We had a great night’s rest in Hallormsstaður National Forest with no sign of The Worm on the lake Lagarfljót. However, we did have rain overnight that continued into the morning. Shortly after leaving the campground for our day’s explorations, the sun came out and shined on us all day. It’s one of those places they say, if you don’t like the weather, just wait 15 minutes and it will change. We were roughing it last night with no electric or other connections at our camp site, a.k.a. boondocking. The campers here in Iceland setup their camps in all kinds of creative arrangements –many groups make their own stagecoach circles– and the few outlets in the national forest can get full quickly.
Our plan was to head off to the visit the harbor town of Seydisfjordur. There is a scene shot in the new Walter Mitty movie with him strapping some rocks to his hands as he skateboarded past a waterfall down to a village. That is on the road that leads to the town. However, as we were setting out in that direction, we saw two people we recognized, our hitchhikers from June 22 who were walking along the road. So, of course we stopped, they ran over across the highway, happy to see familiar faces and maybe as surprised as we were to bump into one another again.
They were not going to Seyisfojordur, but way out to a northern tip of a fjord, to a place called Borgarfjarðarhöfn, filled with Elves and apparently Puffins. So, we said we would take them there cuz we’d be interested in seeing Elves & Puffins, too. So, again Paul helped them with their heavy backpacks, they jumped in and we headed northward in a new direction.Â
This turned out to be a very remote location. The further we went, the more the mom voice kicked in. And when we finally got to the village at the end of the road, I think they changed their mind about staying overnight there. The Germans word for describing a remote, small town was “lonely”. It seemed unlikely they would get an easy lift out of such a remote place, so they rode back to Egilsstaðir with us as well.
One of the surprises along the sparsely populated mountain road was a Coke Sjalfsali or vending machine. There wasn’t another farmhouse or anything else for miles around. This machines were situated in a small wood cabin power provided by solar panels. There’s a picnic table to sit and enjoy the Coke or other treat from the vending machine. In true Icelandic fashion, there’s only one small sign to advise you that there is a wayside attraction. There wasn’t a Coke drinker among the four of us, so we didn’t partake, but we were all amused by the whimsicality of the idea, with a framed portrait of its creator shown on the front outside wall.
The landscape leading into this fjord was amazing, hairpin roads up and down the mountains with snow covered mountaintops all around. When we got to the very end of the road, there was a small harbor and a nesting place for Puffins. The place was packed with them and the staircase and boardwalk to us up and through their habitat. They thanked us for taking them back and forth to their destination. We thanked them for taking us to the Puffins.
It turns out that Bobs B&B for the night also had a campground, so we surprised him by getting a spot in his back yards and then sending him the GPS coordinates for our first rendezvous. The Mjoanes B&B and campground is an amazing place, the best place we’ve stayed at so far. Elsa and her husband (Finn?) converted a 2-story sheep barn into wonderful great hall, complete with games and pool table and lots of seating. It had thoughful kitchen layout for travelers with two large tables and seating, new bathrooms, and a laundry area with comfy couch. There’s electric hookups as well and WiFi that reaches their camping field, as well as other nice features.
We went back to Egilsstaðir with Bob for a late dinner out at Salt Cafe and Bistro. Thanks to the nice weather and the relaxing of restrictions, the restaurant was having its best day of business ever. It was getting late as we returned to camp. There is almost a real sunset out there tonight, even though the sun won’t set completely. The sky is a faded blue, and the clouds are dressed in gold, pink and purple.
Will have to get a photo to add here.
