Iceland Day 7
We slept in as we stayed up late for the northern lights. Wow, I am still in awe of what I saw last night. There is a small cafe/bistro next to the campsite, I took advantage of it being so close and enjoyed a cappuccino and warm cinnamon roll. What a treat!
Wendell decided to take a shower which cost 300 ISK. Only to find out they were out of hot water and you only get 7 min of water flow for the coins. So far all the other campsites had free showers and plenty of hot water. Guess he was just lucky.
Djupavogi is a small town with not many stores. Wendell found a small craft shop that we checked out. J.F.S Handicraft. The owner, Jon Fridrik Sigursson, is a retired fisherman that collected rocks for the last 15 years. He is a very proud man and insisted on showing us his collection of rocks and his studio where he hand made everything. It was a fun unexpected stop.
Jon Fridrik Sigursson in his Rock Shop.
The two hour drive to Glacier Lagoon was spectacular. We followed Hwy 1 as it followed the coast past many mountains and valleys. We stopped at a few scenic spots along the way and saw some loud birds nesting. The Lagoon is a very touristy destination and we’re able to schedule a glacier boat ride for tomorrow. Diamond Beach is also here. It is supposed to be covered in chunks of ice from the glacier that have washed up on the beach. It was less than impressive, but it can vary based on tides and ice flow. Maybe we will get a better show in the morning after our boat ride. The black sand beach was still cool to see, and the entire area had incredible sites of the glacier and ice floating in the lagoon.
We then headed to Skaftafell campsite. This is a nice big campsite with many amenities. They have an “Iceland Experience ” company called Icelandia where we booked a glacier hike for the next day. Once booked, we headed out for a short hike to see the Svartifoss waterfall. There were two other waterfalls to see on this 5K hike. It was very convenient to have the hike right off of our campsite, and had beautiful views of both the waterfalls and the fall colors in the foliage of the area (plus, again, a massive glacier in the background!).
Pearl made tortilla soup for dinner (Editor’s Note: our first Menards soup, not the worst but certainly worse than Hamburger Helper. Can’t wait for another hot dog).
