Andre and Wendy: Ólafsfjörður to Blönduós

Our camp ground where we spent last night had a very friendly goose that was up early with us today. Another funny thing about this campground is it had the only ski jump in Iceland in the backyard, that turns into skateboarding and slides. So funny to see it right beside your camper, not sure when it was last used, or for what. It was built in the 60s

We next set off driving along the Tröllaskagi Peninsula. When we hit this area it right away reminded me of the TV show Deadliest Catch. Lots of fishing villages, and absolutely stunning scenery, with very few tourists.

To get to Siglufjörður from our campsite in Ólafsfjörður, was 13KM, of which 12KM were through 2 one way tunnels. I was very happy to follow a car as I wasn’t sure exactly how it worked, so I didn’t let the car in front get too far ahead of me. Between the 2 tunnels there was a beautiful rest stop with views, time to get psyched up for the second tunnel coming up.

We started our first real stop of the day at the Herring Museum in Siglufjörður. I wondered why Andre would want to visit a herring museum, but we both really enjoyed. The museum is right on the waterfront, with 3 buildings you can visit. There was a young Icelandic woman with her 4 year old daughter visiting from another part of Iceland, the little girl took a liking to Andre. We kept running into them in the museum, Andre showed her how to get down a steep staircase like a fisherman. All of this with the child not speaking any English. She asked us our names, and she told us hers, but I have no idea what it was, certainly not a common name here. We spent a couple of hours here learning about the Herring Fishing in Iceland. The collapse of herring fishing happened in the 1960’s after herring once providing 40% of Icelands exports.

More driving adventures as the traffic today was caused by goats and sheep. You really mostly have to keep your eyes open for sheep, but today the goats had decided to go for a walk down the road as well. We also made a stop at some Icelandic horses that were by the fence on the road. Lots of colts here as well, which we hadn’t seen a lot of up until now.

Stop off for lunch at a scenic pull out picnic area for grilled cheese sandwiches. This is also where we tattooed the top of the case that our one burner case when it was used to block the wind to make our grilled cheese. That and some blueberries, strawberries, along with Skyr yogurt made an absolutely delicious lunch.

Next off is at Hofsós Infinity Pool. The pool is in a very scenic area of Iceland overlooking the island of Drangey and the fjord. Located on the coast just below the swimming pool are the amazing basalt formations at Staðarbjargavík. It is said to have been the capital of the Skagafjörður elf population. The pool designed by same architect as blue lagoon. There are mens and womens locker rooms, with signs posted that you must shower naked before entering the pool in your bathing suit. Also a poster to show where you must wash! It is the law in Iceland that you must shower naked before entering the pool, and you must wear a proper bathing suit. An absolutely beautiful pool with a great hot tub and a kiddy area. Surprise, the Mom and little girl we saw at the herring museum were here as well, so had some fun with them again. This pool is very popular with the small town, as well as tourists passing through this part of Iceland.

We next visited Grafarkirkja Church, the Oldest Turf Church in Iceland. It is a reproduction that you have to open and close farmers gate to go and visit. It was not far off the main road, and only was a short visit, unfortunately you could not go inside the Church.

On we went to Sauðárkrókur, mostly to visit a pretty church, but we weren’t even sure the pretty church we saw was the one we were looking for. Just a quick drive by. We did a short beach walk.

On to Glaumbær Turf Farm & Museum where we refused to pay the entrance fee to get on the grounds. There is a church parking lot right beside it and we were able to get some good pictures of the turf houses, no idea what was in the museum. We saw some tour buses as well, and between the tour buses, and the crazy admission price, $25 Canadian, it was a pass for us.

We stopped at the gas in Blönduós for an ice cream and we run into the mother with the young girl again. She was so happy to see us again. I told the mom if we see her again we are calling it that she is stalking us.

We are done for the day at this point and decided to stop at Blönduós Camping. Very few campers here and a very different that any other campsite we have seen. There are numbered spots that you sign up online, we were so confused what numbered spot we had picked. The signs are on the side with numbers beside each roped in area, and we couldn’t figure out if we were the number on the left or right. To add to this we couldn’t get any of our credit cards to work from their online payment link. After some frustration I walked over to the closest camper parked and asked them if they would register our license plate and pay for us and I would pay them for it in cash. Thank goodness he looked after us as I didn’t want to move on again. A nice wind today so we hung our bathing suits and towels on the ropes for our site and they were dry in no time at all. The family that helped us out were Icelandic enjoying some time on their bikes. They also were playing some kind of game where you throw wooden batons at wooden blocks that you are trying to knock down in some kind of order. I guess it is a popular Scandinavian game, it is called Kubb and kind of a mixture of bowling and horseshoes.

Day summary:

9:45 AM leaving Campground

4 Sightseeing spots

5:30PM at Campground

190 KMS of driving

5 KMS of walking