It Wouldn't Be Iceland Without a Little Bit of Bad Weather - Touring the North

We had our last "3-day get-a-way" here in Iceland and decided to head north.  The weather wasn't very nice to us, but we still had a great time and saw more amazing sights.  The pictures below are from the Skagi Peninsula in the north where a storm came through and brought winds of up to 65 mph.

Trying to hang on!

The guesthouse/restaurant where we are working has had a large influx of people volunteering so it became harder to get the car on our days off.  So, we decided to do what a lot of people do over here; hitchhike!  We started out around 11 a.m.  It took us about 45 minutes before a nice Icelandic man stopped and gave us a ride.  He just so happened to be going to the town we were heading to; 175 miles away.  Not only that, but he was also returning on Sunday and offered to bring us back Sunday afternoon.  God was looking out for us! 

 The next few photos are of our drive to Akureyri

 A prominent Luthern Church in the city center of Akureyri

 We rented a car upon arrival in Akureyri so we could explore the area.  We headed east and  came to Godafoss Waterfall.

 Yes, we got a little wet, but we dry out fast!

 Our next stop was Lake Myvatn.  This was a gorgeous area that we wish we could have spent more time in, but because the weather was so rainy we kept moving along.

 Nature reserve near the lake with many walking trails

 The next area we stopped at is a Geo-Thermal area called Namaskard.  Such a beautiful blue lake that boiled out of the earth at 212 degrees.

Short video of the water in the lake

 This is the same area just a short distance from the lake

 Crossing "Jökulsá á Fjöllum" river - The 2nd largest river in Iceland

 Dettifoss Waterfall is the most powerful waterfall in Europe with an average waterflow of 50,000 gallons per second going over the falls

 We are still amazed at how close you can get to the edge of cliffs and waterfalls over here

 This is the same river, just a little further down stream

 This is the Skagi Peninsula and an old abandoned fishing village called Kalfshamarsvik.  We could see many foundations of old houses in the area that were abandoned in the 1930's during the great depression.

 In this same cove were these amazing basalt columns formed from lava flows

 Look closely at these pictures. These aren't rocks lying on the ground.  These are the "top" ends of the basalt columns. 

 Back in Akureyri for another night.  This is the city center's walk platz.

 On Sunday morning we drove out to another peninsula 

 We came across this old fishing village called Siglufjordur

 We continued to the top of the fjord and saw this boat going out sea

 Heading back to Grabrok with our Icelandic friend

 We have 5 days left here in Iceland.  It's been an incredible month!

Another Week in Iceland - More Amazing Views

We had another 3 days off work, but this time we stayed in the local area taking day-trips from the guesthouse.  On our first day off we went to the closest town, Borgarnes, which is 20 miles away and did some shopping and some errands for the restaurant-guesthouse.  Borgarnes has a population of about 1800 people and is in the Western district.

On Saturday we drove about an hour to hike what once was the tallest waterfall in Iceland at 198 meters (643 ft) until another waterfall was discovered in 2011 that measured a drop of 228 meters.  The Glymur Waterfall (the word means to clash, or boom) was quite impressive!

Video of crossing the Botnsa' River

 This view is about half way up the mountain; no siderails on these cliffs!

 On our way to the top

 These pictures don't do justice to the color of green in the moss or the depth of this canyon

Made it to the top!  What a view!

 Back down the mountain and back across the log

 We came across this scene driving back from our hike.  Every September the farmers go up into the mountains and gather their sheep that have been grazing in the mountains since Spring.  They call this "Re`ttir" and it happens all over Iceland.

 On Sunday we headed out again to visit another geothermal area.  No bathing here as the water is 212 degrees.

 We continued on and stopped at the Hraunfossar Waterfall.  This waterfall is actually flowing through an old lava field.

 Here's a pano of the area.  Breathtaking!

 The snowcap mountain in the background is the Langjokull Glacier.

 After the waterfall we headed out to the West Peninsula of Iceland called "Snaefellsnes".  We came across this incredible rock formation in the sea.

          

More ledges without barriers

 At the end of the peninsula we headed up the mountain and into the snow and ice

It's really hard to make snow angels on a glacier

 Coming out of the mountain and into "nothing"; more dirt roads to drive on.

 Great view of the sea coming down from the mountain

 On a working note....David was able to fix the sewer problem at the guesthouse; no one, not even plumbers were able to fix it! He found an old broken sewer pipe going to nowhere.

That's it for this week.  We still have another 10 days at this location in Iceland before we head to Norway again.  David will be working on repairing a room in the guesthouse this week and should have lots of progress.  Please stay tuned for more posts; we plan on visiting the North region on our next days off.  We really appreciate all of you following us.