Iceland 2021 Day 3 & 4

Monday July 12: Today was a travel day, which aren’t great but still, we are moving through some amazing landscapes! The breakfast at the lodge was sort of pricey and seeing as we three would have demolished the buffet, we went with parking lot oatmeal and coffee. I will admit a moment of weakness when I saw the pile of bacon… Back in the car, we headed back out on the lovely F roads, heading north. The interior of the country is so rocky and barren!

Our first stop was the Hveravellir Geothermal Site, about an hour and half away. This was a much smaller area than the one from yesterday. More Yellowstone, in that it had boardwalks that led us around the hot pots. The hike wasn’t long but it was good to get out and stretch our legs. We had lunch in the cafe, a bit of a splurge but the shepherds pie was delicious! After lunch we sat in the hot pool and it was great! Way hotter than the other one, in areas it was too hot to stand! A nice midday soak should never be skipped!

Back on the road, we had about 5 hours to go for our campsite. I played rock dodge for a good couple of hours as we made our north on yet more F roads. Unfortunately, I lost the game at some point and got the low pressure warning. We pulled over and Steve could hear the hissing… crap. I will say the guys are a great pit crew, they had the blown tire off and the spare on in under 10 mins! The crappy Kia did not have a full size spare so onward rolling with the donut! In the course of renting cars and driving them all over Ireland, Iceland, New Zealand, and now Iceland again, we’ve had remarkably good luck. This being the first flat tire… knock on wood!

The car we have (left), the car we should have paid for!

We headed to the next town and got there just after the tire shop had closed. I wasted about 20 minutes trying to figure out how to use my cell phone to make a call. Final answer, I had to pay for the Verizon international plan at $10/day but was able to get ahold of the car rental company. No surprise, we had to pay for it ourselves and find a repair shop on our own. We had a decent dinner at the Nestí cafe in the N1 gas station. Travel tip – these are great, have a decent selection of food at reasonable prices. Tserka pulled a trucker shift and continued the couple of hours driving to get us to the Hotel Reykjanes where we were camping for the night. Steve and I had stayed here the last time and it was much the same. A nice grassy camp area with a covered kitchen and bathroom/shower area.

Tuesday July 13: I think we all had our best sleep of the trip yet! It was quiet and cool, with still too much daylight! We got up and moving a bit earlier so we could enjoy the pool. This is the big draw to this location, a geothermal heated giant swimming pool! Seven years ago it was nice but a little run down. This time it appears they have redone all of the concrete and add some benches. We did do a short hike down to the old swimming pool that was used from 1830 – 1927 to apparently teach swimming to adults.

After a short soak we headed out to Isafjödur, a short 1 1/2 hour drive. This would be the biggest city we will visit the whole trip, and some shopping was necessary. On the way up we passed the seal area and I asked if there were any seals visible. Steve said nope, just a bunch of rocks like last time. As we went past the viewing area, he said oh wait, those rocks are seals! Just down the road a bit we saw another set of seals and did a short jaunt down to the coast to watch them. Check out the video so see (and hear) a seal slap fight! We rolled into town and our first stop was to get the tire fixed, then a nice lunch at Husid (my iPad keyboard won’t let me make the correct character eth). After organizing our hiking food, we checked out the local brewery, Dokkan Brugghús. I throughly enjoyed my Dynjandin IPA! Next up was the grocery to get a few more things for the Horn backpacking trip, and the gas station again for stove gas and a warm hat for the guys. So, my tourist shopping consisted of a discount grocery store and a gas station. 😑 Still on the hunt for a nice souvenir coffee mug!