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The trip to Iceland Part II Kirkjubæjarklaustur to Höfn 13-July-2002 -- Arnór Baldvinsson After a longer break than we had expected, we now continue our travel story. The trip from Kirkjubæjarklaustur to Höfn í Hornafirði was uneventful, except that half way we realized that the laptop had not got quite turned off the night before so we were unable to download any images from the camera! The weather was not very cooperative as it rained most of the way and low clouds prevented us from seeing some of the most awsome glacier views you can imagine. The Skaftafell national park is just South of the icecap with the tallest peak in Iceland, Hvannadalshnúkur, towering over it at 2119 meters or almost 7,000 feet. The road is almost at sea level and the mountain peak is only a few miles from the road so the view is awsome - on clear days! We had no such luck! 
Rather than nothing, I'm including here an old picture taken from the West of Hvannadalshnúkur. I took this picture probably around 1993. This is the only picture that I have scanned in so far, the rest are all taken with our digital camera. The road takes you over sands that go on for miles and miles. Sometimes called the biggest desert in Europe, the Skeiðarársandur is about 20 miles wide where the road crosses it. There is nothing there except miles and miles of black sand. 
About midway between Kirkjubæjarklaustur and Höfn, there is Jökulsárlón, also called Breiðamerkurlón. An ice cold lagoon where the Vatnajökull glacier pushes out towards the sea. Don't be fooled by the visual size of those icebergs, they are floating in the lagoon and only 10% of the icebergs extends above the water. The ones in the background are probably close to 300 feet tall, but only about 30 feet are above the water. You can buy trips out on the lake, but make sure you are well dressed because it is always cold this close to the ice, even if the weather is good and the sun is shining. The water is, obviously, very, very cold! 
This lagoon connects to the sea, only about 150 meters away, by the shortest river in Iceland. This place is a nightmare for road engineers! The sea eats into the sand reef every year and there is nothing that can stop it. Any preventive construction just sinks in the sand which is all you have for probably about a hundred meters down. There is nothing that can bind the sand and nature simply must have it's way with things. If the sea and the lagoon eat the reef away completely, the road distance from the east bank of the river to the west bank will go from 100 meters to... 1400km! 
Höfn í Hornafirði (Höfn means Harbor, í means in and Hornafirði is the name of the fjord) is one of Icelands biggest fishing towns, but the harbor can be trecherous. Many fishermen have perished when trying to reach harbor and the picture above is from a memorial marker for seafarers who have died there. |
Höfn and onward... 14-July-2002 -- Arnór Baldvinsson At Höfn we stopped and had some refreshment in a very nice little restaurant. Unfortunately we did not note down the name of it and I can not find it on the web. 
This was a nice and cozy place, just right after being out on the rainy roads for hours. We had some coffee and sandwiches. Sue tried chocolate cakes in every restaurant we stopped at. 
Looks delicious doesn't it? This restaurant kind of saved our day as it had electrical outlets all around so I could download the pictures from the camera and get it ready to take some more. We had hoped to get some clear and dry weather driving up the East coast, but the weather was not cooperative at all on our journey to the Eastern Fjords. The road from Höfn to Reyðarfjörður winds it's way around fjords and bays for 280km or around 175 miles. The first hurdle is Almannaskarð, just a few km. out of Höfn. It is steep and there is no room for hairpin turns, so it can be quite a challenge during the winter time when there is ice or snow on the road! The road does not have blacktop and probably never will because of icing danger during the wintertime. 
Unfortunately most of this part of the trip was in fog and bad visibility conditions and no view to the mountains. That was really a pity because the Eastern Fjords have some of the most spectacular mountains in the country. 
In some places the road is hundreds of feet above the sea cliffs, which makes for a spectacular view. Some of these roads can be quite dangerous particularly during the wintertime if there is ice, but fortunately that is rather rare and usually does not last very long. 
Hvalnes is the small peninsula that can be seen here in the far background. The road there is about 400 feet above sea level. When we were travelling it was being rebuilt and was extremely coarse so it took us quite a while to travel those few km through there. Here are some links that may be of interest: Video from Iceland - image quality not very good. www.vatnajokull.com - some nice pictures East Iceland - Pictures, links, information. |
To
Reyðarfjörður
and meeting my partents 14-July-2002 -- Arnór Baldvinsson The Reyðarfjöður village has a population of about 700 people. This is where we were headed, but when we first arrived, we decided to go directly to see my parents who live in a nursing home in the next village, Eskifjörður , about 16km (10miles) beyond Reyðarfjörður. 
My parents have lived in that home for about a year now and like it there. They have a nice, fairly big, one room apartment on the second floor of the building. From there they have an excellent view over the harbor of Eskifjörður. 
This is the view to the South-East from the balcony... 
... and this is the view to the South-West. This was my first vist back to Iceland since I moved to the US in 1999. My dad, Jóhann Björgvinsson, was born in 1918 and turns 84 in September. My mom, Sigurborg Sigurðardóttir, was born in 1919 and turns 83 in August. While my mom suffers from dementia and my dad has had some health problems in the past few years, they are in pretty good shape for their age! 
Obviously they were very happy to see their only grandchild, Laila, and spoiled her with everything they could, while her parents tried in vain to prevent it<bg>. 
Getting my mom, Sue and Laila onto one picture, proved to be virtually impossible! My mom and Laila would end up chasing each other all over the room, so it never quite worked out for me to get a good picture of all of them. 
The first 3 days we stayed with my brother, Baldvin Baldvinsson, at Reyðarfjörður. I took this picture of his daughter, Erna Rakel, and his granddaughter, Bjarney Linda Heiðarsdóttir, and Laila, just after we came. 
Next time we will relax at the farm and Laila will help daddy go fix the broken waterpipe! |
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