Iceland Day 2

---

It’s not every day you climb (well, drive) over a mountain three times in the same day, but we managed it today and we are back at the same place this evening! But we will come onto that later, as yesterday was our wedding anniversary we had a meal in the hotel restaurant which was lovely but they were very busy and the service was slipping.



This morning we awoke to mist and rain, and there were no waterfalls to be seen from the bedroom, in fact we could not see more than about 50 metres in any direction. Despite the conditions not improving much we set off on to explore the local area.



Our plan was to drive over Sneafell to the other side of the peninsular and then come back via the coast road. Well the conditions were so bad with rain and fog visibility fell to about 10 metres and we were following the road on the sat nav as much as looking were we were going but as we started to come down the other side the fog lifted and we were treated to spectacular views even through the rain.



We meandered from village to village stopping for lunch in a fantastic little cafe (Kaffí Sif) at Rif where we were served wonderful homemade soup and bread, followed by hot chocolate and cake.



We climbed up an extinct volcano and looked down into the crater then stopped at Dritvik to see the volcanic pebble beach and the remains of the British trawler Epine which was wrecked on the coast here in 1947 and is slowly being reclaimed by nature. On descending to the beach, bright green moss and grass was replaced with black pebbles with contrasting bright orange rusty bits of trawler and matching seaweed. The black pebbles make unique sounds as you walk across them.



Further round the coast we saw cliffs with nesting sea birds and at Arnastapi the whole meadow behind the cliffs is a nesting site for arctic terns, swooping and filling the air with their high-pitched cries. Finally late in the afternoon the rain stopped and the sun came out and burned off the clouds that had been hanging around the tops of the mountains all day.



So on discovering that the nearest shop was on the other side of the mountain we went back over the route we had taken in the morning and what had been OK this morning now turned into a fantastic vision as we climbed up to the highest point where you can look down onto the coast. After visiting the shop we returned the same way and we are now back at the hotel.



Moving on again tomorrow

---

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Iceland
Each moment seems better than the last.