On our tenth morning in Iceland, we finally woke up to sunshine.  We hadn’t slept great, and Justin had an odd dream about Crystal half-heartedly trying to get on a bus we were running to catch.  We wondered if maybe the bus was a symbol for all the stuff we were trying to squeeze into this trip.  Ironically, today was the day where the trip would slow down, relatively speaking.  We had four nights left, with two nights at two places, after spending the first 10 nights in 10 different spots.  The driving times were also going to be (relatively) shorter.

Before breakfast Justin went out to get photos of the sunny morning, and headed over towards the beach.  But he never got there because of the Arctic Terns.  They were angry again, and today they actually attacked him.  He rubbed his head and when he looked at his palm, there was blood everywhere.  And the birds seemed to be getting more aggressive by the minute, so Justin made a beeline back for the hotel.  When he got back to the room and showed Crystal what had happened, her reaction wasn’t to offer help or concern, but to take a photo.

We had breakfast around 08:00, then left around 08:30.  We had only one spot to see this morning, the red sand beach, Rauðisandur.  The hotel owner had recommended that we visit the east side rather than the west side, so we put Melanes Campsite in the GPS and headed off.  On the road to the beach, Road 614, we went up and over a mountain, and the last part descending down to the beach was very steep with many switchbacks.  The views were great, but Crystal wasn’t a fan.  

Down at the beach, the sand wasn’t really red at all, but it wasn’t white either.  It was very gold in our opinion.  The beach is famous for having large groups of seals, but at least this morning there weren’t any.  We had a nice beach walk in any event.  We walked to the eastern edge, then walked back towards the car.  On the drive back up Road 614 we were stopped by someone looking for an air compressor, as they’d gotten a flat tire.  From how flat the tire was, an air compressor wasn’t going to help.  We didn’t have one in any event.

Back on Road 612, we continued east, and we passed by the Garðar BA 64 wreck again.  Shortly after that we were back on solid pavement, and we wondered if we were done with gravel roads for the rest of the trip.  The drive east towards Flókalundur, where we were going to board the ferry, was pretty easy.  There weren’t many cars out at all, and it was brilliant sun for once.  Crystal checked out some of the ticket information for the ferry, and she saw that we were supposed to be there 30 minutes early.  We probably should’ve taken note of that earlier, but thankfully we were on pace to get there 30 minutes early anyway.  Shortly before we got to the town, we saw the ferry coming in.

At the ferry location at 11:25, there was already a long line of cars waiting to get on.  There were so many cars that we were a little worried that there would be enough space for everyone.  But then we figured they wouldn’t sell more tickets than they had space for.  There weren’t any signs regarding what the boarding process was, so we just watched the cars in front of us and tried to do the same.  Eventually a guy came by, scanned our ticket, and said only the driver could be in the car when we boarded the boat.  So Crystal boarded with the pedestrians, and Justin drove on, fortunately without issue.

Onboard, we sat upstairs, Crystal read, and Justin took some photos.  We’d taken Bonine this morning, but we probably didn’t need it, as the water was flat.  It took us about an hour to get to Flatey Island, and we used that hour to have a beverage and a snack.  There were tons of small islands between the Westfjords and the Snæfellsnes peninsula, most of them with nesting birds.  Flatey has a small settlement, and so the ferry is necessary for people living there.  Tons of people got on at Flatey, and originally we were vexed, but then it occurred to us that they must have come up from the Snæfellsnes peninsula on the ferry this morning, and they were now headed back.

We arrived in Stykisholmur a little after 14:30.  The woman in the car in front of us didn’t come to her car until everyone else had left, so we were literally the last car off the ferry.  Crystal just jumped in, which was fine because again, there wasn’t anyone behind us.  Almost immediately we stopped to see the “bar” from “Nuuk” from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.  The building was now vacant, and it had never been a bar in the first place.  Perhaps it should open as one and just lean into it.  We got some gasoline in town, which was needed, since for the second time all trip we were less than half full.

On the way out of town, everyone turned right on Road 54, but we turned left.  We went east towards the Kársstaðaá Bridge to check out the Álftafjöður fjord, then turned around and started heading west.  There were a couple nice viewpoints, but after some of the places we’d seen the last week or so, it didn’t really stand out.  Our next stop was a gravel road (and/or an area) called Berserkjahraun, which had a lava landscape with rocks, cinder, moss, and plenty of mountains in the background.  The landscape was full of reds, blacks, greens, blues, and some flowers here and there.  We walked a bit, saw the road (Road 558) wasn’t as bad as it initially seemed, and then drove some more, going clockwise around a lake (or maybe a fjord inlet), before heading off west on Road 54.

We crossed over some other body of water (maybe another fjord inlet), and then stopped at the Kolgrafarfjördur viewpoint.  From there we had views of the water and the mountains.  We continued west to Grundarfjörður, where Justin hopped out of the car by the marina to see the filming location for Walter Mitty’s scene with the bicycle.  In the ocean there was one huge cruise ship, and one very small cruise ship.  Outside of Reykjavik, there were probably more people on cruise ships than on land.

Just west of town was the famous Kirkjufell mountain, and Kirkjufellsfossar, where everyone stands to take photos of the waterfall with the mountain in the back.  Lots of stuff was roped off, and it had a detrimental impact on the experience.  We’d seen plenty of videos of where to stand to get the best views, and none of them were possible any more.  On the one hand, we’re sure too many people have worn stuff away and caused problems, but this seems like an over-correction.  So we weren’t in the area for long.

Instead, we headed back east, and stopped at Grundafoss, which we’d gone by a bit earlier.  We walked through some fields and then along the riverbank up to the base of the waterfall, which was quite nice, albeit not nearly as memorable as several others on this trip.  The sun was still out, and it was good hiking weather, maybe 17 degrees.  We decided to eat in Grundarfjörður before heading to the hotel, and we found Bjargarsteinn Mathús, kind of a fancy place.  We split a smoked puffin starter, Crystal got Arctic char, and Justin got the lamb.  

Everything was good, but it was kind of hectic in the restaurant, perhaps because we were seated behind the hostess stand.  We could hear the hostess telling people they might have tables available at 21:30 (it was around 19:30 when she was telling them this).  One couple came in 30 minutes after their reservation, only to find out that the table had been given away after 15 minutes went by - they were told they could come back around 21:30 as well.  The puffin dish was fine, but we aren’t sure we need to order it again.

We got to the hotel (Hotel Snæfellsnes) around 20:30.  We went straight to the hotel from dinner and skipped stopping at Selvallafoss, because we were tired and just wanted to crash.  This was kind of surprising since we didn’t do as much today, with just one stop before the ferry and just a couple quick stops in the afternoon.  Perhaps it was residual tiredness, or perhaps it was the Bonine.  The hotel room was not as nice as some of the others, but it was quite a bit cheaper, and we were going to be here for two nights.  Most importantly, the location was great for where we’re visiting on the peninsula, being right by the junction of Road 54 (which, in conjunction with Road 574, circumnavigates the peninsula) and Road 56 (which bisects the peninsula north to south).  There was a fair bit of road noise through the open window, but there weren’t too many cars.  Justin crashed around 22:00, and Crystal around 22:30.