Iceland 2018 - Part 3

A bit of an emotional day today as we parted ways with Jake. We were leaving Akureyri in an easterly direction, over to our next cottage over in the east, and Jake was going in the opposite direction back to Reykjavik for one night then an early start to the airport and back home. We all left around 9:30am, sad to leave the stunning house that had been our home for the last 5 days with all of it's 'mod cons', but it would be good to get to see a new part of Iceland.

For the first couple of hours we followed the route that we went a few days ago when we visited Dettifoss, but from then on it was new territory. Our route saw us cross some really barren regions with little more than grey rocks peppered with part snow covered mountains; still with it's own beauty though. Then many hours of driving through the Eastfjords with it's steep mountains flanking the road, following the edges of fjords, and waterfalls tumbling down the mountainside at every turn. This was truly epic scenery and I wouldn't have missed this for the world. At around 5:30pm we arrived at our newly built cottage, built in the traditional style with corrugated steel on the outside and wood on the inside. Not as modern and feature packed as where we had just come from, but very remote and with stunning scenery surrounding us. Now for a chilled evening before and early start tomorrow. And to day 11. A very early start, we jumped out of bed and by 5am were packed up and on our way west to Jokulsarlon ice lagoon. Obviously it was pitch black which is never great to drive in, however as you would expect the roads were empty. We went mile after mile without seeing a single car. Our plan was to get there around sunrise, and a little before 7am we were parked up. As the sun was rising we went down to Diamond Beach first, the place where all the ice from the lagoon gets washed back up on the black sand beach by the raging waves; and boy were they raging.

We then walked to the lagoon and it was mesmerising, so many colours of ice, sparkling blue, crystal clear, white, and some black with ash. I was amazed at just how much ice there was. Oh, and the speed of the sea as it poured through the gap from open water into the lagoon. We went back to the beach a little later, in fact we were there for 4hrs in total. Next stop was a further 45 minutes drive west over to Skaftafell National Park, and a hike up to see the beautiful waterfall of Svartifoss. Nestled at the top of a gorge presenting itself in autumn colours, the waterfall made up of basalt columns shows off the magic that is nature. Thankfully the weather held off and just as we were walking across the car-park back to the car the rain came down. We had hoped to stop off at Fjalsarlon on the way back but the weather was a bit of a deterrent, lovely blue sky out at sea, low cloud and rain over land. I don't need to say that we didn't stop off, but ended up having lunch back at Diamond Beach. By a little after 5pm we had arrived back at the cottage, tired and weary. I threw some burgers on the BBQ and we were going nowhere but to bed this evening.

And boy did I sleep well, in fact I went to bed to 8:30pm and Donna only an hour or so after me. But, by around 5:30am we were both awake and ready to hit the road again. Not as early as yesterday, but still we left at 6:45am heading for Vestrahorn. It was about an hour before we arrived, we paid the 800 krona each to go out onto the peninsula; for anyone that hasn't heard of the place it's worth checking out some of the photos on the internet. Black sand beach with golden yellow vegetation and a stunning mountain behind. As we arrived, no surprise that there was a decent number of photographers set up on the beach. Apart from the race back to the car when we had a rain and hail storm, we spent about an hour on and around the beach before heading to the cafe for a hot drink. Almost £6 each for a hot chocolate and Mocha, so they know what to charge! We then headed along the path to the Viking Village, a set that was built for a movie and sitting at the bottom of the slopes of Vestrahorn. An amazing location. Next stop was a little further down the coast to Hofn, a small port town which is more functional than nice to look at. It did however have a decent selection of places to eat and we had lunch at a lovely little place; I had a lobster baguette with fries, and Donna a burger with fries. We'd planned an early finish today as we have the 6hr plus stops drive tomorrow to our last home of the two weeks. So apart from the customary stops for photos, and a stop to meet some Icelandic horses, we went back to the cottage, arriving a little before 3pm.

After sitting down for a cuppa for 30 minutes or som I got itchy feet wanting explore what was behind the cottage. I spent about an hour out there, but about 1/2 mile from the cottage the area was fenced so I just meandered around taking a few photos of local flora. I arrived back at the cottage, and Donna just knew that I would want to take advantage of what light was left, so we jumped into the car and headed around 15 minutes down the road and parked up next to a beach with black sand and pebbles being pounded by white waves. We had to sit for about 30 minutes until the rain abated a little, but I did  manage 15 minutes or so taking some photos in what was now very poor light. So, time to head back for the evening in readiness for the next leg of the journey.