ICELAND – PART III – Eastfjords & Southeast Iceland

May 28, 2024
In retrospect, we might have stayed longer in Myvatn, “one of Iceland’s most impressive natural areas,” with its beautiful Lake, ringed by an array of volcanic features, but we chose to keep going and drive all the way across the vastness of this wild, uninhabited highland, up to 1700’ above sea level. We stopped briefly in Egilsstadir (Ay-ill-STAHTH-eer), population 2500, the gateway to the Eastfjords, and then went on to our destination that day, the very small but charming coastal town of Seydisfjordur (SAY-this-FYUR-thur), population 700. The first 100 miles of this drive was relatively easy and we loved tracking the stone piles (cairns) strategically placed along the Ring Road, marking the way since ancient times (see below). We also discovered some amazing waterfalls right along side the road, including one called Rjukandafoss.

Once we turned off of the Ring Road we were going OVER the huge mountains we’d been driving toward for 2 hours and ended up on a very narrow, curvy road. It got windy and colder, and then we were IN the clouds where visibility was very limited. We were both VERY relieved when we finally found our way up, over and down (and finally OUT of the clouds) and could see civilization and clear roads again!

The Hotel Snaefell was very old and basic, but its sister Hotel Alden was across the street and had a wonderful restaurant and very friendly people. Almost everyone has lived in this “gritty little port town” all their lives and would never think of leaving. Cruise ships stop here regularly during the tourist season and once a week a car ferry runs between here, the Faroe Islands to the east and Denmark. The ferry is the town’s main industry. It is also known for its art festivals and art school where students come from all over Iceland and beyond. Creativity is a way of life here, and they even have their own waterfall right at the edge of town.

One of the nice things about Seydisfjordur is that it was very small, with very few people and very peaceful. We strolled a bit after dinner and captured the beautiful photo above. It was a good reminder for us to stop, enjoy this sweet place, reflect on the beautiful people we meet and the beautiful scenery everywhere and how blessed we are to be having all of these extraordinary adventures. Knowing that the next day we had to go back to the Ring Road the same way we’d come in (up, over and down) we asked the hotel manager if she knew anything about the weather forecast. We loved her reply, “I never look at the weather forecast. I am an Icelander: I wake up and deal with it!” However, a few minutes later she came over to tell us it was supposed to be clear in rhe morning. And it was!! Whew!
The next day was another long drive. The weather was perfect and the mileage wasn’t that bad (about 150 miles), but the route followed the coastline of the Eastfjords right along the water most of the time, so we would drive along each finger of each fjord, rarely going more than 50kpm (32mph). [FYI: The speed limit for most of the Ring Road is 90kph (about 55mph) and rarely did we see anyone exceeding this]. The good news is, at this slow pace, it was much easier to take in all the beauty of the Eastfjords.

AND, to break up the drive, we also stopped several times along the way to take photos…of scenery, waterfalls and one of Gary’s favorite subjects for decades: lighthouses! They look very different from those in the USA—they need to withstand bitter cold and high winds most of the year. The sea itself was quite calm in this area, with gentle waves lapping at the shoreline most places.

We drove along the water, deep into each fjord, back out toward the sea, around the corner and there would be another fjord. We did for several hours, in and out, in and out, stopping for lunch mid-afternoon in the little fishing village and harbor of Djupivogur (DYOOP-ih-VOH-ur), population 500. Shortly thereafter, thinking we had missed them altogether (in their usual grazing grounds farther north), we saw a small herd of reindeer!!! THAT was very exciting! I’d seen three scrawny reindeer at the Reykjavik Zoo, but these looked quite healthy and weren’t very far off the road! Yay!

After a very long but very scenic day, with more fascinating rock formations, and on through the towns of Hofn and Hali, and the beginnings of very rugged coastline (and higher surf), we finally reached Guesthouse Geroi in Reynivellir, a convenient stop on the Southeast Coast quite near the amazing and gigantic Vatnajokull (VAHT-nah-YUR-kutl) Glacier, the largest and highest in Iceland (bigger than the State of Delaware, 6900’ high). Rick Steves suggests, “This is one big chunk of ice!” More about this below, but here was my first view of part of it and one of its “tongues.”

Guesthouse Geroi was such a delight, primarily because it is part of a working farmhouse complex including a herd of sheep. Gary was resting and I was looking out our window at the sheep and spent over half an hour laughing and giggling at the antics of the gamboling lambs on the nearby grass. Several of them would be sauntering along, often near their mothers, and suddenly they would twist and leap out of nowhere, saunter along and repeat, over and over again. I was so enthralled that I didn’t think about capturing their gambols on camera, but what an example of Pure Joy! AND, it was very contagious! Even just thinking about it now as I’m writing this, I can feel that Pure Joy!…VERY good for the heart and soul!!  🙂

By this time, we were in territory where Gary had gone on his 3-day Photo Tour soon after we arrived in Iceland. Now, I would get to see some of what made him so excited and exhilarated about this amazing country. In fact, Gary had already seen almost all of the rest of our drive around the Ring Road back to Reykjavik and really enjoyed being my tour guide!

How about this waterfall, taken during Gary’s 3-day photo tour at Rangarping eystra?!?

They say “a picture is worth a thousand words,” AND, even the photos we both  took during this amazing time in Iceland don’t really capture completely all that we experienced. There are so many contrasts, the views are often so vast and the beauty so stark and astonishing that it really is hard to convey the feelings we had as we drove from one viewpoint to another. We didn’t get “breathless,” but the views were often breathtaking and we found ourselves WOW-ing a LOT!!!! This was particularly true along the Southeast Coastline, shaped by the Vatnajokull Glacier (mentioned above) and several of its tongues, stretching down from the top of this monstrous Glacier and lapping at the lowland valleys.
As we drove along, we saw many wide black pebble beaches and the surf became rougher. The next day, this is where we saw amazing wide deltas and huge glacial lagoons, including the most famous one Jokulsarlon (YUR-kurls-OUR-lohn), where glittering chunks of ice of varying sizes and colors calve off of the Glacier and float out to the North Atlantic Ocean as the tide recedes. AND, when the tide comes back in, the icebergs (now a bit smaller) are washed up onto nearby Diamond Beach and its velvety black sand. Here are some of the photographs we took:

   

In “The Color of Ice” story mentioned in our Iceland-Part II blog post, the woman is meeting a well-known glass artist who wants to capture the glacial ice in glass. When they were visiting the Jokulsarlon lagoon, he explained about the varied colors of the icebergs. When she asked why the ice was blue, this was his reply: “It’s because of compression. Snow falls on the glacier and the air gets squeezed out by its weight. The more the snowflakes press down on each other, the smaller the air pockets become. Over time, the whole thing gets incredibly compact, until eventually it’s so dense that it absorbs every wavelength except blue. Then, when a chunk of glacier breaks off and that ultra-compressed center gets exposed to the light, the blue is refracted off the crystals and that’s what we see…..“

And continuing, “We think of icebergs as being white, but that’s because they’re usually covered in snow. Strip away the snow and you see the true color…which can also be green, black, striped. It depends on how the ice interacts with the light.” I was fascinated by this explanation, together with one other: “You might think of ice as fixed and frozen, but it’s not. It changes all the time, depending on the movement of the water and air, the temperature and wind. It’s always responding—which means it’s always becoming something new, something unknown.” All I know is that this whole experience was magical and we will never forget what we saw and felt and tried to capture. It was sometimes hard to take in the astonishing varieties of beauty.

There is one more segment of the Ring Road to come, but that will appear in our next blog post, Part IV of Iceland. For now, we leave you with the images above so you too can hopefully appreciate some of what we saw and experienced. I did find a quote from American biologist and author (“Silent Spring”) Rachel Carlson a few days ago that seems appropriate to share with you here:
Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth
find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.
May it always be so!