We left Skalafell and headed east towards the EastFjords. There were many incredible vistas of the cool blue fjords reflecting high mountain peaks.
When we ate lunch in a small fishing town called Breiðdalshreppur.
The waitress saw our map and let us know that route 1 was closed just up the hill.
We tried to find beljandi waterfall on our original route but all we found was a dangerous snow-covered road that eventually wound back around to the same old fishing town where we’d had lunch. When we realized we didn’t know where the road was going we walked up to a house and knocked, but the owner ran us off in angry Icelandic.
We headed up on the alternate route into, and sometimes through, the mountains.
After an hour or two of slipping through white in every direction, we suddenly arrived in Egilsstaðir.
We checked into our hotel and then zoomed down the long lake road to Litlanesfoss. The trail was covered in ice so we had to hike up and around. At the view for litlanesfoss, it became apparent that there was another waterfall (feeding litlanessfoss) far up the same mountain. I later came to know this was Hengifoss. I pushed and pushed and pushed myself in the wind and sleet and snow to get up there. ..only to find that there was another long sloping lava flow still obstructing the view.
Later we measured it on the map and I’d hiked up about two miles. In -5 degrees Celcius, and wind and snow. Sam had come up maybe a third of that way, where there was still a trail, but that was tough enough. We walked down together and then went back to town for dinner. We found everything closed except for the gas station and Subway. So we had hotdogs and a subway salad.
When we finally got to our room, I peeked out the window to see our top floor view. Then I noticed something odd: a cloud perpendicular to all the other clouds. Then I noticed that the cloud had a slightly green hue. I screamed for Sam to turn off the lights and she ran to the window to join me. It was the aurora! We’d looked and looked every night and had been in Iceland a week without seeing it, but there it was.
We quickly got dressed again (harder than it sounds since we’re talking about very cold weather gear) and ran back to the car, heading down the road to find an open spot away from town. As we drove we saw the aurora grow and grow and get really bright. By the time we parked the brightness had passed, but we still got a few photos of it.
