Day 3: Stykkisholmur to Patreksfjörður
When I planned our itinerary, I thought it would be fun to take the ferry accross the bay from Stykkisholmur to the Westjords. When the time came, we changed our minds and decided to drive around to the Westfjords instead of taking the Baldur ferry for several reasons. The weather was likely to be windy making the passage a little bumpy, Angie is prone to seasickness, I was still masking for Covid and didn’t know what the conditions would be like inside the ferry, and Google told us that driving would only take about 40 minutes longer and would allow us both the flexibility to leave when we wanted and would allow us to see more of Iceland shoreline. As it turned out, we felt like we spent ample time driving around the shoreline and we ended up changing our plans in the Westfjords which resulted in us doubling back on several roads that we’d already driven on. I don’t know how rough the crossing would have been, but in retrospect, it would have been nice to have a bit of a break from driving and a different vantage point to view the Westfjords.
In any case, we got a fairly early started and headed out toward Patreksfjörður, a fishing village located on a fjord and Iceland’s westernmost settlement. Shortly after leaving Stykkishólmur, we turned onto a gravel road. We soon discovered that many of the main roads in the Westfjords are not paved, or have large sections of graded gravel roads between paved sections. We enjoyed the scenery as we traveled in and out of fjords and crossed from one fjord to another. I was looking forward to stopping in one of several thermal pools that were on our itinerary. However, when we got to the pools or “hot pots” as they are known locally, we discovered that they were not not warm, it was cold and windy making getting in and out not something we thought would be fun, and they were already occupied by others.
I didn’t take many photos today as I was busy driving, we had mostly drab grey skies, it was hard to capture the grandeur of the fjords with a phone, and I fell into the trap that I often succumb to on vacation of thinking that the surroundings are just normal. We skipped the side trip (items 3 and 4 on the map above) to drive down to a large sandy beach because we were growing weary of being in the car, the road was reported to be a bit treacherous, and we wanted to get to Patreksfjörður before the only pharmacy closed so I could purchase a few covid tests. We made it to the pharmacy in time and then explored the small town before checking into our respective lodging for the night. I had found a room at Guesthouse Stekkabol and Angie had a room at the Fosshotel Westfjords. There is just one small market in Patreksfjörður and it’s selection of microwavable meals was very limited. It didn’t have the Thai in a box meals that were available in the Bonus grocery stores, but I found a frozen sweet and sour thai meal. I think it cost about $15 for the meal so I was optimistic that it would be good. It wasn’t. Angie on the other hand had one of, if not her best meal in Iceland at the Foss Westfjords.
For some reason, I was awake or nearly so at around 2:00 am when I heard the distinctive WhatsApp notification from my phone. I feared it was Angie texting me that she was sick and had gotten covid, but instead the message said that she thought she could see the northern lights from her hotel room. I couldn’t see anything out my window as there was street light nearby, so I put on some clothes and shoes and ventured outside. And there they were, with the view much better over the mountains behind the house than over the fjord!
Day 4: Patreksfjörður to Hvammstangi
I woke early and anxiously took a covid test. This was the tenth day since I first notice symptoms and I was feeling completely fine so I was really hoping that the test would be negative. I also didn’t know where I’d stay that night if I needed to find a room as we were scheduled to stay in a small house in a small town and I hadn’t see much in the way of other last minute availability. Luckily, my test was negative! It was hard to wait to tell Angie, but I’d agreed that we’d get a later start that morning to give Angie some time to sleep in.
The plan for today was to drive north toward Ísafjörður and then drive along the fjords back east to Hvammstangi where we had found a small house to rent. The day started off nicely with good weather and interesting dramatic dirt roads as we headed to the main stop for the day: Dynjandi falls. We saw very few cars on the road and were enjoying the sense of being off the beaten path. We got to the turn off to the waterfall and I was shocked to see a pretty full parking lot, many tour buses and streams of people walking on the path up the falls. At one point I think I counted 9 or more tour buses. We had seen so few cars on our approach from the south, which I thought would have been the more heavily trafficked route to the waterfall. After seeing all the people and realizing the road to the north seemed to be paved, my suspicion was that there was a cruise ship at Ísafjörður and our timing was just unlucky. By the time we finished Dynjandi falls it was early afternoon and Google told us that if we continued north we wouldn’t get to our destination until 6:00 pm or later. Neither of us felt like being in the car that long and our Rick Steve’s guidebook didn’t describe Ísafjörður as a must see, so we reluctantly decided to double back and head south. I got turned around leaving the Dynjandi and mistakenly went north. It took me a while and going through a long tunnel before I realized my mistake. I eventually got turned around and headed south.
We got to Hvammstangi in the late afternoon and enjoyed having a place with a living room and small kitchen. It was really nice to not be staying in two separate places. We found a restaurant down by the harbor and enjoyed having a nice dinner together. It was cloudy when we went to sleep, but nevertheless would look out the window whenever I woke. I thought I could see a few northern lights around 2:00 am. I went outside and got a few pictures of the lights through the clouds before things seemed to taper off.
