Iceland #17 - Day 2: Exploring Around Djúpavík in the Fog

Day 2 weather was miserable. I looked out of the window and could barely see the pier, let alone the mountains on the far side of the fjord. The forecast was the same for the whole day, although it looked as if it might be better a little further north. I got up for breakfast - the usual Icelandic buffet, complete with divine rhubarb jam and strong coffee. I watched a couple of kayakers just off the beach in front of the hotel as the fog lifted a little in the distance, hugging the valleys.

I decided to head north, hoping that by the time I reached Munaðarnes the fog might have gone. I didn't get out until after 10:45am but hey, I was on holiday, so tried not to beat myself up about it! I drove around the edge of the fjord looking out for loons, which I'd seen there on my previous visit. Instead I was delighted to see a seal, perched on a spot of seaweed sticking out of the water. I pulled over and went down to take a few photos of him; he looked around curiously, often looking straight at me. I returned to the car to get the old 60D to give myself a little longer reach. I'd hummed and hawed about which camera to bring as my back-up and finally decided on the 60D as it gave me the extra 1.6x distance from the cropped frame. Hopefully nothing would happen to the new 5Div anyway, so I wouldn't need it too much.

As I drove away I had to stop again as there was a sheep round-up going on (the rettir) - I'd just caught the end of it.

The drive around Reykjarfjörður is wonderful, with meandering roads and lovely views, even in the patchy fog. There was a little moisture in the air, but it wasn't really raining, so taking a few photos wasn't too challenging. I looked back to my temporary home - the factory dwarfed by the mountain above.

There's a point in the road where you turn a big bend, having driven through a stretch with rocky outcrops on the fjord side - I just love this section! On this occasion, however, it was completely covered in fog. The fog was dense, right down to the fjord's edge, with only the odd clear patch. I continued along the edge of the fjord, disappointed to see literally nothing! I turned at the end of the fjord, near the airport at Gjögur, and headed towards the next fjord - Norðurfjörður. There was a car a little in front of me, which meant at least I could see roughly where the road was going from the vague red lights I could see on the back of the car! This stretch is quite long and the driver ahead was taking it very slowly, so the whole thing was hard-going. Eventually we reached the other fjord and the fog lifted a little. It was quite a relief to be out of it.

The road conditions hadn't been too bad until this point, but suddenly I hit a very squelchy, muddy section as I approached the hamlet - the car feeling as if it was floating above the road. It was quite scary, but fortunately I hadn't been going too fast when I reached it, and it was only a short stretch. I took the left hand turn that leads up a hill towards Munaðadarnes, a remote farm where I'd hiked along the beach from a couple of years earlier. The road is narrow, with grass growing in the middle of the road in parts. As I ascended I realised that I wasn't getting through the fog - again nothing to see. I reached the end of the road, parked the car and got out to look around - to see if perhaps there was a clear patch towards the sea; no luck. I got back in the car and drove back, disappointed again. I'd wanted to do the hike there, but with nothing to see at all (and some unpleasant drizzle) I decided to cut my losses and turn back. I stopped at one point when the fog lifted briefly.

I wasn't really sure what to do - I seemed to be driving for the sake of it, hoping that suddenly the weather would clear, which was looking very unlikely. I thought that since I was up there I'd drive up to the swimming pool at Krossnes, although I didn't feel like swimming! The road up there was also foggy, and I stopped a few times to photograph some foggy stacks and rocks (including at the amazingly-named Þrjátíudalastapi!). There were four people in the pool, so I didn't stop - I might have done had I had the place to myself, but wasn't in the mood for small talk with strangers!

I drove back, feeling annoyed with the lack of visibility - knowing how cool the scenery was, but mostly hidden out of view! I drove along the squelchy section again, hoping the car wouldn't slide off the side and into the fjord! 

The nasty, squelchy section!

The pass over to Gjögur was still covered in fog, and it was only once I was back in Reykjarfjörður that I could see a reasonable distance again. The road kept dipping into areas of fog, but after one thick patch it seemed a little better.

I stopped at the rocky outcrop, and was just able to see Djúpavík in the distance. I could also make out a person walking along a beach too - in the middle of nowhere! A little further on I saw the same figure walking along the road - it was a long way back to the hotel...

When I reached the head of the fjord I pulled over when I saw a swan family padding about nearby.

I climbed up a few metres to get closer to them, but they walked off hurriedly away from me. A few seconds later they all took off, and I spent the next couple of minutes watching them fly above me in a couple of large circles - it was absolutely beautiful to watch these graceful birds fly, hearing the swoosh of the wind through their wings when they got close enough a couple of times.

The moody skies and the fjord provided a rather lovely backdrop too!

Eventually they came in to land, and paddled off into the fjord. I headed on towards the hotel.

I didn't feel like giving up for the day, so instead of stopping at the hotel when I reached it, I took a few photos of the waterfall before continuing on up the hill on the other side - again hoping that the fog might be absent in a different fjord or valley.

I was not in luck. As I reached the top of the pass above the Veiðileysa fjord the fog was just beneath me, and rising every second. I drove a little further, hoping to see the massive waterfall, but the fog was so dense. I turned the car around (hoping no-one would appear in the fog and crash into me as I did so!) and drove back up the hill, trying to escape the fog. It's amazing how quickly it can move - the two pictures of the car are taken a minute apart. Within another minute there was zero visibility at the top and I headed back down towards Djúpavík.

After driving out of the fog, I decided to go for a little walk - I hadn't got my miles in the for the day, and was still feeling frustrated by the conditions. Near the bottom of the hill was a parking area and a sign for a walk at Kúvíkur, so I parked and set off. A bank of fog was lying low above the opposite side of the fjord, with some fog below it trying to escape down to the water - I became rather transfixed with it as I walked down the track towards the fjord. It reminded me of a hike I'd done years earlier in the Cairngorms, where we were completely shrouded in the fog and then as we walked downhill we reached the bottom of it, and it was a completely straight line between the fog and the clearness - this was very similar.

The track was surrounded by hillsides with red leaves, bright green grasses, the odd waterfall, mosses, and finally seaweed on the beach. It was lovely to have some colour, given everything else just seemed grey or brown that day so far.

The fog above me lifted from time to time and I could see some jagged bits of rock near the top of the mountain above me. This place must be amazing when you can see it!

I walked back to the car, still transfixed by the falling fog, turning to photograph it every few minutes.

I drove back towards the hotel, but stopped when I saw a lovely patch of light on the fjord below me. The colours of the shrubs were lovely too.

I got back to the hotel just before 6pm, after what had been a rather long day in the end, in spite of no long hikes and only stopping in each place for a short while (apart from the hike to Kúvíkur). The fog was going nowhere, so I took a few more shots - some blurry intentional camera movement, others with the tripod.

The light disappeared and it got colder, so I finally called it a day and packed up my gear. In the restaurant I tried one of the fish dishes - delicious! - and then decamped to my room to check out the day's photos. Not the best day, but better than I thought it might turn out when I was driving through the thick fog near Gjögur - and the swans fly-by was an unexpected bonus. There was still no promising weather forecast for the following day, but I set my alarm for before sunrise anyway so I could have the peak out of the blinds, see there was no decent colours, and then re-set the alarm and wake up at 9.30am!

Click here for my blog from Day 1 - Driving in the Rain to the Westfjords
Click here for my blog from Day 3 - Seals, Fog and Stacks around Djúpavík