Please sign in to post.

Iceland Trip Report - Part Two

We stopped in Husavik for lunch. Husavik is a small fishing village.

Our hotel for the next two nights was at the Gigur Hotel which is right on Lake Myvatn. The rooms at the hotel were small but comfortable but the main attraction of the hotel was the restaurant with a wonderful view of the lake. The hotel is very close to all of the sights in the Lake Myvatn area. And there is a lot to see there - Hverfell crater which you can climb to the top of, Hverir which is an active volcanic area with bubbling mud pots and fumaroles, Hofdi which is a forested area and Viti in the Krafla area. Viti is an explosion crater with a turquoise pool at the bottom. We also went to the Lake Myvatn Nature Baths. If you are not familiar with the swimming customs in Iceland, be advised that before entering any pool you are required to shower sans swimsuit and although there are shower stalls with curtains the locker rooms have no such thing. So if you're bashful about being naked in front of strangers you will just have to get over it. No one was gawking at anyone else in the locker rooms. I should also mention the ever present midges in the Myvatn area. They are hugely annoying in the summer. They swarm around your face so I would recommend bringing a head net which you can pick up at any sporting supply store for about $4 here in the US or you can buy one in Myvatn for twice the price. We could barely make it from the car to the hotel that first day in Myvatn without being really bothered. We saw people in the area without the nets but I don't know how they stood it. If there is a breeze then it's not so bad but you can't count on it being windy so bring a head net.

Our next day's destination was Egillstadir. Our hotel was the Eyvindara Guesthouse. We loved this place. It is set in a forested area and is really charming. Dinner at the hotel was very good. Before retiring to the hotel that night we drove to Borgafjordur Eystri (Bakkagerdi) to view and photograph the puffins up close and personal. The drive took us through a valley with snow covered mountains in the distance, then over the mountains and down to the fjord and the little fishing village. The road to Borgafjordur Eystri is partly paved and partly hard pack gravel. There are no guard rails as you drive over the mountains. It was a magnificent drive. We stopped to take a lot of photos. The puffins of course were the main attraction. To reach the puffins, you drive though town to the end of the road and a small parking lot and marina. The puffins are so close and fairly easy to photograph when they aren't flying and they fly really fast. We got some really good shots of those cute little critters.

The following day we drove through the East Fjords to Hofn. Unfortunately the weather was rainy and cloudy. This was our first day of bad weather in Iceland. So there was not much to see on the drive with all the clouds and rain. We did, however, get to see reindeer which is not common in the summer as they are normally in the highlands at that time of year. So that was a thrill. We spent the night at the Seljavellir Guetshouse which was not her really nice place to stay. We had dinner in the town of Hofn.

The next day continued to be rainy and blustery. We drove to Vik to see the famous church on the hill surrounded by lupines, Reynisfjara black sand beach and Reynisdrangar Rock formations just off the shore. We then drove a little further onward to the headlands of Dyrholaey in hopes of photographing the arctic terns. We found them nesting close to the road on the headland. Be advised that you cannot get too close to these birds and their nests or they attack. My husband got pecked on the head a couple of times before he got the message. Our car made a good "blind" and we were able to get some good shots of these pretty birds.

There are no replies to this topic.