We woke up Saturday morning and walked to Braud & Co, pretty much the most amazing bakery I have ever been to. Anthony got a delicious, buttery croissant, and I got a gooey cinnamon bun, and we got a loaf of fresh baked bread to go for eating on the road.
We picked up our rental car, a tiny 4×4 Suzuki Jimny with a rooftop tent, and ventured out. So this is what we will be living out of for the next 9 nights. I am simultaneously super excited and very nervous.
We immediately headed toward the Snaefellsnes peninsula. We had wanted to go last time we were here, but the weather was no good for it. Not that it was much better today! But when visibility is decent, there are endless beautiful views. Waterfalls and mountains and rivers every where you look.
We cut across the peninsula, missing out on Stykkisholmur and who knows what else, but the road across was a great little detour. And then our first stop was Kirkjufell, the most photographed mountain in Iceland, and with recent fame in season 7 of Game of Thrones where Jon Snow and co. fought the White Walkers. Excuse my super goofy hat.
We left and drove along the coast awhile, and as soon as we passed into Snaefellsjokull National Park, weather took a turn for the worst. We drove between lava fields unable to see anything further than 20 feet from us, with the wind constantly beating us, nearly pushing us off the road.
We turned toward our next stop Djúpalónssandur and once we arrived, parked into the wind and sat there. After awhile of seeing several other people coming back from the little hike, looking wind-blown and fairly miserable, we decided we should probably join in on the fun. We could barely get our car doors open, but once we started hiking down, the rock formations blocked the wind a bit.
That is, until we reached the actual beach. And then I could barely open my eyes against the wind, so backward we went. But hey, checked that off the list.
We waited out the wind a while more and decided we needed to get on the road at some point, so we headed toward Hellnar. We had intended to do a 2 hour hike along the coast, to Arnastapi and back, but clearly, the weather was not going to work for that. So, we ate some soup at a cafe, and by the time we came back out, the wind had lessened, and visibility was clearing a bit. We drove to Bjarnafoss, which I figured was just going to be a quick photo stop, but then we saw a small path to the waterfall, and we enjoyed the surroundings and newly decent weather so much, we decided we needed to spend some time exploring.
Anthony was so amazed by a tinier waterfall up over a different direction that just kept levitating up into a cloud, but of course, we couldn’t really get a picture of that. Bjarnafoss and its river, on the other hand, I got plenty of pictures of.
After that, we made our way to Budarkirkja, one of the first wooden churches in Iceland. It was awfully picturesque with the beach in the background, but it was starting to drizzle again and I was worried about my camera, so we didn’t stay long.
Our final stop for the day was Ytri-Tunga beach, where you can often find seals. We did see seals, but we only saw their little heads popping out of the water here and there. They were all too shy to come join us on the beach.
So we decided to call it a day and head to our campground. I had done a lot of research on campgrounds, and had found ones that were a bit more protected from the wind – which was clearly important for this particular night. Well, I thought I had anyway. We arrived at the campground, which was basically on the beach with no trees or mountains or anything nearby, and Anthony kept teasing me, “So this is sheltered, huh?”
We went inside the guesthouse to pay for camping, and I asked the guy working, “So is it supposed to be really windy all night?”
He kind of smirked and thought for a moment and asked, “Where are you guys from?”
“Kansas City.”
“Oh, you have tornadoes, you’ll live.”
SO with that reassuring assessment, we drove out to the field to park our car and set up our top-tent, but I, confused as to why I marked this campground as “well-protected,” decided to research. And that’s when I discovered that there are 2 campgrounds 10 minutes apart with the same basic name and I had meant to pick the other one, at the base of some mountains.
Anthony, being the sweetheart he is, decided he’d go talk to the guy to try to get our money back. We couldn’t admit to my research mistake, though, so he came up with some story of how we actually meant to meet up with friends at this other campground, and the guy didn’t seem to care about the story and said, “Oh, so you want your money back?” But then didn’t have exact change, so we ended up with an extra 100 ISK out of the deal (which is less than $1, but hey, we’re still richer).
We backtracked to the other campground… except it didn’t exist. At least, that’s what the people at that guesthouse told us. They insisted they didn’t have camping there. So BACK we went. But in-between the 2 was a different guesthouse, so we stopped there, and SUCCESS! They had a campground. Still not exactly sheltered, but we obviously couldn’t go back to the first one, and this one was cheaper anyway.
After getting ready for bed in the freezing cold, we popped open our top tent to test her out. It was perfectly comfortable up there, but it was still super windy out, causing the sides to flap around and be noisy. All in all, not our most restful night we’ve ever had, but we’ll do.