Thursday July 16
Thursday was a nice sunny day. I can’t say it was warm but it was not raining. Before we took off to explore Snæfellsnes, we captured a few images around the place we stayed.
Guesthouse Hof had wireless internet. It was slow speed. Below I am sitting outside our cabin trying to connect.
by Philip Semanchuk
Our travel agent knew the owners of one of the guest houses down the road. Before our trip, he had arranged that Anders could fish in their creeks. So we headed out to check it out. Below is a picture of that guesthouse. They also had trips on horse backs. However, we didn’t have time for that this time around.
by Thorkild Christensen
It turned out that the creeks were almost dried out and it was therefore not an ideal place to fish. Anders and Betina decided to go fishing somewhere else. Not exactly sure where they went.
Hellnar
Aase, Thorkild, Philip, and I headed towards Hellnar. First we stopped at the church before we continued further down the road to the trail head.
by Philip Semanchuk
We started out on the trail but we didn’t get far because of a great bird cliff. We stayed there for a while.
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- by Trine Christensen
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- by Thorkild Christensen
Philip was watching birds and the rest of us continued slowly down the trail. We walked for a bit and it became clear that it as a quite monotonic landscape; lava rocks and lava rocks with a few plants sticking up here and there.
In the middle of everything – or nothing – was this house.
by Trine Christensen
We were close to the water but not close enough to actually see it. So we decided to turn around and go somewhere else. As we turned around Philip caught up to us. Not surprisingly, we stopped by the bird cliffs on the way back too.
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- by Trine Christensen
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- by Trine Christensen
Close to the parking lot was the small Café Fjöruhúsið. It turned out that the cafe has a great reputation online. We didn’t know that at the time though. It looked very charming and we went for coffee and cake.
by Trine Christensen
There were a lot of people and the inside was full so we sat outside. It was not warm but we were not cold and we could watch the scenery. It was a great place, not only the location but also the coffee and cake!
Could not help it, we had to take a few more pictures after the coffee break.
Londrangar Basalt Cliffs
Out next goal was Londrangar Basalt Cliffs. In order to get there, we parked the car at a parking lot close to a grassy area. We walked through grass down to the beach.
The beach had many interesting features with lava rocks, basalt cliffs, and other rocks.
by Philip Semanchuk
Even though the area had a lot of the same features as the first place we stopped, the landscape was still more varied and a lot more interesting.
The various formations were very impressive.
The trail continued towards the large bird cliffs, Londrangar Basalt Cliffs.
The birds were quite amazing and we spent a lot of time there. There were lots and lots of birds on all sides of the cliffs.
After a good long while at Londrangar Basalt Cliffs we continued down the trail where huge cliffs were dropping down towards the water.
by Trine Christensen
by Philip Semanchuk
Again, the trail was on lava rocks with sparse vegetation.
We walked to a spot where it was easy to watch the nesting birds on the basalt cliffs.
There were birds almost everywhere.
by Trine Christensen
We took our time to look at birds, plants, rocks, and not to forget to take pictures.
by Trine Christensen
by Philip Semanchuk
Philip found a bird egg which was compared to eggs in his book.
by Philip Semanchuk
We kind of forgot time and it was late afternoon before we walked back towards the car. It was an out and back hike we walked the same way back at a slightly faster pace though.
Djúpalónssandur
The next stop was Djúpalónssandur. We walked down to the beach which was also a black sand (gravel) beach.
by Thorkild Christensen
Here the four lifting stones are found (actually I didn’t see them but the rest of the crew did.) In the past, fishermen used the stones to test their strength in order to qualify to work on fishing boats; the stone Hálfdrættingur was the minimum weight a man would have to lift onto a ledge at hip-height to qualify for a job. The four stones are Fullsterkur (“full strength”) weighing 154 kg, Hálfsterkur (“half strength”) at 100 kg, Hálfdrættingur (“weakling”) at 54 kg, and Amlóði (“useless”) 23 kg.
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- by Thorkild Christensen
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- by Aase Christensen
A great view of the black sand beach.
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- by Aase Christensen
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- by Philip Semanchuk
Philip took this great image of a brave youngster in the cold water wearing his warm Icelandic sweater.
by Philip Semanchuk
Another interesting thing about Djúpalónssandur was the metal remains of the Grimsby Epine (GY7) fishing trawler that wrecked in bad weather on the rocks at Snæfellsnes on March 13, 1948.
by Aase Christensen
The metal pieces are scattered around the beach and to this date, people respectfully leave them there.
We walked on the black sand for a while.
Dritvik
Philip and I then hiked to Dritvik. It was the next cove down the beach but the trail went on top of the cliffs. In the past, Dritvik was a busy fishing village in Iceland. We went pretty fast and didn’t spend time there. I took two pictures.
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- by Trine Christensen
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- by Trine Christensen
Guesthouse Langaholt
Then we headed back to Guesthouse Hof where we met up with Anders and Betina. We had dinner at Guesthouse Langaholt, which was next door to Guesthouse Hof.
by Aase Christensen
That was pretty much the only dinner option in the area so we were glad to find out that the food was good and they also served vegetarian dishes. The place was so close to Guesthouse Hof that we could see our cabins.
by Trine Christensen
beach at Guesthouse Hof
After dinner drove back to Guesthouse Hof and we all went for a walk on the beach. The terns were not too happy about us walking on the path through the grass to the beach and we certainly got tern bombed even though nobody was actually hit. Philip did get pooped though on his camera bag.
by Philip Semanchuk
It was great to walk on the beach at night.
Anders found something for sure:
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- by Trine Christensen
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- by Trine Christensen
This was Betina’s last evening so we gathered in one of the cabins that was used as a guest hang out area. There was a small kitchen and tables and chairs. We went there to have a glass of beer or wine after we got back from the beach. Aase went to get something from their cabin and came back looking funny. All cabins looked alike and she had by accident walked into a stranger’s cabin. In there was a couple we had not seen before. They were very surprised seeing Aase in their cabin and she got slightly confused, said “entschuldigung” (sorry in German) and hurried out. She then found her own cabin and brought cookies back.
At midnight it was still light out and Philip went bird watching. It was somewhat surreal to go bird watching at that hour but it was still light out so why not?
The day had come to an end and we were tired as usual.
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The Bike Cafe 