Iceland (5-Nov to 12th Nov) - Part 7 - Northwest

Thursday 10-11
We woke up pretty early at the Patreksfjörður guesthouse after a good night sleep.  We'd been told that we could stay as late as we liked as it was the end of their tourist season and they had no-one else booked in the next day, but we were keen to get moving as we had some big drives ahead of us.

Our first stop was the Dynjandi / Fjallfoss waterfalls in the Westfjords (Vestfirðir) area.  The roads there were... interesting... to say the least.

We had thought that the foggy, gravel road near Myvatn was bad, then we worried a little by the gravel road around the coast on the way to Patreksfjörðu, but the road we followed here made those roads look like gold edged, velvet covered cushions.  We checked to ensure that they weren't 'highroads' and were suitable for a 2WD car multiple times, and we were reassured that they were.  The first road went around the coastline with quite steep drop.  The scenery was amazing, but our eyes were locked on the road ahead as we bounced away along through the potholes.

The condition of the road - samples from Googlemaps (it was worse than this - watch the video below)

Timelapse:

When we finally hit solid road we were pretty happy, until we started going up into snow.  The snow wasn't too thick and there were other tyre tracks to follow so we decided to push on.

Timelapse:

 I had to stop recording at this point because Kris needed to concentrate on driving and I had to keep an eye out for potholes and other hazards.  Once things settled back down to just be snow and potholes I started recording again:

Timelapse:

When we finally made it to Dynjandi we were exhausted (which was an achievement for me since I wasn't even driving..) but it was worth it!  The falls is a series of falls that we thought was the most impressive of all that we had seen in Iceland.  The weather was pretty nasty, but we took the hike up past all the smaller falls to the top.  The main fall cascades in a 'bridal veil' formation 100m and then down a subsequent 6 other smaller falls.

The view in the other direction was pretty breathtaking also

360 panoramic view

Fjallfoss / Dynjandi

The name Dynjandi means "Thundering Noise" (Fjallfoss means "Mountain Falls").  Dynjandi is the top fall of the Fjallfoss series of waterfalls.

Information

Map of the falls

Bæjarfoss:
The first of the set of falls is Bæjarfoss, the name means "Town falls"

Bæjarfoss

Us at Bæjarfoss

Bæjarfoss

View up to Dynjandi from Bæjarfoss

Hundafoss:

The second of the falls is Hundafoss, meaning "Dog Falls", there are some suggestions that it was names this as dogs were swept over the falls during floods.

Hundafoss

View up to Dynjandi from Hundafoss

Looking back away from the falls

Hrísvaðsfoss:

The next of the falls was Hrísvaðsfoss:

Hrísvaðsfoss

Tomas at Hrísvaðsfoss

Göngumannafoss:

The next fall was Göngumannafoss ("Hiker Falls"):

Göngumannafoss

Alana and Cameron at Göngumannafoss

Göngumannafoss

View back down from Göngumannafoss

Top part of Göngumannafoss

Strompgljúfrafoss:

The next fall was Strompgljúfrafoss ("Chimney Gorge Falls"), the second biggest of the falls:

Strompgljúfrafoss

Strompgljúfrafoss with Dynjandi above

Looking back over the tiers so far

Strompgljúfrafoss

Looking back down

Top of Strompgljúfrafoss

Hæstahjallafoss:

The final fall before Dynjandi was the Hæstahjallafoss ("Highest Helm Falls").  Their location made them quite hard to capture and they weren't sign posted like the others (that we could see).  In the photo below they are the set of falls falling over the ledge in the middle of the shot, just below Dynjandi.

Hæstahjallafoss

Dynjandi:

The final set of falls was the big one, Dynjandi:

                           

Dynjandi

Looking back

We didn't stay as long as we liked as it started snowing and dropping some pretty big wet raindrops.  Our next stop was to be Kirkjufell (a conical mountain) that was about 4hr drive away on the way back to Reykjavik.  But I mentioned it was snowing right?  And that the roads were gravel and full of potholes? And that we had a 2WD?  Remember that section of road I stopped filming at with the timelapse earlier?

Turns out at least another 2cm of snow had fallen while we were exploring Dynjandi and as we tried to climb the rise where I had stopped filming before, the car lost traction on the torn up road and snow and couldn't make it.  Kris rolled the car back to the base of the hill and tried again.  This time we got some grip on the snow, but the road below was so torn up already that we slipped in the mud and ended up losing traction again.  As she tried to reverse back again we ended up slipping and while she maintained control we ended up close to a creek bank and knew that we couldn't risk slipping again.  We were in quite a secluded area - the road only went to the falls and we'd only seen a few cars that day.  I couldn't risk trying to push as the car could have slipped back onto me, or we could have ended up in the creek.  The weather was coming in pretty cold, and while the kids were happy in the back seat playing their IPads, we knew we weren't going to be going anywhere.

We called the roadside assistance number and when I explained that we'd lost traction and were stuck in the snow I was told "There's no snow in Iceland right now."  The fat snowflakes and 5cm of snow under my feet begged to differ.  In the end they said it would cost 60,000ISK (about $1000 AUD) to send someone to help tow us out due to the distance. They suggested that we wait and see if anyone passed.

A few minutes later some tourists in a  4WD arrived, but they didn't have any tow gear.  We tried sitting on the bonnet to help with traction but we couldn't get any grip and if anything we edged closer to the creek.  After they left we didn't see anyone else for another 10min, so we decided to bite the bullet and call roadside assist to get us out.  Just as I was explaining the situation, another 4WD turned up and this one had tow gear and a driver that knew what he was doing.  He managed to hook up the car and after some effort gave us a tow up to the top of the rise.

Getting a tow (top of the slope)

We waved thanks to our hero and started back towards Reykjavik - we had lost a couple of hours and all inclination to push on to Kirkjufell (we likely wouldn't have made it in time before it got dark).  The shortcut to Reykjavik ended up looking pretty daunting, a snow covered slope as bad as the last one, so we ended up taking the safe option and driving the long way back to Patreksfjörður.

After the 'excitement' we were both completely exhausted and decided to take the easy option and take the Ferjan Baldur (Baldur Ferry) across the bay from Patreksfjörður to Stykkishólmur.  Overall it was going to take about the same time as driving, but we would be able to rest for 2 hours, plus there was a chance that we could see the Northern Lights from the ferry.  We needed to wait for a couple of hours as the ferry only went once a day, but we got petrol and had a bit of a rest.

The ferry trip was interesting - we got some dinner and then spent the time between sitting inside in the warm and checking outside for the Lights.  Unfortunately, our friends the clouds followed us and we never saw any of the lights.  The ferry driver promised a smooth crossing but there was still quite a bit of movement and it was fun to try and walk around the deck with the amount of movement.

The ferry

The route

In the end we arrived back at the apartment by 10:30 and collapsed exhausted into bed.  The waterfall had been amazing, but the drive was terrible - next time we'd definitely need a 4WD.

Total Travel:
Patreksfjörður - Dynjandi - Patreksfjörður - Brjánslækur Ferry-  Stykkishólmur (58km - not included as not driven) - Gullsmári,. (402km, 9hrs)

Total distance traveled so far:  2954km

Iceland (5-Nov to 12th Nov) - Part 6 - Southwest

Wednesday 9-11
We started this day a little slowly, still tired from the late night drive by from Mývatn.  The plan was to have a bit of a slower day with MUCH shorter drives - we were going to head out to do the Golden Circle, the main tourist route in Iceland.

The Golden Circle (Gullni hringurinn) is a 300km loop from Reykjavik that hits three main locations - Þingvellir National Park, Gulfoss Waterfall and Haukadalur geothermal area which includes the two geysers (Geysir and Strokkur)

We decided not to spend any time at Þingvellir as we would be going there on Friday, so we had two targets.  We also decided to stop through Reykjavik and visit the famous Hallgrimskirkja.

The church was built in 1945-1986 on a design by state architect Guðjón Samúelsson and based on the Svartifoss waterfall basalt columns.

Hallgrimskirkja from the rear

The church

The doors

Inside the church

Hallgrimskirkja

Outside the front of the church is a statue of Lief Erikson:



Leif Erikson (970-1020) was the first known European to discover North America before Christoper Columbus.  The Icelandic sagas say that he established a Norse settlement at Vinland (likely the northern tip of Newfoundland in Canada or around the Gulf of St Lawrence).

After leaving the church, we drove out to the Haukadalur geothermal area to see the Geysers.

Time lapse:

The first sight we saw when we pulled up was the Glíma wrestler statue outside the hotel, the boys argues over which one of the wrestlers they were:

Glíma wrestler statue

I had to look up the statue online to work out what it was about - it ranked somewhere with the Man Attacked By Babies statue we saw in Oslo.  It turns out that the family that owns the hotel have a strong wrestling history and one of their ancestors Sigurdur Greipsson, was a famous Icelandic wrestler known as a "glímukappi"

In the Haukadalur area there are two main geysers and lots of smaller ones.  Geysir is the largest and   the most famous.  It was the first geyser known to modern Europeans and the first in written history.  It's name is derived from the Icelandic word Geysa, meaning to gush.  It is the geyser that gave all the others the name.

Geysir is predicted to be 10,000 years old and has erupted sporadically over the years, firing boiling water up to 70m high.  Eruptions of Geysir are often related to volcanic activity in the area.  In 1910 it erupted every 30 minutes and by 1915 it was every 6 hours.  The eruptions stopped in 1916 and in 1935 a channel was dug to lower to water table and Geysir became active again until the channel clogged.  In 1981 the channel was cleared again and eruptions were often forced.  An earthquake in 2000 woke it up again and it erupted to a height of 122m.  It then settled in to around 8 eruptions a day, slowing to 3 per day by 2003.

The most recent eruption was in February 2016 and approximately one every year or two before that.  Unfortunately we weren't lucky enough to see Geysir erupt, however the smaller Strokkur geyser (Icelandic for churn) erupts every 6-10 minutes and reaches 15-20m, with a recorded maximum of 40m

Litli Geysir

Bubbling pools

Fumaroles

Haukadalur

Bubbling pools:

Mineral deposits in the water

Strokkur

Waiting for Strokkur

Strokkur erupts

Hot pools

Blesi - Southern Pool - If you look closely, you can see the hole in the middle back that fills and heats the pool

The next pool we stopped at was Konungshver (The King's Hot Spring) named after King Christian IX of Denmark who visited in 1874:

Konungshver

Next we headed up to Geysir.  I think we half expected to have magical luck and see it explode, but I think we'd used up all our wishes driving the foggy dirt road into Myvatn.  There were plenty of people hanging around with video cameras ready, but since the last eruption was in February I think they'll be waiting a while..

Geysir

Mountains behind Haukadalur

We watched Strokkur erupt a couple more times before we left:

Looking back over Haukadalur

   

Mountains on the horizon

Our next stop was Gullfoss waterfall.  Gullfoss (Golden Falls) forms part of the Hvítá river and is one of the most popular tourist sites in Iceland.  The water runs down three "stairs" then falls down two stages - 11m and 21m into a crevice.

Information about the name and the falls

How was it formed?

The gorge - can't see the falls yet

Gulfoss

Top of Gulfoss

Top of Gulfoss

Lower part of Gulfoss

Us in front of Gulfoss

Kids and Gulfoss

Top of the falls

Mountain views from Gulfoss

After Gulfoss the plan had been to head back to our apartment, but that morning we had changed the plans.

Tomorrows trip was to be the northwest of Iceland, and the drive was quite long - even if we left at 6am, we'd be unlikely to arrive and see everything we wanted in time, and it would be a long drive. So we decided to book into a guest house in Patreksfjörður, a town for 651 inhabitants in the Westfjords area and base ourselves from there.

The roads were pretty good up until we reached the Westfjords then we found ourselves weaving around the coast at the base of mountains, with sheer drops into the ocean. Many of the roads were gravel and very pot-holed.  It wasn't the best drive in the world but we arrived at the guesthouse at 10:15pm, made a coffee and fell asleep.  We'd been hoping that we would see the Northern Lights as we were very far north and my Aurora app showed we had a 50% chance, but our good friend thick black cloud cover was back with a vengeance.  No Northern Lights for us.



Total Travel:
Gullsmári  - Hallgrimskirkja - Geysir - Gullfoss -  Patreksfjörður. (604km, 8hrs)

Total distance traveled so far:  2552km