Iceland Day 4: it's a long way to Borðeyri

When I was a little kid, my dad specialized in how-far-can-you-drive-in-how-little-time family roadtrip vacations. Flash forward to the present: we spent a lot of time on the road getting from Bíldudalur to Borðeyri, but it took less time than driving from Urbana, IL, to Rochester, NY, and the scenery was way more interesting.

I woke up at 4:30am, took some photos out the window, and went back to bed.

We bid adieu to our sweet vacation rental in Bíldudalur...

...headed out of town past the Sea Monster Museum (which we did not make time to visit)...

...and drove east and north around the fjord to see the waterfall Dynjandi. On the way, we stopped to take photos.

Elias was feeling joyous and compelled to romp, so he hopped out of the car to jubilate on some rocks.

On to the waterfalls. Dynjandi is the big one at the top--100 meters tall, 60 meters wide at the top--and there are several more falls beneath it.

Bottom falls

Top falls

Thanks for the photo, mom!

Proof we were there

After hiking back down from the falls, we got back on the dirt road--have I mentioned yet that most of the roads in the West Fjords are unpaved?--to head toward Borðeyri. Elias was desperate to touch snow, so when we found a patch not too far from the road, he and Stefan got out to touch it.

Can you spot the red jackets? Hint: left side of the photo

Victory!

Somewhere in the West Fjords, photographed from a moving car

We drove along the south side of the West Fjords for quite a while. The mountains became shorter and flatter the further east we went, and settlements (i.e. 1-3 houses and maybe a church) were few and far between. We took a break from driving in Bjarkalundur, where there is a hotel and a gas station. Here's a panoramic view of the parking lot.

Shortly beyond Bjarkalundur, we cut northwest across to the west side of the West Fjords, where the landscape was considerably flatter. We pulled out at a little park along the water and watched the arctic terns.

Arctic terns

The wind was strong, and the terns hung in the air.

Iceland has more sheep than people, as this photo metaphorically illustrates:

We took one more break at the top of a hill high above Hrútafjörður. Wikipedia tells me that "'Hrúta' is plural possessive of 'Hrútur' which means the male sheep," so I guess the water in this photo is the rams' fjord:

At last, we arrived at our stop for the evening: Borðeyri. Borðeyri is known for its hostel and auto service station, only one of which, happily, we needed that night.

Thanks for the photo, mom!