There was a queue for a table at the buffet breakfast but we employed a boy-child waiter to tell us when a table for four people became free. I wasn’t as keen on the chia porridge today, but I enjoyed the beetroot and ginger shot enough to give it a three word review: spicy purple mud.
Rooms packed in hyper-efficient style and checkout completed, we were on our way again! Another day with no deadlines so we headed in totally the opposite direction to the next hotel to visit the eastern fjords. We had two recommendations: Seydisfjorur and Borgarfjordur. The first for listening to Americans fresh off a cruise ship chatting with locals and the second for the mushroom soup!
Seydisfjordur is at the head of a fjord and to get there, you have to go through an enormous plateau and then up and over a ridge between fjords. The top was so high it went through cloud and we felt for the three cyclists (Keith and I thought probably cruise boat crew) half way up the switchback road. We saw a waterfall on the way down to the fjord called Gufufoss which was very pretty. I will let Danny rate it!
Seydisfjordur is a small town with the best preserved collection of wooden buildings and a painted road leading up to the pastel blue church. When we arrived (on a Sunday) at about 10.30am, the cruise boat had just disgorged it’s cargo in the form of multiple walking tours. They moved at a rather shuffling pace so overtaking was doable, but waiting for them to move out of shot was rather more frustrating!
Mila and I took advantage of the few touristy shops being open to have a look round. That meant we got to listen to an older American lady opening a conversation with the shop owner that started with “Do y’all live upstairs?”, moving on to “Does it snow here?” And ending with “Do the children go to school?”. The Icelandic lady taking the American lady’s money for grossly inflated (even for Iceland) products managed to be polite but her assistant grinned at us when she saw us rolling our eyes! The shops clearly only existed for the cruise boat crowd, but they did have some nice vases. Keith said no. Then I looked online, and you can buy them in the UK from Oliver Bonas. Hate it when he is right!
Keith got the church shot he wanted so we headed off to the second puffin colony of the trip at Borgarfjordur. It was quite a long way as we had to go back almost to last night’s hotel before we could go up the next fjord. Half way up there was a stopping place with information and a toilet: no running water, just a hole in the ground with a toilet above it and some hand gel. I didn’t notice when I sat down (until I stood up!), but Danny enjoyed weeing into the abyss!
Apparently it was worth rhe journey as he managed to take a photo of a puffin with its beak full of fish and one in flight. Most of the puffins were sat out on the water, but there were a few still feeding young. I saw lots of fulmar and kittiwakes feeding juveniles and making the expected levels of noise.
We took a break to have a wee and something warm to eat. The toilets were clean and functional and the cafe ladies were lovely. They sold us a panini and a bowl of a soup and told us to help ourselves to refills. Keith reckoned that the last cruise ship tour had been and they had some left. But it was delicious and we all hoovered it up!
We went back out for another observation/photography session and I snuck off to a quieter observation platform on the left of the promontory. I was just as interested in the nesting guls as the puffins. I had been standing there for a few minutes when the kittiwakes started fighting and splashing about in the water, then they started diving and coming up with tiny fish. They could only have been 100m from where I was standing in a tiny cliffed bay just beyond the harbour. A massive splash made me jump but I missed the cause, I turned to look and a seal breached on it’s side, slapping the water violently with its flipper. The birds all took to the air briefly and then landed again. Another seal breached and slapped. I don’t know if they were trying to scare the birds of coral the fish, but I didn’t think the rest of the family would forgive me if I let them miss it. I crept off the platform and ran around to the other side to let them know with stealthy signals. Then I ran back. We were lucky snd the seals were still there although I think they had snaffled all the fish while I was away. They were curious but unafraid of us and gave Keith some good head shots! Unexpected wildlife spotting makes me so happy!
On our journey back across the country we stumbled across Lagarfoss power station. It is a hydro electric power station, originally built in the 1970s and greatly upgraded in 2007 from 8MW to 28MW. They have diverted part of the river to go through the power station and there are enormous gates that can be opened or closed to control the flow. It is an amazing piece of engineering, miles away from the closest town or village and yet there are still people on the internet complaining that they have ruined the waterfall!
The next landmark we found was a bridge across Canyon Moira. It wasn’t marked on any of our maps but it was worth a stop: vertical walls, with turquoise water rhat was so clear you could see the canyon walls under the water level. Keith and the children entertained themselves by dropping different sized rocks (not Dwayne or Chris obviously!) into the water to listen to the different plopping noises they made. Each to their own.
Our only planned stop of the afternoon was a waterfall called Rjukandafoss. It was only a short walk today and worth it for the view. A coach pulled up as we were coating up, so we rushed to get up so Keith could take photos without people spoiling it! We made it and got the snap – you would not believe the pressure. We had more opportunity for tutting on the way down as at least five people from the coach had left the path (contrary to the bloody enormous sign at the bottom!) and were wandering right down by the water and right up on the ridge line. Very naughty and definitely damaging the delicate flora.
We got our self-righteous-selves back in the car and headed up into a moonscape. We have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of vegetation in the east of the island, but we were back into a landscape that could only have been created by volcanos. Eveywhere you look is gravel, gravel, gravel. It is amazing but must have been terrifying as a settler (assuming they even went up there!) as there is no possible way you could survive.
Fortunately, the desert ended quite quickly and we came back down to the area around Lake Myvatn. Our last stop for the day was Hverir, where the lunar landscape is pitted with bubbling mud pots, steaming vents and stinking hydrogen sulphide (fumaroles). The ground is the colour of ochre and the bubbling mud is light blue. There are ropes to tell you where it is safe to walk – in some places the ground is 100°C – but obviously there were still tourists walking on the wrong side of the ropes. We watched a lady bend down and put her hand into a small stream. She didn’t scream or pass out so I am assuming it wasn’t hot. Lucky her.
It had been a long day, so we made our way to the hotel and checked in successfully. Lovely rooms and attractive public areas, but we couldn’t face our dinner booking in the hotel. TripAdvisor advice took us to a fish and chips restaurant (I really want to say shed with a porch!). I had a cup of prawns and the others had fish and chips. I got the giggles while the lady was reading our order back to us as the man behind her was trying to make the batter with an electric whisk and it was noisy, so whenever she started talking, he stopped and then started again when she had finished. It was silly but funny – I like the Icelandic sense of humour! Tea was quick, cheap and delicious. Back to the hotel for a bit of therapeutic British television and then bed.
Edit: I was genuinely saddened today by an older American lady, climbing gingerly off the coach, picking her way across the car park and taking a photo of a picture of a puffin on the information sign. As she turned to turned to make her way back to the coach, the gentleman she was with said:”and that’s as close as you are going to get!”. Getting old sucks…