Okay, I know in yesterday's post I said the Westfjords were not my favorite part of Iceland, and that is true, but they were incredibly beautiful. I mean look at these photos!
Day 19 we got up and hiked up Sandafell Mountain. This was not that hard of a hike, but I had too many layers on and was hot and cold at the same time! But the views from the top were gorgeous!!
I mean this is just gorgeous!! I did think if there were more hiking like this I would like the Westfjords more. I think over the summer when you can do more of the trails in the mountains it might be better. There was still a lot of snow up higher so we couldn't do as many (this was a lower hike)
After that we headed out and stopped at Flateyri. Our goal for the day was to get to Ísafjörður which wasn't very far so we decided to stop in all the small towns along the way.
Views from Flateyri which is in the next fjord north
We walked all through town and it felt like a ghost town...we saw like 2 people the entire time we were there. A lot of buildings did have bird paintings on walls though. It was fun walking around trying to find them all!
There was a sign here for this mound that said "No one knows why this manmade heap of rocks and sand has stood here from ancient times. An excavation was made in 1880 and people believed it could have served as a secret place in pagan times or as a landmark fulfilling ancient settlement rules. Children here have sometimes used this phenomenon to slide down in the winter time."
The oldest existing family home in Flateyri built in 1880
And the oldest original store in Iceland. We did go inside and spy
Then it was off to Suðureyri in the next fjord where we ate lunch. To get to this town you have to turn down the road in the tunnel - first time turning in a tunnel
After lunch we wandered up to the church on the other end of town
We did spy on the swimming pool here which was outdoors, but it was not steaming and it was so so cold out so we skipped it. It did not look hot enough for me to not freeze!
Then it was on to Bolungarvík
Where we learned all about avalanche mitigation and hiked up on this avalanche barrier
The town from the avalanche barrier
Then went and spied on the water
And tiny lighthouse
Then into Ísafjörður for groceries and a wander around. This was a proper "big" town compared to most other places we went. And lots of people wandering around. It was freezing cold and you could definitely tell the locals from the tourists. The locals were literally just wearing a hoodie, no hat or anything, but the tourists had on the puffy jackets, hats, gloves, everything. We kept passing people in hoodies and I was all bundled up like how? How are you not freezing?!? They all seemed like the weather was balmy. I guess you get used to it.
Then to our campsite - Tunguskogur Campground - which at first looked like it was all covered in snow, but luckily there were a few spots with grass. And it had views of Bunárfoss
We didn't spy too much as we left the walk up to the falls until the next morning. This was a pretty good day, 15.5km walked, though when looking back through the photos I kept having to see where it was taken to see which fjord it was as they all look so similar to me!
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