When I opened the door to the guesthouse at Setberg this morning, we saw that the sky above Grundarfjörður was
covered in a big blanket of clouds. The top of mountains had disappeared and the waters of the fjord had turned
grey. It looked like all the clouds in the area had merged. Some light filtered through and we could still see
well into the distance underneath the clouds, but it was very windy, very cold, and it looked like it was about
to get very wet.
I felt we needed to get out of there quick but I couldn't resist taking a few more photos to stitch this together.
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We arrived in the nick of time to board the ferry at Stykkishólmur. It was cold, wet and windy, so we didn't stay on the top deck for very long. |
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Many people got off at Flatey island along the way, so we had half the boat to ourselves. It takes three hours to get from Stykkishólmur at the north end of the Snæfellsnes peninsula to Brjánslækur on the West Fjords. We were starting to feel a little queasy towards the end of the ride. |
| In the West Fjords, the driving was slow and not very scenic because of the weather. The wind was strong and, for the first time that I could remember, I didn't feel safe within the comfort of the car. At one point, when we were crossing a bridge on a mountain pass, I was hesitant to drive across for fear of the car being blown off it. The car kept wanting to swerve off the road and for the first time, I realised it was the wind that was causing this problem. I hung on firmly to the steering wheel, and we drove on. |
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The ducks were not complaining though. |
| When we weren't driving over mountains, we were driving around fjords, but the wind was still very strong. This is the view from the top of Dynjandi. |
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It got a little brighter when we reached the bottom of Dynjandi waterfall, so we took a few quick photos. It was still drizzling though. |
| Another waterfall. |
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We drove past a couple of these guys too. |
| We passed by Hrafnseyri which had a turf-roofed building, so it was photo and coffee break time. It turned out to be the birthplace of Jón Sigurðsson. |
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This is the lupin, a flower that grows everywhere in Iceland. This picture was taken at a small pictureque village called Þingeyri. It is one of the oldest trading posts in the West Fjords. |
| After a long day, we arrived at Ísafjörður . I know I mentioned this earlier, but I want to say again how nice, friendly and helpful Icelanders are (or so it would seem to us tourists). Áslaug guesthouse was not on any of the maps, so we asked about it at a petrol station and a young man there offered to show us where it was. I was about to hand him the map but he said it was complicated and that he would lead us to it instead. We drove our car behind his and followed him through a maze of houses to arrive at Áslaug's frontyard, hidden away in a quiet alcove. |
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| Back to Day 3 <<< | >>> Day 5: The drive to Holmavík |
