Day 3--Sauðarkrokur and the North Coast

Our third day commenced a little later, as I took advantage of the internet access and we both took advantage of the more elaborate breakfast.  I made a couple waffles, though they didn´t quite turn out. Packed, fed, and wrapped up against the wind, we set out to explore the northern shoreline.  Turning off Route 58, the little side road that takes you onto the smaller peninsula on which Stykkisholmur is located, we turned back onto the main road, Route 54.  Actually, to be honest, we went right past the turn and had to go back.  The road signs here are understated and the intersection marked little in advance.

By the time we realized and returned to the road, we saw why we had missed it.  Our main road, the road we had been traveling on all  the previous day, had now, magically, suddenly, turned to gravel.  Now this may not seem like a big deal to readers who have not visited this country, but let me tell you, this volcanic rock is no joke.  It is super hard, and some pieces are so sharp that it is uncomfortable to even hold.  Needless to say, flat tires are really common.  This fact, too probably means little.  I beseech you to recall the kind of landscape you have known us to be traveling--remote, quiet...  often an hour between towns with a fuel station.  Add to this the fact that it is not unusual for us to see another car only once an hour.  Once an hour!  A country of only about 310,000 people, two thirds of that population lives in the grater Reykjavik area.  That leaves only about 100,000 people to populate the entire rest of the island.  Add to this now the fact that the wind generally whips so fast that doing anything delicate with your fingers, such as taking a photograph or changing a tire, perhaps, gets painful pretty quickly at -4°C (about 25°F)*.  So between the infrequent traffic, the wind, the cold, and the desolate landscape, I hope now you can understand our trepidation.  Oh yeah, and neither of us have ever changed a tire.  Ever.

It was with all this information looming, that we cautiously headed down Route 54 towards Buðardalur. Mom gripped the steering wheel, lowering her speed to 50km/hr as we both kept a sharp eye for pot holes.  Before too long, we eased a bit as we saw a similar local car whiz by at at 90km/hr, reassuring us that folks do, in fact, travel on this road without the use of heavy machinery.  While the road was precarious, the views were spectacular.  We snapped photos, snacked and made our way north.  After about two hours, we were relieved to return to asphalt when we rejoined the main, circuitous Route 1.  Following this along Hrutafjorður, a NW fjord.

We were headed now to see Glaumbær, a Viking settlement dating back to 1104.  Several peat buildings have been resurrected and relocated from their excavation site to demonstrate what original homes were like.  Pretty cool, actually, and it was good to check off one of the sites Mom was eager to visit.  After investigating as fully as we could without the museum itself being open, we had decided to head for Akureyri, a large town on the north coast boasting a university and botanical gardens.

It proved to be a long day of driving, with few small excursions to distract us from this fact.  Additionally, by now the elevation and lattitude (not sure which had the greatest effect) were so high, that we lost radio signal.  We no longer had the mix of local Icelandic folk/pop, slightly out of date club hits like Rihanna´s "Umbrella," and old school jams, like Bob Marley´s "No Woman, No Cry"  to keep us entertained.  So, we watched the landscape with extra intentness.

Towards the latter part of the afternoon, around 17:00 or so, we started to climb in elevation to pass through a few mountains before arriving in Akureyri.  We marveled at the steep walls on either side of us, and their snow-capped peaks.  It was truly remarkable.  As we continued northwards, the peaks get snowier by the minute, and soon they were magical, pristene, white slopes.  We were totally awestruck.  Absolutely spectacular.  We stopped wherever possible to try to capture what we were seeing, but nothing really can.

We were marveling at our fortune to be just where we were and snapped as many shots as we could before the peaks were immersed in clouds.  Soon though, we noticed the clouds getting thicker, the winds picking up, and the roads showing signs of ice.  We slowed a bit, but continued onwards.  Moments later, coming towards us we see two snow plows, each casting of fresh snow.  "No,"  Mom says, "No."  We stop and turn around right in our spot.  A snowy and icy mountain pass was too risky in a small, foreign car with no snow tires. 


Though it was getting late, we headed the 1-2 hours to the nearest town likely to have accomodation.  We had passed through Varmahlið earlier to get some gas and a cup of coffee for Mom, and having seen a hotel near the fuel station, we decided to give it a try.  It was a sight for sore eyes in the fading light to see its form ahead of us.  I went to the door and pulled.  Nothing (We found out later that the manager´s number was taped to the door, and all one needs to do is call and someone will come and open up).  Not knowing this, we headed north to a town called Sauðdarkrokur, purported to have great scallops and a lovely, unique hotel.


Though we found the town easily enough, accommodation was harder than expected.  We drove around for nearly 30 minutes calling whatever numbers we could find in our guidebook, and any we found taped to guest house doors.  Soon we were lucky enough to find Hotel Tindastoll, highly recommended in our guide.  We called the manager, who came right over and let us into a very cute little room, with lots of unique little touches making it feel like home.  She directed us down the street to Olafshus Restaurant, the only place to get food in town, where we both supped on Atlantic Char, roasted potatoes and vegetables.  Yum.  After uploading and saving photos, blogging and emailing, I turned in for the night full and happy.

*The temps, from what I have seen, have ranged from -1°C to -5°C (30°F to 23°F), but I don´t what the wind chill factor is... some days, I´d wager, incredibly high.