highlands which would be much more scenic.

The day started very cloudy and some rain. The rain stopped while in the highlands but the low clouds hid most of the mountains that surrounded us. It was still beautiful in a stark way but could have been so much better.

The road was in pretty good shape so I could go anywhere from 30 to 60 kph without too much shaking.

We got high enough to see some snow.

Ghostly mountains off in the distance.

A photosphere.

Then back down to lower levels and paved roads to the waterfall.

Hraunfossar is is a cliff face with hundreds of little waterfalls leaking out of it. There is no river but the water comes from underground.

A photosphere.

One the the viewpoints had the amazing swirling rocks.

Barnafoss was just a bit upstream but was mostly hidden. It did have beautiful blue green water.

Now we headed out on to the peninsula. Up to now the weather had been mostly cloudy, some sun and a few rain showers.

Once we got on to the peninsula that all changed. We discovered that the whole west coast of Iceland was under a weather warning because of high winds and heavy rain.

I think I can safely say that I have never driven in worse weather. The wind was so bad that the van was been pushed around a lot and we had some scary moments. The rain came down in buckets and was almost horizontal.

We tried to stop at the famous Kirkjufell mountain and its nearby waterfall. When we pulled into the parking lot all we saw were people getting thoroughly soaked and having trouble standing up.

This was the view of the mountain.

We decided to just drive to the repair place. This was at a lookout over the ocean. At least there was a faint rainbow.

It only took the guy about 1/2 hour to weld the mount back together and we were on our way.

When I took the wheel off to put it in the van last night I noticed that the lug nut holding it to the mount were loose and I could wiggle the tire. This must have caused enough vibration to break the weld n the mount.

At this point the weather forecast was calling for this terrible weather for the next three days . We knew that we wouldn't even want to get out of the car so we decided to abandon the west coast for now and head east. Even the repair guy said “Just go east”. We will circle back here at the end of the trip.

Of course the “quickest” route off the peninsula took us up and over the center highlands which meant in addition to high winds and rain, we got fog.

I did drive slowly but we still got a bit of a scare when tail lights suddenly appeared in front of us.

As soon as got off the peninsula the weather did get better for our drive up the ring road.

We are spending the night in a campground in Blonduos.

It was a very long driving day.