Iceland Part II Westfjiords 2024

A multi-day storm had hit Northeastern Iceland, leaving  30-40cms of snow in places. The #1 Ring road had closed, some camper vans had been blown off the road. Travel plans for many had been disrupted. We were  fortunate to experience just strong winds and low temperatures that had spilled over to the west. So, when we saw a mild sunny day in the forecast, we acted on it. After our cabin stay at Stóra-Vatnshorn, we bee-lined to the Latraberg cliffs on the Southwestern corner of the West Fjiords. That morning, there was fresh snow in the mountains and it was a terrific drive on the #60 and #64 to reach the renowned cliffs by mid-day. It was most enjoyable to watch the nesting seabirds and walk some ways along the cliff tops but we reached saturation within a couple of hours. 

We had endless daylight hours and we retraced our route in and then drove south to Rauðisandur (Red Sand Beach), that could rival our own Long Beach on Vancouver Island. A Polish couple was running the campground and she disclosed that we could avail ourselves of a cabin for deeply discounted (half-price), so we skipped another tent night. We had sheep, a picnic table outside our front door with the vast expanse of the beach beyond, so it was a memorable stay. 

The weather forecast was rather ominous for the following evening so we booked a room at a guest house. In the morning, we passed through Patreksfjörður and then Tálknafjörður for a stop at the free but lightly maintained Pollurinn hot pool. We were the only ones there, then we proceeded to Bíldudalur and we drove the length of the #619 to Selárdalur. It was all about the journey and not the destination. The #619 remains as a clear memory. It was a hugely scenic gravel road that ran along a fjord beneath rugged peaks and passed by several wild beaches. On our out and back drive, we encountered one other vehicle. We stopped at several places and went for short walks.  

Bíldudalur was just as sleepy on our return and we carried on the #63 to the Reykjafjarðarlaug hot pool and adjacent hot springs. There was a small Spanish group already there that was filming an Icelandic travel journey experience. There were some rough sections on #63, though the grader was working on it further along. It was smooth driving on the paved #60, going south where we went for a short canyon walk, the Flókalundur hike. Finally, we reached the splendid Rauðsdalur Guest House  for the night. There, we listened to two Quebec gals explain their woes caused by the early June storm. Their counter-clockwise tour was blocked, so they reversed direction and drove around the country to reach more wintery road conditions at the other end of the ring road, so they retreated to southern Westfjiords.

We drove north on the #60 with some gravel sections over a pass and descended to Dynjandi Falls, a major tourist attraction. We were gobsmacked by the volume of tourists at the falls at mid-morning. It had a smell of cruise ship tourism and we quickly confirmed it. I asked one of the Icelandic bus tour guides, where else they were going to visit before they returned to Isafjiordur. I wanted to know where not to go that day. They were to visit a farm and we didn’t see the buses again. Further north we drove to the end of Dýrafjörður and hiked up to the snow line. Later, we walked up Sandafell Mountain along a 4WD track and some impressive views. We didn’t encounter anyone on either of the hikes. Þingeyraroddi campground was our home for the night. We selected a somewhat wind sheltered tent pitch and Sheila marched off to the nearby swimming pool. Later, we bought a few items at the gas station shop and wandered the town in the evening.  

We made further northern progress stopping at Flateyri and Suðureyri. The northern end of the #60 features a 6km long tunnel, much of which is single-lane complete with pullovers for oncoming traffic. The tunnel also features an intersection (to reach Suðureyri). We reached Isafjiordur in light rain. Our first order of business was a stop at the pharmacy and we left with additional anti-histamines for Sheila’s puffed up eye. Something had bitten her two days earlier and the bites continued to flare up. We waited out the rain in a coffee shop and booked a room for that evening. 

We had almost run out of roads in the Western Fjiords so it was onto Minnibakki Beach via Bolungarvik and a snowy pass. The road up to the scenic viewpoint  of Bolafjall was closed and snowed in, but the inquisitive sheep of Minnibaki made up for that. We turned down another gravel road on the way back to Isafjiordur and came across weekend sheep dog trials. Isafjiordur was quite a pretty town and we had our 5:00pm orientation meeting with Lucas of Borea Adventures for our kayaking trip.  We had a disappointing meal at Thai Tawee before a town walkabout and settling into the  Isafjiordur Inn. 

We had a 8:00am reporting time at the Borea Adventures warehouse by the wharf. We loaded gear, food barrels and kayaks onto the impressive Borea vessel and pushed off the dock at 9:00am with  a few walkers on board (it was early season, so it wasn't busy). We emptied out at Hesteyri and organized ourselves. The vessel had an afternoon pick-up of walkers at the Kviar farm house, so we didn't have to paddle with our gear. There were a number of tourists milling about as a cruise ship had landed at Ísafjörður that morning and some had gone on tours to Hesteyri that has a couple of buildings from earlier times, one of which is used a Hornstrandir  Reserve office.

 We paddled across two fjord mouths and shoreline to reach our home for three nights of the Kviar Lodge. The wind picked up in our faces towards the end of the 16km paddle and we were happy to reach our destination. We carried the kayaks up and toured our home for three nights. The Kviar Lodge was once a farmhouse that was abandoned and apparently the Borea owner reached an agreement with the family to restore it, and allow the outfit to use it for its winter and summer program, and the family retained ownership and had some use of the house as well. It was wonderful. The guide had his own room, Zenzee took a room downstairs and we took a larger room on the top floor with views over the fjiord. The living room was a lovely space and the dining room pretty nice as well. The kitchen, flush toilet and hot showers were on the ground level. Hot water for the radiators was provided by a propane fueled stove in the kitchen. It really was a nice space. A day hiking group ended their walk at Kviar that day; and we all had an amazing fish soup late afternoon. The Borea vessel arrived to collect the walkers and dropped our food and gear off.  Outside of our kayak group, we didn't see any one else for three days.

That evening, we had lamb roast and the smell of the meat drew an arctic fox out. In winter, the foxes come to the lodge and they have been subject to wildlife photographer groups. Our guide Lucas, worked hard in the kitchen and turned down offers of assistance. It had been an excellent start to our kayak tour.

The program was to conduct day paddles from the lodge. We paddled across and then into Lónafjörður a fair ways, but not to the very end and then crossed the fjjord again and followed the shoreline back to Kviar for a total of  18km. It was quite enjoyable. A humpback surfaced behind Lucas and Sheila on the return leg and the wind picked up to 10-12knots by the time we returned home. 

Later in the afternoon, I went for an upward wander of about 3km walk from the old farm house. The birch trees grow horizontally in that climate.

On the third day of the kayak trip, the clouds hung low and the water was dead calm Zenzee opted to sit the day out as she had a mild gastro issue.  We paddled across the mouth of Lónafjörður and entered Hrafnsfjörður. The day cleared and the wind started  to pick up, so we opted to return for a kayak of 16km.  There were a number of swans about and we watched a pair of white-tailed eagles for a while. Lucas did comment that on many of his guided trips, he has ended up towing back participants. Perhaps, we missed out.

On our return, we went for a 3.5km walk and when we returned, Lucas had fired up the sauna. We tried it for a while at 80C and then opened the door to cool it down. Dinner smells brought an arctic fox in quite close. while we enjoyed our surroundings, our guide Lucas had to deal with a plumbing issue. He contacted his boss who suggested using an industrial vacuum cleaner. We weren't sure about it, but it did the trick.

On our final morning at Kviar, we were advised that we would be collected at 11:30am. After breakfast, we had time for another walk (4km) above the lodge and I checked out some of the historic cairns that marked routes in the early days. We didn't have to load the kayaks as a group was scheduled to arrive in a few days, so we were transferred to the Borea vessel via zodiak and we were on our way back to Isafjiordur by 11:15am.