After breakfast we went for a quick walk to grab two caches that were near our hotel, then headed out of town. I drove for the morning. This turned out to be the most difficult driving of the trip so far. While being my navigator, Carson got to enjoy the gorgeous views and breathtaking scenery. Meanwhile I had a death grip on the steering wheel as I navigated the winding, steep, acrophobia-inducing dirt road cliffs of the Westfjords. TOTALLY WORTH IT!
Nice paved sections looked something like this.
Scarier gravel sections looked more like this.
My drive ended at Hotel Flókalundur for lunch and a break in Hellulaug hot pool. Hellulaug is situated in such a way that it cannot be seen from the road and there is a nice semi-secluded spot to change into your suit. While relaxing in the spring I finally got to take in the incredible view of the fjords and the ocean inlet in between. We were joined in the water by a couple from Holland and a father/son pair with a YouTube channel from San Francisco. When two older guys from Germany joined us we decided it was time to move on.
Hellulaug hot pool with the fjord in the background.
Carson drove for the afternoon. We started out at Rauðasandur (aka the red sand beach). Who knew that Iceland had sand beaches! Once again, fabulous views and scenery, and we can’t forget the shells! After a few pics, we headed out to the western most point in Europe, Látrabjarg, the bird cliffs. Here 5 species of birds make their nests in crevasses and ledges on the side of shear cliffs overlooking the ocean. The most popular of these birds is the Puffin. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any. So we hiked up the hill quite a ways. Still no luck. After admitting defeat, we started heading down the hill, grabbing a quick cache on the way, and went over to explore the lighthouse at the bottom. While there… you guessed it!! PUFIFINS!!! Well, a couple puffins, anyway. Carson took several pictures with his good camera and it was time to get going, after all it was 7:30 and we had not eaten supper yet.
This section was one of the easiest places to see birds, but no puffins.
This gives some idea of the height of the cliffs over the water. We walked up at last as far as you can see to the left in the picture. Still no puffins.
Finally found some puffins!
We stopped for supper in Breiðavík, where we were quickly quizzed about our opinions of Steven Avery’s guilt or innocence. Please don’t take that the wrong way, our waiter was very nice and funny, he just happens to be very interested by the documentary Making a Murderer and couldn’t stop himself when he learned we were from Wisconsin. LOL! Once that was taken care of, we both ordered the tomato soup and Cason had the salmon and I had trout. All was very good.
By now it was almost 8:30 and we still wanted to grab one more cache at Garðar BA 64 before calling it quits for the day. Garðar BA 64 is a retired whaling ship that got its start in 1912 in Norway and has been through many owners. At the end of its life it was intentionally run aground on the beach in Iceland to serve as a memorial for the ship. We finally landed at our hotel around 10 and had to call someone to let us into our room. Boy driving is tiring…
Where’s the cache?