Camping

Weekend tripping around the south and Reykjavik / June 8, 2017 by Kevin Hatcher

How do you top going to the Westfjords? Well, it is difficult, but there is always something new to look at in Iceland and a long overdue trip to Vík í Mýrdal and the surrounding area could be a good start.

I had a few friends visit us here from Scotland. It all started from the bus station in Reykjavik on Thursday morning. We traveled south east along the tourist trail of Route 1 to Vík í Mýrdal.

Our first stop was the iconic Seljalandsfoss waterfall and a smaller secret (ish) waterfall just 10 minutes away called Gljúfrabúi. This smaller waterfall is tucked away in a gorge on the same length of cliffs that Seljalandsfoss is located, but with less tour buses.

When we reappeared out of the waterfall gorge we heard sirens and noticed a helicopter coming into land at Seljalandsfoss. Apparently someone had climbed up the side of the waterfall on the steep embankment and fallen and broken his leg.

A teenager broke his leg and was air lifted away from the Seljalandsfoss area.

We left the craziness of the Seljalandsfoss area and headed toward Vik, only to stop at the glacier cafe just off route 1. It was only a short walk up to the head of Sólheimajökul glacier, which was awesome.

We then drove onto Dyrhólaey lighthouse via the sketchiest 4x4 track ever. Seriously, I had the car on three wheels at one point and it is a Skoda Octavia rather than a proper 4x4! It was cool! Now, I did not take any pictures of the lighthouse because I couldn't get the right composition without a million tourists in the way. Needless to say, it is a great place to visit and has some great views along the coast.

The view along the black beach towards Vik.

Well, after checking out the lighthouse and awesome views we drove just south of Vik and then turned north up a dirt track and drove for 14km to Þakgil camp site. It started raining on the way to the campsite, but that did not dampen our spirits as the landscape was out-of-this-world.

Looking out over a very wet valley at þórsmörk from the road.

It took us about 50 minutes to get to the campsite and it was great fun driving, and well worth it when we arrived. The campsite was a large flat field space surrounded by hills on all but three sides. What a great find!

Double Kev at Þakgil camp site. Thanks Shane for the photo.

We pitched my tent and made our way into a cave...yes a cave...to make dinner and chat to the other local tourists.

The next morning we packed, had breakfast, coffee...two coffees...and headed back to Vik and then on to Reykjavik. We did stop briefly at the Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach and the basalt columns, but the weather was still dull and grey, so we hit the road just after a tourist bus spewed forth its contents of visitors.

We did however make one last stop before heading back to Reykjavik, and if you have been reading my blogs you will know I am big fan of...HOT POOLS! Seljavallalaug outdoor swimming pool is just off the main road and down a dirt road and then a walk...so it does require a bit of navigation and planning to get there. When we got to the pool it was lovely and sunny again with the clouds rolling over us and bright patches of sunshine pouring through onto the mountain side. Very peaceful.

Seljavallalaug from above. That is Shane's head just on the left side of the pool.

Shane taking his yearly bath in the pool.

After a nice soak we walked back to the car and had lunch and headed back to Reykjavik to meet another friend who had just arrived, Becs.

After a good dinner and some wine we decided to stay up late to watch the northern midnight sunset over the horizon from the Sólfar and what a sunset! You should check out my new updated Sólfar image on my site too!

That was one of the best sunsets I have seen in a long time and it was shared with great friends.

The next day we hiked up one of my favorite local hills, Móskarðshnjúkar, which is just outside Reykjavik. The location feels like you are in the wilds of Iceland for very little traveling time.

Heading towards the hill.

Nothing but Lupines.

The top of the hike is just to the left.

Last push to the top.

Happy hikers on the summit.

Summit selfie.

This is the hill.

What a great hike, and the weather was nice for all of it too.

The last day of the weekend the three of us (Aimee left for the UK) hiked up a small hill just south of Reykjavik called Helgafell and visited the geothermal fields at Krisuvik. It is a great place for a very short walk around some amazingly colourful geothermal activity.

That last night we ate and drank in downtown Reykjavik. We managed to get the best seats outside the Sæta Svínið Gastropub in the sunshine.

What a great way to finish a great weekend! and now for next weekend...ferries, the Westmann Islands, and the largest colony of puffins in the world! I can't wait.

Cheers,

Kev

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The mighty Westfjords of Iceland. / June 3, 2017 by Kevin Hatcher

Wow! I mean like WOW!

If anyone I know wants to visit Iceland in the future and asks me for what I consider to be the real wild Iceland (without renting a 4x4) I will be telling them all about the Westfjords.

The Plan

We planned to drive a loop of the Westfjords (1,052km) over a long weekend. We would drive a few hours every day, and do some hiking along the way to break the driving up. The plan and route was as follows:

Friday: Pick Aimee up from work and drive up to Hólmavík (Population 375) and stay overnight at a hostel.

Saturday: Drive from Hólmavík to Ísafjörður (Population 2,559) with a stop somewhere to stretch our legs on a hike. We had booked into a self catering accommodation in the center of the town.

Sunday: Drive from Ísafjörður to Tálknafjörður (Population 306) with a stop planned at the amazing Dynjandi Foss. This time we would spend the night in our tent at the local camp site at Tálknafjörður.

Monday: Drive from Tálknafjörður to Reykhólar (Population 120) with another hike along the way. We would be spending our last night in the tent, but it would be right next to an outdoor swimming pool with hot pool. Not to bad really.

Tuesday: Drive from Reykhólar to Reykjavik (Population 123,246), so that Aimee could get back to work.

A lot of driving, but it was well worth it and we will be going back, it is just to good not too!

Friday and Saturday: Hiking in the rain and big waterfalls.

After a few hours drive from Reykjavik we arrived at Hólmavík late on Friday evening. It is a very small village in the Westfjords. It was wet and grey when we arrived, but it cleared up by on Saturday morning. We stayed in a hostel right on the seafront near an amazing harbour and church. It was so quiet and idyllic you almost forgot you were in Iceland.

We left Hólmavík and traveled onto Ísafjörður. It rained most of the way which was a shame because we really wanted to go for a hike. We could not find anything on the map that might be a hiking route, until we rounded the end of a fjord and discovered a hiking sign.

The rain was so bad that I didn't take my DSLR with me, but I wish I had, as after a small walk of 2km we found Valagil waterfall. It was tucked away and fell from the very top of the mountain to the valley floor. It was a great site to behold in the rain.

We arrived in Ísafjörður late that evening just as the weather cleared up and walked around the largest town in the Westfjords. The clouds and the light were amazing. We were lucky to get dinner at a seafood restaurant that serves an all you can eat seafood buffet. The food was outstanding and I would highly recommend going, but make sure you make a reservation, as it is only open for dinner from 7pm until 10pm and it is very busy. They don't have a website but you can find information on their Facebook page.

Clouds over the mountains near Ísafjörður.

Sunday: Hiking up a lonely mountain and the best outdoor swimming pool ever!

We woke an amzing day with sunshine, blue skies and fluffy clouds. So after breakfast, we packed the car and headed for Tálknafjörður from Ísafjörður. We had found an an area just south of Ísafjörður to go for a hike and hopefully get some nice views.

Morning reflections across Ísafjörður harbour.

We drove from Ísafjörður into a long tunnel that cut straight through the hillside to the next fjord.

Reflections in the water after the tunnel.

The scenery along the road was stunning. Great sharp mountains that rose almost vertically up from near sea level to way above our heads. The road guided us around these giants onto our destination of Þingeyri were we would start our hike up Arnarnupur (558m).

It was a short, sharp hike and we made the plateau very quickly and reached the top in time for lunch. My favorite time!

Looking back from the top of Arnarnupur to Þingeyri

The view from the top was spectacular and right on the edge of a massive cliff to the sea. What a great spot for lunch! But time waits for no man or woman...so we descended back along the same path and back to the car to have a cup of coffee, before setting off across the fjords to Tálknafjörður.

High roads in June, In Iceland! Awesome.

After the spectacular hike we drove onto our next overnight location. This was an interesting drive as a lot of the roads are dirt track, and there is still snow in places in May. We deseneded down into the next fjords and drove along the rough track to the head of the fjord. As we reached the end of the fjords we came across an amazing site...an outdoor swimming pool!

We shared this amazing experience with one other couple and left just as four other cars full of people arrived. It was so relaxing we almost camped there for the night, but we had one more place that I wanted to stop and visit.

Dynjandi waterfall is a site to behold. A massive waterfall of over 100m high and you can walk right up to it, and stand directly below it. The waterfall is magnificent and quite difficult to get a scaled photograph. I did try but it was late in the evening now, and it was very busy with other tourists like us.

Dynjandi waterfall. Notice the people near the top for scale.

We left this waterfall behind us to go to our camp site in Tálknafjörður and slept well after a very packed day of adventuring.

Monday: Waking up to go to the best hot pool ever and then a hike.

The last day of our trip and what is the best way to start the day...outdoor hot pool! We had it all to ourselves for the first half an hour and it was so tranquil. There are three pools; one hot and deep with benches to sit on, one shallow and cold, and one shallow and warm, so you can rotate around all three and be at the perfect temperature.

Once bathed and relaxed we headed back to the camp site, packed, had breakfast and got back on the road again to our final destination. Reykhólar . We did stop on the way for a quick hike to stretch our legs and got some great views.

After the hike we pushed onto our campsite at Reykhólar, where there was another outdoor swimming pool and hot pool. This one is run by the council so no pictures, but it was great to get another relaxing soak in at the end of the day.

In the kicthen making dinner...it was very windy.

Table for two...I was taking the picture.

Tuesday: Reykjavik - Early morning start and home.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. We woke up super early, packed the tent and left to get back to Reykjavik. But I will be back, as there is so much more to explore!

Thanks for reading this really long blog. I will try keeping it shorter in the future, but there was so much fun to be had over the weekend I just couldn't help writing about it!

Cheers,

Kev

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The secret blue river. / May 31, 2017 by Kevin Hatcher

What an amazing few weeks I have had! I am only just sitting down now to process all of the images and try and catch up on my blog.

Where to start...

This overnight stay happened at the end of May, and was a result of me getting itchy feet to go out on my own to take some images.

Now, the location I had in mind was a foss (Waterfall in Icelandic) called Brúarfoss and it is about 2hrs drive from Reykjavik. It is a great little place that seems to be causing a bit of a friction with the local Icelandic population. After visiting the area and adding to the issue I can totally understand why, so I am not going to locate the foss here, but if you are keen to see it there is enough information on line to locate it. The area is a "Private" summer house retreat for the locals and with the increase of tourists and lack of infrastructure the road and trails are over used.

I left mid afternoon from Reykjavik with the sun shining, clear beautiful blue skies, and great big white fluffy clouds in the sky. Perfect! After eventually finding the area, and a place to park I walked off along the very beaten up and muddy track to be rewarded with an amazing river scene. I spent the afternoon there to find a good composition in relation to the sunset. This would mean that when I returned later that evening I would have a picture already in my minds eye and could set up my camera quickly.

I drove down the road a few kilometers to a campsite next to the geysir field. This geysir field is on the golden circle route and is very popular with the bus tours, which makes it very popular during the mid morning and late afternoon.

Fortunately, I was spending the night there, so after dinner I went for a walk around the geysir field and almost had the place to myself in the evening sun. The Strokkur Geysir erupts every 5-10 minutes so you are bound to see it, and then you can walk around the area looking at the other less active hot pools. What a great place.

The Strokkur Geysir can reach as high as 70-80m

After my walk around the geothermal springs I headed back to the car to set off back to Brúarfoss for the sunset. I arrived and walked down to the river and had the place to myself. Unfortunately the clouds started to roll in and I maybe should have been there about an hour earlier to get some nice close up images of the waterfall. I will also need to bring wellington boots next time, as there is far too much water for my hiking boots to stand in the river.

I did manage to get a few shots that I am very happy about and they are on my website just before the sunset was completely obscured by the clouds and mountains.

After the last light disappeared I headed home at about midnight. I returned to the campsite and went to the car to get my sleeping equipment, but I could not find my sleeping bag! Oops! I made do with putting all my clothes on and got some sleep in the tent. Needless to say it was cold that night.

The next day it was grey, rainy and cold, so I decided to head back home and get ready for my next adventure...The amazing Westfjords. New blog coming soon!

Thanks

Kev

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Long drive, ice diamonds, and closing roads. / May 23, 2017 by Kevin Hatcher

What a great weekend at the Snæfellsnes peninsula, with some of the best weather I have experienced in Iceland. The only thing better than coming home from a great adventure is to repack and head out on the road again to go on another. So... I packed the car with a good friend of mine Mike Guarino from Mike Gaurino Photography to start the long drive south east to Skaftafell National park in Iceland and Jökulsárlón to do some backpacking, hiking and photography.

Reykjavik to Skaftafell National park (4 Hours 1 minutes) and then Jökulsárlón, glacier lagoon (40 minutes)

Now, the Icelandic tourist board does an amazing job of advertising the sites of Iceland, but what they don't tell you is:
1.   Iceland is bigger than it looks!
2.   All of the tourist spots are scattered all around the coast just off Route 1. The only "main" road around the country.
3.   The weather in Iceland can change in an instant from amazing too crazy very quickly. To be fair to the tourist board they do warn tourists and visitors about the weather and all the information is on the Vedur site and app (www.vedur.is) and road information site (www.road.is).
I checked the weather on Monday, the night before we had planned to leave, and it looked OK, cloudy and then changing to showers by the end of the week. I double checked the weather on Tuesday morning and it was very different, cloudy and overcast for the drive, then rain and gales for the day after we got there. Hmm, what to do? A long drive to see some cool Icelandic sites and hope the weather changes again or stay home?
Adventure waits for no-one! Into the car on Tuesday morning with all the backpacking and camera gear.
First stop on the way was Seljalandsfoss. A very impressive and big waterfall that is located just next to route 1, so it is a tourist hot spot.

Seljalandsfoss with a random tourist for scale...it's a big waterfall and you can walk behind it too!

A great place to stop, but it can be very busy, so pick your time. But the national park awaits so, back into the car and onward to Vík í Mýrdal for a quick lunch stop overlooking the black sands beach.

After a long drive across some amazingly barren and open lava fields we finally arrived at Skaftafell national park around 4pm.

As we crossed towards the campsite this is the view north to Skeiðarárjökull Glacier.

We had planned to stay in the park campsite on Tuesday night, but the weather up to this point had been pretty good, so we thought maybe we could backpack into the national park and stay at the base of Morsárjökull Glacier (shown below center top of the map). Unfortunately, it is not possible to wild camp in the national parks here in Iceland, so we set up camp in the campsite.

Once set up we walked to see the Skaftafellsjökull glacier, which was an amazing sight and my first up close look at a glacier. The light was pretty flat because it was late afternoon and cloudy, but still an impressive site.

Kevin Hatcher taking pictures of the glacier. Thanks Mike.

It was pretty busy with tourists because it is very accessible and about a 20min walk from the main entrance and campground.

We returned from the short walk to see the glacier, had some dinner and then decided to drive 40 minutes to Jökulsárlón to see the glacier lagoon. The weather was beginning to turn and the clouds were grey and dark. The drive there was difficult due to the heavy rain showers and side winds, but we made it and WOW! it was so worth it!

When you arrive there is a car park on the north side of the road that you can park at and then walk to the lagoon, and see the large junks of ice floating down to the sea. The lagoon has a wide river running from it, with a bridge, but we never went over the bridge. We did go to the BEACH! Now that is breath taking.

Imagine if you had the blackest sand and then scattered white and crystal clear diamonds all over it, then you get close to what this beach looks like.

It was amazing, and Mike and I spent the next 2-3 hours taking photographs and admiring the views. The only reason we stopped is because it got too dark, and it started to rain. But WOW! What a place.

Holding a ice diamond at the Jökulsárlón beach.

I have so many images from this beach and its prize jewels I could fill a book. It is difficult to pick only a few images to share, but needless to say I will go back, and hopefully the weather will be better. Talking about the weather we returned to this sign...

Weather report for the national park area. FYI 20m/s = 44mph and 45m/s = 100mph

The plan in the morning was to go for a short hike to see the Svartifoss but after a discussion with the one and only employee who had made it to work, we decided against it. Why you ask? Well, we were informed that the roads home are to be closed at 11:00am, it was 10:30am. They also didn't know if or when the roads would reopen. So with heavy hearts we packed up and got back in the car and drove back. As we did the wind speed increased and sections of roads did close, it was great fun!

We made it back to Reykjavik late that day after a very windy, wet and bluster drive, but what a drive. I will have to go back there as the scenery is spectacular, and one night is just not enough.

Getting far to dark for my selfie camera at Jökulsárlón beach.

I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed sharing it with you all. I have a few more things in the pipeline for the blog. I have last weekends adventure back to Snaefellsnes peninsula and I am going to get an RSS feed set up so if you want to keep up to date with the blog it will be delivered directly to your email box! How awesome is that.

Stay tuned folks and follow me on Instagram for regular updates and images.

Cheers

Kev

PS I hope this week will be double blog week!

Back to the Peninsula... / May 21, 2017 by Kevin Hatcher

A few weekends ago the weather report suggested that it would be amazing blue skies and warm. So we decided to go back up to Snæfellsnes peninsula for some camping, hiking, and adventures. We also had the added benefit of a friend visiting from France for the weekend, who had rented a camper van and was going up there too. Let the fun begin!

Saturday

Travelling up to the Peninsula with Snæfellsjökull glacier.

After driving for a few hours we reached the area that we were interested in exploring. We had investigated doing a hike up a mountain called Mt. Stapafell to get a good view of the surrounding area. We arrived and stopped at a lay by just below the Snæfellsjökull glacier. The ridge that we wanted to do was ahead of us and we could not find the start of a trail, so we decided to take it easy and explore the coast line between Port Arnarstapi and Hellnar.

This was only a short walk over a few kilometers but it was along an amazing lava field and the sea. It was quite an amazing contrast!

Coast line between Port Arnarstapi and Hellnar.

Hellnar Church with the Snæfellsjökull glacier in the background.

That guy took a picture of me and took great interest in my 35mm film camera from 1978!

So, after a nice walk we head off to find our friends and find somewhere to camp. This is quite easy in Iceland as there are a lot of campsites and there all super easy to use. So we stayed at Langaholt campsite and pitched the tent. (Queue time-lapse fun with surprise drive through!).

Langaholt camping

The beach and surroundings are beautiful around the campsite. Well worth a visit, but it is a bit rustic, with no showers and the bathrooms are just a shed. Loved it!

Sunday

After a quick breakfast and some planning we decided to go for a hike. Re-packed the car and drove to the approximate center of the peninsula to spend the day on a hill. What a great day! Sunshine, no clouds in the sky and no one there.

Once we had finished the hike Scherie mentioned a waterfall close by that we had not yet seen, and you could walk behind it! So back into the cars for a short drive to see the waterfall. WOW! What an amazing place.

Long exposure of the river Fossá. Click for a big version!

Well, as always, all good things must come to an end. We said are farewells and hit the road back to Reykjavik to start another week.

We will back to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula as it has so much to offer for so little travel time. But the next adventure awaits. We are off to the Westfjords of Iceland which is not on the normal tourist track of the well beaten route 1 circular. I can't wait!

Thanks,

Kev

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