After we left Hvammstangi we drove North out of town on Road 711 to go to Hvitserkur, a 45 foot tall rock formation just off shore. The legend is that the arch is actually a petrified troll that got caught by the sunlight and turned to stone. There was a deck overlooking the beach and a rather steep muddy path all the way down to the shore line. When the tide is high the base of the rocks is submerged, but we arrived at low tide so we were able to walk out onto the black sand beach and right up to the arch. Legends aside, the rock is actually what is left of an old volcanic plug. The crater has been eroded by the ocean and the plug in all that is left behind, although we noticed the bottom had been reinforced with concrete so the ocean seems to be working pretty hard to erode this bit away as well. We spent some time taking photos and admiring all the beautiful jellyfish washed up on the beach before heading back to the car to escape the cold wind.
We cut back to the ring road on the 717, a dirt road around a gorgeous lake with snow-capped mountains in the distance and then made a beeline for Saudarkrokur to visit the Tannery there. Its the only place in Europe and one of very few in the world that makes leather from fish skins. It was the wrong time of the year to take a tour of the factory, but we enjoyed looking around their shop and reading about the history of tanneries in Iceland. Its amazing how strong and soft they can make the fish skins, and they had everything from wallets and handbags to jewelry and throw pillows made from the leather. Apparently a lot of high fashion designers like Gucci and Prada purchase fish leather from them. They use many different types of fish, including salmon and wolf fish, and a variety of dyes to create leathers of every texture and color under the sun. I bought several scraps of fish leather as well as a small sheep hide with long silky wool in a beautiful auburn color.
| | We started south on road 75 with the idea of looking for a waterfall, but we ended up stopping at Glaumbaer to see the Skagafjordur Heritage Museum, a collection of old turf farmhouses. Trees are few and far between here in Iceland, so in the old days wood was not a practical building material and many buildings were made of cut squares of turf (think sod) stacked in various patterns to form strong walls and then thatched over with more grass. It looks like a real life version of the Shire from the Hobbit, maybe that's where Tolkien got his inspiration from! |
At Glaumbaer there was an exhibition of artifacts in an old yellow wooden farmhouse, and a nice tearoom on the first floor called Ashus. We each had a traditional Icelandic "pancake" that was more like a crepe, served with rhubarb jam and cream, and a pot of tea. We ended up spending several hours there and had a nice conversation with the woman who ran it. She convinced us to drive the coastal road 76 rather than go straight across the ring road to Akureyri, so we turned back North and spent the evening camping in Hofsos.
We drove north from Saudarkrokur in search of he Grettislaug hot spring, and when we arrived we realized it was also a campground so we decided to stay and spend the night. After setting up our tent we had a nice long soak in the hot pool to the sound of the waves crashing on the rocks and the sight of snow-capped mountains on two sides. In the morning we had another nice long soak with a light rain coming down before getting back on the road. We stopped back a the Tannery on our way through to have another look around and ended up buying a bit more fish leather (who knows when we'll find it again!) for some projects we have in mind when we get home.
The next day we drove North to Siglufjordur on a beautiful coastal road that rose high up on the mountainside and traveled through a rather sketchy one-lane tunnel. The town is a little fishing village right on the ocean, about 40km from the arctic circle, surrounded on three sides by tall mountains covered in snow. We got some great fish and chips at a small local fish shop and then relaxed for several hours at Adalbakarinn, a nice little cafe with some world class pastries. We decided to head back south to Hofsos in the afternoon so that we could go for a swim in their famous swimming pool, located on the edge of a cliff with views of the ocean and mountains on three sides.
Just outside of town we passed a huge inlet with water so still it created a perfect mirror for the mountains surrounding it. We drove the car down a small rocky road and hiked out onto the strip of land separating the inlet from the ocean and enjoyed amazing views of the calm water while listening to the huge waves crashing just on the other side. We enjoyed the sunset over the ocean from the warm water of the heated outdoor pool and made the rest of the trek to Akureyri in the dark.
Just outside of town we passed a huge inlet with water so still it created a perfect mirror for the mountains surrounding it. We drove the car down a small rocky road and hiked out onto the strip of land separating the inlet from the ocean and enjoyed amazing views of the calm water while listening to the huge waves crashing just on the other side. We enjoyed the sunset over the ocean from the warm water of the heated outdoor pool and made the rest of the trek to Akureyri in the dark.
We both agreed that the scenery in Northern Iceland has been some of our favorite so far...we just can't get enough of these mountains!
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