My week in review

I just realized that it has been a while since my last post. To be honest, this is mostly because things have not been all that exciting the past few days. Iceland has had lots of gray rainy weather and I have mostly been driving from camp site to campsite. A few things have happened, however, so it’s time for an update.

I wrote last on Friday, last week, and today is Thursday.

Let’s take this one day at a time.

Saturday

My plan was to drive past multiple camp sites, seeing if any called to me, but most likely ending on the tip of the peninsula. Along the way, I looked for anything unusual to take pictures of. Mostly, I’m finding that churches offer a consistent opportunity, atheist though I am, though I did find a pretty boat just standing in a field that I liked as well.

Morning at my camp, my eventual driving route, a boat out standing in its field, and a couple of those churches

Unfortunately, when I made it to the camp site I had expect to stay at (as my battery was getting low), they were closed for a private event. I had wanted to drive along the edge of the tip of the peninsula the following day, but decided to take the short route to the next camp site on my map.

But first, I stopped to have fish and chips at a local family restaurant. It was a confusing place. The owner (I assume) was no where to be seen, but a couple already there admitted they had been confused at first as well, but eventually he does come out of the kitchen.

He didn’t speak English (or Danish), but I was able to order by pointing.

Having eaten, I drove through the rain to the next camp site and when I got there, I went to put my rain coat on so that I could look at the rules for staying, and discovered that I had left it at the restaurant.

Oh no!

I had just bought that rain jacket for this trip and it really has been perfect, I hated to think that it was lost. I tried calling several times, but got no answer. I did not have enough battery to make it both back to the restaurant and to the camp site again. I decided to focus on the camp site. I used my backup jacket to get to the location needed to pay for the camp site (about a km away in the windy rain). I then continued calling and eventually the owner answered.

I asked if he spoke English and he said no, but I had prepared for that, knowing that explaining that I had forgotten my jacket and asking if he had found it, and whether could I pick it up the next day, would be difficult over the phone. So I had typed this information into Google translate before calling, and when he answered ”No” to my question, I got Google to read the Icelandic translation out loud.

“Ah!” he said when it finished it’s robotic speech. “No problem!”

Learning languages is really no longer necessary, I suppose.

Camp Site Closed, Rainy Road, Fashionable Scarecrows

Sunday

As planned, I drove along the coast back to the restaurant along bumpy gravel roads.

There were not many interesting sights to take pictures of, but I was stopped near the end of that by a woman who worked for the Icelandic tourist agency for that section of the country. She said she was just out on her own, but when she saw another car, she asked them if they would fill out a survey for her work, then happened to see me as they were doing so and stopped me as well. She seemed overjoyed to have randomly found two cars driving on these remote roads.

Near the town there was an Icelandic “Stonehenge” (though most likely arranged with modern equipment). I didn’t bother visiting, but I did like the purple flowers nearby.

I did retrieve my beloved jacket then drove on to another camp site. Again, not much to take pictures of except another fancy church in that town.

My route, gravel road, purple flowers and some stacked stones, and a church in Húsavík

Monday

In the morning I drove inland from the peninsula towards a lake with interesting stone formations. I drove a circle around the lake, meaning that I saw much of it twice. The second time around, I stopped at a scenic area I had skipped the first time around, and was glad I did. It has a very pleasant area to walk through a small forest and gave better views of the lake than I had seen from the road.

There are a lot of horses on Iceland, and I’m doing my best to capture some of them in their dramatic surroundings.

I actually booked a campsite in advance, for once, and when I got there, the owner angrily told me that he would not allow an electric car to plug in to his outlets. He would let me charge at a paid charging station he had, but not plug in as I’ve been doing elsewhere. I didn’t feel welcome and left. He promised to refund my payment online (we’ll see), but I was quite concerned that this might be a problem elsewhere. I drove on to another campsite, however, and they had no concerns.

As it happens, when paying at a later site, the guard wasn’t sure about me plugging in my electric car, but let me stay anyway. Then, the morning after, he told me he got an angry phone call in the morning, saying that the owner (a town in this case) did not allow this. The guard’s theory was that they had just spent a lot of money to install electric vehicle chargers in the town, so they want to force people to use them.

The new site that night was much better, as it turns out, and I met a nice Canadian couple there. We talked over breakfast. I ran in to them again last night and we ate breakfast again this morning. They are heading home soon, though, so I don’t expect to see them again.

Stormy coast, Shadowfax?, Green Carpet, Rolling Road, Big Waterfall, Lake and Stone Columns, Mini-Cave, and my camp site

(hint: if you’re viewing on a phone, you can zoom in)

Tuesday

I made it to the only music shop I could find outside of Reykjavik and got my ukulele restrung. Yay! I think I spent 3 hours that day practicing. You really do appreciate things more when you lose them.

I also drove around again looking for less typical pictures of Iceland and cozy cafes. That night I stayed in the town based campsite, which was literally just a parking lot in a harbor. Not so cozy.

I love bright colors, more waterfalls, cozy cafe, the view between two tunnels

Wednesday

Much of the day I spent driving slowly along the coastline. Aside from churches, I feel drawn to lighthouses, as well as the odd house in what seems like the middle of nowhere.

I got to a potential camp site quite early in the day and couldn’t decide if I should press on or take an “easy” day. In the end, I opted for an easy day, mostly because the camp site was in such pretty surroundings. Unlike many campsites on Iceland, compared to the Faroe Islands, this one had a common room where I could sit for a while, so I was glad I chose it. It was almost empty when I parked, but by evening it was packed.

This is where I ran into the Canadian couple again.

Orange Lighthouse, Little House in the Valley?, Wednesday’s Campsite

Thursday (today)

This morning, after a pleasant conversation with the Canadian couple, I took a longer drive to a site along the coast with some interesting rock formations. Along the way, of course, I took pictures of an interesting church and lighthouse.

Church in Hobbitown?, YAL (Yet Another Lighthouse)

Rock Rhino, Bonus Waterfall (placed right beside it), Tonight’s campsite

I arrived at today’s campsite relatively late by my standards, but it was empty. Since then, some other campers have arrived. I went for a walk after plugging in and there were lots of birds who did not seem happy with me.

They came at me again when I returned and I managed to get a video of them. I haven’t figured out how to include videos on these pages, but here are a few screenshots. As you can see, they got quite close, a few even pecking at my hat, which I was glad to be wearing.

Alfred Hitchcock fanplay

There were a few Dutch tourists at the site by then and they admitted that the birds didn’t like them either. They had heard that they have new hatchlings, so they are not too happy about strangers. The same Dutch guys pointed out that a whale was in the inlet. Sure enough, after a few minutes we saw the telltale water spouts and their black hump backs sticking slightly above the water. They were too far and too shy for any pictures, though.

That brings me up to date.

I’ve paid for this site and the woman who collected my payment did not complain about me plugging into their power, so it seems I’m good for another night.

Time for ukulele practice.