Sep 4 – Southeast Coast

My laptop didn’t charge enough yesterday so now I am 2 days behind in posting

We made a lot of stops today.

We were going to start wit a short hike around the point at Djupivogur but when we drove to the start at a lookout over the town the path didn’t seem that interesting.

The photosphere.

We did a short side road to try and see Snaedalsfoss but this is a close as we could get.

There was an interesting old bridge to look at.

Next stop was the roadside Barkinafoss.

The photosphere.

When I climbed the hill to take the shot I had a staring contest with these guys.

Onwards.

Next stop was a roadside lookout over Fauskasandur beach.

The photosphere.

Some more viewpoint stops.

Next was the point with the Hvalnes Lighthouse.

The lighthouse was nothing special but we were here for the view back to mountains. Sunny would have been nice but at least we could see them.

The photosphere.

Next was down to the nearby Hvalnes Beach.

The beach looks like black sand but it was really small rounded stones and rather hard to walk on.

Jennie almost got caught by a wave and had to backtrack very quickly.

Still great mountain views.

The photosphere.

Lots of snow geese in the sheltered bay.

The next stop was a dirt road to an area called The Golden Valley.

The road out to the valley was a bit strange. It is just a road off the highway in the middle of nowhere. It was narrow and very twisty but had been recently graded and there were a lot of nice homes along it.

Driving in I didn’t know what to expect for a “golden valley” but I said we’ll just drive to the top of that hill in the distance we see what we can see. Well it turned out that was as far as we could go because the road got so rough that even our big 4x4 van just spun its tires.

First we had to cross the river, which is always a bit nerve-wracking.

It doesn’t look like much but there was about a foot drop before the water.

Then we drove across this wide gravel flood plain with this interesting valley off to the side.

Across another small creek with some steep sides.

Then up what I assume is the Golden Valley.

The hill just after that car was the one that stopped us. It wasn’t a great place to park so we backtracked to this same spot that had a flat parking area and had lunch with a view.

A pretty valley beside us.

The photosphere.

We watched the white car go down and then stop at the river crossing to try and remember how he got across.

And down we go.

The next stop was Skutafoss. There was small waterfall right by the parking area that might fool people into thinking that was it but the real waterfall was several hundred meters up the valley.

Another little one on the way, with the big one in the background.

There is a trail to the top of the falls and to the bottom. On he lower trail you round a corner and discover a huge cave beside the falls.

The photosphere.

Looking down from the top of the falls you could see how blue the water was.

Our last stop was our campground at Vestrahorn. Its main claim to fame is again the view back to the mountains but the low clouds ruined that.

We walked out to he shoreline but first had to get over this fence. IT is here to keep the animals out of the nearby radar station.

There were some seal in the water and lounging on a island.

There was also a black sand beach with some pretty patterns on it, which we think are from the stones they used for the road dissolving in the sea water.

The photosphere.

They also have a replica Viking village which was built for a film but never used. We didn’t bother going over.

The “campground” is really just their parking lot and it is full tonight.