Pining for the Fjords

This was our last night at the apartment in Hofsos, so we loaded up the car and headed west.  We had a long road ahead of us, though none of us expected it to be quite as long as it turned out to be.  I must circle back a bit, as last #alt-night was even more restless than the previous one.  I'm sure you can get used to having light all hours of the day, but it is starting to wear on me.  As I pulled myself out of bed and into the shower, I felt like I had just gone to bed.  I knew I would require significant caffeine to make it through today.Our general direction today is toward the unique landscape of the Western Fjords.  This is the farthest point north-west of Iceland.  More to come later.  Our first stop today was the only rock church in Iceland.  Most buildings, including churches, are timber-framed.  This one is made of rock.  I was unsure which point my joke was going to take with it - would it be School of Rock 2: Rock Church....or Church Pot luck - Can you smell what the Rock Church is cookin'?  Seriously, it was pretty cool, and in a fairly remote location.  We had to drive several kilometers on gravel roads through farmland to reach it.  One thing I should mention:  It is obvious the animals of Iceland had a very fruitful breeding season.  There are lambs, ducklings, and foals everywhere.  So, of course we had to stop and capture the moment on what used to be film.Back on the road, we continued our very long jaunt to the fjords.  We fueled up (with Diesel, thank you), and re-caffeinated my bloodstream. We took a road around a remote peninsula, where apparently we could find some seals.  We fortuitously stopped at an information booth, and they directed us to walk across the street and down to the beach, where there would be seals sunning.  The walk looked pretty long to Les and Pat so they wisely abstained.  Once Carrie and I reached the beach, sure enough, there were loads of seals sunning themselves across a small channel on the black sand.  There was also a group of ducks washing in the runoff of a stream.  I found a really awesome rock (the simple things), and we went for a walk on the beach.  There is a famous (in Iceland) rock formation called The Troll, and we walked up by it.  We decided to make a loop instead of retracing our steps, so we walked toward the nearest path up the bluffs.It was fortuitous that we had taken the puffin tour earlier.  There were nesting sea birds that we had to protect ourselves from then, and the guide showed how to wave them off.  When Carrie and I bounded over the dune at the back of the beach, we found ourselves smack in the middle of a nesting ground.  The path to the bluffs led right through it.  Before we could really process this, one of the screeching birds dive bombed my perfectly coifed hair.  My training kicked in, and I was raising my arm making myself appear larger.  Carrie had bravely blocked the exit path back to the beach (no retreat, get it?).  Our only direction was through.  There were probably 100 of these birds screeching and lining up for strafing runs.  We ran through, and made it to the bluff path.  We climbed the bluff (that sounds a lot shorter than it really was - it took forever), then followed the road to the parking lot, and then back to the info station where Les and Pat were probably wondering if rabid seals had consumed us.  We drove them to the parking lot for the Troll rock, and they took a nice short stroll to see it.We continued down the barely larger than 1 lane gravel road, pulling over when meeting oncoming traffic, and found another viewing spot for seals.  At the end of a long path, there was even a nice viewing shack with binoculars to see the seals sunning on the rocks.  Walking back there were an inordinate amount of ducks with their ducklings, mamas teaching the babies how to fish and the like.  So, of course, pictures had to be taken.Back in the car, we headed to find a craft shop we had seen mentioned.  This one was extremely proud of their work, so we decided to move in in search of more reasonably priced items.  After a few hours of driving through beautiful scenery, we made it to the entrance of the fjords.  There was an info station and craft store that had much cheaper items.  I was appreciative of the break from driving.  As an aside, I don't know what it is about this French car I'm driving - I don't think that French people have smaller feet than normal, and mine aren't Shaq-large.  Whatever it is, I have to keep my legs and feet at an awkward angle, and today's drive is pushing my aging joints to the limit.  I was so glad to have a break, I didn't even question the various items Carrie picked out to purchase.  :)The bulk of our driving from now to the apartment tonight was on gravel roads.  I have now disproved the theorem "All dirt roads lead to Alabama."  Most of them are in Iceland.  If you have ever seen pictures of the Fjords in Scandinavia, imagine driving the edges of them, up and down, around and around, all on bumpy gravel roads, with little or no protection from plummeting hundreds of feet into the water.  The last stretch of road was the worst.  There was awesome views of the still-frozen ice and snow, and we saw the origin points of several large waterfalls.  Going through the last pass was crazy.  The cloud level had dropped, so that when we approached the summit, we were in the clouds.  And, rain was falling.  And, visibility had dropped to a few feet.  I was desperate to keep sight of the car that was in front of me, because I lost track of where the road was more than a few times.We made it through, and finally found our apartment (after circling the block a few times).  I must give a bit of a disclaimer:  This are of Iceland is extremely remote.  So when we entered the apartment that "sleeps 4", and found one single bed in the kitchen area, and 1 single bed and a double bed in the bedroom, we were a bit disappointed.  In addition, the kitchen, living area had a few windows with no shades.  Since people would be using this as a bedroom, this was a problem for privacy as well as lighting.  Les and Pat graciously offered to sleep in the kitchen, and we moved the other single bed from the bedroom to the kitchen.  I think it will work, but it is definitely not ideal.  At least we can have breakfast provided, for a very reasonable sum, so Les gets a few days off from breakfast duty.After today's drive, I am cooked!  Hopefully uploading pictures won't take the 2 hours it did last night, and I can get some sleep.