After another hotel breakfast, we began our drive through the Eastfjords towards the Viking Cafe Guesthouse, which promised good views of Vestrahorn, one of Iceland's most striking mountains, where jagged peaks rise from the black sand beaches. The views were not much better than we saw from the road, however.
Back on the road, we passed through our first tunnel, Fáskrúðsfjarðargöng, a 5900-meter long bypass opened in 2005.
We paused on our drive along Route 1 in the Múlaþing area, which provided beautiful views of the ocean as well as interesting rock formations.
We stopped in the village of Djúpivogur to see Eggin í Gleðivík (Eggs in Merry Bay), an outdoor artwork by artist Sigurður Guðmundsson. The artwork has 34 replicas of eggs of nesting birds that nest in the vicinity. The eggs stand on concrete pillars that previously supported a landing pipe between the pier and the smelter.
We stopped at the Teigarhorn Natural Monument and Nature Preserve on the Berufjörður fjord to see the unique geological features and zeolite minerals. The small museum was not open but we did stroll down to the edge of the fjord although the winds had picked up quiet a bit.
We stopped at Sveinstekksfoss waterfall that flows into a pool called Nykurhylur. According to legend, a water spirit known as a nykur once lived in the pool and appeared in the shape of a horse or a young man and tried to lure young women and children into the water. People tried for a long time to get rid of the creature, but it was not until holy baptismal water was poured into the river after a christening at a nearby farm that the nykur finally disappeared. The creature could not stand hearing its own name or seeing the sign of the cross, which caused it to vanish.
The road to Hænubrekkufoss was closed and the detour would have taken over an hour so we decided to skip it. We stopped at the blue cliffs off the Ring Road, but the snow cover blocked much of the blue color.
We continued on our winding path along the east fjords, stopping at Berufjarðarskarð, the start of a hiking trail through the mountains, and the Fjarðabyggð region. We made a pit stop at the Kaupfjelagið Art and Craft Cafe in Breiðdalsvík to use the facilities and bought some drinks. J. R. tried the Eglis Appelsín, an Icelandic soft drink with orange juice. It was tasty but not the same as other orange sodas.
Our plan was to head next to Flögufoss, a 196 feet high waterfall with a small archway at the top but GPS sent us down a dirt road with no parking and sign indicating a 10-15 minute walk. With the very high winds and lack of parking, we turned around. By now we were getting hungry, so we found a place called Cafe Sumarlina, where we split a pizza and a 2-liter bottle of soda.
We continued on our way through the Reyðarfjörður region with its fjords and snow-capped mountains. The weather turned for the worse as we passed through the mountains with the roads becoming snow covered.
Due to road conditions, we were not able to make it to a few of our planned locations today, but we were able to get to Gufufoss, the largest waterfall in the area, which is famous for its similarity to Skogafoss. We were the only people there when we arrived, which allowed us to walk right up to the waterfall undisturbed.
We stopped for the night at Hotel Herad in Egilsstaðir after a quick stop for some candy and filling up the car with gas. The hotel was well appointed with a lot of space in the room and it was a good place for us to unpack all of our suitcases and prepare for the next few nights.
For dinner, we walked to the Salt Bistro next door where Janie had the 'Mexico' salad which did not seem very Mexican, although it did have tortilla chips, and tasted great. J. R. had the tiger prawn tacos which were very good.
