My time in the Western Fjords has been nothing short of breathtaking.  For multiple reasons.  There are several highlights – for instance my stay at the Country House Heydalur where I had dinner with a parrot AND relaxed in a real-life Icelandic hotpot!  But the topper was probably the random whale sighting from my car as I was tootling through one of the fjords.

I should point out that this part of Iceland is like the wild west in the USA.  Back when there were not too many people in the wild west.  Like, say any at all.  One morning I drove for two hours and encountered a mere five cars.  FIVE CARS!  What a difference from a morning commute on the 101 in Silicon Valley!  This means there are no gas stations too.  The Minkey needed to be cognizant of her gas gauge and her bladder.  The WC stops were few and far between.

From my perspective, the land looks like an extra-fingered hand and the space between each finger is filled with sea water – those are called fjords.  These were formed by glaciers and are very deep, sometimes deeper than the sea that supplies the water!  The highway runs around the edges of the fingers, so you drive all the way up one fjord, go around the tip of the finger and drive all the way back inland.  Rinse and repeat.  And the fingers are extremely tall and steep mountains.  This is where the breathtaking part comes in, as there are some breakneck grades and hairpin turns on these fjord highways…

The drive through the fjords was hampered by the weather which was overcast with low-hanging clouds cloaking the tops of the mountains.  Virtually no sunlight and consequently my pictures reflect that.  I don’t know that I was able to accurately capture the beauty and majesty of the fjords.  The scenery is striking, I’m not sure I can describe it well.  The atmosphere is very serene and calm (at least it was on this day) and there are myriad waterfalls cascading down the sides of the mountains into the fjords.

As the day came to an end I headed back towards Heydalur where I was spending the night.  All was going swimmingly well until I encountered the gravel road … twelve kilometers of gravel road.  Sigh.  This was not one of the more upscale gravel roads either, this one was rough.  I so hate gravel; I don’t believe I can express in words how much I detest driving on those crappy roads.  So we’ll skip over that part and go directly to Heydalur, which was far more fun.

Heydalur reminds me, ever so slightly, of any Hollywood summer camp or family vacation film that involved a Lodge.  Everything is directed from the Lodge.  Hotel Reception, dining room, playroom, and even a lounge type area – all in the Lodge.  Yes, inside it is cavernous and covered in huge wood planks (from Norway – there are no trees out here!).  And like so many other guest houses and hotels, it used to be a barn.  Fabulous news.  My room used to be part of an old sheep barn, even better.  But the odd man out in this picture, was the parrot.  There was an African grey parrot in the middle of the Lodge.  He was talkative – especially with the wolf-whistles.  That made me nervous because he was looking out at MY table – which was maybe 20 feet in front of his cage.  He also liked to speak some, though not when spoken too directly.  Which did create some consternation in the small children that expected to have a conversation with this bird.  Outside of the Lodge is the ‘testing stone’.  Feats of strength people!  Festivus for the rest of us!  Anyway, you guessed it the stone is used in an annual contest to prove who is the strongest man.  This stone (I think) was 228.8 pounds – called a halfsterkur…. (they had pics of very large men carrying this stone – unclear how far they carried it though).

There was something that I had been looking forward to at this Lodge.  They have a natural hotpot!  You may be wondering why that is a good thing.  These hotpots are all over Iceland – which has an over-abundance of geothermal activity.  There are countless areas where extremely hot water just bubbles up out of the ground and forms it’s own natural hot-tub, or in Iceland, a hotpot.  The Icelanders are cuckoo-banana over these hotpots.  In fact, they have a website which provides the location of every known hotpot so you can punch in your location and find the nearest one! (http://hotpoticeland.com/)   It is kind of weird – because apparently people drive along, spot a pot, pullover, hike out to said pot and strip down and get in!  This was not exactly how I planned to experience a hotpot.

I was pleased that Heydalur had one.  In fact, there is some historical significance here.  They claim that the existence of this hotpot goes back to the 12^th century – AND – it was blessed by Bishop Gudmundur the Good.  You can’t beat that.  This hotpot was behind the hotel some distance and across a river.  Luckily, they had stepping stones across the river – and I managed to not fall in, which was a plus.  There it was!  Steam rising out of the ground, and a scoop out of the earth filled with 40 degree (Celsius) water.  Divine.  A bit murky and such because it is in the ground – but if you sat very still and did not think about the potential for unpleasant things (I don’t know what things could live in there… but I bet something does) it was quite lovely.  Useful too, for my left shoulder which is very unhappy with all of the driving…

Did I talk about the whale yet?  No?  That was a crazy thing – I nearly drove into the fjord when I realized it was a whale!  I was minding my own business looking out at the calm water, which is literally right next to the highway – and thought I saw a seal.  I had just driven by an area where seals were relaxing on some rocks – so this seemed like a logical possibility.  But, this creature was much larger and broader and next I saw a bit more of his back and then the tail came up!  Yowzah!  A whale sighting!  Hard to keep driving in a straight line – and I really wanted to pull over and try and take a picture – but there is no shoulder on these roads – so no dice.  What a remarkable sight – and a good thing too, because when I paid to go whale watching in Reykjavik – I saw nothing….

All in all – day one in the western fjords was extremely entertaining.  Stay tuned, because day two was, well, less entertaining.