Day 9: Westfjords

Today we explore the Westfjords of Iceland. Our goal was to reach the Látrabjarg Cliffs and Rauðasandur (red sand beach). Due to an unforeseen incident we do not reach the Cliffs and come across an interesting fact about Rauðasandur. We were smart enough to fill up our car just on the outskirts of the Westfjords, unfortunately that’s were everything started to go wrong. 10 km in on our route we got a flat tire on a gravel mountain pass. Once we pulled over we started looking for the jack and tire wrench inside. We located the spare tire under the car but need a tire wrench to unlock it. Oddly our rental did not include a jack or tire wrench. Unfortunately, we did not receive cell service in the area but our luck turned when a nice Icelandic lady drove by with her SUV. I flagged her down and she happily tired to call the rental company for us. No answer after multiple calls. So she started looking through her vehicle for her jack and tire iron. Sadly, she only had a tire iron.

Well at least we were better off then 30 minutes earlier as we were able to get the spare tire out. The three of us looked at the situation on the muddy road. We needed a jack to get the car up or try and teeter the car to change the tire. No one really liked the previously mentioned idea so we waited for another car to come by. Fortunately it only took another 45 minutes. A SUV, packed with some friendly tourist from Greece. The boys gladly hoped out and took out their jack. More or less we had our new spare tyre on 1 hour after the friends from Greece came (we had to relocate the car a few times as the ground was too soft).

Spare tyre on and full tank of gas we continued our trip. Yve was slightly paranoid about our new set of wheels but I had some confidence as I ran over pot holes. We reached another local hot springs that we read about. It had a natural rock formation and sat inside one of the bays overlooking the water. We were excited to have a soak since we got a little muddy from changing the flat, but it was already full. That’s okay we thought as we knew there was another along the way. Sadly this one was not a natural hot tub, or even a hot tub. It was an indoor pool. Dirty and slightly annoyed we moved on.

That’s when we reached another gravel road mountain pass. Having flashbacks of the flat, I took the trip up and down much slower. We knew on the other side there was Rauðasandur, the red beach. The view at the top of the mountain was great and the view coming down was even better. As we were on our way down we scoured the area for the red sand, but it was to no avail.The beach was more a golden yellow instead of red as it changes hues with differences in daylight and weather. Determined to get to the coast of the beach to take a closer look with the hopes of collecting seashells and seeing seabirds and seals, we parked our car as close as we could and started walking off towards the beach (or so it seemed).

There was a couple in the distance and we thought we were going the right way, but as we walked towards the beach we noticed they were walking back towards us. As they passed, Yve asked if the beach was off in the distance and the husband said that they reached a river a kilometer out but there was no way to pass it to get to the beach. Disappointed, but intrigued by the couple, we spoke to them as we walked back to our parked cars. We learned that they were here for 10 days and they just flew in last night to tour Iceland. We had a nice talk about tips and highlights of our trip and learned that he was a professional photographer as he showed us some pictures of the northern lights. I showed him some of mine I took the other day and he was interested on some of the tricks and tips I used. After our lengthy conversations we said our good byes and went our separate ways. Something to note about the south face of the Westfjords, there are no settlements after Reykólar. So take your bathroom breaks and fill up your tank prior to going in.

We headed back east towards our hotel and ate dinner and waited patiently till sunset since there was another forecast for strong northern light activity. After taking a much needed shower from all the dirty work of changing the tyre, we looked out our window and were in for a treat. The northern lights were back tonight and even more luminous and vast than yesterday. While yesterday’s was more rainbow shaped, today’s lit up the sky in all directions. Annoyingly they washed out most of the stars but still had an interesting effect.

Today didn’t go as we planned and it definitely wasn’t our most action packed day. But you must learn to overcome and adapt to your situation and I am glad that we did not get stranded out in the Westfjords. Oddly near the end of the day we came across this Norwegian boat that is the steel oldest boat to be stranded in Iceland.

Tomorrow we relocate to our last destination and tour the western coast.

-Dan

P.S. My memory card filled up in the dash cam so there is no footage from the Westfjords 😦