Fjords

So we woke early.......that light that never goes away at night, finally does.....for about two hours before reappearing sometime around three thirtyish.. SO when you wake up then, your whole system convinces you to get up.

We actually DID get up and start walking a little after six. Both of us had screaming quads, probably due to the fact that there are not many flat walks here. I hoped they served screaming quads medicine at breakfast.....bacon.. Went down to the beach to get the muscles moving and strolled along for a while. Our exemplary approach to fitness and early rising was rewarded with a school/flock/pod/herd of seals in the shallows. We only glimpsed the occasional head bobbing up, but it was a nice way to start the day.

After breakfast we headed up yet another road to make Marjan shudder to the Latrabjarg cliffs. These are renowned with birders everywhere and we hoped to see puffins. We were disappointed by one letter. We only saw puffin, a solitary one. Well I do not count the sightings of what may have been puffins flying out to sea. This is the most westerly point in Europe and amazingly scary cliffs....again the highest in Europe. The puffins, of course, nest on the cliff....not on the land above, ON THE CLIFF. So to see them you wander along this eroding cliff face, getting as close to the edge as you can and peer over. We decided to let someone go in front of us and do that, whilst we took a slightly more inland path. We figured we'd soon find out if they found one. As it turns out a nice Japanese guy pointed one out for us on his way back.

The road back to civilization was as interesting on the way out as one the way in. The grader was still working and there were no workmen directing traffic. I had a gesticulating gentleman wanting me to move out of the way because his Fiat 200, or some similar sized micro car, could not roll over the ridge of dirt left by the grader. He was on the wrong side of the road and I think he expected me to go cross country.....through the solid wall of rock on my right.....anywhere but in his way.

You can see some of the road below, winding around the headland

Finally got on to made road but it hardly helped. Marjan's summation of the West Fjords: “Amazingly beautiful scenery, obscenely scary roads”. We stopped a Patreksfjordur for some fuel and a freshly baked corn bread. The lady was nice when we oohed and aahhed over the freshly baked bread. Apparently the locals do not appreciate her father's creations.

As Marjan said.....the scenery is amazing. All those crinkly bits that Slartibardfast designed, and won an award for, come up a real treat. We found a spot at the bottom of one, near a graveyard to have some lunch whilst looking at the birds in the water.

At the bottom of another, we were told there was a hot spring fed pool. Essentially in an unpopulated fjord bottom, lies this lovely free pool. Unfortunately it was empty, so instead I jumped into the river feeding the pool with a group of young Belgians. It was very hot. When the Belgians got up they were red from the midriff down. I did not stay in for long enough to have that happen, but it was an interesting experience to have a hot bath in a running stream.

More Fjords, more stunning scenery. More mountains, water, ice, sheep......Marjan thinks the fences in Iceland are to keep the sheep out. Most of them just seem to wander wherever they like.....look there are two lying on the beach......look there are half a dozen making a mad rush to head butt our car.....

As we came down into the Arnafjordu we saw a mountain of water...probably the same water photographed above,....coming down. We spent probably an hour and a half just wandering up and down the path here. It is not one waterfall but a complex of them, that wander down from the highlands into the Fjord. They each have a name and the main one is Dynjandi.

More fjords.....more colour.......more sheep.......more roads to terrify Marjan. At one of our stops we had a laugh about the forthcoming sheep groping festival. Life is too short already.....sheep groping! It boggles the mind.

They finally decided to cut through and built a tunnel....six k through the mountain with a T intersection in it and a single lane for 4k.

Anyway into Islafjordur. I would tell you how close it is to the Arctic Circle, very, but our internet is not very reliable and in fact has packed it in. Late Edit: it is 54km from the Arctic. Hence quite mild with the locals skiing on a surfboard. We headed out for a fish dinner and will probably make it an early one, which means going to bed in daylight.