Day 18 was a long day of driving. We knew it would be and the night prior I was looking for things to do along the way from Reykhólar to Þingeyri along the north side of the Westfjords, but I didn't find much.
We started off the day with a nice walk in the area by the campsite, listening and spying on all the birds.
Some of them sounded like cats
Then we headed out
The pass we had to go over still had so much snow!
First stop was Gervidalsá falls. This was a quick stop as the falls are right by the road
Then we headed on
And stopped at Hotel Reykjanes to swim!
The pool was so warm it was steaming and was lovely. You could see all the mountains for beautiful views and it was really relaxing, though exhausting. This was so nice, but maybe not the best idea when we still had so far to drive!
After swimming it was lunchtime so we drove down the road to a picnic area and had some lunch.
The views were gorgeous!
We stopped at the seal lookout next and there were so many fat seals!
And stopped at every viewpoint/place to stop along the way to camp
But there were not really that many! Just a lot of driving
So much snow on the way to Dýrafjörður.
But we eventually made it to Þingeyraroddi Camping Ground
We walked around a bit to stretch our legs after the long drive and this crazy cloud was overhead, though it was still bright and warm
Then had dinner outside since it was so nice!
Now this was a LONG day for me. As I said at the beginning the swimming in the morning probably didn't help, but oh this was so much driving! And it was beautiful, but the same views for hours. The fjords all looked similar so driving into them was one view, then driving out the other side you had views of the northern peninsula the entire way to Ísafjörður. After Ísafjörður you take a single-lane tunnel south which was pretty fun. There are plenty of turn-offs to wait if you don't have the right of way, though Raymond was always laughing at me being super cautious. It is hard to judge how far you can go with the other car driving towards you and I thought better safe than have to reverse back to the last turn-off or something. There was even a turn in the tunnel you could take! I have never been in a tunnel with multiple roads before so that was fun.
Now I read a lot about Iceland before our trip and people absolutely love the Westfjords. The way people go on about it I don't know what I was expecting, but something else. This was like when you hear so many things about how a certain movie or TV show is the best thing ever!! And then you watch it and are a bit disappointed because it didn't live up to all the amazing praise you heard. Like you would have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been overhyped. That was the Westfjords for me. I read so much about how amazing it is, and yes, it is beautiful, but it was not my favorite place we went to in Iceland. One issue was that it was just way too much driving for me with not enough places to stop and get out and wander around. If we were there in the summer we could have hiked more which probably would have upped my enjoyment, but as it was there was still a lot of snow on most of the trails (and you had to look for trails in the towns. I couldn't find most trail info online when I was searching). It is one area I will probably skip on a return trip and spend more time elsewhere.
Still ended up walking 11.4km
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