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It rained all night and we woke up to heavy mist and wind. At 8:00 am we headed for breakfast. The weather intensified considerably. As I sit here and write back in our room, the rain is pelting against the side of our cabin. We need to pack and get out of here, but with this weather, there is no sense of urgency. When we finally decided to leave, we packed up, checked out of Hunnubakkar and headed out for the day. Our ultimate destination for the day is the town of Vik and a stay at the Puffin Hotel. It is less than an hour drive to Vik and since we were arriving before our check-in time, we decided to head for Dyrholaey. Dyrtholaey is a promontory overlooking the ocean on the west side of Vik. It was raining cats and dogs and very foggy on the road. We arrived in a howling gale. The first overlook was high atop a cliff overlooking the famous Black Sand Beach and the adjoining cliffs.
One of the most awe inspiring aspects of Iceland is just the sheer scale of the terrain. Everything is super-sized. The vistas are endless. Our first overlook was several hundred feet above the beach below. On another side were cliffs full of seabirds. There is also a lighthouse.
This was one of my favorite pictures. Some doofus Yankees fan lost their hat on the overlook. Nice.
We skirted the exterior path. One of the vistas overlooked an immense natural stone arch about a quarter mile offshore. It too was swarming with seabirds and possibly puffins although we couldn’t spot any.
It was about then that Nancy and I became weary of facing the low 40’s temperature and 50 mile per hour winds and headed back to the car. Susan and Juli found another path and hiked down the side that led to the beach for a couple hundred feet.
When they finally arrived back at the car we drove down to a lower vantage point for a closer look. These were shorter cliffs. The waves were crashing the shore below with a vengeance. The wind was blowing the mist off the waves across the black sands below. The seabirds were swooping from their nests in the rocks. The girls said that they spotted some puffins. These epic vistas made for some classic photos.
I was a little miffed when three guys came by with a drone. Drones are absolutely banned from sites like this. Not only do they disturb the birds and wildlife, but they are annoying for all of the rest of us who are looking for an experience free from noise and technology. When I said to the guy with the drone, “You know those are illegal, right?”, he snapped back at me, “You see this is in my hand, right?”, implying that it didn’t matter whether it was legal or not because he was going to do it anyway. I argued with him a little more, but it was clear that he was going to do whatever he wanted. We kept hoping that the winds would smash the drone against the cliffs or possibly blow back in his face and sever an artery. Later we ran across them again, jumping back and forth across the pathway restraints to get better selfies. Fucking idiots.
Finally, cold and hungry and in need of caffeine, we headed back into Vik. Vik is a tiny town but it is a strategic hub for lots of tourists. Thus it has a couple of great restaurants, a brew pub, gas stations and a large clothing,convenience and grocery store called Ice Wear. We stopped first at the Troll Adventure Outfitters, Lava Experience and soup restaurant. The lava show is a big tourist attraction. It’s a little hard to tell what the show is all about exactly but they continually play a loop commercial on the monitors hanging in the restaurant that shows closeups of boiling magma in full color glory. I think that it’s basically a science talk. You buy your tickets and go into an adjacent room where they show a video and talk about lava. Big deal. I can get the same thing for free on the National Geographic Channel. The soup restaurant specializes, as their name implies, in soups and breads. I got a lamb stew. Susan got a perfect ball of black bread that was hollowed out and filled with their special Red Hot Lava soup. Both were huge and superb and came with delicious homemade breads.
To top it off, I had a delectable apple custard cake with caramel sauce and fresh whipped cream. Whew! When we were finally done, we headed for Ice Wear. The girls shopped for Iceland made clothing and then we picked up some food and an eight-pack of Viking brand beer. Came back to the hotel, checked in, rested and got organized for a little while. It was still early so we decided to visit the famed Black Beach and its unique basalt columns. It was a short drive from town back in the direction of our previous trip. The weather was still windy and wet but we bundled up, parked and walked to the beach.
The basalt columns are very cool, stretching about 50 feet up the face of the cliff. The black beach stretches for miles. There are signs and warnings everywhere to beware of “sneaker waves’.
The surf pounds the beach and the waves are unpredictable. Extra large and powerful waves can randomly surge way up the sand and will drag unsuspecting tourists out to sea and likely their death. This apparently happens often enough that there are constant warnings from the official publications as well as displays and flashing lights on the beach. We actually witnessed a woman almost getting pulled down when a wave caught her by surprise and crashed across her legs. Unfortunately I didn’t have my phone at the ready and missed a potential viral moment.
We walked and photographed for about an hour and then sought the shelter and warmth of our car. Juli, as she is wont to do, disappeared in the fog down the beach.
We waited and waited and after a few tense moments when we feared that she might have become a statistic, she appeared back at the parking lot happy and very much alive.
Back in Vik, we ended up going to the local mall on the edge of town. There is a large outdoor clothing store called Ice Wear and a huge and well stocked grocery store. We bought bread, cheese, beer and wine and headed back to the hotel. we cracked some Viking beers, played some Feffer and and snacked. When the clock turned nine and we had finished our game, it was off to bed..
We are very happy with the Puffin. Looking online at all of our accommodations, it appeared that the Puffin might be the worst choice. We were pleasantly surprised. The building is nothing to look at but the rooms are spacious, comfortably furnished, solid, warm and we get a free breakfast. It’s head and shoulders above the Hunkubakkar which was a lot like staying in a trailer. At the Hunkubakkar, here was a tiny shower that was almost too small to turn around in, small rooms and absolutely no closet or storage space. We won’t be staying there again.