Driving ICELAND's Ring Road: Kirkjubaejarklaustur to Faskrudsfjordur

Southeast ICELAND

Part 2/4 

               Kirkjubaejarklaustur>Hali>Hofn>Faskrudsfjordur 

Lava Fields - Icefields - Glaciers - Icebergs - Fjords

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More Fun Facts

It took us, some creative thinking to figure out the door locks, the stick shift pattern on our rental car and the various shower controls. I faintly recall some of thes same 'curiosities' when we visited Spain / Portugal. 

Sorry ... I still don't like the European bedding system. Two single beds pushed together, with separate bedding on each and no top sheet.

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Route

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JOURNAL

I've used the Iceland font for Icelandic placenames where we stayed on our driving route or as sidetrips we took and for some Journal details.

My sincere apologies to any native Icelanders for any spelling errors I may have made.

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Photography

Cameras: NIKON Coolpix P610 & CANON DSLR EOS Rebel T8i

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Day07

Route: Kirkjubaejarklaustur > Hali                                           

Sidetrip: none                                                                 

Distance (Daily / Cummulative): 141 / 806 kms 

Hiking (Daily / Total): 14.3 / 56.7 kms 

Camp04: 1 night @ Hali Country Hotel 

Rained most of the night, heavy at times, cleared early morning, some cloud, coolish, high 11C. Glaciers and icebergs, more waterfalls than I can count or photograph. 

Whooper Swans

The whooper swan, also known as the common swan, is a large northern hemisphere swan. It is the Eurasian counterpart of the North American trumpeter swan.

A lava field, a headland, an icefield and a glacier.

Columnar basalt forms a plateau.

Skaftafellsjokull Glacier

Vatnajokull Glacier

The largest glacier in Europe.

Lava Field

Lava fields are large, mostly flat areas of surface or subaquatic lava flows. Such features are generally composed of highly fluid basalt lava and can extend for tens or hundreds of miles across the underlying terrain.

Fjallsarlon Ice Lagoon  

Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon

Diamond Beach

At Diamond Beach, the icebergs which fill the Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon wash up on shore, creating a stark contrast with the volcanic black sand. Many seals call the beach home, and it is one of the best places in the country to see orcas from the shore.

" Bird on the Wing "

Hali

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Day08

Route: Hali > Hofn                                            

Sidetrips: Viking Village movie set, Hofn AFS NATO, Almannaskaro

Distance (Daily / Cummulative): 117 / 923 kms 

Hiking (Daily / Total): 9.8 / 66.5 kms 

Camp05: 1 night @ Fosshotel Vatnajökull

Clear morning sky, cooler today, high 11C, some wind, fog on the high peaks. We're currently located in Southeastern Iceland; today at around 7:45 pm it was beginning to get dark.

Early morning window view from our cottage.

Viking Village movie set. 

The "Old Farm". In 2009 an ambitious film company built a set here for a movie. Most of the materials used were driftwood from the beach and telephone poles. The site was abandonded for nearly a decade. The film finally made it's debut in 2018 in a movie by Universal, "Vikingr", based on tales from early Viking sagas and stories of early settlers.

Whale backbone.

Kambhorn

 Icelandic Horses

Hofn AFS

Hofn Air Station was established as a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) radar station under Military Air Transport Service.

 
Driving along the Skarosfjorour Fjord, from the Hofn NATO Air Force station.

Beginning the drive up to the Almannaskaro viewpoint overlooking the Ring Road.

Highway 1 ... The Ring Road

 
Ending this day with a few photos at the Hofn waterfront.

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About Driving

Iceland's paved and gravel roads; we've travelled so far, have all been in great shape. It's interesting to note that very few roads show signs of ongoing repair to the surface ... no crumbled shoulders, large patches of replaced pavement, spot tarring etc. In comparison, our roads at the same latitudes in Canada, are prone to the same frost-heaving conditions and are also constructed high above the perma-frost, yet suffer from on-going annual repair and replacement ... what gives? The roads here, are a bit narrow in places for 2 vehicles at the lower elevations, not many guardrails, roadbeds are high with no shoulders. There are many single lane bridges, but we only encountered courteous drivers at each one. Speed limits range from 30 - 90 kms/hr and most drivers respect the rules; we saw very few police. Maximum grade encountered so far has been 12% (Updated: 17%) Once into the more mountainous parts of the country we were pleased to see that any of the sharper corners contained substantial guard rails along any of the steeper shoulders. WIFI with unlimited data is available while driving, making navigation easy; particularily because of the spelling of Icelandic placenames. Drivers obey speed limits and use their flashers; no agression or horn honking that we witnessed.

Construction and farm vehicles and most tourist buses and Arctic Truck builds will squeeze smaller cars on curves. Arctic Trucks, in particular 'builds' a high number of upfitted vehicles for the small tour bus industry, for overlanders and private camper (truck and van) owners and for the scientific expedition community. 

Here's a few photos of upfitted Arctic Trucks ...

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Day09

Route: Hofn > Faskrudsfjordur

Sidetrip: none                                                               

Distance (Daily / Cummulative): 223 / 1155 kms                                                     

Hiking (Daily / Total): 3.8 / 70.3 kms 

Camp06: 2 nights @ Fosshotel Eastfjords

Woke to a clear, chilly morning, high of 15C. 

We drove the Fjaroabyggo Municipality, the initial portion of the Eastern fjords coast today ... just a simply spectacular ... but, w i n d y drive.

The drive through the first five fjords in Fjaroabyggo.

Whoopers ...

  

... find the road.

Ice Fish Farm stocked 100-gram smolts (salmon or trout) at its Fagraeyri site in Faskruosfjordur in the late spring of 2019 and began harvesting fish weighing around 5.5 kg, after 18 months at sea.

Arctic Cotton

Faskruosfjorour

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Day10

Route: @ Faskrudsfjordur

Sidetrip: Seydisfjordur

Distance (Daily / Cummulative): 154 / 1309 kms                                                     

Hiking (Daily / Total): 3.2 / 73.5 kms 

Camp06: 2 nights @ Fosshotel Eastfjords

Drove a 6 km tunnel a short distance from town, then a high mountain pass along hwy 1 to Egilstar and then another high mountain drive over height of land and a long downgrade to the charming town of Seydisfjordur at the back of the Mjoifjordur fjord. Seeing some Autumn colour change, mixed skies, high 10 C. 

At 6 kms, this is the longest tunnel I've driven ... so far.

Iceland certainly is ... a land of waterfalls.

Heading up the pass ...

 Egilsstadir

Around Seydisfjordur

 
Several overland rigs in town. This MAN truck is one of the largest I've seen.

Unfortunately, we did'nt get a side photo of the red Deutz overlander ... it's a vintage German custom built truck camper ... what a beauty.

 Toyota Hilux from the Netherlands.

Yawn! ... just another waterfall ...

 

One heck of a pull for cyclists over these mountain paths ... the downs are much more difficult and dangerous ... 8% grades, but long.

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Next

The drive continues with, " Faskrudsfjordur to Akureyri "

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We're Kanoe Tripping with a Mitsibushi Eclipse Crossover Hybrid this adventure 

... LOAF stayed at BASECAMP. 

  

You can follow all our travels from here.

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