day 86 nice surprise!

Pingeyri was a nice stop, placid waters lapping at the coast no more than 10 meters away! A view back over the fyord and up the mountains in the direction I'd arrived

a light breakfast and I'm traveling back through the fishing town

and onto route 60 which I'll follow all day, an interesting road!

Back along the 60 and once again finding a tunnel, well paid dwarves again! Into the next fyord the road sweeps quickly around before switching back into the next fyord.... Leaving me dumbstruck!! 

I've really not planned today well.... I totally missed this

the biggest drop of a waterfall and in my opinion the biggest of them all the Hæstahjallafoss waterfall!!

Standing there in awe and surprised to be in awe thinking I'd seen enough waterfalls! 

A beep of a car horn and two familiar faces appear! Benny and Melina!! We stand chatting for a while before heading to the falls, a slippy muddy track takes us to the car park, road works are tearing the gravel road up, going slightly sidewise is always fun when you're driving right? ... Still I made it shortly after my friend's, and it was a joy to have company for a while as we climbed up to see the falls

Quite a rush.... Observing this closely, in the UK health and safety would prevent this fun! 

https://youtube.com/shorts/D_niFDQhigY?si=ht969hmXJqaxRPUv

And down again and all to soon we part company and the next stage of this adventure beckons.... I head off with the dirt road going up at quite an angle into and above the snow line again!

Before descending, dropping below the clouds this valley opens up! 

it has a saga to tell!

The saga of Gísli the Outlaw. It tells the story of Gísli, a tragic hero who must kill one of his brothers-in-law to avenge another brother-in-law. Gisli is forced to stay on the run for thirteen years before he is hunted down and killed. The events depicted in the saga took place between 860 and 980

it was here that Gisla finally died! 

I like how each saga shows the size of the population, personal deeds become heroic.... While not being world changing!.

As I read this a car horn again as Benny and Melina drive pass.

The goes on and up and the clouds come down

it's felt like a pretty huge ascent so as I drive down again I'm surprised to see the sea so quickly! 

in my mind it must be a huge lake at high level surely! 

But no it's the sea .... I must have been driving very cautiously on the way up to give the impression of greater height! 

From here the roads twist and turn with pretty similar landscape 

skirting the sea closely, while climbing up and down pretty sharply a switch back was dealt with easily .... I've got used to these crazy roads! 

The afternoon is drawing to an end and I see I'm no where near the place I'd intended to stop.... Replanning I pull up in Búðardalur tjaldsvæði campsite... It's early but late enough to just take it a bit easy today ..  the roads have used a lot of my attention and a rest is good! 

Finishing off my lamb steaks I'd bought a few days back, and I catch my rest.... A really nice day! 

With the bonus of seeing some fears not just faced but beaten!! (I'm normally terrified of switchbacks!!)

day 85 many miles little distance!

The south western fjord's are my home today, as ever home is where you are , where you merge with everything, breathing, food, communicating, emotion, enduring, shedding skin, hair, even defecating, you take in, you put out, you become a part of your current everything.... This isn't a new line of thought for me it's become a knowledge over the years I've wandered, the wandering is a huge part of the process, you stop wandering you stagnate.....

The current thoughts that are triggering this perspective strongly relate to where I am, Iceland was always a pivot point, a place where I could stop, return with incredible stories, head high and start to settle again, or I carry on..... 

I start the day unsure. 

I drive from my overnight stop early to avoid anyone taking umbrage to my illegal parking, I just can't be bothered with that communication today. 

The road calls, the skies grey today with only glimpses of sunlight, route 1,68,61,60 and 622 , that's my journey, it's not inspiring land under a grey sky, Prestbakkakirkja a small church as the name suggests (Scottish Kirk- too many name similarities!) on the shore of Hrurafjordur pauses my route.... I need to make breakfast and blog for yesterday, stopping here was a gift! The travel gods gifted such a view!

i could spend days composing such an image or luck will bring it about ... I prefer the spontaneous.... It shows the actual not the composed. 

I wander onto the shore line below the church, listening to the bird calls

mulling over what I'm doing, where I'm going, why I'm doing it at all ..... Who I am even. 

It's time will spent..... You'll see. 

I travel on, 

Like I've said the environment is pretty uninspired.... I'm suffering from overkill of beauty!

it's has the almost barren beauty of any moorland, beauty is never in one category. 

Even the rain can't dim that, with the roads changing intermittently between tarmac and pitted gravel I have to pay attention, stopping at Holmavik for fuel and food before going on up and over getting above the snow line with no chance for a photo sadly! 

Now starts the zig zagging! 

at the end of the first fjord before the (a marker) a quick break from driving to see Gervidalsárfoss

establishing just how spoilt I've been with waterfalls!!

Nice stop tho! 

At the end of the Fyord lies a small fyord Vatnsfjörður with a big history, ruins here of the farmstead with the same name, the history of this place goes back to Viking times with the archaeology of even a long house being visible now

Mostly care of Google maps... It's visible on the ground tho photography is difficult!

the farmstead was the richest in Iceland at it's peak and politically powerful! In my opinion that indicates how primitive Iceland was there's next to no farmable land.... Fishing presumably? This more modern Fiskhalle (fish hall) used for preserving/storage of fish is likely close to those existing at the time

Iceland was as I've found very much unchanged through the years, only within the last two hundred years has it really modernised (room for error here!)

During excavations one piece of gold was found

the highest status gold find in Iceland! 

As I said I believe things were very basic here!

the fjord.

So starts the intensive skirting of the fjords! From low level roads to high level this section went on for hours!!! I'll work out the distance one day! 

But it didn't lack beauty at all I'm back amongst precipitous mountains with sharp cog like geometry

passing small fishing towns whose impsortance is evident from having both harbour and airports! Likely to enable access in the deepest winter

Isafjurdur.

From here another now familiar tunnel design single track two way, where a flashing red sign just made enough impression to make me stop.... Avoiding a head on collision with a truck! Perhaps more tourist friendly signs here? 

Through safely and with the rain coming down

i have one more ascent, bank above the snowline before descending to 
pingeyri another nice fishing town, as always close community, with a nice sports center which homes the campsite too.... Right next to the fjord!

the valley the other side is where drove from. 

A nice albeit unexplained rock carving outside the church was a bit of fun

perhaps a fisherman in waterproofs? 

No idea! I slept on it!.... Not the rock!

day 84 well executed!

But of a slovenly start this morning leaving Akureyri but I've no set stops that take me far from my route, and today is all about the route! I'll skirting fjords today! Heading off along Eyjafyordur in the bright sunlight, I've been so lucky with weather! 

Starting with route 1 I soon divert north on route 82 towards Hauganes

Just to get a pick of the harbour!

there's a little coming themed bar/cafe in the harbour I resist it! 

Back on the 82 with the views constantly causing my attention to wander! Parts of this road that's the last thing I need some of the drops to my right are a bit hairy!

Pulling over just before the first of three tunnels I'll be going through I look back....

you can really see it but this was a steep drop, I appreciated the next bit ... I'm into a tunnel for a two way road the 6km tunnel being only a single lane with parking places is a bit fun! Pay the dwarves more next time please!!

Totally doable tho there isn't much traffic, which is certainly standard for this route!

Out the other side Olafsfjordur the name of the Fyord

and the town

A quite industrial fishing town are quickly passed through before entering a tunnel ... The dwarves had been payed well for this one two lanes!  (Right of pic)

taking me through from a sunny fyord to the polar opposite in the next! 

the cloud cover here must be fairly consistent the far fyord is still frozen! 

This would have benefited an Icelandic mother Gudrun Porarinsdottir who had to make a near lethal journey from her farm at Hvanndalier in the 1850's to the nearest farm Vik in this fyord to get wood for the fire after running out while her husband was away shark fishing! 

makes for a good story for a quiet stretch of road! 

Through tunnel 3 and I'm back in the sunshine..... There's probably a really good reason that the farm Vik had plenty of fire wood! 

Another 7k of tunnel gets me to Siglufyordur a pleasant enough modern looking place....

It occurs to me here that you don't see old buildings in Iceland! Odd!!

The route goes through town then up and up! 

Any viewpoint is a welcome breather from the road! ..... Yeah it's 'interesting' with equally interesting views

And colourful light houses 

A long long stretch of gravely road road twisting left right up and down precipitously past small farms plenty of pony farms here ... Way to many to be for carting stuff about, possibly horse meat?..... No idea

Further with a few more rest stops I reach the end of the high roads and descend into more farmland and just off road is the oldest , tho now unconsecrated church in Iceland

you can't get in today but a worthwhile stop! Lovely bit of woodwork around the door!

and wooden weather vane 

Onwards again and another church just off the road 

more ornate than the usual country churches. 

Once again it's locked. 

So on I go, a long comparably boring section of route 76(the road changed names at Olafsfjordur) and I reach route 1 again, it's pretty late now and I'm certain I won't reach the planned stop so I'm keeping an eye open for wild camps(lay-bys) stopping at one with a toilet on the top of a barren more with the hills atop it 

i read a grizzly story of the last execution in Iceland that took place here at Pristapar, when Friðrik Sigurðsson and Agnes Magnúsdóttir were put to death on 12 January 1830.

They had murdered Natan Ketilsson and Pétur Jónsson at Illugastaðir, Natan's farm, in 1828. The bodies were interred without ceremony at the site of execution, and their heads displayed on pikes!!!

This didn't make for my idea of a comfortable place to stop.... I move on!!

There's a campsite in the next town.... It doesn't open till summer ... I find a lay-by and call it quits!!

Your not supposed to use places like this but it's getting late and I don't care too follow the rules! 

I get a good night's sleep!!

day 83 blowing, hot and cold!

The day starts with the usual blog catch-up, only one day thankfully, I have a rather large first objective! 

The volcano! 

crossing the magma field (all cold now) it's like tourists always say 'it looks like the moon' well I wouldn't know! But it certainly feels unearthly! 

the route up Hverfjall is pretty steep with a cold headwind, I should have bought a scarf! Breathing isn't the easiest! 

looking back does give me the chance to see the tiny red dot in the parking that is my van! 

Yep it's high! 

Cresting the ridge you feel the battering of an Icelandic wind, it's damn strong! 

Looking into the quiescent caldera is hard to imagine how much molten rock was blasted from here! Even with the crusty magma fields!! 

Now is much better time to visit! 

I follow the still steep lip of the cone in a clockwise direction to the highest point, I think this image shows how much I was fighting to stay on my feet! 

and keep my glasses on! 

I lose or break them and I'm knackered!! 

With this in mind I retrace my steps back down pausing briefly for a bit of silliness..... Never too old to make a snow angel!! 

Once back at the van I retrace my steps from yesterday there's a few places I want to see, the first being a small lake in the mountains....I never reach it the road is closed!!!

But I do get to see a thermo electric power station up close! 

and to dabble my fingers a beautifully warm steam going down the valley! 

with the warmth of this water in mind I go to a hot spring spa..... That's the first spa I've ever visited..... It may not be the last! 

After freezing my bits of getting from the changing room to the pool I'm in heaven! 

I really needed this! 

blissfully looking back to the volcano... In the background! 

Stepping from one pool to the next was weird my limbs felt so heavy! 

You'd think they'd be lighter after the clean! 😁😁😁

But I can't stay here forever, so I'm out dried and on my way.... Glowing!

I stop in Ryklalid for diesel and food, getting my first chance to try out the famous Icelandic hotdogs! No idea what the dressing is but it's damn good! 

Filled and restocked and the road is calling....

I'm not planning to go far but there's a waterfall I must see .... You think I'd be used to them by now? 

Not when they're like this one!

looking like a small Niagara! It's damned impressive! 

Godafoss is it's name, literally meaning gods falls! After a local Chieftain cast his Norse gods icons into the water upon converting to Christianity!

Worth the stop.... Nice that parking is free for once! 

There's a souvenir/outdoors shop here, I buy a nice woolly hat too replace the silly hat I bought in Switzerland.... Amusing myself with finding the old hat a new home....

i really should have asked what the story was of this scruffy mannequin!

But the hat at least suited it! 

Travelling on I unexpectedly find another tunnel! Briefly spotting the tiny sign right next to the entrance saying it's a toll road!!!!

More tourist tax!!

Tho for the few quid it worked out it wasn't bad, and it was also the longest tunnel so far at 7km!

They have to recoup the cost I suppose.

 Straight out and on my right is the largest town I've seen so far Akureyri, with a population of 18000 it's considered the capital of the North! ....

It's here I have a campsite to stop at for the night... As usual a reasonable price, nice to have the facilities, makes life that bit more comfy! 

I sit up watching a movie on the phone feeling so relaxed! 

A happy day indeed!