There
is not much tourist information about the west fjords of Iceland. For such a
beautiful place I’m surprised. The welcome note at the accommodation here says only 5% of tourists to Iceland come here. As a result we had to find our
way to the local attractions ourselves.
Eric’s research and our hosts fortunately pointed us in the right direction. We travelled a very short distance to Ísafjörður, the next town to the one we are staying in. Our first stop was actually above the town at Bolungarvík, a lookout which is also a coast guard post. It was almost like a Martian landscape, except for the vegetation clinging to the rocks and the eerie mist. The view was really pretty, that not obscured by the cloud.
Next we followed another gravel road in a valley to a black beach called Skalavik, again it felt isolated and other world like.
Eric’s desire to take in the wild beauty and to run lead him to convince Samuel and I to drop him off in a valley and drive on to meet him in the town.
We drove ahead and checked out the cultural centre which consisted of a library and apparently a photo exhibition (although we looked we could not see it) the building also contained museum exhibits celebrating the old hospital. Right next door there was a park for kids. These seem to consist of large trampoline contraptions. Samuel enjoyed much time jumping and an American couple convinced me to go on too.
Eric arrived at our scheduled meeting place a little late. In keeping with the very little tourist information, the hiking map he took with him was apparently hopeless, showing a road which just petered out.... at a cliff. After much unanticipated climbing and readjusting he made it back. I’m glad I didn’t know till we were already reunited.
Driving on in the west we found more wonderful waterfalls, this is Dynjandi.
Apparently the strange red plant in the pic is a stripped blueberry plant, people harvest them using a tool which strips the plant of both berries and leaves, killing the plant in the process.....
Eric’s research and our hosts fortunately pointed us in the right direction. We travelled a very short distance to Ísafjörður, the next town to the one we are staying in. Our first stop was actually above the town at Bolungarvík, a lookout which is also a coast guard post. It was almost like a Martian landscape, except for the vegetation clinging to the rocks and the eerie mist. The view was really pretty, that not obscured by the cloud.
Next we followed another gravel road in a valley to a black beach called Skalavik, again it felt isolated and other world like.
Eric’s desire to take in the wild beauty and to run lead him to convince Samuel and I to drop him off in a valley and drive on to meet him in the town.
We drove ahead and checked out the cultural centre which consisted of a library and apparently a photo exhibition (although we looked we could not see it) the building also contained museum exhibits celebrating the old hospital. Right next door there was a park for kids. These seem to consist of large trampoline contraptions. Samuel enjoyed much time jumping and an American couple convinced me to go on too.
Eric arrived at our scheduled meeting place a little late. In keeping with the very little tourist information, the hiking map he took with him was apparently hopeless, showing a road which just petered out.... at a cliff. After much unanticipated climbing and readjusting he made it back. I’m glad I didn’t know till we were already reunited.
Driving on in the west we found more wonderful waterfalls, this is Dynjandi.
Apparently the strange red plant in the pic is a stripped blueberry plant, people harvest them using a tool which strips the plant of both berries and leaves, killing the plant in the process.....
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