(Lin and Eden)

Note: pictures at the bottom.

Today was a lazy morning since it started raining before we got up, and our first planned hike is essentially right next to the campground. We made pancakes again, but this time with the huge cache of wild blueberries we picked yesterday while walking through the lava fields of Dimmuborgir. They are smaller and a teeny bit tarter, but excellent. By the time we wrapped up breakfast, cleaned the camper a bit, and a few of us showered, the rain had subsided. We drove deep into the “U” of the Asbyrgi canyon and did a short circle hike right up to the teeniest little waterfall trickling down the face of the cliff into a lovely green-blue pool. On the way out, I (Lin) followed the camper van with the drone, since the road was narrow and we were going slowly. 

We stopped briefly for fuel at the only gas station and mini-mart in Asbyrgi (which is not a town at all) before heading north to the coast, where we saw the North Sea for perhaps the first time. As the road wound up along the side of the cliffs, we stopped twice, first to see the views, and second to see puffins! We were high on the cliff but could clearly see puffins in the water below, flying around and diving for food. Occasionally one would land higher up on the cliffs for us to have a clearer view. The panorama sea view from up high was majestic, with a blue sky and widely variable water hues in the distance ranging from Caribbean blue to deep dark ocean blue. 

[Eden here] From there we continued wrapping around the coast of the peninsula, continuing to get gorgeous views of the water, and, as we started to head south, of the mountainous peninsula to the west. We also saw an arctic fox! In its summer outfit of gray fur. 

The arrival to Husavik was every bit as dramatic as hoped. Mom and I have been scheming about this moment for a year and a half now, ever since we thought about journeying to Husavik in 2024 to pay homage to the setting of the Eurovision movie. We cheered when we passed the town sign. Our first stop was the Jaja Ding Dong Bar and the Official Eurovision Museum. We sampled some local food (lamb soup + skyr) and Mom and Kieran and I visited the museum, which gave info on Eurovision, Iceland in Eurovision, and the movie itself. It was entertaining. The bar (which was created after the movie was released but looked nothing like the movie version) has a fabulous view of the Husavik harbor backdropped by the town itself and, beyond that, an amazing green hump of land. Visually it’s by far my favorite town we’ve been in, and that’s excluding exposure bias from having seen it on screen, too. :~) The bar is also located right next to a monument to the Apollo space mission because they had “geology field trips” in Iceland in 1965 and 1967. Random. After the museum we met Dad+Elliot+Harrison at a restaurant for some rare restaurant food (pizza and some local fish!), and then menaced the streets for a bit (church, rainbow road, outdoor gear shop, crafts shop, souvenir shop, gas station) before heading out again.

We continued south to Þorgeirskirkja, a church built in 2000 to commemorate a millenium of Christianity in Iceland, and then to Goðafoss, the last stop on the so-called Diamond Circle and the place where Porgeir allegedly threw in his heathen gods as a symbolic act of dispensing with heathenism. We liked these falls a lot: cute canyon, nice water color, impressive volume of water without being overwhelming. The bigger falls aren’t as fun because you don’t get the intimate experience of getting close to the source but it was still pretty. We saw yet another rainbow on our way out.

From there we followed the ring road westish towards Akureyri, the capital of the north, first poking along in the valleys between big sloping mountains patchworked by pockets of farmland and then cutting through one such mountain via a 7km tunnel (the only paid one in Iceland) that dumped us out on a fjord overlooking Akureryi. Our first and only stop in town was to see the Botanic Garden, which I’ve been excited about for a while. It had an awesome spread of arctic/local plants and an impressive array of other species too — impressive given both the northern location and small size of the garden. We stayed longer than I expected to but not as long as I would have wanted. My plant knowledge is eroding rapidly, sadly (from college classes, thesis research, etc.). 

The campsite wasn’t far away from downtown Akureyri, and we are now parked in a grassy field with 180 deg views of mountains/valleys/fjords. It is awesome. As we were driving in we could see the evening sun on the slopes across the fjord while also seeing rain in two valleys to the southeast. Hopefully we get up early enough to explore more of downtown tomorrow, too, since this is allegedly the capital of the north!

We finished the evening by eating hotdogs and leftovers while watching Cars movie, the laptop propped against the window with mountain views in the background. We love that movie.

Today was nice. We are maybe officially hitting the midtrip energy slump and it is nice to have days that match that. Also fun to walk around town(s)!

Note: you can click on the pictures for larger versions and/or a gallery.