West Fjords

Tuesday, August 7th: Today found us in the north western part of Iceland. This is an area called the "West Fjords"  and is among the most wild and remote parts of the island you can reach with a regular (non 4x4) automobile. Our little car has been a trooper. It is smaller than the my first car, a 1973 Ford Pinto, but charges up rutted dirt roads and zips along these narrow highways. Jen and I have the thing packed full with camping gear, shoes and assorted gear. Bags full of crackers, cheese and other sundries that can survive a lack of refrigeration complete our little mess in the back.

The going is slow, but the sights are amazing. Each bend in the road brings a new vista of sea and volcanic cliff. This place is just one amazing view after the other. The clouds have moved in but the rain has held off so far although the remainder of our week looks bleak. 

We didn't make it as far as we thought we would and evening brings us to the town of Patreksfjordur. That actually isn't the proper spelling, however this computer doesn't have the font for the two letters (the "o" and the "d") that don't occur in the English Language. It's a quaint little town nestled in a deep fjord on the west side of the peninsula and we find a little rooming house for the night. Since it will still be light for hours, we drove over to a special little beach at the end of a long, very sketchy road about 30K from town. The beach is called Raudasandur (again not the exact spelling). It's claim to "fame" other than being a truly spectacular place, is that the sand here is bright red/orange. The color comes apparently from a specific type of volcanic rock in the region. We parked next to an amazing little church sitting all by itself just above the high tide mark. The tide was low and in the misty rain we passed several intertidal sheep and trekked the kilometer or so to the water's edge.

The sand was an amazing red color and I duly collected some for my collection. Many who know me know that a hobby of mine is collecting sand from beaches I've visited in my travels. Between grad school, SEA, SFS and other assorted opportunities, I have a lot of sand. This one is going to stand out in the collection.

On the beach was a dead Minke whale. It looked to have been there no more than a week or so as it was pretty much unmolested and intact. Sad to see, but it was fascinating to get so close to such an amazing animal. Walking back to the car we met a German couple camping near the church with their car. They were on a month-long vacation and we discussed the merits of the American versus European vacation plan. Hard to argue our side of the difference!