Iceland Day 10 — Around Westfjords (Part 2)

We woke up around 8:00, had a very basic breakfast at the Sandafell hotel and started our journey south to Dynjandi waterfall.

Dynjandi is actually a cascade of 7 waterfalls with the combined height of 100 m. Since we were approaching it from north we had the luxury of enjoying its beauty from a distance across the fjord.

Compared to other sights of Westfjords we’ve been to so far, Dynjandi was busy with tourists. We saw about 10 – 15 cars at the parking lot, and a tourist bus came in later.

The hike up to the waterfall was steep at times but since we were stopping at every possible observation point to take photos, it didn’t feel like a difficult hike.

At one of my photo stops along the waterfall I had my second photo gear accident. When I take waterfall pictures I like to use polarization and neutral density filters to produce a smooth water effect. When I tried to unscrew the neutral density filter, it came off together with the polarization filter and both fell on a rock under my feet. I looked down to pick it up and realized that I stood on the brink of the waterfall and the filters were rolling off the rock to the water. It all happened in the blink of an eye, but I remember that I made the conscious decision to stay put and suppressed the urge to go after my filters. I was afraid that if I go after them in a rush, I may accidentally tip off the tripod with my camera. (Later, Alex pointed out that my motivation should have been not to fall into the waterfall myself — but I guess my camera is that precious to me.) In my mind I said goodbye to my filters and the $200 I would need to replace them. They went into the water and the current picked them up and — oh, miracle! — deposited them on a large level rock halfway underwater and not too far from the grass. I picked them up and they appeared undamaged. However, they stuck together forever, i.e. when they fell on their side, their screw threads got damaged by the fall just enough to not let me separate them. As a single unit they are still usable, but their usability is limited to the occasions when I need to increase exposure time.

On the positive note, the waterfall was stunning and the view onto the fjord from the top was amazing. At the end of our time at Dynjandi the clouds parted revealing blue sky and the sun, a promise of a beautiful day ahead. I filled a bottle with water from the waterfall, and it was super crisp and tasty. Usually we drank tap water because in Iceland all tap water comes from clean sources and has no additives or chlorine added. As part of our Iceland adventure I wanted to try water from a river or waterfall. I was not disappointed.

Around noon we left Dynjandi and headed further south to Westfjords red sand beaches — Rauðisandur. We made a stop for gas and lunch at hotel Flókalundur. As we left the populated areas that had grocery stores and a choice of cafes or restaurants, we decided to eat when we had an opportunity. We had a soup and a cake of the day, both were delicious (total cost: $48).

When we got closer to the turn to route 614 that led to Rauðisandur, I told Alex that I read that the road could be difficult and steep (I really wanted to see the red sand beach and was afraid to mention about the difficult part in advance). The difficult part turned out to be not so difficult after all. Slopes of up to 14% grade notwithstanding, if you drive carefully and slow down a bit at the turns (common sense, right?), it’s just a regular road. Of course, by that I mean a regular one-lane gravel road where a big bus may have to pass you on the inside half of that single lane as you stop on the brink to let it through: a bus on the one side, abyss on the other.

When we finally came to the beach, the world changed around us as if we stepped into another country. The weather was sunny and warm, the grass was lush, long and green, the sand was yellow with orange and red hues. The only characteristic Icelandic marks were a farm, a church and a cafe. Surprisingly the cafe was busy with tourists. We ate recently but the cafe was so nice with the porch overlooking the beach that we decided to share an open sandwich with smoked trout, a piece of cake and cappuccino (total cost: $19). We spent 15 quality minutes enjoying the sun and the food.

After our unplanned little break we wanted to get closer to the water. The beach is 10 km long and very wide so we needed some sort of access point to get to the sandy part. Near the church we found a sign for a 1.5 km trail that went through a green meadow.

The beach was amazing. The sand was densely packed so it was easy to walk on it, but we didn’t go far and mostly spent our time enjoying the views of shallow water pools reflecting the sky and a very curious bird that watched us all the way through the trail and came to march before us on the beach. We tried to figure out later what bird it was, and the closest one we found was a Eurasian curlew.

At around 5pm we started to get moving. We needed to go west to Látrabjarg cliffs, the westernmost point of Iceland and one of the main places where people go to watch puffins. We made a stop at Breiðavík hotel, where we reserved a room. There was no one at the front desk, and we wasted 20 minutes wandering around the hallways in an attempt to find anyone who could give us the keys. Finally, we found a waitress who checked us in and advised us to wait a couple of hours before going to the cliffs because puffins are best to be viewed after 10pm when the birds return from the sea to their nests. She also mentioned that they serve lamb for dinner, and we never tried Icelandic lamb before, so we were sold. We paid $237 for the room and $90 for the dinner. This was our most expensive night stay in Iceland, and it is no wonder because Breiðavík is the closest hotel to Látrabjarg cliffs (13 km by gravel road), so when we made the reservation four months in advance they were already out of all but the most expensive rooms.

After the dinner we promptly left for Látrabjarg cliffs. The cliffs were magnificent with millions of birds clinging to the rocks. It was very tempting to step closer to the edge to watch the puffins or to just take a look at what is going on at the bottom of the cliffs. I would have probably done something like that but I read some real stories of reckless tourists who fell off the cliff. In fact, one doesn’t even need to be reckless since wind gusts tend to be so strong there that they could lift you and knock you over. Alex did not believe me but I was actually slightly lifted by wind gusts a couple of times. Anyway, there was a chalk line drawn on the grass that indicated the boundary that tourists should not cross (mostly for the birds’ benefit, as the nearby sign indicated). Many tourists found a workaround against the wind and the chalk line: they lay down on the ground and crawled closer to the edge to photograph the birds. We did the same and it was a lot of fun. Often puffins were just a couple of feet away.

We left the cliffs at around 12:30 after midnight but the sun was still up. It was June 22, the summer solstice. At the hotel I set up my small Sony action camera outside the window to capture photos every 2 seconds. I wanted to create a time lapse video of the sunset (luckily, hotel wifi did not reach our room, or else I would have found out that the sun never set that night). We were so exhausted that we crashed without even transferring the images to a backup hard drive.

Here is the map of the places we visited on Day 10.
[mapsmarker layer=”10″]