North-East Iceland 2024

After we disembarked from the Grimsey ferry at Dalvik, we had a 25km drive to our accommodation at the slightly posh Hotel Hjalteyri . The owner/manager seemed eccentric and the hotel walls boasted an Icelandic art collection. In back of the hotel, the owner kept a car collection. Our room had a kitchenette and we self-catered. 

We made our own breakfast and we reached Akureyri before 8:00am We had a quick look around Iceland's second largest city that is more like a town than a city. We could have stopped in at the botanic gardens, but we had a full agenda that day.  We started driving up the #832, above the Vadlaheidi  tunnel but soon reached a closed gate. It was still too early in the season. We retraced our route back to the Ring Road and drove north to reach the #84 that avoided the 7.5km Vadlaheidi Tunnel. Aside from avoiding the only toll road in Iceland, it offered better views and it took only a few minutes longer.  

We reached the roadside Goðafoss waterfalls by a little after 9:00am and the coach tours had already arrived (a cruise ship was docked at Akureyri).  Further along the Ring Road, we passed the Mývatn area that attracts tourists, midges and birds in numbers. However the Krafla area north of the Ring Road had greater appeal to us and it turned out to be moderately busy. The impressive Krafla crater was a short walk and we completed the interesting Leirhnjukur loop hike. Once we left the boardwalk, we left most of the visitors behind. 

Further east on #1, we carried on to the #864. The plan was to drive up the east side of the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river to view the Dettifoss  waterfalls from a more interesting angle. However, the road was closed. I stubbornly drove along it some way until we reached an impassable closed gate. We retraced our route back to the Ring Road and then along the more conventional #862 to a busy parking lot. Dettifoss is one of Europe's more powerful waterfalls and it attracted more than its fair share of tourists. We found the Dettifoss experience to be somewhat underwhelming. 

We pressed on further east along the Ring Road to our accommodation at the Jokla Guesthouse. It turned out to be quite a gem. We caught up on laundry. We had the place to ourselves till about 8;00pm when another couple arrived.  

The next morning, we were back on the #1 and we pulled over into a small parking lot for the short walk to Rjúkandafoss,  one of many Icelandic waterfalls. We were starting to realize that you really don't need to go out of your way to see waterfalls in Iceland. Nevertheless, we did by driving along the east side of Lake Lagarfjlót to Hengifoss.  Lake Lagarfjlót is purported to have a Loch Ness-like monster (not sighted).  Hengifoss was a nice enough waterfalls with a canyon walk up and down but we were astonished by the tourist volume as we returned back to the parking lot. 

We travelled the west side of Lake Lagarfjlót to Egilsstaðir, a full facility town (supermarket and gas station). We bought groceries, fuel and washed the car in Egilsstaðir. Locals and tourists make much ado about Icelandic hot dogs so we figured that it was time to try them at the busy N-1 gas station. Hmmm, they are hot dogs. 

We drove the #94 north towards Borgarfjörður. The scenery was impressive.  One of the big draws in the area is the Hafnarhólmi puffin colony.  Although it is not a huge colony, the puffins are somewhat habituated to tourists on the wooden walkway that runs through the colony.  After the puffin visit, we had enough energy for a short walk up a ridge to overlook the bay. Finally, we checked into the comfortable  Blajborg Resort . We had one of the smaller rooms, but we spent much of our time in the common area and we seemed to be the only people to make use of the kitchen that evening.

With rain in the forecast, we elected to stay another night at the Blajborg Resort; we didn't want to drive through the scenic East Fjiords in rain and low clouds. The Stórurð  trail was on our original itinerary, however it would be completely fogged in and I had heard that it was still mostly snowed in. We couldn't resist the allure of the Hafnarhólmi puffins and we shared the site with one other person before breakfast. After the splendid Blajborg breakfast buffet, we snuck a couple of local hikes in before the rain really developed. We had a comfortable afternoon in the Blajborg Resort lounge watching the rain fall. I had a good chat with an Icelandic guest from Reykjavik.

The blue sky morning drew a few more early morning visitors to the Hafnarhólmi puffin colony. After another splendid buffet breakfast, we returned to the #1 and detoured on the Mjóifjörður #931 road. We drove through snow banks to reach the base of the  Klifbrekku Waterfall. That kept us busy for an hour, going up and down the multi-tiered falls. We returned to the #1 and made another detour on the #92 to reach the Hólmanes Nature Reserve for a pleasant seaside walk.  Back on the #1, we skipped driving through a 6km tunnel and took the slow road #955 along the Vattarnes Sea cliffs.  Further along the #1, we made a short stops at the intriguing Green Rocks before heading up to a campground and the Sveinsstekksfoss waterfalls. The Fossardalur campground offered a huge camp kitchen and the camp filled up through the evening.