Iceland - Höfn to Egilsstaðir

This morning we woke to gale-force winds buffeting the tent. It's pretty tough to get up when it's like that outside and nice and warm inside, but the promise of seeing more crazy amazing places spurred us on. We sat in the car to eat muesli with skyr (Icelandic yogurt, very thick, kind of like labneh) before heading inside to the campground's common room to brew up some Aeropress coffee, have a shower, and do some blog writing.

The Eastern coast of Iceland is very remote and isolated. The landscape and climate are extreme, so there's not many farming opportunities to bring people out here to live. We followed the Ring Road along the coast, with rugged beaches on one side and giant mountain ranges on the other, stopping several times to marvel at the epic view.

One of our stops was at a waterfall named Skútafoss. We noticed some off-road tour buses (essential monster trucks with extra seats) parked up a trail near a stream, and decided to go and see what they were looking at. After a 5 minute walk up the valley we came to the waterfall, which overshot a cave that had been formed from rock slowly crumbling away. It seemed like the perfect place for a troll to hang out!

Next we stopped in Djúpivogur, one of icelands oldest ports, for a lunch of locally caught fish and chips! We wandered around the small village and found an art installation representing the 34 sea birds that call the area home.

Instead of following the Ring Road around the fjords we decided to take a shortcut via the Öxi Mountain Pass. It is a steep, unsealed, switchback road that runs up the valley over the mountains. We were in awe the entire time with incredible views in front, behind and on either side of the road that changed continually as we went. There were parts of the drive where the landscape was like nothing we had ever seen before! Everything was covered with mosses and lichens, with whispy streams and waterfalls falling over the knarled rocks and cliff faces. There were even pockets of snow, yet to melt (if they ever do?). Even the wild sheep we'd seen grazing all over Iceland weren't this far up the mountain.

On our way up the pass we stopped at yet another waterfall, Folaldafoss. This one required a short hike along a river, through some mossy meadows filled with wildflowers and tiny butterflies.

We arrived in Egilsstaðir in the early evening. The town is small, but the biggest we have seen on this side of the island. We partook in Katie's favourite pastime, visiting foreign supermarkets, and found some Icelandic snacks to munch on before dinner. We popped the tent at Camp Egilsstaðir and settled down in the campground common area with a local craft beer and sandwich for dinner.

Again, we had managed to make a 2 ½ hour drive take the whole day. 😂