Day 6

Day 6

There was alight dusting of snow on the ground this morning.  We haven't actually seen the sun since Friday morning.  We continued heading west and over another mountain pass with lots of snow still on the ground.  The main highway around the island is Highway 1.  We have taken a few other roads but for the most part we have been on Highway 1.  Part of the road on Highway 1 today was just a gravel road.  More snow and rain as we drove and back towards the coast.  Our first stop was in the small fishing village of Husavik.  We went to the Husavik Whale center and learned just about everything there is to know about whales.

Does it seem like Iceland has lots of really big and cool waterfalls.  It does to me and our next stop today was the Godafoos falls (the falls of the Gods). Someone should do some research to see which island has the most waterfalls. The story behind the falls is that when the Vikings decided to accept Christianity, they threw their Pagan gods into the falls.  It was also a double falls with tons of water going over them.  After the falls we drove through the Oxnadalir valley and over Oxnadalsheidi Pass.  We finally had some sun this afternoon for a while and it warmed up to a whopping 8 degrees C.  Down the other side of the pass to our hotel in the small village of Varmahlio.  It was early so we decide to continue north to Saudarkrokur another small fishing village on the Skagafjordur Fjord.  It was after 5 so everything was closed.  We plan to go back in the morning to see the local museum.  We stopped  for a few minutes at the beach to look for shells but the wind made it really cold even though the sun was out.  We could see some islands off in the distance that looked like giant rocks sticking out of the water.  About a 20 minute drive back to the hotel only to fond out the only restaurant (in the hotel) is closed since its still off season.  We ended up going to the little grocery store down the road and buying some salami, Gysir bread and chips for dinner.  It was starting to rain again on the way back and its been cloudy and raining off and on as I write the blog tonight.

Yes, it still off season in Iceland.  That has meant that many of the local attractions and tours are closed or not operating.  It has also meant there are very few tourist.  The good things is what is open is not crowded and there traffic has been extremely light.  Some mornings we only see 1 or 2 other cars on the road.  If we ever come back it will definitely be in the summer.  We're having a great time despite the cold weather, we still have lots more to see and do with a really cool tour planned for Saturday.