Dawn broke and the winds had subsided a little bit, but it was still pretty chilly out. We warmed up the heater and got cleaned up for the day. When I got out to unhook the electric there was quite a puddle at the rear of the RV. It looked like gray water so I think we didn't get something right as far as the right switch or lever turned. We may or may not have marked our spot!
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| Sunny T in shades down, black out mode. |
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| Looking back at the shower, behind the door on the right. Ashley's bed on the left. |
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| My bed pulled down from over top of the driving area. |
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| Looking out the driver's door at the electrical box. |
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| A windshield view west towards the town of Vik. That ridge in the background is Reynisfjall. |
Before leaving the campground, we had to attend to the fresh water supply as we had thought we used most of it taking showers yesterday and this morning. While at the yellow hose, a Britisher remarked at Ashley's "accent". They struct up a conversation and as it turned out, it was Wayne and Steve, two Land Rover guys who were touring Iceland with a group in their Defender 110s. Knowing my penchant for Rovers, Ashley hailed me, introductions were made and we walked over to their camp to inspect their "RVs".
It seems that Wayne, "my dad wanted an American name", and his wife Helen are British expats living in France who run Land Treks 4x4 tours. http://www.landtreks.com/index.htm
They were leading a 14 day, five truck, tour of Iceland. They had come over on the ferry, "barf boat" as Wayne called it, from Denmark and were working their way back to there. Wayne used to do camper modifications for Rovers so I thoroughly inspected his set up. Very nice!
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| Wayne's 110. |
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| Nice foot lockers. |
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| The roof top tent seamlessly blends in to the roof line. |
After my Rover fix, we stopped at the Icelandair hotel in Vik for a breakfast buffet. It was good, but otherwise unremarkable, so no food pictures.
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| Cool filament lighting in the hotel lobby. |
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| Interesting hydrant with Storz connections in the parking lot. I wonder how much flow it gets? |
On the way out of town we drove over to Icewear, where I picked up a sweater and hat that would prove useful on the chillier days. Just east of Vik we pulled in to a informational stop at the edge of Myrdalssandur, the gravel, alluvial plain of the river(s) that drain from Myrdasjokull. The sign was very interesting to me as it described the glacial floods, or jokullhallups, that periodically burst forth and flood the low lands. Previously, it had wiped out bridges, and the sign detailed various works of civil engineering done to mitigate the next jokullhallup.
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| Sunny T with Myrdalssandur behind her. |
We stopped for fuel and encountered several Super Jeep Defenders and HiLuxes. Pro Tip: make sure you remember your PIN for your credit card. It makes fueling up sooooo much easier. Thankfully, Ashley remembered hers.
Our goal for the day was Jokulsarlon, or the glacier lagoon, but before that we had to cross several sandurs and lava fields.
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| This was the remnants of a bridge beam after a jokullhallup. |
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| I believe that to be Skaftafell and Vatnajokull in the background. Vatnajokull is the largest glacial ice sheet in Europe. |
We first stopped at Fjallsarlon, the smallest of the three glacial lagoons in the area.
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| Nice FJ70 Series (?) campers. |
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| That is Fjallsjokull. |
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| And Fjallsarlon. |
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| Mmmm, glacier ice. |
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Fjallsarlon was cloudier.
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| Jokulsarlon was more blue and the icebergs were fighting the incoming tide creating a whirlpool effect. |
Jokulsarlon was about five minutes from Fjallsarlon and was right on the Ring Road. We spent time here checking out the lagoon, watching the iceberg whirlpool compete with the incoming tide and watching the animal life before walking along Iceland's shortest river, the Jokulsa, that connects the lagoon to the sea about 200 yards long. Across the river was the only suspension style bridge we saw the whole trip.
Some of the icebergs made it out to the sea and we found parts of them littering the black sand beach like diamonds.
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| Seals! |
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| Right after I took this picture that iceberg collapsed or overturned in to the sea. |
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| Product placement. |
While we were on the beach we finally figured out how to Facetime and connected with Mom back home. We showed her where we were and shared brief stories of the trip so far.
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| Before leaving we stopped by the lagoon once more and the ice had all cleared from the river and piled on the northern side of the lagoon. |
After getting back on the road we continued east on Rt. 1 for about another hour through a robust farming area with large cattle operations to reach the town of Hofn. I know it looks like Hoffen, put it is pronounced something like Hup if you said it while inhaling and hiccuping. I don't know, we just called it Hup.
Hup is a neat harbor town with several nice looking seafood restaurants, but I was beat from the day so far so we parked at the harbor so I could take a snooze for a little bit before continuing on.
One guidebook raved about a diner like place with a "log cabin interior" that had a great langostine or lobster baguette. I figured it had to be like a lobster roll so I couldn't go wrong. And I was right, it was delicious!
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| The small, but busy fishing harbor of Hup. |
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| Hafnarbudin, or the lobster baguette place as we called it. |
We made a quick detour driving around the harbor, but quickly made our way to Hafnarbudin, subject of the guidebook's recommendation. I don't know about the log cabin interior description, more like wood paneling on the ceiling, but the lobster baguette was fantastic!
The langostines were lightly fried and in the baguette with a remoulade, the ubiquitous red peppers and lettuce. It hit the spot. While we were there we were treating to a people watching opportunity. From the couple necking in the corner to the townie toughs, it didn't disappoint. Then a carload of Spanish girls parked the wrong way in the drive through, oh, yeah, this place also does a bang up business of drive through ice cream, food and cigarettes. Once the girl behind the counter told the Spanish girls they couldn't park there they just moved to the end of the line in the drive through to wait on their food. You had to be there to appreciate how odd this was.
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| NOM NOM NOM! |
Suitably refreshed, we reached a decision point. I wanted to continue eastward to the next campground that took the RV's Camper Card, but it was 2 1/2 hours away. Doable considering we had much daylight left, but it would mean a 7 1/2 hour drive all the way back to Grindavik the next day. We weighed our options and chose discretion. We would drive back west to the next campground which was 2 1/2 hours away as well. We could have stayed in Hofn, but that would have meant a 5 1/2 hour return trip. With what eventually transpired, it was certainly the right call.
So, back west we went. First on our way back was ice cream! We stopped at Brunholl a family dairy farm that had a restaurant and creamery on premises. Wow, was it good! We had heard that the farms on the south coast had ice cream, but this one was the first we saw and it was a great pick me up for the drive back through sandurs and lava fields to find a place for the night.
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| Along the way we kept seeing this sign. We decided it meant Minimum Effort to take a good picture here. Maybe we were punchy at the time, but we thought it was hilarious. Turns out it meant a speed trap area. Oh well, our translation is much more entertaining. |
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| It's hard to tell in this picture, but we started to notice streamers of clouds at the tops of the mountains. I've read that this indicates higher winds aloft. With what came the next day, I can confirm that. |
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| The clouds descended more and became more dark the farther west we drove. |
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| We stopped in one campground first, but it wasn't the right one. Too bad, because I had a spot picked out next to this beast. |
We made it back to the hamlet of Kirkjubaejarklaustur where we searched for the campground described in the Camper Card handbook. After a couple of failed attempts at narrow streets we found an entrance down a gravel road. I parked next to a Unimog while Ashley went to the office. Turns out we were at the wrong campground, but the lady gave good directions to the right one.
Arriving at the correct campground, we were dismayed to find that there were no electric hookups. It wasn't a huge deal because the RV heater and lights ran on propane and batteries, but we couldn't charge up the RV's dead cellphone to call Johanna to let her know we might be back a little early. After hemming and hawing, we gave up and parked across the street from the tent campground area in a gravel lot.
Upon further inspection, the Camper Card handbook has teeny tiny icons that indicate whether or not the campground has electric. Of course, this campground didn't and that was clearly indicated by the absence of the electric icon. Ashley helpfully added a big block lettered warning of No Electric for future RVers.
We battened down the hatches and turned in early for the night.
