Iceland Road Trip 2016, Day 5 – Seyðisfjörður and Southeast Iceland

Day 5 in Iceland. Alex still felt sick, so I woke up early to walk around Seyðisfjörður and found some information about the local hikes. I ran into a couple of women who turned out to be local guides, and they kindly explained to me where we need to go (they even offered to take us there at noon but we could not wait that long). However, I found that their directions completely match the OpenStreet maps for that area. So eventually we followed the map.

Seyðisfjörður

A cute little town, Seyðisfjörður hosts weekly arrivals of ferries from Norway and Faroe Islands and huge cruise ships. But aside from that, the town has a relaxing atmosphere and gorgeous surroundings.

In the morning the town looked completely empty, but gradually tourists from the ferry started to arrive and cafes and stores opened. It was time to go back and wake up Alex.

Selafossar Hike

I planned that hike because the OpenStreet maps say “Numerous waterfalls” along the trail. I was intrigued because who can resist waterfalls really. Only the fire has as mesmerizing an effect as running water, but it is harder to find open sources of fire in the natural setting and the ones that are save at that. So we have to enjoy running water as much as we can, don’t we?

To get to the trailhead, we followed route 951, Vestdalseyrarvegur, to the point where a small unpaved road branches up the hill. We followed that road as far as we could, and thanks to our 4×4 we were able to reach the trailhead by car.

The hike was very easy and the surroundings were gorgeous. The only drawback was that the path was very wet and muddy. By the time we decided to take a break, our feet were soaked in mud. Thankfully, there was enough water around so we could clean up.

Gufufoss

On our way out from Seyðisfjörður we stopped at a waterfall called Gufufoss. It was somewhat reminiscent of Skógafoss in shape, but of course much smaller. The weather was sunny, which made taking waterfall pictures quite challenging. Parts that are in the shade are too dark and the water is too light. However, despite the challenging conditions, I really like the result.

Back to the South

Our night accommodation for that day was all the way to the South, near Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon. We had to move to be there and rest before our planned night at the lagoon. The rest of the pictures here are from of the road stops on our way to Jökulsárlón.

We were planning to visit Lonsoraefi but on our way (at the point of first river crossing) we were stopped by a bunch of Spanish tourists that needed help towing their minibus out of the river (more of a creek, really) that we were about to cross. They tried to cross the river just outside of the marked crossing because they must have figured the river was shallower and narrower where they went. The result: one of their back tires was halfway in the silt. Later we learned that what they did was exactly what is to be avoided because what could happen is exactly what happened to them. We did not find anything in our car that would have helped them get out of the river, and their situation scared us from going any further. The river seemed to be quite shallow, so we could not understand why the minibus got stuck there, and we did not want to risk our car because we have not forded rivers before. We turned back and went on our way. After Höfn, the weather started to turn bad — wind, rain, and overall nastiness. Welcome to the South of Iceland. 🙂

The only detour we took that day was a short drive up to Hoffell Glacier. However, either it was not very impressive or we have not found a good viewpoint, so we spent only couple of minutes there and turned back onto route 1.

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