2019-09-12 – Isafjordur, Iceland – Roger & Anne Travels

Thursday September 12, 2019 – In Isafjordur, Iceland.

Isafjordur is located at the Isafjordjup (deep ice fjord). We anchored near the town and tendered in to the 2,600 population town granted municipal status in 1786 located at the head of the Vestfitöir peninsula (Westfjords).

The coach tour was guided by Dilly – a 60+ lady who’s main job for the past 30 years was a flight attendant for Icelandic Air. (Driver Vale and ship rep Mio, 32 Passengers, Coach 4 Last Tender 5PM).

There is a Lándnámbók (the book of settlement) which is a detailed written record of names and details of the early settlers. In this, Skutulsfjördur was first settled by Helgi Magri Hrólfsson in the 9th century.

This rather isolated Western Peninsula has a total population of 6,800 with Isafjordur being the principal town which consists of a few streets a few shops of which only one or two cater to tourists, a brewery (we tried all six beers from light lager to porter stout), a few eating establishments and an interesting church that has birds made by locals hanging over the altar. The first house (still standing) to be built in town was in 1782. The surrounding scenery is spectacular with high hills devoid of any tall vegetation coming down to the deep fjord with it’s colorful fishing vessels. The hills have walls built at various places the length of the hill as avalanche guards were put up after one particularly bad winter when many lost their lives in avalanches.

A few interesting facts and figures of the area: –

From the end of November to the end of January there is basically no sun visible.
In June each year a 24 hour golf tournament is held as it is light 24 hours a day.
This area, one of the oldest in Iceland is dormant as far as volcanic activity. Basically, with the country split in half diagonally (NE to SW), literally being split apart 2 centimeters a year or more, the fissure is being filled in with new lava and thus is the newest part of the island. Whereas the North West and South East are the oldest parts. Thus no seismic or geothermal activity in this area.
All the fjords are saltwater
10,000 years ago during the ice age the thickness of the ice must have been at least 3,000 meters as the tops of the volcanos under the ice were pushed down and are generally flat (Table Top) some rising to 2,800 meters.
Sheep are everywhere and as the year progresses they come down from the mountains to be put inside in the winter. During that time farmers prepare by getting two harvests of hay a year from the lower fields. These are wrapped in plastic of different colors. If pink – it indicates that a donation is made to breast cancer, if blue the donation is to prostate cancer, if white, then no donation is made.
On various occasions the story is repeated that it was Leif Erickson and his son Erick the Red who sailed up the Hudson River and thus were the first Europeans to discover America in the 1200’s, long before Columbus. The Spaniards do not agree!!
To cull the reindeer heard, licenses are granted to shoot the animals, but those cost US$1,200 plus having to take a proficiency test, hire a guide etc, so to shoot one deer an outlay of US$2,000 -$2,500 is needed. Reindeer meat is thus a big delicacy.
Icelandic horses that have 5 gaits are the only horses allowed on the island. No other type can be brought in and if any horse leaves the island it is never permitted re-entry to avoid diseases.
There are 13 Santa Clauses in Iceland each bringing gifts during the 12 days of Christmas, leaving them in shoes left in the window. They live in a cave and their parents are Trolls. The female mother Grila is an ugly and vicious woman that will take bad children back to her cave then boil and eat them. Thus children are persuaded by their parents to behave with the threat of Grila! Some like the Candle Berger Santa take a candle and leave a gift. An interesting take on Christmas tradition.
Until March 1989, it was illegal to own, sell, manufacture or even have beer.
There is a app / service that provides information on Aurora Borealis Forecast. We were hoping to see the Northern Lights, but each night it was cloudy. The phenomena is caused when certain plasma is let off from our sun and to prevent harm, the magnetic North & South poles attract the plasma causing the Northern and Southern Lights.

Now to the actual Tour. The scenery in this part of Western Iceland is totally different from the hot bubbly earth with relatively flat landscape and freshwater lakes, to mountains, passes, in paved roads, quirky small fishing villages of 200-300 people, salt water lakes / fjords.

We headed out of town past a ski resort (actually one lift, no real ski lodge or hut and a cannon that shoots snow to help cover the terrain). We travelled through the Breiöadals / Botnsheiöi tunnel, a single lane 9 Km tunnel with passing spaces, that at one point towards the center has a Stop sign and you can turn at a 90 degree angle to continue on another part of the tunnel also with one lane used to travel in both directions. We took this detour tunnel on our return journey. Cars going to Isafjordur have the right of way.

Emerging from the tunnel, we entered another spectacular valley passing the Önundarfjördur and headed over the next mountain pass reaching the Dyrafjötōur fjord towards its center. We proceeded to the other side via the fjord head to visit the fishing village of ‘pingeyri (pronounced Thinkerer). [A brief digression – the letter ‘p’ in which the top of the upright is extended [(here glossed as – |> or ‘p- not glottal) so it looks more like a vertical bar “|” with a bulge in the center of the bar – is a separate letter pronounced “th”. Similar to the Greek letter “phi” which has a bulge on both sides of the bar.]

After admiring the fjord we continued over the high narrow winding mountain pass road (on some of the curves the front corner of the coach went over the 1000 meter drop, but the wheels remained on the road – not for the faint of heart and reminiscent of Ålesund in Norway) entering the breathtaking descent into Hrafnseyri which was the birthplace of the leader of the Independence movement Jón Sigurōsson (www.hrafnseyri.is). We continued along to the headland of the fjord to our destination – the amazing Dynjandi Waterfall (Thundering or very loud noise Waterfall). This multi cascading 99 meter (310 ft) waterfall measures 30 meters at it’s top cascades over rocks giving the impression of a lace veil and reaching some 60 meters across at the bottom of the first fall. There are seven other smaller but impressive falls (each with it’s own name like – Bæjarfoss, Hrísvaōsfoss, Göngumannafoss and Strompgljúfrafoss) until the water feeds into the fjord. It is thunderously loud and one can relatively easily climb to about half way up the series of falls. From there we not only got a great close up view of the various falls but looking back over the valley and river as it flows down to the fjord is truly a never to forget spectacular sight.

Reaching the bottom we were treated to Skyr (a thick Icelandic yogurt), Kryngla bread (a caraway seeded open bagel delicious bread), fruit, biscuits and Icelandic soda water infused with the “juice of Mexican Limes” as stated on the tin!

We were sad to leave this idyllic place so the 2 hour journey back to our ship came too quickly.

On the return journey, we retraced the same road, however, as previously mentioned, we turned in the center of the single lane tunnel and that brought us out into a valley with the largest cattle ranch on the island and to the town of Sudureyri, a 250 person fishing village.

This was a bit strange, but we soon found that the tour company that owned the coach we were traveling in as well as guide and driver who worked for this “Fisherman” Company, also owned the Café, the restaurant, the hotel, the gift shop etc in town! We were given very good hot fish cakes with Local Tartar sauce with capers and we tried the dried fish (not too bad a taste , chewy and dry). We were then able to walk from one end of town to the other (4 1/2 minutes) and get a coffee in the company owned Café. What impressed us most was the total lack of people, cars or indeed anything moving. There was one car that passed through. As we were leaving, three young black children on scooters could be seen playing.

We returned to the ship after a couple of photo stops but before boarding we walked the length of the town, tried, unsuccessfully, to get into the church and finally found the brewery, tried the samples, exchanging stories with the Cliffords, who had been on a different very interesting tour.