Iceland #14 - Day 10: Vík to Álftanes

I slept better than expected, given that there were gail-force winds and heavy snow outside all night. My room was on the ground floor of the guesthouse, and I woke up hoping for a view of the blowing snow outside. Instead, as I opened the curtains the room didn't get much lighter as a snow-drift was covering my window.

iPhoneSE view of my window

I got dressed and went upstairs for breakfast, where there was a better view of the storm, although still some on the windows. The storm was still going strong. The sky was dark, a snow-drift covered a fair amount of all the cars parked outside, and the wind howled. Fortunately the place was well-insulated. I sat around for a while, checking the road website every five or ten minutes. Unlike the forecast sites, this actually gave updates on the wind speeds at various sites every ten minutes. The roads were all closed along the southern ring-road. At 9.41am a gust of 52 m/s (116 mph!!) was recorded at Steinar (where my beloved rocks are), although around Vik it was only max gusts of 30m/s (a calm 67mph...).

Screenshot from the very useful road.is

I wasn't going anywhere for a while. I didn't have too far to go (180km), but with the roads closed I just had to sit and wait, and even once they'd opened (if they did!), it'd still be slow-going.

To my surprise, other guests began to leave at around 10am. The roads were still closed, and the wind speeds were generally between 16 and 22m/s along the local stretch of road, but obviously with higher gusts. I didn't know if there were any physical barriers along this stretch of road, but I thought people were very reckless setting off already. The car-park was almost empty by 11am. I went upstairs a little later to get some tea and was surprised to hear "Sophie?!" - I looked round and it was a guy that sat behind me at the job that I'd just left the week before. I'd remembered him talking about Iceland ages before, but to be in the same guesthouse at the same time was a massive coincidence. Also, I hadn't seen him the previous night, or earlier at breakfast, so might have easily missed each other altogether and never known of the coincidence.

Just before midday I went outside to take a few shots - the sky was foreboding but beautiful. It was bitterly cold, especially when one of those gusts came along.

My window was the middle one at the bottom!

It would've been nice to just enjoy the storm and walk around the local area a little, but I did have to leave at some point. I began to get a bit worried about timing as I wanted to be at Sigrún's for 6pm (for supper (!) and before it got too dark) and had hoped to pop into my jewellers beforehand. The latter was looking very unlikely.

Finally at 1pm I made the decision to leave, even though the road was still closed according to road.is; a few cars were now passing by in each direction. The wind speeds were still around 15m/s, but the gusts had come down to around 22m/s. Given that the guesthouse was almost directly opposite the road to Dyrholaey I decided to head down there, to see if I could get any views. The conditions were fine until about half way to the car-park a snow-drift blocked the whole road. I could have tried to drive across it, but being alone it would have been a foolhardy thing to do (no-one to help push me if I got stuck). It also didn't bode well for the rest of the journey to the shore. There was a nice enough view from there and some stunning light in the sky, so I took a few photos before heading back up to the main road and started my journey westwards.

I stopped shortly afterwards as I approached Petursey - the light on the horizon still magical.

Not far after that I pulled in at the almost-empty parking lot for the walk down to the crashed DC3. A couple were heading down there on foot - not the brightest idea, given that the weather could easily get a lot worse very quickly; at least the trail appeared to be marked with yellow way-markers. A raven posed on a fence post for me.

The road wasn't too bad, as the wind had blown most of the loose snow away, so there weren't too many drifts blowing across the road. There were a few cars on the road, but not many. I wasn't caught by any gusts, and the snow storms seemed to be staying to my south. My next stop was rather magical. I've visited Skógafoss on many occasions, and driven past it on more, not bothering to stop. Sometimes it can just look a bit meh, with the water grey, the skies white and the whole place over-crowded. This time, however, I took the turn-off as I thought the surrounds would be snow-covered; I was right. The hillsides were covered in enormous icicles, which themselves were covered in snow. The waterfall still powered on down to the little trickle of river, and visitors came and went, marvelling in this spectacular sight. I took a few shots with the telephoto zoom, which is all I left the car with initially.

After about 20 minutes I went back to the car to get another lens, as I wanted to capture a wider view. It was just wonderful!

As I left, I noticed two Japanese women doing a little photo shoot - I loved the woman's traditional dress, with her skirt layers blowing in the wind. She must have been bloody freezing!

I dragged myself away, next stop Steinar, where fortunately the 52 m/s winds had most definitely died down! Once again I found some stunning light to the south, with snow showers almost obscuring Vestmannæyjar. In spite of the havoc it wreaks, big storms certainly provide some wonderful drama in the skies.

The cloud obscured the islands as I headed down to the shoreline to my favourite rocks. As I approached the frozen water a flock of geese flew up and across the ice, landing a little further along the shore.

The rocks looked striking in the icy waters, and as I was there a break in the cloud revealed some blue sky and the sun even came out briefly. Yup, I love these stormy days and the variety of weather that they bring!

My next stop - and what turned out to be my last - was down the road towards the ferry to the islands. I drove a little way down until I found a decent enough viewpoint. I'd never driven down that road before and it was completely empty (the main road was now relatively busy). I got a magnificent view of the islands again now the weather was giving breaks in the clouds and storms.

To the east I could see the huge storm clouds, and sun illuminated patches of the hillsides.

And if I looked to the north I could see the infamous Eyjafjallajökull and just make out Seljalandsfoss waterfall. It was pretty stunning and if sunset hadn't been so damned early I might've stayed a little longer and explored the views further down the road.

As it was it was already getting late, so I headed onwards, with the last part of the journey ahead of me. I had a slight worry that the road from Hveragerði to Reykjavik might be closed (it was still showing as closed when I checked every time I stopped), but I hoped that it might have miraculously opened by the time I arrived.

The rest of the journey to Hveragerði was uneventful, with the sun now out in between lighter clouds; the worst of the storms appeared to be behind me (or to the south still). I arrived at the foot of the big hill at 4.45pm, so I'd still have time to make it back in time for a 6pm supper, but lo-and-behold, the road was still closed.

iPhoneSE shot of the damned closed road!

I parked at the petrol station at the roundabout, as did everyone else, and wandered up to check with the police. I asked the same question as everyone else: any idea what time the road might open. The guy was friendly and just shrugged, as he had been doing all day. It might open soon or it might not. I had two options: sit it out and wait, or take a rather long detour via the south coast and Reykjanes peninsula to wind my way back to Álftanes. I took the latter option, thinking that the road might not open for hours and I'd just be stuck there. I made the right decision: I checked later in the evening and the pass was still not open. The journey along the south coast was a pleasant one, although it's nicer when there's nothing else on the road. It added 75km to the journey, which was obviously annoying, and all hopes of nipping into Orr were gone, but I didn't end up arriving for dinner too late. As always I had a lovely welcome (and dinner!) from Sigrún and family (including the adorable Jökull the cat).

iPhoneSE shot of the most adorable cat ever!

I told them all about my trip, and heard that they'd both had bad flu while I was away; thankfully they were both better, and also thankfully I hadn't caught it, as that wouldn't be very convenient for a road trip (I had it a month later instead, where it also wasn't very convenient as I'd just started a new job!).  I did my least favourite job of the whole trip - repacking the backpack (trying to fit in the tripod, and beer I hadn't drunk inside boots) and had an early night. My last day would involve a trip to Orr, driving to the airport, and the flight home.

Click here for my blog from Day 9: Jökulsárlón to Vík
Click here for my pictures from the flight home

Iceland #10 - Day 10: A Stormy Drive Back to Reykjavik (and home)

I woke up on the morning of my final full day in Iceland to the sound of the storm overhead. The intensity would come and go a little, rattling the doors of the guesthouse at its strongest. I had a huge breakfast, stuffing myself with delicious home-made malty bread. All of the guests hung around, not quite sure when it was going to be safe to leave. It was a perfect place to sit and wait for the weather to improve though, with lots of nice people to chat to, a warm log fire, as well as tea and coffee on tap. Eventually the winds did die down and one-by-one the guests departed - heading out nervously. I left at about 1pm, hoping to get to Reykjavik by 5pm (usually it's a 2-hour drive, but with stops and taking it slowly that would hopefully work).

I wasn't expecting to take many photos that day, as even though the winds would drop, it was still forecast to be stormy all day. The rain was blown around by the wind, so taking any photos without getting the lens covered in raindrops would be challenging, and use of a tripod was definitely out of the question. I drove cautiously down the road to the ring-road, but it wasn't too gusty - just a constant wind and precipitation coming and going. My first stop was just past Vík, at the turn-off to the skimobile place, as I saw some crepuscular rays to the south. I pulled on the raincoat and hat, crossed the road and took a couple of shots of the road, hills and the rays. There was pretty good visibility, considering, so at least some of the mountains were on show. The rain was slanted at this point, so it was possible to keep the lens dry for a few shots, using the zoom lens with the long hood on.

Next stop was Skógafoss. I've seen these falls many times, and usually stop there once on each trip. It can be very crowded - especially with coach-loads of English geography field trip students, and it can look very dull in grey weather, with blown-out white skies above. I'd noticed a little road on the far side of the river on my last trip, so decided to give the usual parking area a miss and head down there, to see if I could get a different - or better - viewpoint. I liked the view, but even with the 1.4x extender I couldn't quite get as close as I'd have liked. The surrounding landscape was that yellowy-brown grass, that really needs to be hidden under a good covering of snow (or converted to black and white), and from that point there was too much of it in view. What I did notice, though, was that the wind was blowing the waterfalls upwards. Fortunately it was blowing westward, so the visitors who made the effort to climb up to the viewpoint (I did that on my very first visit and haven't bothered since) weren't getting drenched. It was quite striking, and looks even more so converted into black and white.

I was quite fascinated by the upwards falls, so ended up driving back to the usual parking area to get a closer look.

I think this looks like a man about to punch the waterfall...

As usual it was quite busy, but people came and went, and occasionally just a couple of people would be standing in front of the falls.

While I was there I noticed that the sky had begun to brighten slightly behind me to the south, and for about 3 minutes the clouds parted, the sun came out, blue skies appeared from nowhere behind the falls and the sun shone brightly, giving a lovely brief rainbow. Everyone was delighted! Having looked drab and dull, suddenly it looked glorious.

Within a couple of minutes the sun was gone, and off I went.

The rain and hail and sleet and wind returned. Or rather I drove through it. I stopped very briefly at Seljalandsfoss to use the loo, took a couple of shots of people battling the sleet, and then headed onwards.

Just after I left I drove through the most unbelievably intense shower, with gusty winds and snow coming straight at me. It went on for a few minutes and I felt quite relieved once I'd driven through it. I pulled the car over to capture the storm as it retreated; sun shone on the mountaintops in the distance.

I stopped a little further on to photograph some trees, and a few other times to capture visible rain storms passing in the distance (there were a few).

I was a little nervous about the big hill past Hveragerði and the high pass beyond. When I'd been manically checking the road conditions and weather sites before I set off that was one area that was marked with "storm" conditions. The big sweeping dual carriageway that winds up around the hill was surprisingly clear of traffic (and snow) - just a couple of other cars and me; fortunately no high-sided trucks (they don't seem to drive on weekends and hopefully they also have rules about not driving in windy weather!). At the top the road and roadside were pretty snowy, and I passed a snow plough a little further on, that was presumably just driving up and down that stretch of the road all day. It was no longer snowing and the wind had died away, so apart from a bit of snow on the road, which I was used to, the conditions weren't too bad at all. I'd definitely made the right choice to leave later as I'd clearly missed the worst of it.

I gave Reykjavík a miss and headed straight to Álftanes, where I was expected at around 5pm at Sigrún and Johannes' for supper. The promise of Sigrún's Thai fish soup had been driving me forward all day long (I'd eaten nothing since breakfast)! I arrived on the peninsula a little early so took a little drive to the east side along an unmade road to get a better view of the enormous storm clouds that were passing over the city in the distance. I could just make out the Hallsgrímkirkja, the highest building in Reykjavik (not the tallest from the ground, but its peak is higher than any of the new skyscrapers built on lower ground along the waterfront).

Behind me another storm was coming in and it was great to watch the patches of rain fall in the distance. I knew it would reach me soon, so I got back in the car and headed back towards the west side. I stopped the car at one point as the storm hit me to try to capture the ferocity of the sleet as it hammered the car and road ahead of me.

It's always lovely to get back to see these friends after a trip around their beautiful country, and obviously I was particularly happy to be greeted by the adorable Jökull (the kitten), who was as affectionate as ever. The fish soup was so delicious that I had three bowls. This was then followed by an even more delicious apple and pear crumble with a walnut crumble and home-made vanilla ice-cream. Again I had three helpings and then felt ridiculously over-full for the rest of the evening! It is very nice to have a friend who is an extremely talented cook! I had a relatively early night as I had to get up at 5am in order to drive back to the airport for my early flight home. The kitten slept on top of me all night.

The weather was dreadful again, and this time I was happy to leave (on my last visit I awoke to a beautiful crisp cold day - and northern lights - and was miserable to be leaving).

I dropped off the car - thanking them again for swapping it on the first day for one with a music system (a trip-saver!) - and fortunately there was no damage (always a relief, especially after the blowing sand at Stokksnes and the bumpy drive to the DC3). They dropped me off at the terminal and I checked in, had a delicious breakfast of an open prawn sandwich at the remaining Icelandic café, and stocked up on my favourite stout. We had to walk across the runway in the blowing rain for a short distance to get to our plane, which seemed a little strange - as well as unpleasant! Fortunately I still had my hat with me, but my other Iceland-weather-proof gear was packed away. My seat was at the emergency exit next to the door, so was also covered in rain. I stood around waiting for the last passenger before wiping the rain off it!

I sat next to a lovely American woman who had just got engaged (her fiancé sat behind) and we shared a wonderful couple of hours chatting about our lives. I always meet fantastic people on my flights to and from Iceland.

I took a few shots out of the window along the way, although Iceland was covered in cloud as we left. Above the clouds it was glorious and there were some cool brocken spectres of the plane as we descended through light clouds into Gatwick.

The weather in London was delightful and I was glad to get home to my boys and start the mammoth task of sorting through the thousands of photos I'd taken!

It had been a pretty successful trip, and it had been great to have a proper weekend break with hubby and friends to start with (I really enjoyed playing tour guide in this country I love so much). I'd had some great weather, particularly on my drive east from Jökulsarlón, but no really spectacular sunrises or sunsets. I'd seen the northern lights on three occasions - with the most amazing display on the 4th night, which after my first couple of trips of seeing nothing is always good. The icebergs on Jökulsárlón beach - or rather lack thereof - had been my biggest disappointment of the trip. But that's the thing I love about Iceland and my road-trips there - every visit is different: the weather, the snow, the ice, the light, the experiences I have, and that makes me want to return again and again - to see it in yet another different light again.

Click here for my blog from Day 9 - Driving West to Hrifunes