East Fjords, Part 2

Now for the second part of the East Fjords trip! On Sunday we woke up in Eskifjörður and were greeted by an incredible sunrise. Eskifjörður is a very isolated, tiny place, but it seems like a nice town, and was one of my favourites that we visited. It was very much winter already in this part of Iceland – the mountains and the valleys were covered in white snow, which made traveling the rural roads an interesting experience. We barely saw any other vehicles, except when half a dozen buses traveling in the opposite direction randomly passed us all at once.

Eskifjörður 

We went on a hike beside the lake Lagarfljót to see Hengifoss, one of the tallest waterfalls in the country. We saw two waterfalls, and I enjoyed it, although to be honest, Icelandic waterfalls begin to lose their charm once you’ve seen several dozen of them in a single weekend. We met some French Canadians who had recently arrived to work at the Aluminum plant in nearby Reyðarfjörður. I asked them if they missed Tim Hortons yet and we shared a hearty laugh, much to the confusion of the Europeans.

One of the waterfalls we saw.

After the hike we drove to Seyðisfjörður, a tiny town on one of the fjords. It was a tough drive through a snow-covered mountain pass. We took a walk around the town while a few of us drove further out along the fjord. Seyðisfjörður only has a few hundred people and life here can barely be compared to in Reykjavík. The only place that seemed to be open was a gas station, and we crossed the entire town in a short amount of time. It felt a lot more isolated here than in the other towns, and I’m not sure I could live in such a small, dark, cold place. I can definitely understand why the rural populations of Iceland are mostly in decline as people move to Reykjavík. Nonetheless, there was a beautiful sunset, and though it sounds strange for October, after nightfall the town was a perfect Christmas scene.

The road to Seyðisfjörður

Seyðisfjörður at sunset

We stayed that night in Egilsstaðir, the largest town in Eastern Iceland with a massive population of…slightly over 2000 people. :P Again, we stayed in a great spot, and we woke up early with a long drive back to Reykjavík ahead of us. We passed even more snowy valleys, and saw some of the most breathtaking views of the whole trip. Outside of the windswept mountains, the weather was great, and I took massive amounts of pictures. Our soundtrack for the trip was Pirates of the Caribbean, plus a strange 15-minute medley called “The Macarena Christmas” I somehow acquired years ago for when it was snowy. It was a looong drive and we didn’t stop until the afternoon, when we visited Skaftafell Park to see Svartifoss waterfall. I was feeling a bit blasé about waterfalls, but this one was great! It was surrounded by basalt columns, which were long hexagonal or rectangular strands of rock hanging down. Also, it’s a small country: I ran into one of my friends from Reykjavík here.

Driving through the mountains.

Svartifoss waterfall.

After that, we had a short stop at the beach at Vík to see more basalt columns and some caves. The beach at Vík is famous for its black sand, and the columns here were more impressive than at the waterfall. We then had a couple more hours of nonstop driving until we finally returned home to Reykjavík. It was strange to come back to civilization after being away from the city for so long, and although I was happy to be back, it was a fantastic weekend.